Ohm, Olive Oil Margarine, and Our Olive

I just wrapped up the oil painting that I felt had taken over my life for the past week and a half. It's an Ohm - the Hindu symbol for the absolute, or something to that extent. It's going on the wall in a yoga studio here in Pittsburgh. It's nice to have a deadline. It'll also be nice to air out our little apartment and rid the place of the invasive odor of turpentine, damar varnish, and Liquin Impasto (the awesome - but overly aromatic - medium I tried out for the first time). I can't stand the idea of Buggy breathing in these fumes, especially since my work space coincides with her play area. One day I may have a real studio...

Rob experimented with concocting his own margarine last night; we'd been on a quest to find one without palm oil and our store search produced one option: a tiny tub of Canola oil margarine made by Spectrum priced way higher than it was probably worth. Learning that olive oil emulsifies when blended with a liquid (and stabilizes with added lecithin), he poured soy milk, olive oil, soy lecithin, and a little bit of salt in our new, free-from-craigslist blender and got this:

Looking forward to trying it out, though I'm doubting that I'll care for it made with the yuck 8th Continent soymilk we have.

Here are some photos of our goon snake being sweet, as usual. Her sleep patterns have been less than desirable lately (two nights ago, for instance, she was up five times for feedings between 8:30 pm and 5:30 am); we tried a few nights last week letting her cry it out, but that means over an hour of her wailing, over an hour that I'm not getting any sleep (not to mention our neighbors), and I can't see how it's really helping her in the long run, so now I'm back to feeding and comforting her whenever she wakes in the night. As much as I love my sleep, getting to spend some wee hours time with her is pretty great, too. I feel like much of her recent restlessness is due to teething; she can focus more on the discomfort going on in her gums at night when she's not otherwise engaged. As for her foray into the realm of solid foods, she's still remarkably apathetic. We give her solids every day, and each time she accepts it with disinterest that soon turns to rejection. Ah well. I'm not sweating it; she'll get on board with it sooner or later. Honestly, I'm more than okay with nursing her for a while longer. I love watching her expression and the way her hands and fingers move while she feeds, her plump little digits splaying and fanning in a strange, contented sort of sign language. When I put her in her crib for the night, I tuck her in with her donkey quilt from her aunt, Cat, then sign to her 'I love you', which pleases her greatly. As soon as I make the sign with my hand her face lights up in a glorious grin and she reaches for my outstretched forefinger and pinky to study as I speak the words aloud to her. She loves this nightly bedtime ritual and so do I.