Tips for Daily Living
Oct. 17th, 2005 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sisabetThis keeping your home neat and clean? Is very time-consuming. Just so you know.
(Followup post: http://www.livejournal.com/users/sisabet/311897.html)
I made the intense personal decision to keep my kitchen spotless. I also have a pretend fic that runs in my head right now as I am cleaning and a "Clean Kitchen" playlist so it isn't as if this is out of character for me. I am sure it is just a phase.
New Discoveries:
1.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gwyn_r recommended the Swiffer duster and she wasn't kidding. That thing picks up everything - including dog hair that drifts heavenward to land on 7 foot tall shelves. Last night I was just wandering around my apartment looking for more things to dust. That? Is highly unusual and out of character. I wasn't even pretending to be someone else or dusting for prints - I was just dusting because of the neat! factor.
2. Scrubbing the floor on your hands and knees? Hard on your knees. Also? It doesn't seem to get the floor any cleaner than mopping. And your knees hurt. And your arm gets really tired. I'd say it was just like Prom Night, but I didn't even get to dress up and look pretty.
Oh - and if you don't want the floor to get all dull and yucky-looking, you have to rinse. This must be whatfalzalot meant by "you have to keep changing the water." Of course, I'm glad I didn't get it because I asked "Change it to what" and eliade commented "Yes, can you mop with wine?" and I am so glad she did because the entire time I was scrubbing I had on endless refrain in my head "Je-sus Mops! (God show me the way because the devil's tryin' to break me down) Je-sus mops, with me, with me." So I was entertained and now I am planning to see "Jarhead" when it is released if only to reward the trailers effective use of quick cuts. I'm still not convinced the song choice is appropriate but the very fact that I've thought about it this much means it was effective. Go, go marketing!
3. Don't spend hours on the floor if you plan on makingheres_luck's Thai-style curried squash soup (http://www.livejournal.com/users/heres_luck/140093.html). Wanna know why? I'll tell you why: winter squash have it out for you. They do. I went mano a mano with a smallish buttercup this weekend and barely prevailed with my hand intact. Those suckers have thick skins and while I went out and bought a very sharp chefs knife just for this purpose - that damned buttercup tried to steal it! Yes - the knife eventually went in (at one point I was all "Die Buttercup! Die!" which naturally led to "Boo! True love saved her in the fire swamp, and she treated it like garbage. And that's what she is, the Queen of Refuse. So bow down to her if you want. Bow to her. Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of putrescence!") but it just wouldn't come out. I had to take a break and rest up before I could wrest my knife back. It was extremely disheartening.
But the soup turned out fantastic and I forgave the squash once it was baked and had cooled enough to scoop into the pot. Our relationship might not be the best it could be (and I might have sung "Build Me Up, Buttercup" to it more than once) but now I have soup! YAY!
I also haddebchan's Sausage stuffing (http://www.livejournal.com/users/debchan/117411.html) and both turned out fantastic (although I left the dressing in the oven too long for various reasons and so now I know I need to put more broth in it to begin with as it kind of dried out).
But then it was 8:00 and I had soup and stuffing and a salad and cold apple cider and "Slings and Arrows" and life was very very good.
And then Lum emailed me that Captain Jack is getting his own Russel T. Davies penned spin-off and life became excellent. Ohhh - Captain Jack - you are my very favorite 51st Century Boy!
(Followup post: http://www.livejournal.com/users/sisabet/311897.html)
I made the intense personal decision to keep my kitchen spotless. I also have a pretend fic that runs in my head right now as I am cleaning and a "Clean Kitchen" playlist so it isn't as if this is out of character for me. I am sure it is just a phase.
New Discoveries:
1.
gwyn_r recommended the Swiffer duster and she wasn't kidding. That thing picks up everything - including dog hair that drifts heavenward to land on 7 foot tall shelves. Last night I was just wandering around my apartment looking for more things to dust. That? Is highly unusual and out of character. I wasn't even pretending to be someone else or dusting for prints - I was just dusting because of the neat! factor. 2. Scrubbing the floor on your hands and knees? Hard on your knees. Also? It doesn't seem to get the floor any cleaner than mopping. And your knees hurt. And your arm gets really tired. I'd say it was just like Prom Night, but I didn't even get to dress up and look pretty.
Oh - and if you don't want the floor to get all dull and yucky-looking, you have to rinse. This must be what
falzalot meant by "you have to keep changing the water." Of course, I'm glad I didn't get it because I asked "Change it to what" and eliade commented "Yes, can you mop with wine?" and I am so glad she did because the entire time I was scrubbing I had on endless refrain in my head "Je-sus Mops! (God show me the way because the devil's tryin' to break me down) Je-sus mops, with me, with me." So I was entertained and now I am planning to see "Jarhead" when it is released if only to reward the trailers effective use of quick cuts. I'm still not convinced the song choice is appropriate but the very fact that I've thought about it this much means it was effective. Go, go marketing! 3. Don't spend hours on the floor if you plan on making
heres_luck's Thai-style curried squash soup (http://www.livejournal.com/users/heres_luck/140093.html). Wanna know why? I'll tell you why: winter squash have it out for you. They do. I went mano a mano with a smallish buttercup this weekend and barely prevailed with my hand intact. Those suckers have thick skins and while I went out and bought a very sharp chefs knife just for this purpose - that damned buttercup tried to steal it! Yes - the knife eventually went in (at one point I was all "Die Buttercup! Die!" which naturally led to "Boo! True love saved her in the fire swamp, and she treated it like garbage. And that's what she is, the Queen of Refuse. So bow down to her if you want. Bow to her. Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of putrescence!") but it just wouldn't come out. I had to take a break and rest up before I could wrest my knife back. It was extremely disheartening. But the soup turned out fantastic and I forgave the squash once it was baked and had cooled enough to scoop into the pot. Our relationship might not be the best it could be (and I might have sung "Build Me Up, Buttercup" to it more than once) but now I have soup! YAY!
I also had
debchan's Sausage stuffing (http://www.livejournal.com/users/debchan/117411.html) and both turned out fantastic (although I left the dressing in the oven too long for various reasons and so now I know I need to put more broth in it to begin with as it kind of dried out). But then it was 8:00 and I had soup and stuffing and a salad and cold apple cider and "Slings and Arrows" and life was very very good.
And then Lum emailed me that Captain Jack is getting his own Russel T. Davies penned spin-off and life became excellent. Ohhh - Captain Jack - you are my very favorite 51st Century Boy!
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-17 05:30 pm (UTC)(I love that Jarhead trailer too, even though it's not a movie I'd normally be inclined to see.)
Random responses to household maintenance
Date: 2005-10-17 05:37 pm (UTC)(2) I've only ever used white vinegar for cleaning my coffee maker and my tile and hardwood floors, so I am afraid to use it in food. What if it poisons me or makes me go blind?
(3) Swiffer and swiffer dusters are the best. I find myself in a dusting frenzy. I find myself looking for more things to dust. It is freakish and strange and yet seems completely normal while it's going on. This must be what going crazy is like.
(4) The Jarhead trailer played before Serenity. It made my head hurt. I kept expecting the anti-militarism critique to show up in the trailer, and then it became clear it wasn't going to, and I had to try to figure out whether they'd misread the song or whether I had, before the Universal logo came up.
Re: Random responses to household maintenance
Date: 2005-10-17 05:56 pm (UTC)(2) I've only used white vinegar before to color Easter eggs or in cole slaw. I had no idea it was functional in other ways and I am still nervous about utilizing it, even though I am really looking forward to combining it with baking soda.
(3) The Swiffer product lines must be operating on some kind of strange brain chemistry because I am freaking looking for reason and opportunity to Swiffer my floors ("Oh, the living room looks a bit dull. Let me run the Swiffer over it right now." *runs off with kind of glee normally reserved for a new episode of television*). I didn't think the duster would hit me the same way, but it did. I am looking for things to dust. ME!
It has to be the new toy feel of these things. They seem novel - and fun.
Like when I was a kid - I loved it when it was "desk cleaning day" at school because I would purposely try to get my desk as grungy as possible so that when the teacher came by and squirted that cleaner on and gave me my paper towels - I could feel like I was really making something happen. I wanted a noticiable before and after. And the swiffer things are tapping into that joy of accomplishment, I think, because they actually do what they say they will do. At least the Wet Jet does. And the duster. I haven't tried anything else. I'm kind of afraid to.
(4) I thought "Jarhead" would take a harsh line perhaps on the fact that there was a military response, but be sympathetic to the soldiers' experiences. I have no idea why I'd think that as the only exposure I've had to the movie is the Jesus Walks trailer. Which I still think is totally inappropriate for this kind of movie but astoundingly well edited. If this was a vid and it was playing at VVC, I'd critique the song choice but praise the beauty.
Re: Random responses to household maintenance
Date: 2005-10-17 06:23 pm (UTC)Finally: Swiffer dusters, yay! I love them, and, like you, will hunt for an excuse to use one.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-17 06:41 pm (UTC)And now I must go use the buttercup squashes I have to make that soup. Thank you for making my choice for me! ;D
Re: Random responses to household maintenance
Date: 2005-10-17 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-17 06:54 pm (UTC)Ah, but grasshopper, if you have the ugly green linoleum in your kitchen that my parents have in mine, the kind that has little pseudo pock marks in it that collect grime and do not release it with an ordinary mop, then scrubbing is pretty much the only way to make it work.
And I am still freaked that my parents redid their entire kitchen, but KEPT the 28 year old linoleum. Says mom: "But they still sell that pattern, so it's perfectly good!" Says me: "But it's not 28 years old!!"
And yeah, I think rinsing was what I meant. When the water gets icky, you dump the bucket and refill it. But I rather like the Jesus-mops theme song. :->
And darn you - you are going to make me buy a swiffer duster, aren't you?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-17 06:57 pm (UTC)Re: Random responses to household maintenance
Date: 2005-10-17 07:35 pm (UTC)clean kitchen
Date: 2005-10-17 09:16 pm (UTC)