Dishwashing Machines

(I'm not writing an entry about DB today. This cat has managed to fight through so many physical and health related issues and thrive that I'm not about to write him off yet. I'll wait for the vet to tell me he has Feline Ebola and Flesh-Eating Whisker Herpes before I'll begin to worry.)

There are certain labor-saving devices with questionable labor-saving properties. Take those infomercial vegetable slicer jobbers for instance. Any negligible time they save you slicing vegetables, you lose (and more) cleaning them up. Or take all of the other very good examples I don't feel like taking the time to think of. There are many of them, I assure you.

Dishwashers aren't part of that class. The time saved by dishwashers is vast and easily measurable. I lived at my old house for over ten years without a dishwasher (I installed one for our tenants only after we moved) and hence doing dishes was the chore I looked forward to least. A double-sink full of dishes, washed manually, could easily take an hour to an hour and a half to clean (to be fair, I'm a bit anal about my dish cleanliness). We have a dishwasher finally in our new house and now 1), there generally isn't an accumulated sink full of dishes anymore as washing them is easy, and 2) when there is an accumulation of dishes it only take 10 to 15 minutes to load them.

That's a time savings worth dropping a few hundred dollars for. And clothes washers and dryers? They're probably even more useful than the dishwasher. Who has a stream running back behind their house, or the desire to hang their clothes outside in the back yard? That might have been fine when people had no choice in the matter, but in practice it's a ridiculous premise.

So dishwashers, good. Buying a new set of dinnerware each month to avoid having to wash your sink full of dirty dishes, bad.

Bargain Shopping

The Nearly New Sale today, that Jason talked about in his blog yesterday, was slamming when we arrived there at 10:30 this morning. I thought I'd be too overwhelmed by the crowd to find anything, but I was wrong. I just took my time and found some great finds, like three new skirts that actually fit me, a green vase, nice comfy dressy shoes, a green glass food container, 5 or so new fiction books, a vintage sweater, and a wallet. Jason found books and toys for our nephews and a bunch of books and board games for himself to add to his collection. It was perfect we both ended up spending less than $40 a piece for all of that. I just love those kind of sales.

I think I'm going to go back on Thursday after work. Every goes to 1/2 price and it's held where a work at GBMC.

Life's Multi-Tasking

I just got finished reading Jason's entry for today and it made me think about how I enjoy day-to-day life activity shortcuts, such as grabbing anything that needs to go downstairs before you start your way down or doing the dishes real fast as you microwave your tea in the morning. I guess instead of life's shortcuts this is called a woman's way of multi-tasking. I've taken up more and more of these multi-tasking habits since the beginning of my unemployment. It's great to get quick chores done while waiting for another task to complete. Now that I'm working part-time it's great to come home to an empty sink and clean clothes. I'm really getting those motherly attributes, it's especially nice to have these abilities before kids even come into your life. These tricks give you more time to relax and have some quality "me" time. Oh, and I can hang with Jason more too. Hey Jason, don't these short-cuts seem fun too?!!

The "Free Wear"...Yes, You Get One

I would like this entry to be the authoritative answer to the question, "After buying a new pair of pants, or a shirt, or anything other than underwear, do you get a free wear before having to wash it?"  Yes.  The answer is a definitive "yes."

To all of you that fall on the other side of the argument, I beg you to consider the opportunity you're blindly missing out on.  The "free wear" is the greatest moment you can have with your new purchase.  Any article of clothing, prior to washing (with the resulting shrinkage, fading and other related fabric warping) looks the best it will ever look.  To not take advantage of your free wear is to never enjoy your clothing at the peak of its freshness.  To not use your free wear is to forever settle for looking just "okay."  You've got the life of the garment to be mediocre.  At least pluck that first moment of brilliance before it's washed away.

Set your benchmark high.  Contrary to intuition, this will not cause future disappointment generated by an inflated expectation your garment will never again match.  In fact, it creates a positive residual self-image into which you can live each time you wear your new Khakis.  You will imagine them as they were, and, in that moment, they will be, at least in your mind, as radiant as the first time.  Wouldn't that be preferable to consistency based on lowered expectations?  Would you rather your kids go to Yale or Hogtown Community College?

Fact is, eventually your new jeans are going to be your old jeans.  Beat up, battered, dirty and torn.  Fallen from grace.  Personally, I want to retire them (when I cut the legs off and make my 15th pair of work shorts) with a spotless service record and the best breeding available.  Clothes get one shot at greatness.  Don't stain them with dog food when they could sport a permanent smudge of caviar.

So, to sum up, you do get a free wear.  You deserve a free wear.  Your clothes deserve to be free worn.  Do the right thing.