Virginia

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Few Jobs Are Too Big For the WonderWash

The night before last, I was awakened to the delightful sound of my boy hacking up a hairball all over my bed. I won’t go into any details, but you’ll get the picture when I tell you my Neelix is not a cat but a proverbial pig (proverbial because there is no way pigs really are that messy).

When I got up in the morning, I assessed the damage to see if I could spot clean the comforter. Had it been Tabitha’s mess, sure. Neelix? Nope. If it wasn’t the comforter I’d spent so much time looking for, I would have just thrown it out it was that bad.

I used paper towels to get rid of the solid mess and to soak up as much of the wet mess as possible. I then applied a generous amount of stain remover to the soiled spots and let the comforter sit in a bucket for a day.

I thought of taking it to a laundromat, but I really don’t have time to waste at one these days and I also am loathe to put my comforters in anyone’s machines as they are very furry because I then have to spend ages defurrying.

I checked the forecast to see if there was good weather ahead for line drying outside and seeing that this was the case, I decided to just hand wash the comforter, but not too sure how as it was probably too big for my Wonderwash.

This morning, being the apocalypse and all, the forecast changed from hot and sunny and perfect for laundry to damp and cold and miserable and windy and nasty and omg I need to run the dehumidifier full blast if I don’t want mushrooms to grow out of my ears. Never mind, I needed to get that comforter washed!

I crammed it in the the Wonderwash‘s drum, surprised that it fit with enough room to spare for me to believe my plan could work. I added detergent and water (lots of water, that comforter sure soaks up a lot!) and spun the load for about three minutes, about three times longer than I normally spin a load. I then drained some of the water, added more, and spun for another minute or so.

Then, I inverted the drum with the comforter in it to let as much water drain out as possible. That done, I wrestled the now very heavy and waterlogged comforter out of the Wonderwash, beat it to death to get more water out, then rinsed and wrung with two buckets of clear water.

It is now spotless, still very furry, and dripping away in my shower.

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Total time spent so far: 30 minutes. Drying could take a couple of days, of course. But this was a lot less work than packing off to go to a laundromat and sit around!

I love my cats, but boy do they keep me busy…

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December 21st, 2012 At What Time in Which Time Zone?

It’s December 21st, 2012 in Australia and the world has NOT ended there yet. Other areas across the international dateline are reporting the same news as they eagerly await the fire and brimstone.

For me, it’s a normal Thursday night. I’m going to face the end of the world like every other event in my life, with eyes wide open and no regrets. And perhaps a smirk, as I remember going through this in 1999 on the eve of Y2K.

Happy Apocalypse, y’all!

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Great Clothes Drying Rack For an RV

Even with access to a washing machine, I prefer to do a good part of my laundry by hand.

The problem with doing hand laundry in an RV is where to hang the clothes after. I have a big drying rack, but there’s no good place to put it now that the dinette is gone (I’d set up the rack between the seats).

I sometimes put my Swiffer across the top of my shower (a standard broom is too long) to hold hangers, but most of the stuff I wash by hand is underwear and socks and draping everything over hangers doesn’t work that well.

This week, I found the solution to my drying needs, a 24 clip drying rack that I can hang from the Swiffer in the shower:

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What I like about it is that it holds 24 items, which is about a week’s worth of hand laundry for me, and that the items are spaced apart to dry quickly. The clips are built in, so when my clothes are dry, I can just fold the rack and tuck it out of the way. A clothesline would not have given me as much space to hang things in such a small footprint.

If I want to use the shower, I can just grab the rack by the hook and place it in the sink in one step rather than wrestling with a bunch of hangers or taking down a clothesline.

If I have overflow, I can hang a few extra items from the Swiffer itself and I still have room to hang about 10 tops on hangers from the door frame. It’s so nice to finally have found a way to contain my drying laundry. I’m less tempted now to let it pile it up!

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It’s A Wonderful Fish

This afternoon, my friend and I went to see a screening of the terrific James Stewart movie ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ What a treat to see it on the big screen!

Then, I took her out to dinner to celebrate the end of my insurance nightmare (even though the cheque still hasn’t landed yet, boo). I wanted to try something new a bit more upscale than our usual haunts, so she suggested Outback Steakhouse, which was next to the cinema.

I was a little surprised by the suggestion since neither one of us eats beef, but it turns out they have lots of other yummy things on the menu.

Since I wasn’t driving, I decided to have a cocktail. I found one that had rum, coconut rum, strawberries, and mango (I think those are the four basic food groups) and it did not disappoint!

My friend had her favourite, which was chicken with bacon and honey mustard sauce. I wanted to try something new, so I had the ‘mixed seafood grill’ with shrimp, scallops, and mahi, a fish I had never tasted before. I cannot believe how tasty this dish was! It came with a nice rice pilaf and lots of green veggies, plus the perfectly cooked seafood and the flaky grilled fish that I will definitely be going back to eat again. Every mouthful of that fish was a delight. Yum! Dessert was cheesecake. 🙂

I can’t believe we’re past the middle of December and except for the occasional drizzle, it’s still tee-shirt weather here.

Oh, and gas prices have gone below $3/gallon! It’s a wonderful life indeed! 😀

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Colonial Williamsburg, Part Eight: The Museums

This is the final part about my tour of Colonial Williamsburg.

From the weaver, I returned to the 21st century and headed across busy streets to visit the museums.

The museums are housed in two buildings and are perhaps a bit of a misnomer. Each ‘museum’ is a gallery of themed artifacts contained within one main building. It’s really well done, with which museum having its own look and feel, avoiding that hodge podge, we threw together whatever we had, type of feel.

You could easily spend half a day or even more at the museums. I was exhausted and famished by the time I got to them, so I did not spend a lot of time in exhibits that did not interest me.

I had thought to grab a period dinner at one of the taverns, but you need to reserve and by the time I learned this, I could not have had dinner before 8PM. Moreover, the choices were unappealing and quite expensive. I’ve had much more authentic period meals before (I’m still traumatized by the 13th-century lettuce soup I ate 15 years ago) so I didn’t mind missing this step. I had also considered going on a ghost walk, but it was $12 extra and my day had been plenty full.

It was dusk when I came out of the museums. On the way to the bus stop I hesitated between heading home or checking out the shopping district, but it was getting to be so cold and dark that that option wasn’t appealing in the least. The bus arrived quickly and that settled it for me. I got back to my truck at about 6PM, a full nine hours after I had parked!

I had a wonderful day in Colonial Williamsburg. The town is worth a visit!