Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I woke up today with another pounding headache from hacking all night. I'm sure poor Harold didn't get much sleep either. After a couple of Motrin and a cup of coffee, I feel okay. My right ear is still plugged. I don't know how I'm going to sing tonight. People don't understand - it's not that I'm worried my voice won't sound good, it's that my throat gives out and I start to hack. People said I sounded okay this weekend, but I couldn't have. I kept my mike turned off and I didn't sing at all.

I made a batch of lilac soap last night. I have now experienced what soapers call "soap on a stick." The minute I added the lye to the oils, the entire batch seized up and looked just like lumpy mashed potatoes. It was supposed to be a pale lavender color, but it's just mashed potato off-white. I'll either re-batch it or mold it into balls. I don't know if the fragrance oil caused it or it it's because I added the fragrance oil and the mica to the oils before I added the lye. I'll try again tomorrow

I did get my jars grunged, my lamps made (they still need bows), and the business taxes done. We showed a net profit. Not bad. This is the first year we have kept tax records. We formed our LLC last year. Now I just have to get the farm taxes done.

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Word of the day:
Today the Church celebrates : St. John N. Neumann, Bishop (1811-1860), Saint Simeon Stylites (c.401-460)
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:34-44.

When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. By now it was already late and his disciples approached him and said, "This is a deserted place and it is already very late. Dismiss them so that they can go to the surrounding farms and villages and buy themselves something to eat." He said to them in reply, "Give them some food yourselves." But they said to him, "Are we to buy two hundred days' wages worth of food and give it to them to eat?" He asked them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." And when they had found out they said, "Five loaves and two fish." So he gave orders to have them sit down in groups on the green grass. The people took their places in rows by hundreds and by fifties. Then, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to (his) disciples to set before the people; he also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied. And they picked up twelve wicker baskets full of fragments and what was left of the fish. Those who ate (of the loaves) were five thousand men.