A breather
10/18/06
Wow, it's been a while. I'm taking a quick breather from all the nonsense
going on so far this month to add some fresh nonsense to this page.
I've been even more busy lately. Moving has been taking up a lot of my time. Actually, moving isn't so bad, it's the cleaning (both the old place and the new place) that's taking up all the time. The moving part is really kind of fun. I think it's the fact that I can now expand in to a slightly bigger place that I'm enjoying. Tidying up my old room make it more relaxing too. I was planning on moving the beds and stuff on Sunday but I don't know if that's going to happen, given all the things left that I still need to pack up. Cleaning the new place has been a pain in the back. The previous owners had cats so I had to give the carpets a thorough thrashing with a vacuum cleaner and steam cleaner before I could stay there without dying from my allergies. That hurt my back. But I think it's OK now. The kitchen needs a bit more work (lining the shelves with shelf liner paper and another scrubbing) and then most of the place should be me-worthy.
Doing all this cleaning has introduced me to the world of cleaning products. I was somewhat familiar with the plethora of cleaning products out there but it was nothing more than a nod when we passed each other at Target. Now we're like newly-weds. I get all giddy when I see Mr. Clean on TV. That was a bit on the "alternative" side, but you get the idea. Some cool cleaning products that I've come across:
Last month I also moved offices. One of the big mysteries surrounding my new work, er, surroundings is that outside of the door I use to get into and out of the building, there is often a trail of ants going across the walkway. Sometimes there's a whole army of ants marching across the walkway and sometimes there are just a few, but I always see ants there, (well not when it's raining, dark outside, or I'm walking around with my eyes closed). It makes me wonder, why did the ants cross the road? What is so incredibly tasty that they're willing to march across a high-traffic (people traffic) walkway to collect? As far as I can tell, there's grass and shrubbery on one side and grass and shrubbery on the other side also. But I'm not an ant today so I'm not as keen on the details. Anyway, I don't see why they don't move across the walkway. It's a pretty dangerous walkway and many times, their trail is littered with the flattened bodies of ants who were under the wrong shoe at the wrong time. Whatever they're gathering, it better by tasty or otherwise, those ants will have perished in vain.
OK, back to work.
I've been even more busy lately. Moving has been taking up a lot of my time. Actually, moving isn't so bad, it's the cleaning (both the old place and the new place) that's taking up all the time. The moving part is really kind of fun. I think it's the fact that I can now expand in to a slightly bigger place that I'm enjoying. Tidying up my old room make it more relaxing too. I was planning on moving the beds and stuff on Sunday but I don't know if that's going to happen, given all the things left that I still need to pack up. Cleaning the new place has been a pain in the back. The previous owners had cats so I had to give the carpets a thorough thrashing with a vacuum cleaner and steam cleaner before I could stay there without dying from my allergies. That hurt my back. But I think it's OK now. The kitchen needs a bit more work (lining the shelves with shelf liner paper and another scrubbing) and then most of the place should be me-worthy.
Doing all this cleaning has introduced me to the world of cleaning products. I was somewhat familiar with the plethora of cleaning products out there but it was nothing more than a nod when we passed each other at Target. Now we're like newly-weds. I get all giddy when I see Mr. Clean on TV. That was a bit on the "alternative" side, but you get the idea. Some cool cleaning products that I've come across:
- Arm & Hammer carpet deodorizer & pet hair remover - I think this is basically baking soda with some deodorizer and some pet hair treatment voodoo mixed in. Basically, you sprinkle it over your carpet, wait 15 minutes and then vacuum. The box says it breaks the static bonds between pet hair and carpets to make it easier to vacuum. I don't know if it really worked or if my vacuum cleaner sucked a lot (in a good, vacuum cleaner way) though. My carpets no longer smell funny and my allergies don't burn holes in my nasal passages anymore.
- DampRid - This stuff is interesting. It has two containers, one is about half the height of the other one. The smaller one fits into the larger one and has some holes at the bottom. You pour some crystal-like things into the smaller container. The crystals are supposed to absorb moisture until they're saturated. At that point, they're supposed to liquefy and drip into the larger container. I used this to help dry up the space under my kitchen sink because it was wet from a repair, then closed up, and started smelling really bad. I also used it to help dry the carpets after I steam cleaned. Again I don't know if the stuff worked or not because I had all the windows open and it was really warm outside so maybe the carpets just naturally dried quickly.
- Mr. Clean Magic Erasers - These things made the kitchen floor a couple of shades lighter. Pretty amazing. But I tried cleaning a textured surface and half way through, the pad started falling apart. Still worked pretty well though.
Last month I also moved offices. One of the big mysteries surrounding my new work, er, surroundings is that outside of the door I use to get into and out of the building, there is often a trail of ants going across the walkway. Sometimes there's a whole army of ants marching across the walkway and sometimes there are just a few, but I always see ants there, (well not when it's raining, dark outside, or I'm walking around with my eyes closed). It makes me wonder, why did the ants cross the road? What is so incredibly tasty that they're willing to march across a high-traffic (people traffic) walkway to collect? As far as I can tell, there's grass and shrubbery on one side and grass and shrubbery on the other side also. But I'm not an ant today so I'm not as keen on the details. Anyway, I don't see why they don't move across the walkway. It's a pretty dangerous walkway and many times, their trail is littered with the flattened bodies of ants who were under the wrong shoe at the wrong time. Whatever they're gathering, it better by tasty or otherwise, those ants will have perished in vain.
OK, back to work.