The Story of How I Burned My Arm + A WARNING!

WARNING: Cleaning with vinegar could be dangerous. I learned this the hard way. 

This is the story of how I burned my arm cleaning with vinegar.

Not long ago I decided to clean my microwave. The usual way I do this is to take my 2 cup glass measuring cup and put some water in it, nuk it for a little while, and let the steam loosen the gunk. Then I wipe it clean, done. I had heard that adding vinegar to the water would help get rid of any odors so I thought, why not, I'll give it a try. Bad idea.

Like usual, I put some water in my measuring cup, then I  added in a little vinegar and started microwaving it. (I think I set it to 2 minutes maybe). After the timer went off I opened the door and took the water out. Just as I got out it popped (like exploded is more like it) and splashed the scalding water/vinegar all over my arm (and even on my face). It was lucky that Ariana wasn't right there because I screamed and threw the measuring cup down.

It started burning so I ran it under some water. I started turning a bright red and you could see where the splash landed. It wasn't pretty. I had planned to go out with some girlfriends that night for a dinner and a movie for a rare girls night out. But since I burned my arm less than 2 hours before I was suppose to meet them, I had to cancel and stay in. I put aloe gel on it and wrapped it up. Took some pain relievers and had a glass of wine and the pain subsided.

I have never heard of vinegar and water causing a weird reaction like this when microwaved. In fact I had read here, here, here, here, and here  (to name a few) that it was a good cleaning method. None of them had a caution warning. I don't know if this has happened to anybody else or not, but it happened to me so I'm sharing this story.

Please be careful. Please share this information with others.

The photo above was taken 4 hours after it happened.  Luckily for me my arm has healed pretty well. My skin was red for a while and then a month later it finally peeled and healed completely and you can barely see where it was now.

Currently

*

Craving peaches. It's finally summer here.

Excited about the girls night out tonight. It's a rare treat for me and I'm excited to be meeting up with several girlfriends for dinner and a movie and some girl talk!

Reading a lot of holocaust stories. Just finished The Lost Wife and now I'm reading The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived The Holocaust

Finding the time and motivation to work out more. It's harder with Ariana off this summer.

Singing How sweet it is to be loved by you....totally random.

Enjoying working on my newest project. A project life style photo album.

Planning something special for our 8 year wedding anniversary .

Wearing Essie Merino Cool on my nails and flip flops on my feet!

Cutting back on my coffee intake.

Increasing my water intake.

Proud of my sister for excelling in her new job.

Ready for a new adventure.

Remembering to take my vitamins everyday.

Loving Rich's new day schedule. It feels like we get to spend more time together.

--

*Fire and Ice 2, abstract photograph.

Textured Buildings

Today, I'm focusing on textures. I've been noticing a lot of little things lately.

(I love everything going on in this picture)

 (stucco maybe)

(peeling paint and rusting metal)

(peeling paint on wood)

(clay)

(glass)

I took these photos from my village of Steinbach and also the village of Schonenberg Kubelberg here in Germany. I love all the textures these villages have. I saved my doors and windows shots for another day and also I have some pretty awesome shots of my favorite house there. I added a little sneak peek in this post. It's the second photo from the bottom with the red and green, but I'm saving the best for later this week.

All of these were taken with my Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 50mm/f1/8D lens.

I'm linking up with Macro Monday

baby news

Remember our snails Sheldon and Essie? Well they had babies!

Here's how the story goes in case you don't remember. For Letter S week Ariana and I found 2 LARGE snails in the woods by our house and made them a terrarium and kept them as pets for a while. It was great fun and we learned about them and she loved watching and holding them. 

Before our trip to the states we let the snails go back where we found them. Oh, did I forget to mention that while we had them we saw them mating? Well, we did and we researched how long it takes before the snails lay the eggs and we thought we were safe. Guess again. 

There had been a 24 hour period where we thought one of the snails had escaped but it turned out that she had just been hiding/laying eggs somewhere in the terrarium. Thanks mama.

Our house sat empty for a few weeks while Ariana and I were in Florida and Rich was in Washington for training and then visiting us in Florida. I say empty but baby snails were silently taking over the terrarium and waiting for our return.

When Ariana and I returned home a month later I saw a speck on the wall of the terrarium and went to investigate. Is that a tiny shell? Wait, is that another. Oh-my-GOD-there-are-babies-in-there.

So far, I've counted 37. 

THIRTY SEVEN BABY SNAILS!

How do you care for baby snails?

It's actually easy. We mist their terrarium a few times a day and give them cut up vegetables to eat.

We thought their favorite was zuchinni until we discovered them devouring some cucumber one night.

They sleep most of the day - like most babies - and don't really get active until night.

Aww he's got a little bit of zucchini on his mouth!

Here is one of the babies on a quarter to show the size. And that's Ariana's little 2 year old finger.

 Teeny tiny.

As a reminder here is a photo of the mama snail - over 3 inches long!

So, what's our plan?

Well so far some of them have doubled in size - piggies. We've enjoyed having the babies in our house. What can I say, we're animal lovers, even if they are slimy. We're going to slowly release them back into the woods a few at a time where hopefully they will live out their lives in the brush by the little creek and grow big like their parents. We've debated keeping 1 because snails are hermaphrodites and keeping 2 would mean more babies in our future and we're not ready for that yet!

xo's

Cat

Faces in Places

Over the past few weeks  months, I've been finding a lot of faces in random places. I decided to put together this little post to share my found faces with you!

My toothbrush holder smiles at me

Happy face found in my watermelon

Kissy face in an Italian train station.

Syrup bottle smiles on Pancake Sunday

Ariana's lunch one day

Ariana's play kitchen is giving me the uninterested face

My moms old brownie camera is surprised

It's fun finding faces in places! Have you found any lately?

xo's

Cat

Random Photography

Today, I wanted to share some random photo I've taken recently but haven't shared yet.

Laundry day.

Bubbles in the backyard.

My husband actually took this one, it's me holding a slug in our garden.

Upside down flower Ariana picked. It's white on one side, purple on the other.

This beautiful butterfly landed for a fleeting moment for me to capture a shot.

A heart found in Paris.

Street art in Paris.

Busy little ladybug.

Sunset on the line.

A sweet gray and white butterfly.

Oh and don't forget to add your name for the giveaway I've got going on here. For all the photographers reading, you could win an awesome and stylish camera strap cover! You know you want to check it out!

That's all for today!
Peace!

xo's

Cat