My 100th Post

I noticed the other day that my next post was going to be the 100th post. So woo-hoo for me. The blog continues to change and grow and I'm not sure what direction it's going in so we'll see when we get there.

Today I decided I would make my own vanilla extract. It's incredibly simple and it's something I was kind of surprised with, since I figured it must be very difficult if it costs so much in the store.

The very hard part was finding a whole vanilla bean. I had to go over to the health food store to find it. It cost me $5.89. I need to learn how to grow this, or find some unsupecting fool that I can buy it from.

The next part was to buy some vodka. I did not think this out well enough. If you see a minivan with an obvious mom-looking person drive up and park outside the liquor store at noon, and come out with a bottle in a paper bag, what are you thinking? You're thinking she's making a hurried stop to get the afternoon drunk on by the time the soaps start and before the kids get home from school. At least this is what I think the people standing outside the laundromat were thinking of me. But as you see in the picture I only bought the smallest bottle for $2.19. For that price you know it's got to be quality stuff. And it's named Crystal Palace even though the bottle is plastic.

I knew I needed a container that I could close tightly, so I decided to just use the bottle the vanilla bean is in. I added 3 tablespoons of vodka to the jar, closed it up tight, put it in a paper bag and put it up in a cabinet. It's supposed to be ready in 4 weeks. I only put it in the bag to shield it from light and the recipe didn't say to do that. I figure when I buy it at the store it's in a colored bottle and that is usually to keep a product from degrading due to light exposure. We'll see what happens in a month.

A developing topic is the dog. Onslo. He's 2 years old now. He's a small dog. I've said before that the cat is bigger than him, and she is. She's also very adept at teasing him. She'll sashay close to him waving her tail back and forth. Outside he can't reach her at the end of his lead. So it makes him crazy. She knows it. He won't try to get her when they are both inside. Only outside.

Yesterday I was walking Onslo up and down the street and the cat kept running back and forth and he was desperately trying to get to her and yanking my arm all over the place. We got back and sat on the front steps. At one point he got his head stuck in the railing because he was trying to see what she was doing. I'm thinking we're going to have to saw the railing to get his head out. But we managed to squeeze it back through somehow and we came inside.

Then the fun started. He had a seizure. He's done this before. Overstimulation thanks to the cat. She's going to kill him. So I sat with him wrapped in a towel on my lap, which makes him feel more secure and relax faster. Jace went outside and yelled at the cat which I'm sure sounded like "*&%^$!! blah blah blahblah blah!! Kiki!"

From now on I will have to put the cat in the house before I walk the dog. Thanks useless cat. Oh well, she only has one good eye so she is probably messed up in the head, too. (She came to us with only one good eye, by the way.)

Anyway, thank you everyone for following the blog or reading it. Write if you have suggestions or experiments you would like me to try, within reason, and I'll try to do it. Have a great day Y'all!