Some spring we are having - had a frost warning for this morning.  Yes, on April 10, a freaking frost warning.  I'm so glad we haven't planted the garden yet!  Brian re-tilled it and applied more fertilizer yesterday, and we're hoping we get to plant everything later in the week.


I've been seeing a Health Coach at the hospital gym, and in going over my vitals, she noticed that my resting heart rate is a bit on the high side.  I mentioned to her that I usually hit that 85% targeted heart rate pretty quickly into a workout, without much exertion, and after reviewing my family history, she strongly recommended that I have a stress test to check out my ticker.  I made the appointment and had it done last week

Yep, that little flash of a photo is me, all wired up for my stress test.  The treadmill is fun.  NOT  But seriously, it really wasn't all that bad, got up to a 14% incline, a 3.2mph pace.  I typically walk about that speed or a little faster on a flat surface when I'm walking to exercise, but I'm not used to doing the inclines, so I was breathing pretty hard when we finished.  It was a nurse practitioner and her trainee, along with a nurse, in the room monitoring everything, and they all said I did fine.  The cardiologist will read the results and forward them over to my primary care physician, and then we're done.  I consider it done now, because they all said if they'd seen anything of any concern on the test, I wouldn't have been allowed to leave the facility until the physician immediately reviewed everything and examined me himself.   So, I just have a high heart rate, I'm guessing because I am so freaking out of shape!  I'm working on improving that, but it won't get fixed overnight.  (sorry Ma, I didn't let you know ahead of time but I didn't want to worry you unless I knew there was something to actually worry about!)

Dominion is doing well with his breakfast and sometimes dinner feedings.  He has gotten up yesterday and today, gone outside, then is restless and almost dances around, trying to tell us that he's ready for breakfast.  I fixed it for him and he just dances and prances when you're walking over to put it down for him to eat.  Because he's isolated from the others, he takes his time eating instead of wolfing it down, so it stays down and we can tell a difference in him, he's not quite as bony as just 2 weeks ago.

I have been the victim of another prank - my husband poured baby oil all over the toilet seat, just a few days after the PopIts incident.  Luckily, he was too heavy handed with the oil and it had spilled into the water and I saw the globs of it floating on the surface, so I didn't plop down and slide off into the floor.  Cleaning that stuff off is not fun.  Steven finds this shit quite funny, pranking his poor old mom and the toilet.  LOL

I made another homemade laundry detergent yesterday.  The previous one we made was supposed to be a thick, gelatinous liquid, but it's kinda clumpy and has no real smell to it.  It was difficult to make (maybe because I didn't take the time to watch the video - the soap shavings clumped into one big ball and it too FOREVER to dissolve), so I decided that I didn't think I wanted to make that one again.  I had some leftover ingredients from that batch, and made up a batch of powdered detergent as follows:

1 bar Dial soap

1 cup Borax

1 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Powders

1/2 cup baking soda

1/2 cup OxyClean

In all the directions I've seen for homemade laundry detergents, the type o f bar soap used varies from Zote soap, castile soap, FelsNaptha, or regular bath bar soap of your choosing.  I used the Dial because it we had it on hand, and it's that spring waters scent which is very clean smelling without being too perfumy or overpowering.  Anywho, here's how I mixed all this stuff up:

I used the grater blade on my food processor to grate the Dial like little small cheese curls, then I poured it out into a bowl. I then switched the blade to the blender blade, and put the powdered ingredients into the processor and ran it for a moment to blend those together.  I put the soap shavings back into the processor with the powder, and ran it for a few minutes, stopping to stir and check the blending.  In doing it this way, the processor chopped the soap shavings up into little fine pieces, and evenly blended everything together.  It only takes a tablespoon of this detergent for an average load, and this recipe should yield enough detergent for about 30-40 loads of clothes.  And I still have enough ingredients (well, other than baking soda) to make another 3-4 batches of this.  This stuff is so much more economical than buying a jug or box of most of the commercial laundry detergents, and I'm all about saving $.  :-)  Plus you can change the scent up by using a different type of bar soap, or can add those scent enhancers like Gain Fireworks or Purex Crystals to the mix.

I'm finishing my laundry up today, and who knows what else I'll get into.  I still haven't started on my quilt that I want to make for Meme.  Maybe I'll work on that today since we can't plant outside yet.  I started a summer scarf recently, too, a pretty lacy looking pattern, in a pale lavender color.  I've been doing a couple of rows every couple of days, and have got about 5" of scarf finished.  I know, I'm slow. 

Well I guess I should get my butt up off this couch and find something to get into.  I hope everyone's had a great weekend so far, and has a wonderful Sunday.  It's Beer Can Burgers for us for dinner tonight, hit me up if you want the recipe (and believe it or not, there's no alcohol involved in the burgers).