Laundry and New Cats

I have a confession to make. I am no longer segregating my laundry. I have always been told that you absolutely MUST separate the whites from the coloreds or something dire might happen. If you wear a lot of red clothes, then your whites will all turn pink, we all know that, but if you wear clothes like I wear these days, well washed and sometimes even pre worn (Goodwill jeans, anyone?) then is it bad to mix your white bras in with your purple t-shirt?

Not with my clothes.

I only have a few white clothes, some pants (from Goodwill) and a few pairs of cotton underwear and white bras, and I needed a clean bra but didn't want to throw the very few white things that were in the laundry basket into the washer, wasting an entire loads worth of water on just a few things, so I decided to live DANGEROUSLY and threw them in with the colored load.

And they came out fine.

Now, back when I worked in an office, I would have never done this because I had my nice office clothes, most of them black, and you never ever wash black with anything else unless you want to wash it again. So, I was strict about separating the laundry, never allowing anything to co-mingle.

But now, in an effort to both save water and make sure I have a clean bra to wear, I'm co-mingling away. And saving water.

And now, living with eight cats. Yes, EIGHT! And it's too many, let me tell you. Poor Dusty and Genie are relegated to the back yard and so far Lucy is letting them be, mainly because I think she's a little afraid of them because they are definitely big burly cats and Dusty looks kind of cross eyed and not quite right in the head.

We kept them in the shed with the door shut for the first few days, and the first morning Keith went out there in the dark, opened the door, and scared the crap out of them. They shot out of the door and he had to wander around with a flashlight looking for them. They are very docile and friendly kitties, though, and just want to lay there and get petted, and they came right to him when he called them. We've been leaving the door open so they can venture outside, they don't go far yet but haven't been using the litter box much so I'm assuming they found an outdoor potty place. They have never been outside cats, spending their lives laying on the couch, so are cautious, but curious, and we think they will adapt to being outdoor kitties fairly easily. As long as Lucy leaves them alone.

This is Dusty:


He was brave and sitting out on the patio.

Genie was hiding under one of the shelves in the shed.


We do have numerous blankets and towels and a cat bed for them to lay on, we are not forcing them to lay on the bare wood floor.

They are good looking cats with those beautiful blue eyes.


Speaking of blue eyed kitties, here is contortionist Mimi.


She is of course laying right in the middle of the hallway where you have to step over her to get anywhere.

Sigh

I really really wanted to wake up this morning to my 4000th sale. But, no, I am stuck at 3999 and counting. I remember back to when I hit my first 100th sale in late 2006 and couldn't believe that I could actually sell ONE HUNDRED items in my Etsy shop. That first 100 milestone was probably the most exciting, but 4000 would be pretty darn exciting, too.

Maybe tomorrow.

It does seem that the sales numbers just don't go up as fast as they did during the first few years of my etsy shop, lots of factors there, more and more sellers selling, and less money for people to spend. I am still on the list of the top 100 jewelry sellers on Etsy, although down around number 79 or so. I can't complain too much, but still keep trying to find that magical something that people just can't live without that would propel me to like number 5 on the list.

What's new in the shop? More animal pendants. I had found some of these at Target but their selection left a lot to be desired and I got the one hedgehog that they had and sold it but no more hedgehogs to be found except one of these baby hedgehogs cavorting.


We even drove all the way out to the little zoo on the other side of town thinking they might have a better selection of animals in their gift shop, but only found a few. Then Keith was checking out the Tractor Supply store or whatever it's called that has been open for a few years but we've never been inside since we don't have a tractor that we need supplies for. But, apparently they sell way more than tractors there, including jeans and what do you know, plastic toy animals. He brought home a little catalog that the plastic toy animal people put out and you can even get little people to go with your animals, and little jungle huts for your people to live in.

I found some smaller animals in a package out at the zoo gift shop, including this little gray bunny rabbit.


And I love baby jungle cats, like this ferocious little tiger.

ROAR!

and this cute little lion cub.


What else?

We did have a beautiful day yesterday with temps in the high 70's. It was wonderful being able to have the windows open all day and even better, the air quality was actually in the good range, so it was okay to breathe the air that was coming in the open windows. The cats really love it when I open up the back sliding door, they will lay there for hours in the breeze.

Speaking of cats, I tossed my funky pajamas into the closet, missing the basket of dirty clothes of course, thinking that I would do the laundry this morning, but I will wait until Pepper is done taking her nap on my dirty smelly pajamas.

Whew!

I don't know what got into me yesterday. My day started out like usual, drinking my coffee while perusing blogs and such, cleaning the cat box, riding up to the post office, and then back home for some more coffee. I did stop at Carl's Jr. to try one of their new breakfast biscuit sandwiches. It was tasty but I got the combo with the little potato nugget doohickey things and I had major upset stomachness for the rest of the day. I don't think I'll be eating that combo again any time soon.

Anyway, even with the upset stomach I got motivated and actually cleaned the ENTIRE kitchen. Something I've been meaning to do for a long long time, but you know how that goes. The ENTIRE kitchen, the walls, cupboard doors (but not inside the cupboards just yet, can't get too carried away here) the stove, and even the top (and front) of the fridge, but again, not the inside.

On top of that I even did the laundry.

And folded it and put it away.

Dang.

I was watching a little of Kathy Lee and Hoda yesterday while taking some pictures for the shop. The best light comes in the side window at about 10 am, so sometimes I'll switch on the TV to make the picture taking a little less boring and catch up on the latest gossip. They were showing this absolutely ridiculous product called a Snazzy Napper, a product intended for travelers to be able to nap in the middle of train stations, on a plane, in the car, on a park bench, wherever, and not be disturbed by light shining in your eyes. Instead you'll just be disturbed by everyone who sees you laughing at you, talking about the idiot with the hood over their face, and pointing fingers at you, but at least you won't see the fingers being pointed because you'll have your Snazzy Napper on and won't be able to see anything.


You're supposed to tie this ridiculous looking thing over your head and breathe through the strategically placed nose hole. Kathy Lee pulled the strategically placed hole down and was able to drink her wine through the hole, so you could use this if you want to drink incognito I suppose.

You could even nap while driving with this thing on.

And nobody will see you drooling.

I just noticed that the sheep on the Snazzy Napper looks like it is peeing.

At $14.99 a pop, I am wondering how many people will buy this thing, but hey, consumers made the Snuggie people millionares, so go figure.

June 1

June first already? What the heck? How can we possibly be half way through the year already? How come I haven't accomplished a single thing yet this year?

I hate summer here in Bakersfield. It's hot and it will be hot for the next three months and it never ever rains here. Our electric bill will soon be in the triple digits because it's HOT here! I delay using the air conditioner each day until I absolutely have to, I open up the windows and back door each day to let the 'cool' breezes flow through the house. The cool breezes and the sounds of birds and what's that noise? Oh , yes, the daily leaf blowers and lawn mowers, what a pleasant sound.
In another month or so, I won't even be able to open the windows in the morning because it will already be about 90 outside. Yuck. I don't do well in the heat. I get even lazier than usual when it's hot.

What are we doing this summer besides sitting in the air conditioned house? Not much, that's for sure.

Keith is taking a vacation this year, something he hasn't done in quite a while, what with job changes and surgeries and such. His last vacation was spent recuperating from knee surgery, and the one before that was spent recuperating from cancer surgery. What fun!

So, what will we do while he is on vacation besides get on each other's nerves because we'll be stuck in the air conditioned house because we can't afford to actually go anywhere? I'm talking not even go to the early show at the movies can't afford to go anywhere. We'd like to take the train up to Sacramento and go to Old Town for the day, but may not be able to spend the money, what with the electric bill being triple digits and all, but we'll see. It would be nice to do something fun.

I am hoping that he will get some of the still, yes still, unfinished house done while he is off work for a week, but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath. Don't get me wrong, he does a lot around here, but he's been fixated on the back yard (which still isn't done and it's getting too hot to work out there) but he is a perfectionist and it takes him a long long long time to finish a project, if ever. I am getting really really tired of not having a kitchen floor. Really tired.

And, in other important thoughts that go through my head on a random basis, how do I know it my laundry load is small, medium, or super? Do you just gently drop the laundry in the washer and kind of guess by how far it fills it up? Or do you stuff that laundry down in there and put it on the super setting, and just wing it from there? They're telling me to only wash full loads, but I need some clean underwear and that goes in the white load, and there's not that much else in the whites since it's summer and I'm not wearing socks every day to keep my feet warm, so basically it's just my underwear, so am I safe in assuming it's a small load and I'll put it on the small setting to save water? I can't afford to go buy more underwear, so I have to wash the stuff, and I can't wait until I have a full load since I'm out of underwear! Oh, the quandaries we face every day!

Quick Tip of the Week

Or not...depends on if I ever post another quick tip because I never have before and may not ever again. So this could be quick tip of the month or year or decade for all I know.

I just got out of the shower. Here's how to save time, money, and water all at once. Get yourself over to Target and buy Suave's 2 in 1 shampoo. Shampoo and conditioner all in one. And don't read the directions that say to lather, rinse, repeat. There is no need to wash your hair twice. You probably shouldn't even wash it every day but if I don't I feel greasy. This quick tip will save you money on not buying separate conditioner, time in the shower, and about 5 minutes worth of hot water.

But wait!

Two tips for the price of one. This one only saves time, though.

Sort your laundry when you take it off. We keep 2 laundry baskets in the closet, one for white and one for colored clothes. Put your clothes in the correct basket when you take them off. Or, if I've been too lazy to put the baskets in the closet, or the cats are playing with them or sleeping in them, 2 separate piles on the floor will still work. When laundry day comes around or you run out of clean underwear, your clothes are already sorted and ready to throw in the wash. Of course you still have to remember to put them in the drier. And remove them from the dryer after they're done. And fold and put them away.