There's a great ad from the 70's, when Mr. Coffee was touting its timer feature, in which a man getting dressed has the following exchange with a sleeping woman:

Man: Elaine, what are you doing?
Woman: (without opening her eyes) I'm making coffee.
Man: No, you're not. You're sleeping.
Woman: (pulling the pillow over her head) I'm making coffee! ( Read more... )

One of the principles of organization of which I frequently have to remind myself is to allot yourself a given volume of space in which to store an item--the amount of your finite space you are willing to cede to having things of that category--and when you exceed that amount of space, prune mercilessly ( Read more... )

Once again, I am struck by the fact that my salt shaker and washing-up liquid dispenser always need replenishing at the same time.

Our recycling only gets picked up every two weeks and we are not very good at remembering to take it (or the garbage, for that matter, but that we get a shot at every week) to the curb. Lately we've had plans on Thursday nights, so we've missed it for several weeks and the bins were all full and the bags of paper were piling up. As we came home ( Read more... )

I have a shelf-full of stuffed animals (soft toys) collecting dust on a shelf in my workroom. Can anyone suggest a good way to dust them? I had thought of putting them in the dryer for a few minutes, and then someone said "use low heat!" and, well, our dryer doesn't have a low heat setting. No, really--the only variable setting is time. Would ( Read more... )

Today I was determined to have a Very Productive Day (TM). With that goal in mind, I accomplished the following ( Read more... )

We have crickets inside again. This seems to happen every fall just about this time. I'm trying to focus on their potential as omens of good fortune, rather than their annoying chirp.

My house is clean. For the last month I've been increasingly absorbed by the show and haven't found the time for much lifestyle maintenance. It had gotten pretty disgusting and bookly is arriving on Sunday, so I finally broke down and called the woman who did some cleaning for us last year when we were settling in and she came while I was off having a ( Read more... )

Somehow socks manage to get out of the washing machine and wash down the outflow pipe into the utility sink. This is better than going down the drain, but it's kind of odd and nasty, since they get all cruddy with lint and stuff and have to be washed again.

Life's been pretty exciting for the past week ( Read more... )