damn dishes
mine are n-e-a-r-l-y done
until my family decides
they are hungry
and the sink fills up
once more
I am thankful
for the food we eat
off of those damn dishes
just tired of the rinse
and repeat
Sparked by many of my mumbling grumbling moments, while washing said dishes, and this keen observation by takingstockofwhatmattersmost, "I have come to realize – through modern deduction, keen observation and a severe lack of enthusiasm…that dishes WILL NOT clean themselves!?!" Tumblr, November 12, 2011
Create First. The Dishes Can Wait.
http://my.opera.com/jbaird/blog/2011/08/26/write-first-the-dishes-can-wait
takingstockofwhatmattersmost
http://takingstockofwhatmattersmost.tumblr.com/post/12690790580/i-have-come-to-realize-through-modern-deduction
© 2011 Janean Baird, Turquoise Tangles
Turquoise Tangles 
Originally posted by KayFour:
Karen,
Sounds like he's earning his room and board then, at least some of it. I am GREAT at loading and unloading the dishwasher. Yes. I have one. It's all those miscellaneous things that don't fit or need to be hand washed that Do Me In. I leave 'em too long and then there are too many to just wash up real fast. I grumbled about The Damn Dishes one time too many to one of my neatnick girlfriends and she said she was going to buy me paper plates. I protested with, "But that wouldn't be good for the environment." Mostly, I just wish once they were done, they'd stay done, like all the other household chores that are endless, infinite and never ending.
~ Janean
I have a live-in dishawsher: my brother. Or as I like to refer to him: My Big Bother.He washes the dishes after he cooks. He should. He is not working, so I had better NEVER see a dirty dish in the sink. He gets a job, I'll give him a break.
I agree with your statement: Originally posted by jbaird:
Entropy moves toward chaos and we, as mere humans, attempt to stave off entropy by cleaning and re-cleaning. My younger brother once told me if he ever had children, he would show them one time how to change their diapers and where the formula was and after that, they were on their own. (Aside: He never had children) I have thought about that many times in my life. If only things really worked that way… you make you bed once and for all time. You clean the mildew in the shower one time and then never again… yes, I could see this as a superior way of living.
Originally posted by KayFour:
Karen, thank you for this insightful perspective. It's funny, some household chores I don't mind doing. I am an excellent bed maker. That one little thing, to do each day, makes my whole room look nicer and I'm glad to do it. I don't mumble and grumble over doing laundry either, as I like clean clothes waiting to be worn. Grocery shopping is no problem, now that my children are school age and I can go alone. The dishes I grumble about though. Trying to work on my attitude, as I know it'd make the job easier to tackle. Just think of all the time we'd have for reading books, writing, and laughing with our friends, if we didn't have all these household tasks to see to. I Am So Not A Domestic Goddess. ~ Janean
i'm understanding all of this and empathize. i finally have the dishes down. i wash them as i go. there's never a pile.it's the laundry that gets me. it robs so much time.i have thirty shirts and twenty pants, eighty socks and 50 underwear…. but eventually, there's nothing clean left to wear. :lol:art linkletter reported what a seven year old said once when asked the question, "what is the meaning of life?" he answered with, "well, you wash dishes for 99 years and then you die."
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
Scott, your advice about the dishes reminds me about a conversation with another dish piling artist I know. He said, "If the dishes pile in the sink it means you have too many dishes." His solution was to have one plate and one set of silverware in his studio so that he couldn't get them all dirty before setting about washing them.
Smiling at your extensive wardrobe, especially the socks and underwear. I admit, there was a time, that I bought more underwear so I could put off laundry a little longer…it was in college when doing the laundry meant going down several flights of stairs, through locked doors, with detergent, fabric softener and a fortune in quarters. I hated doing laundry then. Now that I have my own washer and dryer and can do laundry whenever I want, without fighting anyone for the machine, or paying as I go, I don't mind at all. ~ Janean
yes. i agree. circumstances alter cases. if you have the equipment in the house. you can have two shirts, two pants, a few pairs of socks and underwear. i might then apply your friend's solution to the laundry. :happy:
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
Seems you'd still need enough clothes in the house to make up a load of laundry when it was time to wash 'em, with something leftover to wear while you laundered it… 🙂
Originally posted by jbaird:
no problem. that would be soft shorts and a t-shirt. my motto:simplify, simplify, simplify.if i had my way i would just have two white nightshirts for everything, even a visit to the bank or a one man show. :lol:but i don't expect to have my way. :happy:
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
I took my chances when I typed, "something leftover to wear while you laundered it" because nude is always an option, though a startling one if someone comes to the door, or your laundry room has a window, like mine does.
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
America does prefer pants on a man. That's why banks invented drive through windows… The beauty of being an artist though is getting to be eccentric and people explain it with, "Oh, he's an artist" and don't dwell on it much beyond that. As I get older I'm embracing this Explanation For Eccentricity, because I missed my chance to milk it as an Art Major in college. I was straight laced and normal and my business classmates would say in shocked incredulousness, "YOU are an ART MAJOR?! But you're Just Like Us?!" I baffled them quite a bit. ~ Janean
P.S. One of my earliest posts at Opera was about doing the laundry…at 3:00 a.m. ~ Janeanhttp://my.opera.com/jbaird/blog/3-00am-laundry
I always liked doing dishes, before that ferret-faced, pencil-necked geek of an anæsthesiologist buggered up my vocal chords, because I used it as an opportunity to sing, undistracted, uninterrupted. It was a pleasure. I used to sound like Gordon Lightfoot (back when he could sing) an octave deeper … now I sound like Joe Pesce.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
der Wandersmann,I was doing the dishes with a smile this morning, with music blaring from my laptop computer, sittin' on the countertop nearby. I like to sing along too…but only when the music is loud and no one else is home…because they don't want to hear me sing, and I don't have a doctor's excuse for my caterwauling. Too bad your pipes are creakier and squeakier than they used to be. I keep hearing getting old isn't for sissies, but it beats the alternative. Joe Pesce it is! ~ Janean
My mother always said: A woman's work is never done. Especially when the family decides they are hungry.But that was in the days where there was no difference between the homemaker and the woman… 🙂
Originally posted by bentrein:
Your mother sounds very wise, Ben. Thank you for sharing those insightful words. ~ Janean
i also must add that when a man is a real man he shares the chores happily instead of skulking off to imagine that he is doing more important things than cooking, dishes, toilet scrubbing and laundry. and he can damn well darn his socks while he watches the super bowl. just sayin' 🙂 💡
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
Then I am very lucky, because other than the Super Bowl Sock Darning my husband does do the dishes, laundry and grocery shopping and whatever else needs to be done without my asking. I don't say this out loud too often because I don't want other women to hate me for being so very lucky. But tis true. 🙂
they might even try to steal him from you. better keep it a secret. 😆
Originally posted by jbaird:
My wife should know too she's lucky. 😀 I do the dishes when they need doing. I don't do the laundry, because while I did them for years, my wife complained nearly weekly that I did them wrong. So I told her she can do them herself.And I don't watch the SuperBowl. :DOriginally posted by I_ArtMan:
Agreed.
Originally posted by bentrein:
Ben, I'm SURE she knows. I am the first to praise my husband's laundry skills. They are excellent. EXCELLENT. As are his dish washing and grocery shopping prowess. (Yes, he IS a reader, and I am A Smart Woman.) I admit, that The Super Bowl is usually THE ONLY football game we watch at our house…and then it's for the commercials more than the football. It's a day set aside for junk food eating too. Coming soon…in late January/early February. ~ Janean
Originally posted by I_ArtMan:
He is A Catch. 'Tis true. 🙂 He's also Not A Football Guy, and I have mentioned THAT a time or two in conversation with my girl/women friends who are bemoaning all the football playing nonstop in their homes on Saturday and Sunday and Monday night too I suppose, though I wouldn't know from personal experience. (AND HAPPY ABOUT IT TOO!) 🙂 ~ Janean
I watched two Superbowls … The first one was Favre's first, which the Packers won, and the second was the next year, when they lost … but by and large, I find sports on TV to be unbelievably boring.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
Agreed. Though a baseball game on TV, on a Sunday afternoon, is the perfect excuse to nap.
I grew up with radio baseball, before the game became corrupted by money … the players stayed with a team (when someone was traded, it was the talk of the town). When players showed that kind of loyalty, a kid felt loyalty to them, and to the team.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
Sort of like the way I don't follow politics, or Hollywood drama that's not played out on the silver screen, I'm not much for the off the field antics of professional sports either. My brother told me about the cocaine dealing professional football player. Are you kidding me?! They make how much money and he's dealing drugs on the side? Our country is a mess. Too much importance is placed on entertainment. Everyone is talking all the time. But who is listening? Sometimes I wish I was born years ago. Even though daily life was more labor intensive, without all the convenience of machines to do our work for us, What Really Mattered was crystal clear. Now it's lost in the shuffle of electronic gadgets and the drone of constant news coverage. Not to say some things aren't better. Though maybe better isn't the right word. Things are probably just different. A New Reality. I should have prefaced this with, "I woke up with a headache and am in a melancholy mood." Good morning, der Wandersmann. Loyalty is a beautiful thing. A rarity in Today's World. I get it. ~ Janean
der Wandersmann, As I was looking for something else this quote sprung up and reminded me of this conversation we were having. I'm tucking it into comments here, because I'll never find it again, regardless of my prowess using Google. "America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week." ~ Evan Esar
LOL … The US has always had a deep anti-intellectual prejudice; they don't hold with book-larnin'.
Originally posted by jbaird:
🙂 It is a sad state of affairs indeed – in the whole world though, not just America.
Originally posted by derWandersmann:
Thought you might enjoy that one. I guess since I come from a family of school teachers there was always a lot of emphasis placed on the importance of a good education. I love books and I love learning. Still. Just this week I had a lesson in cleaning a .22 rifle. My first. When I told my husband I needed the instructions written down to refer back to he scoffed and said I'd be doing it again and would learn by habit instead of reading from a list. Hmmmm, sounds like more shootin' is in my future.
Originally posted by bentrein:
Tragic that this is a worldwide issue. Literacy and math skills are so important. Some countries get it right, don't they? With an emphasis on math and science and learning. Did you get any other replies to your tweet? Besides me? Chirp. ~ Janean
Nothing but three re-tweets. Perhaps it was tweeted on, and my name removed. I don't know, but nobody said anything…I don't think there are many countries that get it right. I mean, it's not that spectacular to watch someone develop something new in science or Maths, now is it? I mean, there's more money in fame than there is in learning. Unfortunately, but what many people enjoy to watch on TV is more lucrative. Advertisement is the devil here I guess. 🙂
Originally posted by bentrein:
Ben, it's all in the Marketing, isn't it?! How things are positioned and poised in the marketplace. Whether they have blasters and bright colors placed at eye level to woo and wow you, or whether they are more muted and subtle toward the dimmer corners of the store. There are many ironies in my life. One is that I still remember many of the commercials from my childhood television watching, I worked in mail order catalog advertising for over sixteen years and I cannot abide watching commercials when I watch television now. Although I LOVE the television show Mad Men on AMC which is set in a 1960's NYC ad agency on Madison Avenue. ~ Janean
I watch exactly two programs on commercial TV … local "news" and national "news". The rest is PBS, or the telly is "OFF". The "non-ads" on PBS are bad enough, but at least they're concentrated between programs, so they don't break up the programs. I watch real news on the PBS News Hour and the BBC News in America.Incidentally, my favourite comedy show is "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" on NPR, followed closely by "Car Talk" on the same network.
I – European, and Asian – don't know the channels or shows Wandersmann is talking about, sorry. If there's one thing I try to avoid, it's commercial news. The big stories, I take from them, the small stories I get here. There's a lot of interesting things going on that do not shush us to sleep; such as Google's opposition to SOPA, which it is planning by shutting down it's servers for a day. Imagine that. Now that, I find interesting news. Who kissed Obama's behind last week (or any preceding president for that matter) doesn't really interest me.Originally posted by jbaird:
I've watched it a couple of times, before our satellite subscription ran out. It was funny indeed; but not worth paying for. :D:p
der Wandersmann, I loved PBS when my boys were little for the educational programming that was nearly commercial free, other than the sponsorships that ran between shows. I avoid the news. My head and heart just can't take the bad stuff right now and I'm tuning it out on purpose. Maybe not forever and always, but for right now. Other than a few series that I do follow, Mad Men included, and catching NCIS in reruns as I fold laundry, I'm not plugged in to the television as much as online blogging, tweeting, facebooking and commenting here, there and yonder. Ben, I was thrilled to realize Mad Men is available on Netflix so I can watch it again from the beginning with our $8 a month subscription. (Please forgive that I sound like a commercial for Netflix with that sentence. It is not my intention, though I do have all those years in advertising/marketing behind me.) ~ Janean
P.S. Maybe you can talk him into getting you a nice, small-calibre muzzle-loader.P.P.S. You might get a chuckle out of my post that I made up for Antonietta: http://my.opera.com/derWandersmann/blog/2012/02/13/im-calling-this-post-for-antonietta-because-she-asked-it-ma
A late note … the only reason for cleaning a .22 nowadays is to get the powder ash out … the powder ash and the primer residue are both non-corrosive, unless you've somehow managed to snag some pre-WWI ammo. If you've got lead (Pb) clogging up the rifling, that's a different problem … see a gunsmith. The only reason for getting the powder ash out is that it can accumulate to the extent that it interferes with the functioning of the action. I just use a bristle brush through the barrel a couple of times, and an oily patch to prevent rust … BTW … use WD-40 or some other oil that evaporates, so the bore will be dry when you fire it next … if the first shot goes through an oily barrel, and the second one doesn't, they won't hit the same place. The action can be cleaned with a rag or sometimes a toothbrush until all the particles are cleaned off … then a little oil, both for lubrication and rustproofing, and reassemble.The toothbrush should not be used on your teeth after this.I have only one gun that needs more than this … my .22 pistol has such a tight chamber that I must use the least waxy ammunition I can get, or a wax ring builds up in the chamber and after about two magazines, the cartridges won't chamber properly until the wax ring is removed. A brush will do it, but it's a PIA. I haven't gotten rid of it because it shoots like a dream.