Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

I'm back. Did you miss me? I missed you. What do you mean what did I bring you?

This was a slow weekend. We went to the Inlaws for dinner Saturday. I did the marinating and barbequeing of the steaks. We also brought dessert. WD made fabulous fried broccoli with feta as well as whipping up a batch of corn dogs. I love it when we're invited for dinner and expected to bring it, prepare it and then wash up afterwards.

My MIL has the habit of "inviting" us over for dinner and then when we get elbow deep in the dishwater, she will take apart her stovetop and clean the fridge out so we can do the washing up. She's been pulling this trick for 30 years and I'm pretty tired of it so I took a pass. Is that bad?

We were very bad girls and skipped the dish washing phase of our evening, preferring instead to focus on playing with WD's new KitchenAid mixer (squee !!). She carried it home like a trophy of war and promptly made bread and pastry dough yesterday morning. Today she is making cookies. This despite the fact she is sick with a head cold and humongous canker sores that are causing her all types of pain.

She was kind enough (Wonderful enough) to share her head cold germs and so I spent yesterday and today sitting back, resting and recuperating.

The Changes in the title are the business. We have decided to split up. That's right, WD and I will no longer be the Dynamic Duo. No longer will we be Partners in Grime (and not just because I refuse to stop calling us that despite her begging).

We are going to drop all the extra work we do and only keep our regular weekly or bi-weekly customers. I will manage the gals who provide their cleaning service and Wonderful Daughter will return to the outside work force on a part-time basis.
Without the monthly, 3 weekers and move -in/move-out business there isn't enough to comfortably support us both. So heigh-ho heigh-ho for WD.

I get the best of all this scenario. I get the good clients. I get the girls to deal with and I get JC as my buddy since I will run the biz from her home.

She will get her kids looked after by their crazy nana who thinks fart jokes are funny.
And, maybe some light housekeeping.
I might even play with her mixer and whip up something for dinner once in a while.

Day Off

Today I unexpectedly have the day off. Wonderful Daughter has hired someone new so she gets to take my jobs this week. My partner is off all week attending to last minute wedding details.
So I'm going to go all crazy wild and do something I haven't done in far too long. That's right, you guessed it! I'm going to shampoo the bedroom carpets. Outrageous, right?

I know, I like living on the edge. First though, I'm going to take Mr. Tikki for a walk to Tim Horton's for a coffee. Just one for me. he gets too wired on caffeine. He was playing possum while I was vacuuming. He wouldn't appear no matter how I coaxed or called. Finally I knocked on our front door and he gave a little woof so I knew where he had gone into hiding. Sure enough, he had a piece of saran wrap under there that he stole out of the garbage. Little brat!

More later. Let's just say, I'm feeling great today and the Apidexin is working again. My abdomen feels better and I feel smaller across my rib cage. Thursday will tell the story though.

Better Day

Wonderful Daughter and I had a productive day. We both had to go out and clean. Fortunately, the shock wasn't too much for her system and we got a huge move-out clean done in good time. We actually finished a few minutes early. It's been a long time since we have had to do a clean together but we got right back into the rhythm.

She used to be so funny when we first started working together. I was always on her case about walking down the stairs without carrying supplies or garbage or something. The funniest was always when I would come huffing and puffing into a room to find her calmly checking out a sales flyer or perusing the headlines on the newspaper. Then, words would be exchanged but I always had to laugh at her. I'd treat each job as a life or death challenge and she viewed it as an opportunity to see sales flyers she didn't get at her house.

It didn't take us long to decide to leaver her in the office manning the phones and dealing with the staff while I took a partner with me since I like to clean.

Since my health has deteriorated the past two years, she tries to limit my working days but I still sneak my partner and I onto the schedule when I can.

My partner gets married this weekend, which coincidentally is my 29th wedding anniversary too. After that, we'll see how much she wants to work.

All in all, I had a better day today and look forward to continuing improvement. Weigh in is on Thursday so I've got a good goal to work toward.

Blue Friday

Not much funny today. I was doing better right after work but have low energy now.

There's a reason I'm the fifth sparrow. Somedays I feel it.


Thanks Wonderful Daughter for coming to help clean my place tonight. It's like the shoe maker's kids going barefoot around here. The cleaning lady's house is a sty.
Katie, you rock the cash bar. And you're getting to be a skinny wench. Keep it up!


Refilled my prescriptions and got a little something so I can go to the funeral tomorrow. First one I'll attend in the past 5 years. Hope I can pull it off. The last 2 I went to, I became so distraught I think people thought I was the widow. And I was only there to support a good friend. I'd never laid eyes on the deceased... Embarrassing much?

Memories of Michelle today... when she moved here from back East, she wanted cleaning jobs so I gave her the name of an old client who always had to have a maid service since her home was 9,000 sq. ft. , Yup, that wasn't a typo. 9 freaking thousand square feet. There was a developed basement as well. With a dance floor. And Michelle did the house all on her own.

So, Michelle shows up for work one day after a few months of working at this house and the lady of the manor says, "Y'know we had a party here on the weekend and we couldn't help but notice, there was a layer of dust on the top of the chandelier in the dining room."

Now, Michelle doesn't miss a beat. She replies, "Wow, that must have been some exciting party!"

Heh. Heh. Heh. Spunky, Sassy and Classy.

I can't believe I'm gonna go bake cupcakes for her funeral now. This sucks.

Sweating like An Oldie

I wasn’t good with the walking yesterday but I did manage to get out and do some grocery shopping, make a nice family dinner for my in-laws and I was careful what I ate.

I was also very, very good last night ignoring the voices. And.... (drumroll) I only ate one piece of key lime pie even though it is one of my faves. So all in all, I was pretty pleased with the day. Pleased enough to step on the scale this morning and discover I lost (kettledrum drum roll) 4 whole pounds.The apidexin hasn't arrived yet but this is a good start.

Shirley still looks to be the same size but I worked her good today. Since people in my fair city are not interested in working as a residential cleaning lady for the mere pittance we pay, ($20 per hour) we are short-staffed. Wonderful Daughter and I worked along with my regular cleaning partner.

One of our gals quit with no notice after we had the audacity to inquire why she felt she should skip all the dusting in a client’s home and leave 40 minutes early. In fairness to the ex-worker, Wonderful Daughter was also consumed with a burning desire to know whether it was a rag from the toilet or just what exactly she used on the client’s mirrors.

Anyways, she had a “come-apart” as they so delicately call it in the South and told us exactly what we could do with all our cloths, whether they'd been dunked in the toilet or not. So, today with the high temperature of 26, we worked.

We began at 7:40 a.m. at the first home in the far SE sector of the city. It was a move out with the new owners showing up at 11:30 so cupboards, appliances, windows and all needed to be done. Quickly.
We think perhaps the house had been a rental since a butter knife with the unmistakeable signs of having been used to hot-knife hash was found. That’s not to say homeowners don’t imbibe. Just not usually.


The next home was 42 km away and we spent a little extra time at the move out, so we were already running late. The next one is a regular client’s home but it is 2,600 sq. Ft. And her Mother-In-Law is coming for the baby’s first birthday party tomorrow. So MAJOR Cleaning commenced.

If I do say so myself, it looked spectacular when we left. I even have a special little tool I use to brush each fringe on oriental carpets out. So, unless the mother in law was going into closets, it should be a happy day for everyone tomorrow.

It’s funny how much you “know” about people just from cleaning their homes. This client is a real jewel and I love doing her home. I just wonder what her adorable little guy is going to get for his third birthday in 2 more years because it appears he has everything now.

Wonderful Daughter spent a delightful 2 minutes checking out a ball popping toy that looked like a ton of fun.
I sure don’t remember stuff like that from when I was a kid. Silly Putty was a big, big deal. I tried eating mine and that’s probably why I don’t recall many of my other toys.

We grabbed a quick bite of lunch and then it was on to the next home. Except ,Wonderful Daughter staged a mutiny. It seems the next client was only expecting us if we could make it today and surprise... we couldn’t.

My regular partner backed her up totally, the disloyal wench! Since I have been trying to rehab a ripped muscle in the gluteal region (yeah that’s right, I broke my butt a couple weeks ago), I wasn’t as unhappy as I tried to pretend. They have worked with me enough to sense I wasn’t truly upset at the change in plans. Apparently, the maniacal giggling gave me away.

Wonderful Daughter is spending the long weekend with us because her boys have gone away with my in-laws. She kept me up until after 3 a.m. while we surfed the ‘net, giggled and visited. It was so nice to get a chance to catch up with her since I only see her 3 or 4 times every freaking week.

Still, we always have a ton of fun together and it was just great for her to have a break from single parenthood and the other outside stresses her life is plagued with.

Tonight, we are going to torment Dar, drink Cosmos and read. She treated me to the 5 book trilogy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy so, other than a BBQ with friends tomorrow night, they can expect to see only the top of my head until they put me and broken down old Shirley to bed.