New toys all around

Today was a major shopping and cleaning day in our household.

I awoke this morning to the sound of the dishwasher. And I thought to myself "Aww, Michael did the dishes." Then, Michael came to the bed and asked a bleary-eyed me what I wanted for breakfast. I responded "huh?" Once I figured out what he was asking, I said that I wanted "eggies". And Michael made me eggs for breakfast. :-) He had also shoveled the driveway. All of this put me in a very good mood to start the day.

Then, we had a major cleaning fit. Mike took the dining room and I took the kitchen. I had tried to be diligent about cleaning our hardwood floors, but I the last vestiges of dust still stuck, and we have needed to mop for some time. I have had trepidations about mopping, however -- is it okay to mop hardwood floors? I didn't want to damage them. And (shh, don't tell anyone) I don't really know how to mop. My mom wasn't really much for the whole "cleaning" thing, and so I didn't learn a lot of these life skills till college when horrified room mates made me clean. Anyway. I have been scared of trying to mop for fear I would damage the floors. So, Michael took the mop and Pinesol in hand, and he took care of everything. Like I said, very good mood.

Now, our bottom sheet on our bed had developed a very large hole. And it was on my side. It had started off as a little bittie hole smaller than a dime, and grew to a huge run the size of my hand. This was unfortunate, since these sheets had been like $80. But, they have been used constantly for a year, so I guess we got our money out of them. So, today was the day that Mike asked if I wanted to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to get new sheets. This was amazing, because usually when I bring up Bed Bath and Beyond, Mike's eyes glaze over and he says something to the effect of "Do I really have to?"

We also need curtains. There are no curtains in the dining room, and there is a straight shot from outside, into our bedroom, and the bathroom. Most incommodious. Also, there are blinds in the living room, which is okay, I guess. But, there is a draft that comes off the windows (our couch is right in front of the windows), even though we put the plastic over them. And, one of the blinds doesn't have the twirly thing to close it. I asked the landlord about it, and he said the previous tenants had put them up, but we could drill holes in the walls for curtains. We had three curtain panels from the old apartment, where we had purposefully broken the rules to put them up. So, we needed short curtains for the living room, and curtain rods for the dining room.

When we got to Bed Bath and Beyond, the first thing we saw in front of us was a clearance bin. Inside the clearance bin was a whole array of sateen 400 thread count flat and fitted sheets marked down to $24.99 from $79.99. What a deal! So, we solved our sheet problem forthwith.

Next, there was the kitchen section. :-) I had $180 of allowance money that I could spend, and I had a mind to spend it. I bought a big Oneida cutting board with a grove all the way around it to catch juice. (It fits into our dishwasher by the skin of its teeth!) And I also bought an OXO chopper. You bang down on the handle on top, and a rotating blade cuts your onions for you. This should be more effective than my mini cuisinart which makes onion puree with big onion chunks. I also bought a scoop for my flour. Since I got the bread machine, I have become aware of how heavy a cup of flour can be when you are trying to scoop it out of the bag with the measuring cup. Every time I go to make bread, I have to bend the handle of my measuring cup back into shape. So, this scoop should solve that problem.

Next, we tried to solve our curtain problem, but all they had was 84" long curtains with fancy-shmancy window treatment thingies. This would not do, because our window in the living room is short, and our couch is in front of it. But, we did get some curtain rods for the dining room.

Next, we hit the bedding section. I have had terrible trouble with my pillows. I think I have gone through 5 or 6 in the past year (most of which were subsequently given to Christine). And I am not talking about $15 Target pillows either. I started with a $15 Target pillow (well, a $15 Bed Bath and Beyond pillow). When that didn't pass muster, I moved up a notch to the $25 pillow, and then $40, and then I found a $60 pillow marked down to $25 in the clearance bin. This has been my pillow for the past few months. It is okay. But, like all the others, it leaves a crick in my neck when I sleep on my side, and pushes my head forward uncomfortably when I sleep on my back. And it generally has not stayed sufficiently fluffy. So, today, I took the plunge and I bought one of those silly Tempurpedic pillows. I am a little skeptical, but I will give it a shot. It is the most expensive pillow I have bought to date, clocking in at $99. When I got this thing home, I decided to take it for a test nap. So, I put it down, and then flopped into bed. I hit that thing and stuck. Slowly, it shape-shifted to fit my head, but that initial thud surprised me. All in all, I had a good nap, although it smells a little funny. I will keep you posted about how well this thing stands up to a couple months of use.

Now, Michael has decided that he wants to get a Napster subscription so he could have all-he-can-eat music to listen to at work. Unfortunately, the iPod I bought him last year will not due for this purpose, because it doesn't have the evil Windows digital rights management (DRM) scheme. So, we went to Best Buy to get him a suitable mp3 player. He settled on an iRiver T30, which is tiny and red with a blue screen. It is about 3" by 1", and deep enough for a AAA battery. Its pretty cute, and came with 2 free months of Napster. He is now happily downloading music. He says that it feels like the Napster of old because he can pick and choose whatever he wants in a rather random-ish fashion, but without the guilt. Pack rat that I am, I am still happy with my iPod, buying CDs when I feel my music collection has gotten too stale.

I have had my guitar now for a week. I have amassed a small repetoire of chords, including D, G, C, E, A, E minor, A minor and D7 minor. phew! Most of this has been accrued by reading out of this Beatles-made-easy book I got at Guitar Center when we bought the guitar. I also technically know how to play F, but it sounds terrible. The other chords, you just put your fingers down on the frets, and then strum the appropriate strings and pretty sounds come out. F, you put your fingers down on the appropriate strings, but you have to put your first finger all the way across the neck. Ha! I have been trying to play Let it Be, and With a Little Help from My Friends. In the Beatles-made-easy book, these are quite easy songs. I also have another book that I got at Beatlefest, that has the real chord progressions for Let it Be, where it is not so easy, and F figures prominently into the song. I have gotten in touch with a guitar teacher at the Cambridge Music Center, and I hope to take at least a few lessons, to get me started.