UGH! This day.....

Well today has been a really crappy day so far. I'm fairly certain it has great potential to get worse.

Some things I have looked up today at random: (Can I just say how much I enjoy Wikipedia? I really enjoy Wikipedia!)

The Almond (Prunus dulcis, syn. Prunus amygdalus Batsch., Amygdalus communis L., Amygdalus dulcis Mill.) is a species of tree of the genus Prunus, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae and native to the Middle East. Within Prunus, it is classified in the subgenus Amygdalus, distinguished from the other subgenera by the corrugated seed shell.
Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated nut of this tree. Although popularly referred to as a nut, the almond fruit's seed is botanically not a true nut, but the seed of a drupe (a botanic name for a type of fruit).

In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin; and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries. The definitive characteristic of a drupe is that the hard, lignified stone (or pit) is derived from the ovary wall of the flower.
Other fleshy fruits may have a stony enclosure that comes from the seed coat surrounding the seed, but such fruits are not drupes.
Some flowering plants that produce drupes are coffee, jujube, mango, olive, most palms (including date, coconut and oil palms), pistachio, and all members of the genus Prunus, including the almond (in which the mesocarp is somewhat leathery), apricot, cherry, damson, nectarine, peach, and plum.
Drupes, with their sweet, fleshy outer layer, attract the attention of animals as a food, and the plant population benefits from the resulting dispersal of its seeds. The endocarp (pit or stone) is often swallowed, passing through the digestive tract, and returned to the soil in feces with the seed inside unharmed; sometimes it is dropped after the fleshy part is eaten.
Corking is a nutritional disorder in stone fruit caused by a lack of boron and/or calcium.
Many stone fruits contain sorbitol, which can exacerbate conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and fructose malabsorption.[citation needed]

Saddle soap is a preparatory compound containing mild soap and softening ingredients such as neatsfoot oil, glycerin, and lanolin. It also contains bee's wax to protect leather. It is used for cleaning, conditioning and softening leather, particularly that of saddles and other horse tack, hence its name.

Using saddle soap
Dip a damp sponge in the saddle soap and work up a lather. Apply a light coat of the lather to the leather in small circles covering all surfaces. Frequently rinse and re-lather the sponge. Remove any build up with a damp cloth as left over soap can damage the leather. Wipe the leather dry and then treat with a leather conditioner. After using saddle soap you should clean any metal or plastic fittings. Use a stiff bristle brush to finish off suede or rough-out leathers by brushing up the nap.

See also
Mink oil leather treatment
Neatsfoot oil leather treatment


Neatsfoot oil is a yellow oil rendered and purified from the feet (but not the hooves) and shin bones of cattle. It remains liquid down to a low temperature, and is used as a conditioning, softening and preservative agent for leather. In the 18th century, it was also used medically as a topical application for dry scaly skin conditions.
Neatsfoot oil remains liquid at room temperature because the fat in animals' legs generally has a lower melting point than the body fat. This occurs because the legs and feet of such animals are adapted to tolerate and maintain much lower temperatures than those of the body core, using countercurrent heat exchange between arterial and venous blood. Because of this, neatsfoot oil remains liquid at room temperature and so can easily soak into leather.
Currently, neatsfoot oil is sometimes made from lard.[1] It is sold as neatsfoot oil in pure form, or neatsfoot oil compound, if mineral oil is added. Some brands have been shown to be adulterated with rapeseed oil, soya oil, and drying oil[2]. Pure neatsfoot oil comes in two forms: regular and cold tested. In the latter, the oil is filtered at 0 to -4°C to remove solid components, as they can lead to 'spewing' (a whitish crystalline deposit or bloom resulting from fat migration).
[3]
'Neat' in the oil's name comes from an old term for cattle, and even today the best quality neatsfoot oil still comes from the legs of calves and with no mineral oil added. "Prime neatsfoot oil" or "neatsfoot oil compound" are terms used for a blend of pure neatsfoot oil and non-animal oils, generally mineral or other petroleum-based oils. Although the "Prime" is marketed as "the saddlemaker's choice", many saddle makers actually recommend pure neatsfoot oil for leather goods, particularly saddles. Pure neatsfoot oil has superior softening and preservative properties, the addition of mineral oils often leads to more rapid decay of stitching and speeds breakdown of any adhesive materials that may have been used.
Neatsfoot oil, like other leather dressings, should not be used on important historical objects, as it will oxidize with time, and embrittle the leather even more.[4] It also may leave an oily residue that can attract dust. On newer leather, it will inevitably darken the leather, even after a single application, and thus is not a desirable product to use when maintaining a lighter shade is desired. However, for routine use on working equipment, particularly in dry climates, it is a powerful softening and conditioning agent that few modern synthetic alternatives can replace.


All things that I did not know. I am happy that I know them, but I don't think I will ever be able to use these things in a normal conversation. I may use them in a convo with my Brother, but those conversations are seldom normal and laced with large vocabulary words because he likes to stretch his vocbaulary wings. Gay boys. *SHRUG*