On no shampoo...

I give up. To be honest, I didn't even really try. I just couldn't stand the idea of hair grease on bath towel. Compromise? I just bought a bottle of Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap in almond.

It smells great and has many different uses, one of which will be washing my hair. My only complaint about it is that it's not very thick at all (think water), so I'll have to find some way of transferring it from the bottle to my head since my hands are not good vessels. Maybe one of those restaurant ketchup/mustard bottles.

DIY: Never-ending vanilla goodness

I stumbled upon a page describing how I can make my own vanilla extract, and that with minimal effort, it can pretty much last me forever. So here goes:
Starting materials: 
Vodka*
Vanilla beans**
16 oz Jar (thank you Laura Scudder All-Natural Peanut Butter)
Measuring cup (or eyeball)

*Vodka or rum or some other 80 proof alcohol you'd like to try. I decided to go with vodka since it has a more neutral flavor. Perhaps in the future, I will try rum since it's supposed to give it a more fruity, sweet flavor.

**I used bourbon vanilla which has a more creamy classic vanilla flavor. There are others available. Will explore in the future. Maybe.

Note: you do not need a little dog. Or a big one. A cat perhaps.
Preparation:
Slice the vanilla beans in half, length-wise, leaving an inch at the tip.
Pour 2 cups of vodka.



Notes: The beans were pretty oily. As soon as I opened the bottle, there was a very strong smell of vanilla. Inside the beans were greasy little seeds. You can see a bit of the oil on the plate.

Putting it all together:
Put beans in jar.
Pour vodka in jar, making sure the beans are fully submerged. (In a 16 oz, they will be, with the amount of vodka I added.)
Close lid of jar.
Shake.

Note the little specks that are seeds swirling around. =) Vanilla apocalypse in a jar! It's raining black flecks!

Store in a cool dark place and shake once a week or whenever I feel like sneaking a peak. Extract will be ready in 6-8 weeks. Or go by color.

Here's to forever vanilla extract!

Tomorrow: attempt #2 at a sourdough starter, because I'm too cheap to keep buying yeast and store bread.

Neutering Butters

It is probably the single worst experience in my ownership of Butters.

L and I dropped him off at Centers Vet Clinic on Mira Mesa Blvd. I got a call less than two hours later letting me know that the procedure was complete and he's recovering from the anesthesia.

I picked him up in the afternoon around 3. When they brought him out, he looked absolutely miserable. His body was limp. He had a cone around his head so his puffy head hair was pushed forward. The fur around his jaws was stiff with either throwup or something.

When I got home, I put him down on the floor next to my desk so I can keep an eye on him. He was so out of it that he just sat there non-responsive with his head drooping. He finally lied down to sleep. When he woke up, he tried to move, but because he couldn't hold his head high, the edge of the cone jabbed right into the carpet. It freaked him out and he flopped around like a fish on dry land while yelping like someone is cutting his balls off. After that, I put him on the couch, and arranged the dining room chairs with the backs to the couch so they formed a wall to prevent him from moving around too much.

The paper said that it takes a few hours to a few days for the anesthetic to wear off. Give him painkillers every few hours by mixing it in with his food.

However, much to my worry, he didn't eat or drink the first day at all. I had a hard time even giving him his pain medication. The poor thing was so out of it that he didn't even react when he peed on himself while sleeping on the blanket. When I lifted him up to put him in his kennel, the right side of his hindquarters was all wet with his pee along with the blanket where he was lying and he hadn't noticed at all.

The second day, he drank a lot of water when he woke up. Whew. I don't mind too much that he didn't eat, but not drinking worried me a lot.

The third day, he ate a little bit and drank.

By the fourth night, when we took him to the Perkins, he finally started acting more normal. Reactive towards his environment. We had to prevent Mona from picking on him by biting his behind since he can't reach her because of the cone.

He was finally back to himself on the fifth day. I was so incredibly relieved. I had been so worried and so stressed. This was the first time I ever went through a neutering with a pet. It seemed like Butters was on the longer end of the normal range of recovery time. If I could, I will pay someone to go through this with the dog, so I don't have to go through it again. Alright. I don't mean that. Maybe just a little bit.

It was all I could do to keep his cone on till the 10th day. As soon as I took his cone off, he proceeded to rub and scratch his eyes. I realized then that the corner of his eyes were red and swollen. The vet concluded that the accumulation of dried crusted tears irritated his sensitive skin. It just needs to be cleaned and it will heal on its own.

I am so glad he's back to normal.

Day 3 of No Shampoo

I failed miserably. I went as far as rinsing my hair with hot hot water. However, in the end, I couldn't stand the film of oil covering my finger tips, and had to use shampoo. I don't know how people do this no shampoo thing. I understand the concept, but I just don't see the viable execution.

And tomorrow, I'm going to start my handmade Christmas present for all the awesome people that I know...who also enjoys cooking.