Wake up early on the day of Holi, and get your materials ready. Keep water handy throughout the day. Make sure the tap is close to your play area. Attach a hose to the tap if you can't go back and forth with colored feet.  You will mix colored powder in the bucket of water and fill the balloons and pichkaris. Fill as many balloons as you’d like with water and tie them. Get them ready beforehand. At the end, you can empty the entire bucket on your friends for a big finish. Smear the colored powder onto your friends and family to make them colorful and commence the festival of colors. The colors are non-toxic and won’t stain for long, so have fun smearing them on your family members' arms, legs, back, and hair. Others like to celebrate low key day Holi with little to no water. You can do that too and celebrate with some beautiful colors and food. Elders and friends shout, "Bura na mano, holi hain" to allow people the liberty to apply color on them. It means, "Don't mind; it’s Holi". Or "Don't feel bad; it is Holi". A pichkari is a water gun to squirt colored water from as a fun way to celebrate Holi. Mix some of the colored powder with water and then add it to the pichkari. Use the pichkari to cover people with colored water and enjoy playing in the bright colors.  Pichkaris make great gifts for kids in preparation for the Holi celebration. They come in many forms and patterns. Pick the basic cylindrical ones to go old school or try the fancy ones if you like. Be ready for some naughty kids to throw water balloons on you from their terrace or home. A dholak is a hand drum that is played at celebrations such as Holi. Enjoy the celebration by dancing in the colors to the beat of the dholak. Sing Holi songs and let your body move to the beat while you celebrate the coming of spring. A great way to celebrate Holi is with delicious traditional Indian meals. There are many different traditional meals for Holi depending on what region you are in, but here are some popular foods and drinks you can try.  One Holi staple is Thandai, a traditional creamy milk drink flavored with nuts and spices. It often has some herbs that might make you feel dizzy. You may drink it after you've enjoyed together. Gujia or Ghughra is a sweet dish which you will enjoy. Puran Poli is a popular sweet dish typically eaten in Maharashtra. It is a sweet flatbread with a buttery taste and a stuffing of lentils, jaggery, and spices. It is eaten with sweetened milk or spicy dal curry. Dahi Wada is a tasty snack food made from lentil fritters soaked in Indian yogurt.
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One-sentence summary -- Fill a bucket of water. Smear color on your loved ones. Spray colored water with pichkaris. Sing and dance to the beat of the dholak. Eat and drink traditional Holi delicacies.


In order for the sod to establish, it's best to start with freshly watered soil. It doesn't need to be soaking wet; just use a sprinkler to lightly moisten everything before you get started. Unroll the first piece of sod next to a driveway or a street. Line it up so that the edge of the sod is exactly aligned with the edge of the yard, with no extra dirt exposed. Carefully unroll the entire piece of sod so that the first long edge is covered. This provides a strong edge against which you'll lay the rest of the sod.  Starting from the middle instead will make it tricky to lay the sod in a logical matter without leaving any gaps or short ends. Make sure to roll each piece of sod in the same direction. If you roll a piece in reverse it will look very different from its neighbor, although they will eventually grow to an even appearance. Cut the second strip of sod in half lengthwise, and lay it directly adjacent to the first. Keep laying sod in a staggered, brick-like pattern. Laying sod in this fashion will make the seams less apparent later. Make sure that the edges of the sod butt up against each other without overlapping. Don't leave gaps at the seams; these exposed edges will be prone to drying out and leaving brown spots in the yard. Continue laying sod in this manner until the entire yard is covered and no seams are visible.  Use a box cutter to cut shorter pieces of sod where you need to fill in gaps or lay sod around corners. However, leave the sod pieces as large as possible. Don't cut them into smaller pieces unless you need to, since the smaller pieces are more prone to drying out before they get established. Seam all the edges by firmly rolling them together. Avoid walking or kneeling on the sod as you lay it, since this can cause air pockets and indentations to form. Laying the sod horizontally across the hills, rather than vertically along the hills, will prevent the hill from eroding. When the grass roots establish themselves they'll hold the dirt underneath in place. If you lay them vertically, especially on steep hills, you might encounter problems with the strips of sod bunching toward the bottom instead of staying in place on the hill. If needed, purchase sod or landscape "fabric staples" to pin the sod in place. Be sure to mark them clearly or paint them a visible color for removal once the sod has rooted. Since the key is to keep the sod in large pieces whenever possible, you can lay around curves by reshaping it instead of cutting it apart. Drape a large piece of sod next to the curve and pinch it together in a few spots so that the shape of the piece wraps neatly around the curve. Use your cutter to chop off the the raised areas that you pinched, and set aside the two smaller triangular pieces. Now you've essentially created two darts in the sod, allowing it to take on a semi-circular shape. Pull the cut edges of the darts together so that they lay right next to each other, with no gap remaining. If you encounter a tree or another obstacle you need to lay the sod around, drape it over the object and carefully cut the sod so that it fits around the object's base. Save the cutouts so you can use them if you have any small gaps to fill in later.  If you're laying sod around a tree, don't lay it right up against the tree's base. Laying it over the roots could damage the tree. Instead, cut out a circle so that the edge of the sod is a few feet from the tree.  If you have a lot of trees or other obstacles to work around, you might want to get a sod cutter to make the job a little easier. Cutting shapes out of the sod using just a box cutter can get time consuming.
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One-sentence summary --
Water the soil. Start by laying sod along a long edge. Lay it in a brick-like pattern. Lay sod around hills instead of from top to bottom. Shape the sod around curves. Cut the sod to lay it around trees and other obstacles.