"I caught the Ugly"

Bob is doing well. He is now in his own room at the hospital. Tom has talked to him a couple of times on the phone. I have talked to Arlene and to Luke (Bob's Mom and Son). They are holding up well.
Tom and the boys head that way Friday. I fly up on Sunday. We have been having discussions of just how to accomplish the return trip. I figured I would be driving back with the boys the next Sunday, leaving Tom to fly back two weeks after that. He would have access to Bob's truck to get around while he is up there. Tom figured I would fly back... and he and the boys would drive back when he is ready. So the return plans aren't set yet. I'd just as soon do it Tom's way. But if I do, the boys are going to have to take school work along. They cannot go 3 weeks without lessons.
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Tom went to town yesterday while I was at work. He got groceries and sundry items we needed. One item I had on the list was haircolor. I specified the brand and the color designation, as well as two choices of sub-types among the brands. I really didn't expect Tom to get the haircolor. Confront him with too many like items to choose from, and he just decides I can get that on my next trip myself. But he got exactly what I asked for.
So last night I re-colored my hair, getting rid of the four inch wide skunk stripe I had going. My natural hair color is more silver than dark now... and I really do like the silver. I just don't like the skunk.
Tom came in and saw the coloring while it was still in my hair. His eyes got wide and he said "Your hair is orange!". (More of a bright copper penny, but anyway!) I told him it would be different once it was rinsed out. He asked why was I coloring it. So I told him.
I got it all rinsed out, the bathroom picked up, and my hair combed out. Ready to leave the room, I went to shut the medicine cabinet door/mirror. It is old, and slightly "sprung" so it doesn't stay closed well.

I pushed it gently closed, I swear!

It shut with a ker-snap! Cracked diagonally from bottom to top.

Of course, Mr C has to quote from Spongebob- the episode where Spongebob and Patrick have bad breath: "You caught the ugly!"
(For non-spongebobbers, both Spongebob and Patrick have eaten some awful stuff, causing folks around them to flee for their lives from the duo's bad breath... breath so bad it even cracks mirrors. When the mirrors break, SB is convinced it is because he is ugly). Mr C says the mirror doesn't like the new haircolor.

You know how new color is... right now I look like a Duracell Copper top battery. In a few days it will tone down to medium brown with copper highlights.
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Dan is back to practicing on his little ocarina. He and Sam each got a small one for their birthday several years back. They have taught themselves to play songs from the video game that caused them to want an ocarina in the first place: " The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time".
They also saw Bob Hope playing a larger ocarina in one of his movies. I think it was in the "Road to Zanzabar", but I could well be wrong about that.

Sam has been teaching himself the tune from the Marx Brothers movies, where Groucho tells Chico, "If you get near a song, play it!" (Animal Crackers). The song is, I'm pretty sure, "Sugar". (Sugar in the morning, Sugar in the evening, sugar when the sun goes down...". Seems all my kids have a good ear for music, and the ability to translate it from their brains into the instruments they pick up and play. This is an ability they did NOT get from me.
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Anyone want to doggy-sit for a week? I sure don't want to take these mutts along to Ohio. Oh well, if we use Tom's plan, he will have them going both directions, and I will not have to deal with them at all!
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Ben is hard at work. He is building a refractory oven for his metal working. He is building the oven from refractory bricks... which he is making himself! Yes, from scratch, brick by brick. He has gathered the odd assortment of ingredients necessary... including bentonite clay. He was unable to find fine powdered bentonite clay. The bag he did get looks remarkably like kitty litter. Bentonite is, in fact, often the type of clay one finds in kitty litter. To get it as fine as he needed it, Ben began grinding it in between two of Tom's round metal barbell weights. It was very slow going. Then he found a food processor at a garage sale.
He mixes the bentonite, some portland cement, masonary vermiculite, and other ingredients, and packs it into his brick mold... which the twins constructed of Legos!
He is still looking for something to use as a crucible.


This is pretty cool, how the boys have taken an interest in this and begun learning all they can about it. Dan and Sam have become Ben's shadows and helpers. They are learning the melting temperatures of various metals, and other properties of the materials they are working with. Including work safety. (Like, "Don't breathe bentonite dust!")

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I have a lot to get pulled together this week. My stuff for Ohio will go up with Tom and the boys. We have to go to the library- probably this afternoon.
Extra school work to take along (so the boys don't get rusty) has to be printed up and packed.
The details of settling the house and instructions for the house sitter have to be written up.
So I better get at least some of that going!
Have a great day, Thank you again for your prayers.
~Tammy~