Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'...

So, something else I felt like I needed for my trip-- but, it turned out, very much did not-- was some kind of bag or cover for my Yoga mat. You see, as I was being offered free Yoga in return for my farm-handery, I figured lugging my mat all the way to South America was necessary.

It was not.

Eh. Either way, I got a Mat Roll out of it.

For the main part, I used some brown corduroy material leftover from my Inigo Montoya costume from 200...6? I had orginally planned for the thing to be just a bit longer than my mat. I rolled the mat out and eyeballed the measurements.

When my logic kicked in, however, I realized how bulky this would make it once it was rolled up and cut that son of a cow in half.

Then I simply hemmed the edges a bit and began frantically searching for something to tie it closed with.

I found nothing and so made some REALLY poorly constructed ties out of leftover stretchy headband fabric. On a day when I have the patience to not light my sewing macine on fire, I will redo the ties. Because they're crap. But the purple sure looks pretty!

Anyway, then it dawned on me that I might want a convenient way to carry the thing, and another frantic search for materials began...

This is when I delved into my favorite new resource: The Applebee's Uniform.

My current victim: the Omnipresent Apron.

(why do I even still have this uniform?)

I removed that nice, sturdy, navy blue apron string from its pouch and...

Ta-da! A handle!

And it might have been a pain-in-the-ass to cram into my backpack, but it was lovely and handy for lugging around Cusco, so it's about a 47% win.

These are apparently my favorite shorts. Apparently.

Beer Brewing & Bottling

About two years ago Mary had been nice enough to get me a gift certificate to a brewing store for our anniversary and it only took me until about a month and a half ago to actually brew my own beer. For my first beer I decided to go with the easiest recipe I could to cut back on the possibilities of me screwing it up. The beer I chose to make was the Dry Heat Wheat from our local home brew store. (http://www.brewersconnection.com/recipes/DryHeatWheat.htm)

Sorry for so few photos. Mary was busy with finals and was unable to help me brew and take photos. I promise a better collection on the next beer brewing excursion.

The first thing I had to do before I even started was to clean and disinfect all of my beer brewing material.

Once I finally got everything clean enough to eat off of it was time to start boiling the water with the wheat malt and hops.

Once I finished with all of my boiling I dumped everything in a bucket and stuck it in the bathtub for about 4 days. After the 4 days I transferred the beer from the bucket into a big glass carboy but not without creating a huge mess. I learned all the wonders of siphoning beer.

After another 4 days it was time to bottle the beer. In order to clean all of my bottles I employed the use of our handy bottle washing machine.

Look how pretty they look.

Here's the big glass carboy full of beer right before it went into all of those shiny clean bottles.

After a more successful bout of siphoning and then capping I had all of my beer bottled.

After another week of waiting we were able to break into the first bottle. It was kind of wheaty and fruity (banana-ey?) and over all pretty good for a first shot.

The Smelly Kids.

I'm so very glad this is the first post since husband has made our weblog public (well, public-er). Because it's about our armpits.

Since I was 6 (yeah, 6. Oh, genetics) I have tried just about every deodorant and deodorant alternative ever invented. Nothing has ever been deemed foolproof and plenty have just straight up failed. Since I suddenly give a damn about poisoning my body, the past couple of years I have been experimenting with those natural deodorants...Most didn't work and one burnt my skin like acid. Which was way fun. Then Mike noticed that one of his shirts had been dyed hot pink by his deodorant and he started to get nervous too.

So when I found this homemade deodorant recipe from angrychicken (with whom I am obsessed) I figured what the hell...can't hurt to try.

All it really took was cornstarch, baking soda (which I had on hand), shea butter, cocoa butter, vitamin E oil and the essential oil of my choice (I chose Clove Bud--because it's "motivating").

(Don't you think I maybe have a future career in gelcap photography?)

...A woman I work with told me that she thinks I have great time management skills, since I have time to make my own deodorant. A) she obviously doesn't know me that well B) I was supposed to be doing something more important and C) this seriously took me 5 minutes of actual work. I microwaved, stirred and refrigerated. That's it.

I chose poorly as far as my receptacle. I would pick a wider, shallower jar next time. We really have to dig at this one.

But yeah, we just use about a pea sized amount, as recommended by the originator, on each side and, seriously, we've been using it for about 4 weeks now and one application leaves us both stink-free all day long. In the desert, no less. We still sweat, obviously, but that's kind of an important bodily function. And I sweat like a freak regardless, so I don't really notice a difference.

I should have added a whole lot more Clove Bud oil, though, since the cocoa butter is REALLY cocoa-ey and we just kind of smell like chocolate all of the time. Sweaty, sweaty chocolate.

p.s. we're aware that our page design clashes. we're also, for the moment, having trouble caring. :)