A Contest For the Weekend, a Random and Happy Tuesday Post

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

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It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Hello, everyone, welcome to today's matchup between mimi and Grandpa's room.  It looks like it's going to be quite the contest.

Grandpa, as everyone knows, hates for mimi to clean his room, even when the housekeeper didn't show up to do it.  That's why it's a contest to see if mimi can clean his room in the 30 or so minutes that he's out of the house in the morning.

Here's mimi now, let's see what she's up to.

"Hello, mimi!  How are you feeling about today's competition?"

Right now, i'm feeling pretty confident.  Because Grandpa never tells me when he's going to leave the house to go to daily Mass, i have to have everything ready.  My Windex and newspapers are here, the Lysol and rags are there, i have a Chlorox toilet cleaning wand at the ready, a Swiffer sweeper already loaded with the pad, and i'm pretty certain there are clean linens hiding in the closet, but of course he would see me if i went and looked so that has to wait.

"And how much do you want to accomplish while he's gone?"

The hope is that i'll get the bed stripped and remade, the bathroom cleaned, the bedroom swept, and as a bonus, his office dusted and vacuumed.  He never lets anyone clean the office, and he's not generally very thorough when he does it himself.

Did i just hear the door shut?

"Yes, you did, and his car is out of the driveway."

Time's a wastin'!  The first thing is to strip the bed, and the very last thing is to remake it.  That way, if my timing is off and he gets back before i'm done, he has to at least let me finish the bed because otherwise he can't get in it!

"That's quite a sneaky strategy!"

Well, you have to be sneaky when dealing with Grandpa.  Now that the bed is unmade, i will scrub the toilet bowl and spray down the tub.

It's not a very big bathroom.

The tub is standard sized.

"What's next?"

Next is dusting both rooms, really quickly.  It doesn't do to wipe down surfaces and then dust, because the dust just falls and sticks to whatever you just cleaned, that's something i figured out the hard way when i got into this business.

"Okay."

Now for the bathroom mirror, then Lysol the sink and the toilet seat and outside of the toilet.  A quick scrub of the tub -- those scrubbing bubbles really do a good job, there's not a lot of elbow grease needed -- and a rinse.

"What about floors?"

Swiffer is a good choice for all of these hard floors, they are the vinyl tiles that look like wood, durable and easy to clean.  Once i sweep, and i have to make sure i even get well under the bed, and in the bathroom, i'll use a wet swiffer pad to clean the ceramic tiles in the bathroom.  The vinyl tiles are the kind you aren't supposed to use any cleaning products on, so if i have time, i may damp mop those floors, but it's not a priority.

"Where does the vacuum come in?"

They got the vacuum's broken plug replaced -- this looks like overkill to me.

Grandpa has those mats in his office for his rolling chairs, to keep them from marking up the vinyl floors.  As i noted, he doesn't let the housekeeper in his office at all, and those mats really need it.

"It's getting close to 9am, what now?"

Everything else is clean, so i'm digging the fresh linens out of the closet, and once i remake the bed, i'm probably going to have to call it done.

"You're right, he's making the u-turn at the corner to pull back around to the driveway.  Are you finished?"

Yes, the bed is made, the bathroom is sanitary, the floors are swept, the office is much tidier, especially those mats, so i'm calling it done.

"And it's mimi for the win!"

Thank you, thank you very much, it feels great to still be the champion!

(Folks, really, i have around 30 minutes when i go to Grandma and Grandpa's house to get his room and office done while he's at Mass, and this is about what it's like!  Since he's a sports fan, the whole time i was cleaning last Saturday, i imagined it as a play by play, and it tickled my fancy so i wrote it up.)

River, i believe, asked about Dr. D's electric broom.  It's really a small stick vacuum:

On the left if the steam mop, the Eureka is the "electric broom".

They come in very handy, especially if you don't want to have to pull out the large vacuum for a small job.  This one even has a brush roll you can turn on and off so it gets hair off the carpet. 

Have a wonderful Tuesday, everyone!

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Today is:

Answer Your Cat's Questions Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; meditate on what your cat's question might be, then answer it

Celebration of Life Day

Come in From the Cold Day -- somebody at an ecard company decided today would be a good day to do that 

Day of Unity and Liberty of Ukraine -- Ukraine

Dia de la Fundacion del Estado Pluinacional de Bolivia -- Bolivia

National Blonde Brownie Day -- i thought these were just called "blondies."

National Speak Up and Succeed Day -- become one of those people who aren't afraid of public speaking, practice! originally sponsored by Polished Presentations International; as they no longer have a website, i'm sure Toastmasters International can help    

Polka Dot Day -- looking up why they are called "polka dots" gives lots of stories, but no concrete evidence; they were probably named after the dance craze that became fashionable around the same time the pattern appeared

Rid The World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day -- always the Tuesday of Healthy Weight Week and includes the announcement of the Slim Chance Awards, highlighting the worst fad diets of the prior year   

St. Vincent of Zaragoza's Day (Spanish martyr and Patron of vine dressers, vinegar makers, vintners; Lisbon, Portugal; Portugal; vicenza, Italy; Vilamalla, Catalonia, Spain)

    a sunny day today indicates a good wine crop next season

Birthdays Today:

Christopher Masterson, 1980

Balthazar Getty, 1975

Olivia D'Abo, 1967

Steven Adler, 1965

Diane Lane, 1965

Michael Kelland Hutchence, 1960

Linda Blair, 1959

Steve Perry, 1949

John Hurt, 1940

Joseph Wambaugh, 1937

Seymour Cassel, 1937

Sam Cooke, 1935

Bill Bixby, 1934

Piper Laurie, 1932

Ann Sothern, 1909

Robert E. Howard, 1906

George Balanchine, 1904

Rosa Melba Ponselle, 1897

D.W. Griffith, 1875

Grigori Rasputin, 1869

August Strindberg, 1849

Richard Upjohn, 1802

Nat Turner, 1800

Lord Byron, 1788

Andre Ampère, 1775

Sir Francis Bacon, 1561

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Emergency!"(TV), 1972

"Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In"(TV), 1968

"The Crucible"(Miller play), 1953

"Our Town"(Wilder play), 1938

"Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District"(Opera; Shostakovich Op.29), 1934

Today in History:

The first contingent of Swiss Guards arrive at the Vatican, 1506

Postal service between NYC and Boston is inaugurated, 1673

The Native American Iroquois tribes renew their allegiance to the British against the French, 1690

Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain, 1771

A severe earthquake in southern Syria kills thousands, 1837

The Zulus attack the British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa, 1879

The Ancient Egyptian obelisk "Cleopatra's Needle" is erected in Central Park, 1881

After 63 years, England stops the sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series and begins King Edward VII series, 1901

First live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury, 1927

KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood, California, 1947

Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space, 1968

The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service, 1970

The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued, 1971

The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial, 1984

Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm, 1990

Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, 2002

Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president, 2006

Water vapour is detected on the dwarf planet Ceres, 2014

Winter storm conditions strand 500 motorists for 24 hours on the New Jersey turnpike in Pennsylvania, 2016