Today I learned how to make bouncy balls, and shared a photo essay.

Put on your lab coats and safety glasses, readers, because we’re about to get scientific. :) After my long evening of Turkish Delighting I decided to stray from cooking for a bit to do an easy science experiment and make a different kind of recipe:

Bouncy Balls ala Borax

Here are the ingredients you'll need:  

1 tbs. white glue

1/2 tsp. borax

1 tbs cornstarch

2 tbs warm water

Food coloring

 2 plastic cups

2 stirring sticks (chopsticks work fine)

A quick note is that borax is an irritant in its powder form and shouldn't be kid-handled.

It's fine for kids to play with it after it's made as long as they're old enough to know

not to eat it, slobber on it or otherwise ingest it. (Which is true of all bouncy balls.)

Step # 1- Put glue into cup and mix in whatever color you like. Waybums picked pink.

Step #2 - Mix the borax and water in the second cup with the other stirring stick.

Step # 3 - Add cornstarch and borax solution into the glue cup

and let it sit for 15 seconds.

We forgot to let it sit but it still turned out ok.

Step #4 - Stir the mixture with one of the sticks until it's hard to stir

and then begin rolling it into a ball.

It's sticky at first and hard to roll,

but give it some time and it'll get going.

Step #5 - Get bouncing!

It's not going to bounce as high as your average superball,

but you can't help but feel a little cool and MacGyver-like to have made it.

And that's how you make bouncy balls from household supplies.

*cricket-cricket*

That's it?

Really?

Hmm.

I thought it would be more difficult.

Uhhh, Something to stretch it out a bit....? Oh! I have just the thing.

 - Photo Essay on The People in the Background-

I've been a lot of touristy places before and when I've looked at the photo afterwards I always seem to notice the people in the background. I don't know these people, but here is a picture of them captured in the same place that I went. It makes me think...

"How many people have photos of me in the background of their pictures?"

Provocative thought, eh?

Well one day when we lived in Japan we took my visiting mom-in-law to Kamakura. It was a particularly busy holiday weekend and there were throngs of people everywhere. Kamakura used to be the capitol of Japan and so the place we took mom-in-law to see used to be the palace.

There were a lot of stairs.

And Waybums was still a baby in a stroller then . . .

 . . . asleep.

So I told Hubby and Mom-in-Law to go ahead. I'd just stay behind.

And I shot pictures of them on the steps and at the top.
And I started thinking about those people in the background.
Why not let them be the focus of a few pictures?

Mom taking pictures of her kids.

Teenagers glad to have a day off from school.

Tired couple.

Dad and daughter.

Ladies and their pups.

Beautiful woman in purple.

Kid in the red hat.

Man left behind at the bottom of the stairs.

There at the steps of Kamakura it was just us. People going through our day.

A lot of people get so caught up in what they're doing that people become part of the background to them. The cashier at the grocery store. The childcare worker at daycare. The person sitting at the next table in a restaurant. Static. Extras in the film of their life. And what I learned that day is that just because someone isn't the focus of my picture, doesn't mean they aren't part of that moment.

Just something I learned...

I'll keep you posted.