Geek of the Week

I'm a geek mom.  It's sad, but true.  I could not identify a Katy Gaga song if my life depended on it.  I have never owned a pair of Uggs.  I do not bring homemade herb infused ice cues to gymnastics.  Nope.  I'm the kind of mom who was nearly moved to tears of pride as my three year old yelled, "I am Beowulf!" The kind who tells "The Lady and the Tiger" as a bedtime story and sings "The Ballad of Serenity" as a lullaby.  So we are generally engaged in some sort of geek related shenanigans around here.  Some sort of artsy-crafty, sciency-messy, blow stuff up fun.  Welcome to Geek of the Week, where I share one of our adventures so that you, too, can pay more for your insurance premium. 
This week, the big hit has been bubbles.  Now, did we use the namby pamby watered down nonsense that they sell at the store?  No, no.  After quite a bit of research, I found the easiest, most cost-effective recipe and tweaked it until I found what worked for me.  Mix together dishwashing liquid, corn syrup, and water in a ratio of 1:1:6.  I have heard that glycerin works better than corn syrup, but as I had one but not the other lying about I chose the latter.  The results were spectacular.  I also added two teaspoons of peppermint extract.  This does nothing to improve the quality of the bubbles.  However, when you have a toddler who insists on biting them, and then tries to wipe his tongue off with his sudsy paw, well, you get sick of fun stalling screaming fits every couple of  minutes.  One would think this would be a self-correcting behavior. One would be wrong.  So, after quick calculations of the possible physical effects of repeated bubble biting, I determined that the best and easiest fix would be to make the bubbles taste better.  Who has two thumbs and the mom of the year award? 
I admit that it would have been incredibly easy to create bubble wands.  Pipe cleaners or wire are readily available and easily manipulated.  But, in the interest of impatience and making the process as messy as possible, we went with our good old hands.  Stick them in the bubble solution, rub them together, make a triangle and blow. Eureka!  Super big, super strong super bubbles!  Strong enough that, if their hands are sudsy enough, your kids can blow, hold, stretch, and call George their very own pet bubble.  But, the best part of all?  Convincing my dear friend that the quart sized canning jar of murky amber liquid was actually a giant urine sample!  Happy geeking!