Bruce,

I decided to take my day off on Thursday this week, because I had a lot to accomplish. I had to go to the gym, buy groceries, pick up some holiday presents, etc. Also, one of my co-workers will be leaving the company after about 6 years. She is awesome, and we will totally miss her! Don't tell anyone, but one of the other directors is making a gift basket for her, and I decided to try my hand at some bath bombs to go in the basket. (Just in case any straight guys read our blog, a bath bomb is a thing you drop in the tub, and it gets all fizzy until it dissolves. It also makes your bath all moisturizing and smells good and stuff)

I got the basic recipe here. The ingredients are as follows:
Baking soda, citric acid, fragrance oils, and witch hazel. Yes, I bought the witch hazel at the family dollar. You also need a squirt bottle for the witch hazel (I just used the "cat discipline" squirt bottle) and some kind of a mold. I used a soap mold for this batch. I bought it at the hobby lobby for $1.50.

An aside: isn't the hobby lobby creepy? There were all these other soap molds in the shape of crosses. Once I bought some breath mints there in the shape of jesus fish. They were cinnamin.

Okay, the first thing you do is combine one part citric acid to two parts baking soda. Where do you buy powdered citric acid, you ask? You can usually find it at a health food store, or I found some at the Anderson's (It's a down-home kind of grocery store combined with a hardware store...it's supposed to be like a general store but corporate) in the canning supplies aisle.

The recipe says to mix 'em real good. Hey, will your mom pay me if I feature a Guenther Trucking mug in every blog post?

Next, you can add your fragrances, and also your coloring if you care to. I decided to opt out of adding coloring. First, I didn't have any powdered color like they used in the recipe. Second, I don't really want to ruin my coworker's life by staining her tub purple or something. She rents.

I decided to use lavender and rosemary oils for the smell. I did about 2 tablespoons of olive oil (because it's moisturizing), and just splash-splash-splashed away with the smelly ones. My whole kitchen smelled awesome! For once, it didn't smell like my downstairs neighbor's crazy meat smell. In the recipe, she uses almond and grapeseed oils instead of olive. I'm imagining other smell combinations for future bombs, like almond vanilla. Oh look out!

Okay, after you combine your colors and your smells, you add your witch hazel. But don't just dump it in your bowl....you have to spray the witch hazel from your squirt bottle into the bowl a little at a time while you stir. This is to make the mix sort of stick together a little bit, but NOT TOO MUCH! If you add too much witch hazel (like I did on the second batch, not pictured), your mix will start to fizz and it will be bad news. I was using both hands and probably my teeth for this step, so there are no pictures.

Finally, when your batch starts to kind of stick together when you moosh it in your hand, it's time to put it in the mold.

Be sure to pack them real tight. That way, you get a rock-hard, sturdy bomb.

For the second, too-fizzy batch, I used a metal muffin tin. Also a bad idea, because it wasn't flexible enough for me to get the bombs out. I had to pry them out with a knife, which made for fizzed-out, misshapen muffin bombs with knife gouges in them. I will not be giving those out as gifts.

After your bombs sit in the molds for about 5 minutes, tap them out so they can air dry.

See that little guy on the right? He'll be my test bomb. I call him "junior."

Place your bombs somewhere the cats can't get 'em, and let them air dry for 4 or 5 hours.

Your kitchen will smell awesome!

It's a scent that will calm even the most savage of beasts:

So there you go: my day-off adventure.

See you next Friday!
Brax