Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Things I Have Learned From Living With the In-Laws

We have been living with the in-laws for about three months now. I have learned several things in that 3 month span about my cats, animals/insects native to AL, and household amenities.

#1 I never, ever, ever, ever, ever want a shower with doors. I'll take the curtain that flaps in the wind any day. I have taken to cleaning the bathroom (and other places) around the house since I get bored easily and my closet OCDness creeps out and I simply "must clean now." It is a nightmare to try and clean shower doors. The glass is always scummy looking, the tracks they roll on are always mildew looking, and you have to work around the doors as you clean the rest of the tub. If you stand in the shower to clean, then you are trapped with the stinky smelling cleaner and a small air supply. Talk about being woozy and coughing! It's also fun to get in and out of the shower without hitting your head on the top of the door track. I don't have as much trouble as Dave and my father-in-law do since they are taller...but I have managed to whack my head on the track at least once.

#2 I never, ever, ever, ever, ever want all hardwood floors. I grew up in a carpeted house. As a result I absloutely hate walking on hardwood or tiled floors with my bare or sock covered feet and picking up all kinds of loose dirt, fur, whatever on the bottoms of my feet. Another thing I didn't realize is how hard they are to clean. I sent two hours sweeping, vacumming, and mopping the hardwood floors in the downstairs. I was completely exhausted by the time I was done. I took a shower and fell asleep on the couch. And guess what? The next day there was all the loose dirt or whatever right back on the floors. I tried.

#3 We're going to need a house with one of the following: a screened in porch, sliding glass doors, or floor to ceiling windows. The cats are LOVING life at the in-laws house. They have a ton of room to run around and chase each other. The cats spend hours staring out the windows trying to "catch" the bugs and birds on the outside. Which is why we need either the sliding glass door with lots of room for them to watch or the floor to ceiling windows. I'm not so sure about the big windows though b/c window treatments for them are outrageously expensive. And Zeke is loving hanging out on the screened in porch. Now that it is cooler we have been leaving the doors open and Zeke can wander out on the back porch whenever he wants. He can be outside without being outside (if that makes any sense.)

#4 No navy blue carpet, ever. I first learned this in college with our big area rug that was blue. It shows everything! No dirt can escape unseen on navy blue carpet. The carpeted stairs are my current nemesis. I can't keep them fur/lint free for very long. Almost as soon as I finish goin step by step with my vacumm cleaner (and cleaning the attachment brush after every step) they are covered in fur again! So, I want carpet...just not navy blue carpet.

#5 There are scorpions in Alabama! I happened to see Zeke and Zeus staring at this bug on the floor and kind of batting it around. I thought, hmmmm this bug looks strangely familiar and I don't think they should be playing with it, but I can't remember why. I called Dave over and he says "uh, babe, that's a scorpion." "Oh my gosh, kill it! Kill it!" was my reply as I scrambled to get the cats away from it. The cats were fine, no stings and no bites. Dave then tells me that the scorpions around here are small and if you were stung it would probably only swell a little like a bee sting and it wouldn't be bad. .oO(Uh, I think I'll go to the ER or DR if I get stung...I'm not taking my chances...but plan A is to simply not get stung.) A day or so later I found Zeus playing with another scorpion and I managed to work up the courage to step on it so that he would stop playing with it. ICK!

~When I asked Dave if there was anything we could do to keep the scorpions from coming inside the house he pretended to think for a minute and replied "yeah, you can sprinkle pixie dust around the house and then they won't come in." Gee, thanks."~

I think that is the end of my list so far. I'm sure I've learned other things, but I can't quite remember what they might be at the moment. So I'm off to travel through another day of Alabama Living, it's never boring for this northern transplant.

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