2003-11-18

Average Joe last night. I could kick myself! Argh!

* * * Good lord, what a day. It’s not even 1:00, and I’m ready for a nap! I got up as soon as Fred left this morning so that I could get started cleaning the upstairs. The biggest job – though the smallest room – was the spud’s bathroom. She’s in charge of cleaning her bathroom every Saturday and she does an okay job, but she seems to think that the cleaner she sprays on the tub and shower should do all the work and that she shouldn’t need to provide any elbow grease. As a result, her tub tends to be somewhat grimy. She does an excellent job of cleaning the toilet each week, but doesn’t clean the underside of the toilet, or behind the toilet, and there was a ton of dust back there. It took me two applications of Clorox Bathroom Cleaner with Teflon and lots of scrubbing, but now the bathtub is shiny and clean. I also got all the dust behind the toilet (which has probably been accumulating since about this time last year when I was cleaning the house a few days before Thanksgiving) and dusted the baseboards while I was at it. After that some vacuuming and some dusting, and now the upstairs is fit for human habitation once again. Yay! (Of course, now I don’t have to do any real cleaning for a long, lonnnnnnnng time!) Oh, and speaking of cleaning, that reminds me – someone recently asked in my comments how I clean the hardwood floors downstairs to keep them so shiny and clean. Of course, my immediate response is “Are you on drugs???”, but at the moment they are shiny and clean since I just cleaned them yesterday, so I’ll answer the question. After trying all manners of things, all kinds of cleaners formulated especially for hardwood floors but leaves streaks, you know what works the best? Ammonia and hot water. I bet that vinegar and water would work well, too – maybe next time I clean the floors (no doubt sometime in 2004) I’ll give that a try and report back. After cleaning, I ran to the grocery store. I had bought everything on the list except one – ginger ale – and I stood in the soda aisle for a good five minutes, trying like hell to remember what brand of ginger ale Liz drinks. When I just couldn’t remember, I decided to check out, go home, find the note I’d made regarding what kind of ginger ale Liz drinks, and then head for Kroger to pick up a couple of bottles of Light Done Right Blue Cheese dressing for Fred (Publix carries every flavor of Kraft Light Done Right EXCEPT Blue Cheese). And as a side note, see what wonderful hosts we are? If you come visit, we make sure to have your favorite soda in stock so you’ll have something to drink! Once I got to Kroger, I found the salad dressing and a few other things, and finally sucked it up and applied for a Kroger Plus card. As a rule, I think it’s shitty that you have to apply for a card so that you can get the savings – at Publix, you get the same price no matter who you are – but I couldn’t stand the thought of paying 90 cents more for a bottle of dressing just because I didn’t have the fucking card. Also, I saved $2 on a 5-pound bag of clementines and $1 off a 6-pack of water. I checked out using the U-Scan-It aisle, where you (I bet you can’t guess!) scan stuff yourself. I was doing well, had scanned the bottles of salad dressing, when I made the mistake of scanning the 6-pack of water and instead of bagging it, I put it back in my cart. “PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAG! PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAG!” the automated voice bellowed at me. “PLEASE PLACE ITEM IN BAG!” Apparently there’s some sort of sensor on the thing that sits under the bags and if you don’t put your item on the bag, the system notices and thinks you’re – well, I’m not sure what the problem is, exactly. I guess they want to have all your items in bags and not in the cart so they can see that you’ve scanned everything. The cashier in charge of keeping an eye on that aisle finally came over and fixed the problem, but not before everyone in the store turned to stare at the freak who was causing the automated voice to have a temper tantrum. * * * Okay, help me out, y’all. What the hell are those things called that pop up on the top of your tongue and kind of look like a tastebud has popped? Because I swear to god that for the last week I’ve had one every single day. They last for about a day and then go away, but pop up in another spot. I have one in the middle of my tongue right now and it’s DRIVING ME FUCKING NUTS. If you have any idea what the damn things are caused (I’ve only ever gotten them on the top of my tongue), let me know in the comments so I can do a search and see if there’s some important vitamin or mineral I’m missing in my daily diet that’s causing the damn things. * * * There’s a tornado warning going on right now and I have channel 19 on (one touched down in South Huntsville, it appears). Dan Satterfield – the weather guy – just asked someone to stop his wife from leaving the studio. I don’t know why that amuses me so much. For the record, Saturday was 14 years since an F4 tornado touched down and did some serious damage in South Huntsville. * * * Okay, that’s it for today. I’m in the middle of making a double batch of red beans and rice (we’re going to freeze half the batch and have the other half for dinner Thursday) and I need to go slice turkey kielbasa while I’m watching Dr. Phil. I don’t expect that I’m going to have the chance to update for the rest of the week, but if I can, I will. I may put up a cat-picture entry tomorrow before I leave for the airport. So basically, I’ll see you when I see you. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! 🙂 * * * I sure do love that cat. A year ago: I think that everyone there had a little cartoon question mark over their head, ’cause I sure as shit did. Three: Thanks, y’all, for your emails regarding hamster sex.]]>