Category: Uncategorized

Had to go to the grocery store this morning to cash my unemployment check (yes, I bank at the grocery store. I believe in making as few trips as possible when it’s time to do errands.) I was picking up the few items I needed, and wandered up the cleaning “stuff” aisle on my way back to the front of the store. I pick this aisle because you just never know when the perfect dish scrubbie will appear on the rack, solving the problem is the Discontinued Dish Scrubbie. [Insert sound of weeping]

I was pricing 409 Glass Cleaner, when a new product in the tub section caught my eye. First, because the bottle is purple. Second, because of the name of the product. “Kaboom.” What an awesome name. I looked over the label, noting the “From the makers of Oxy-Clean” and the “Breath Easy” on the label. As I have mentioned here before, cleaning products do a number on my lungs. I can’t buy most of the stuff that’s out there, because I can’t handle the fumes. I normally use Scrub Free because of all the tub products, that one seems to have the least offensive fumes.

Well, I’ve found another. Kaboom has a kind of orange scent (you know, the Oxy-Clean people also make Orange Glow, the orange oil (?) cleaning products, so this doesn’t surprise me). Other than that, no fumes. You could spray it in the tub and lean right in close and not pass out. And it seems to have done a bang-up job. So I’m going to give Kaboom 4 tiles out of 5. (It loses a half a tile because it’s doesn’t magically do all the work for you, plus it does say on the bottle that you should rinse, and I hate that.

I bought a box cutter at Staples today, to deal with recycling cardboard (which has to but cut down to a certain size or they won’t take it). I was thinking to myself “THIS is the weapon that they used to hijack planes?” That’s amazing. The cashier didn’t appear to be evaluate whether or not I should be allowed to purchase a box cutter. No paperwork was required. But I will keep it in a safe place so terrorists cannot hijack my junk drawer.

While I’m thinking about it, twice now (well, at least once but I think twice) Adam over at Boston Online has referred to me as “a true New Englander”. Well, I am. I’ve never lived outside of New England. I am 10th generation New Englander. But I think it’s funny that he’s referred to me this way twice. I need to start acting the part. Maybe I’ll grow cranberries in the backyard. It is pretty wet on the other side of the fence. I’d have to cut down a lot of trees, though, because most of the bogs I’ve seen were out in the open. The water levels may have had something to do with it, though.

So the true New Englander in me has to go put on her winter coat, scarf, hat and mittens on this the 10th day of March because with the wind chill it’s 8 degrees outside. Lovely. I swear, I’ve never seen a winter like this.

I used to get my mail at noon. I have lived in this house for almost 9 years now, which is a subject for another day, but for almost all of those 9 years, it was a very safe bet that if you went to the mailbox by 1pm the mail would be there. Our mailman generally delivered the mail between 11:30 and 12:30. For years.

Suddenly, the mail has been getting here between, oh, say 3 and 5. It’s 3:20pm right now, and he was just here (dropping off crap, I might add). I just can’t handle the change. Why, after 9 years, am I forced to suffer this way? Doesn’t he know what he’s doing to me?

One bottle of Merlot, three huge portions of food, and one free dessert later, it’s back to normal life. We went to Vinnie Testa’s to celebrate my friend’s birthday, while her husband watched her two kids and Junior. It is the highlight of his week when he gets to go play with them, so this was a good deal for everyone involved. We were going to eat and then maybe wander around Tatnuck or the Christmas Tree Shop in Shrewsbury, but we effectively killed our whole 3 hours just at the restaurant, talking and laughing. The bummer is that now the next birthday isn’t until October, so we’ll have to find some other excuse to do this again!