My pond outside gets pretty gross looking by this time of year. Usually the floating plants I’ve put in there have completely covered the surface of the water. Leaves blow in and algae grows. This year the algae was particularly bad. It’s “hair algae” that has been my big battle this year. I’ve had to pull it out by hand, and it really does feel like hair under water. Once you pull it out it’s just a slimy mess, but I see why they call it “hair algae”.
Usually I leave the pond looking awful all winter and then clean it in the spring. This year I’m trying something different. I’ve given it a good ol’ spring cleaning in October. I’m hoping that this will save me some effort in the spring. We’ll see.
I was a little nervous cleaning it out, because of the leech incident. I actually did this cleaning on Wednesday when I came back from the field trip. I was already dirty with Chesapeake Bay water, so I just left on my shoes and socks and cleaned out my pond. I throroughly checked my ankles and toes when I was done. No leeches! Yay! Because of the early dark, I wasn’t able to get an “After” picture until yesterday. Thus the delayed post…
BEFORE
AFTER
One of my students is in a youth production of Jesus Christ Superstar this weekend. I went last night with Peggy and Michele. It was at the same church that hosted the most recent Greek Festival I went to.
The production was fun to watch. It’s been a while since I saw the movie. The songs were very familiar though. The boy playing Jesus had a good voice. Other actors did really well too. My student played several roles and did some dancing. She did a great job. They also had a bunch of really little kids in a couple of the scenes. They were cute.
Intermission was funny because of all the food. I guess Greek people like their food! 
They even had personal pizzas ready for the crowd of people who mobbed the refreshment tables.
It was a good way to spend a Friday night. If I’m not going to be lying on the couch drifting in and out of consciousness, I at least want to do something else I enjoy. This fit the bill.
I tried to take some pictures, but I wasn’t using a flash, so they’re kind of yellow. Here’s a whole-stage shot. My student is the kneeling girl who’s closest to the middle.
Eureka! I have a way that my non-sweetened, all-natural toothpaste can almost taste like real, live, artificially sweetened, artificially flavored toothpaste. How, you say? A combination! My favorite tasting Tom’s of Maine toothpaste has always been Cinnamon-Clove. Gingermint, however, has a burn to it that resembles the strong mint flavors of other brands of toothpaste. I suppose it was obvious what I should have done all along, but it didn’t occur to me: put a little of each on the brush.
The flavor while brushing is the delicious cinnamon oil, then while rinsing, the burn of the ginger kicks in. The whole experience is delightful. The only problem is that I keep putting too much toothpaste on the brush at one time and end up with a huge amount of suds in my mouth. The amount of lather is like I’m brushing with bubble bath or something. But it’s tasty, wonderful bubble bath.
Yesterday was the first Field Trip Day of the year in our middle school. I went with the 8th graders to a place called Marshy Point. We learned about the Chesapeake Bay. The class was divided into two groups. For half the day we went into the water in canoes, and for half the day we netted fish and walked in the woods.
The canoe part of the day was really fun. I think I like canoes. Maybe I could try a canoe outing one of these days. Anyway, we got three to a boat. The middle person was the “wildlife spotter” and didn’t row. I was the middle person so the kids could experience rowing and so I could take pictures. We talked about rotting vegetation that smells like sulfur. We also talked about ducks.
The on-foot part of the day was really interesting. Netting fish was fun because the kids got into the water. It was a nice day, so it wasn’t too cold. We caught a bunch of things in the net… minnows, sunfish, shrimp, a mudcrab, and others I can’t remember.
My most exciting discovery was that they had beehives there. And that they do a bee-keeping workshop in the spring. I’ve wondered for a long time what it might be like to have honeybees. I think I’ll go to that workshop and see what I can see…
I’ve searched a long time for a good bathroom hand soap. When it comes down to it, the kind of soap you use hardly matters. Hand washing is all about the mechanical action of rubbing your hands under water, not some miracle combination of plant extracts and alcohols. In fact, I’ve read many articles that say you should specifically avoid anti-bacterial soaps. I just want something that smells good.
I started my search at Williams Sonoma. It’s a fancy kitchen place at Towson Mall. I liked the smells of their soaps, so I got one. It ended up being too strong – I choked on the scent. So I got a different one from them. I choked on that too. The third time I thought I would get it right. Nope. So I tried Bath and Body Works. That’s the place with the soap with dots, right? I found a flavor I liked and got it. It was too strong also. If I washed my hands right before I ate, all my food tasted like the soap smelled. And while I enjoy the smell of clean laundry, it doesn’t go very well with beef.
Then one day while I was washing dishes I was struck with inspiration. Why not use dish soap? It has a variety of smells, and when you rinse it off, there’s only the barest trace of scent left. The next time I was at the grocery store, I got a nice grapefruit flavored soap, and the rest is history.
