Dads Doing Laundry (or: Domestic Dud to Domestic Hero)

Today is one of many laundry days around here. As I was gathering up the various outfits of the household, it occurred to me that maybe some people would like some assistance with this particual chore.  So here's my crash course. (It's not quite detailed enough to be called "Laundy 101". Sorry)

First off. Doing laundry isn't a terrible chore. Folding and putting away clothes, on the other hand, is. Some would argue that folding and putting away is part of "doing laundry". I disagree. I treat them as separate chores.

Next. Labels are important. I can not stress that enough. Nothing drops you from Hero to Zero faster than ruining clothes. It's one thing if your kids outgrow their clothes. It's something else entirely if you shrink them.  Do yourself a massive favour. If you have any control over it, READ THE LABELS BEFORE THE CLOTHES ARE BOUGHT.  I know you can't control gifts and hand-me-downs. You've got to control what you actually buy, though. I'm not saying don't buy "tough to wash" stuff. I'm simply saying "beware".  Same thing for ladies goods. That bra that does all the right things to your wife's front? Don't ruin it by washing it with your jeans!
Here's a basic chart explaining washing symbols.

Some clothing manufacturers are nice. They'll write it out in plain English for you. "Machine Wash Cold. Gentle Cycle. Tumble Dry Low."  Simple directions.  Lots of tags don't do that, though. Hence the chart above.  Watch out for the "Hand Wash" symbol.  It's probably the second most important symbol out there. Why only second? Well, chances are that the Hand Wash symbol is only going to be on 1 or 2 items in the whole closet. They're also usually items that you'd guess they were on, anyways.  That cashmere pullover? Probably Hand Wash. So what's the most important symbol? The Drying gang take that prize as a group. If it says "Hang", "Lay Flat" or "Drip Dry", then the Dryer will KILL it. I mean it. I've seen Large men's shirts become kids sized. Trust me.
You can cheat some of the system.  As long as the item in question isn't labelled "Hand Wash", you can almost never go wrong using a COLD WATER/GENTLE cycle.  For front loading machines, the Gentle Cycle relates to the spin speed.  Clothes come out a bit damper because the spin cycle doesn't mash them as hard against the drum. Really, though, this is for beginners. If you're doing a load of jeans & T-shirts, you probably know you can use the NORMAL cycle. You can still shift to COLD WATER to save on energy costs. It won't change the clean factor. (Exception to this rule: SHEETS. HOT WATER those bad boys. You're killing bugs here. Second Exception: You work as a Mechanic or in Trades. You're greasy. You can up your washing temp.) If you're doing all the lacey "goodies" you'd better have read those labels before they enter the machine.
Next is soap. You can use less than is "recommended" by the soap maker. (See "Second Exception" above, however.)  I'm not saying that two drops is sufficient. I am saying that you don't need half a cup to see results.  I find you get less fading with lesser amounts of soap.  I like "natural" stuff. Stuff that has bio-degradable elements and fewer chemicles. I don't like scents. They drive me bonkers. (Although I have had women compliment me when the "wrong" soap comes into the house.)  Watch for "BLEACH" symbols in your labels. Non-chlorine bleaches are a bit more forgiving if you make a mistake.  Think about that when you're buying your laundry stuff.

So that's my crash course on laundry. Hope you found it helpful. 

J

PS- I think I still owe Garage Loft pics.  Here they are.

Be careful what you ask for

I take it back. Almost immediately after I posted about "not getting" the whole percocet addiction thing? Yeah. I got "dreams". Intense ones. Not sure if they would count as hallucinations or not. I say that because I was aware that what I was experiencing wasn't real. Yet I could seem to stop it either. So I "get it" now.
Those things were damned intense. Might have been nicer if they were pleasant as well, but what are you going to do? I got "attacked" and got to live through a nice long dream about having a seizure at work. Lovely.
I need to get off these pills sooner, rather than later.

Now I'm off to see if my throat can handle scrambled eggs yet. God I hope so. I'm starving.

Until next time.

Oh the pain

So I did finally get that loft built. Looks good too. I'll get you some pictures a little bit later. No before shots, though. Once I finally got started on it, I didn't have a camera with me and stopping to go and get it would have probably killed the momentum. I have the car parked in there now!

So here's today's "real" scenario. Tonsils. More specifically, tonsillectomy. In adults. That's right. I had my tonsils yanked out last week.

Oh. My. God. The pain. The pain. I'm sure it will all be worth it eventually, but oh my God! All the warning I got from the ENT was "expect the worst sore throat you've ever had, for about a week, and then 3 more weeks of pain." Well, that doesn't do it justice at all. I was saying to everyone before hand, "This is what they told me, but I don't know what that means. Maybe I'll be out of it over the weekend, in pain for a few days and back to work by Thursday?" Um...No. Not a damn chance. My boss actually called today and it was all I could do to answer the phone to tell him that, "No. I won't be in before Friday, sorry."

It's been super fun trying to keep my mouth hydrated. Especially at night. As soon as I lay down, I slip into "mouth-breather" mode and dry myself out. Then I have to start the whole swallowing anything process from scratch. For some reason, my snoring has gotten out of control too. I was physically removed from the bedroom last night. I can totally hear it, too. I won't even have fallen asleep and I can hear the air rattling around in my nose. It's pissing me off to no end. My wife, too obviously.

I'm still having trouble downing anything thicker than a liquid. Smoothies are a pain, applesauce seems to be OK. I'm going to give chicken broth a try after I'm done typing this. Hopefully that goes down well. I definitely need to add more stuff to my menu or I'm never going to get better. (I'll be hungry a lot too)

As for the pain medication...I really don't get how people get hooked on percocets. They do nothing for me. Well, they take the edge off the pain, but that's about it. I can't imagine I'd take them for their magical goody-wooshy feelings that they bring. (Hint: They don't) I just feel slightly less pain and then get tired. Big whoop.

Well, I'm going to go see if my soup has cooled off enough to give it a try. Then I'll have to pick a movie to keep me awake, or go pass out. I haven't decided which path to take yet.

Next time!

Next

Two months later? Really? I'm terrible at this. How am I going to make enough money to stay at home if I don't get this thing going on a regular basis? Good grief.

OK. I got the basement floor done. Re-organization is ongoing. (Anyone want a crapload of kids toys?) Bought the lumber for the Garage Loft last Saturday. Didn't do the project on Sunday as planned. Awesome weather for November and I got roped into indoor chores instead. Hope it's not too cold this Saturday when the father-in-law comes to give me a hand. I think I'll take before & after pics of this one. Hopefully the pics show that what I do is worthwhile and not a disaster.

When is it too soon to put up the Christmas lights? I put mine up during the great weather last week, but I haven't turned them on yet. I figure I should wait until at least December 1, right? I wasn't the only one hanging them, by the way.

Topaz monkey is making major progress in swimming lessons. Moving classes seems to have been the right choice. Mid-term progress report came home too. No issues to report.

More to report on after the weekend.

Moving forward

My dad has given up on living in a house. As the story was related to me, he went out to do some yard work. After about 45mins, he came back inside and said to my step-mom, "I'm done. I don't want to do this stuff anymore."


Within a week, they were looking at condos. Within 2weeks, they had put in an offer on a place. Now they own it. Why am I posting about this, you may ask? The death of yardwork for my dad means that he no longer needs tools. LOTS of tools. (And a bunch of other stuff too.) With that in mind, my brother and I - I hate to say "ransacked", but what else could I call it? - dad's place. Tools? I've got plenty now. Places to store them too. I got a nice rolling cabinet and another bench that I have to make room for somewhere. (The cabinet came full, BTW) Extra garden tools. Grass seed, fertilizer, tree pruner, electric roto-tiller...(3 of those things will go a LONG way toward fixing the disaster of a front boulevard I currently have)
I also came away with some rather random goods. (Pop, juice, V8, "towels"...) When my Dad cleans house, he doesn't seem to go half-way. The only reason I stopped? The mini-van was full. I have to go back at some point to get the garden tool holder, sewing machine and bedding. (And Lord knows what else they'll have lined up for us)
So this week, the drive is back on to get that basement floor painted and organized and to get in and really start on that garage project. Going to need to find a dollar or six to get that one going. Maybe I'll just have to start smaller for now, but I've got to get better use out of all that space!
I've got about a mile of hoses. Talk about wasted space. Note to other home owners and prospective home owners: Do NOT cheap out on a hose unless you really will bring it indoors in winter. They don't survive well. Then you buy new ones. Then they fail. (And if you're like me, they all pile up because you can't think of a "green" way to dispose of them...) Must clean hose. Must pick one of the new "good hoses" to live in the front. Must get a better hose reel that won't spring off the wall too. The work may never end...

Men vs Weight Gain and Relationships

Well,


There's been a ridiculous amount of coverage (and hand wringing) over a recent poll by AskMen


In it, a little more than half of the men who responded said that they'd dump their partner if she gained weight.


Now, let's first ignore the fact that no specific number was used. That's red flag number one, but it makes itself irrelevant.


This poll, and some of the media reaction to it, remind me of a scenario I found myself in. I had the opportunity to sit in on some presentations for a psychology class years ago. A few of the projects were on video. In one such video, the student had done group interviews of females and males. (Each gender was interviewed as a group. No "co-ed" groups.) At one point, the student asked the group of males the same question about weight gain. The response from one guy about "Yeah, if she put on a few pounds, I'd be upset" elicited gasps from the ladies watching the video. It shouldn't have.


Here's why:



Men and women have VASTLY different concepts of "a few pounds." A woman will freak out over a 4lb weight gain from the BBQ on the weekend. A guy won't even know she's put on 4lbs until she tells him. Honestly.

If you showed a man two pictures of the same woman at different weights, he couldn't tell. The difference in weight could probably go as high as 10, maybe 15, pounds and he wouldn't know. Men don't look for "fat ankles" or bloating, or puffy whatever. As I mentioned earlier though, a woman thinks 5lbs is a disaster. Trust me ladies. It's not. Even if you were dating Tony Little, I don't think you really need to worry about gaining weight ruining your relationship.

Remember, though. I'm talking about "a few" pounds here. If either partner adds 20+ % to their body mass, there may be troubles ahead. That kind of "letting go" could be a signal that there's less caring going on. Excluding various medical conditions, of course. Pregnancy weight, medication issues, quitting smoking...all of these can cause body fluctuations and can be hard to get rid of. (trust me. I know. quitting smoking cost me about 50lbs that I'm having a hell of a time getting rid of.)

So, when this topic comes up around the water cooler, or your local forum again, and it will since it's a kind of slow news summer, remember this. While media focuses on the "about half" of men who'd dump, that means "about half" won't. And the half that would? Most of them won't notice if you added 5lbs at that party last week.

Until next time.

Patio Done

So,

I finished the patio. Did I even mention starting it? I think I had it on "the list" there at least. Anyways, it's done. Dug it out, leveled it, added fabric screening and a thick layer of limestone screening and then levelled it again. Then laid the stones. Turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. Next project is using the pulled up patio stones to make a path at the front of the house. (Halfway done that one.)

After that, I really need to get in and finish painting that basement floor! Followed by choices:

Garage storage loft? Framing said basement for future renos? I'm leaning towards the garage since it's an "outdoor" project and hammering in the winter with frozen fingers probably isn't a great idea.

Oh. And I did get those caps put on finally too. Ended up having to do it all on my own, though. The Mrs picked up a circular saw for me for Father's Day. (Now I don't ever have to borrow my father-in-law's again!) I used that to cut the posts down to size before capping them.

The backyard is almost an oasis of peace and quiet. (I say almost because the garden is empty and there's a monster sized play set. We do have young children after all.)

It's all come together quite nicely though.