Domestic Geek

I know, I've been absent of late. I've been around. Mostly on Facebook, Twitter and Ravelry. I'll be honest — I lost my blogging mojo. Even the big things that happened over the last six months or better, such as shattering my left pinkie at work*, haven't pushed me to compose anything for this blog. Today, however, an event happened that made me go, "I so have to blog about this."

So what is so momentous that I absolutely have to share?

I discovered that the Swiffer Wet Jet totally sucks.

See, I wanted one of these things for ages. The commercial when the thing first came out made mopping the floor (one of my least favorite chores ever) seem like a breeze. I looked longingly at them in the store. I dreamed of having a spotless kitchen floor. For Christmas a couple of years back, Marcus gave me a Home Depot gift card. I used it to buy a Swiffer Wet Jet and, per my standard method of operation, never took it out of the box. It's been sitting on a shelf in our laundry room since. Yes, I hate doing floors that much that even my dream device couldn't get me to do it. (Marcus usually does our floors and prefers using the string mop and bucket.)

Well, Tuesday evening after a long, rough day at work, I reached into the refrigerator to get the tea pitcher and proceeded to knock a big, glass mixing bowl full of sugared strawberries that I had made for shortcake for the preceding day's Memorial Day festivities right onto my foot and all over the kitchen floor. I stood in this puddle of goo crying and in pain while Marcus got me towels to sop up the mess. I did the best I could to get it cleaned up, but I really needed to get to bed and there was a little bit of syrup stuck to the floor in various places. I decided that today would be the day that I would finally give that Wet Jet a try and see what it could do.

First thing out of the box, I was ticked off that it needed 4 AA batteries. I didn't recall seeing that mentioned on the package. After scrounging up some, I got the thing assembled and gave it a try. Following the initial pass across the floor, I was really impressed. It was light and easy to use. I was getting a lot of dirt up off the floor. I thought my floor cleaning nightmares were over. I left for a bit for the floor dry. When I came back, the floor was no longer shiny. In fact, it looked rather hazy. Then I walked on it. OH MY GOD, it was so sticky. At first I thought it was the strawberry juice, but after doing a bit of Googling, I found that it was one of the biggest complaints. That, and that the company changed the pad at some point, so refills were now crappy. Now I was pissed. It says right on the bottle of cleaner that it won't leave a residue. Were these people high? Calling what was on my floor a residue was a major understatement. I broke out the vinegar and warm water and have gone over it several times and it is still slightly tacky. I'll try again in the morning to get it totally cleaned up. I was so mad, I almost burst.

Well, the thing is now residing in the trash dumpster. I thought about trying to use it with another cleaner, but would I? Doubt it. Certainly not going to waste my money on inferior refill pads. I have never been so disappointed in a product in my entire life as I was with this one, I can't believe the POS is still on the market.

*At some point, I will blog about what happened to my finger at work.

Whew, I am so glad I bought the domain DomesticGeek.com when I did, even though I haven't taken the time to move the blog over yet (it'll be soon). I was putting random search terms into Winzy and Blingo today trying to win some stuff and found out that as of this last September, someone is now blogging at DomesticGeek.net. I wonder if she was as upset when she saw the .com domain was gone as I would have been. Of course, she's being more of a DG than I at the moment. I'm not doing much domestic or geeky. She's also doing way better on her 1001 list than I am. Must dust that off and get cracking.

I got in another couple of hours of overtime in today. I would've stayed longer, but the girl I sit by was really grating on me today. By 5, I'd had enough. I need to find some headphones this weekend. My supervisor gave me a replacement keyboard today. I've been stuck using one of those old iMac keyboards because the girl that uses this particular computer on the weekends has a habit of dumping her drinks. So help me, if she (or anybody else) destroys this one, they will feel my wrath.

I'm hoping I can sneak away and get some work done in the archive room tomorrow. I've got tons of stuff I need to file away. It's amazing how quickly it accumulates when the presses are going 24 hours non-stop.

I was feeling a little blue this morning when I got up. I finally put my finger on why once I got to work. I didn't have a chance to kiss Marcus at all yesterday. That hardly ever happens. He was asleep when I left for work and I was dead to the world when he finally rolled in after 11:30.

When Marcus got home, we noticed a horrible burning smell in our house. Not sure if it is the furnace or the newly repaired washer I had just used (or something worse). It's making me incredibly nervous since we can't pinpoint the origin.

Just realized it's been weeks since I posted a Thursday Thirteen. Whoops.

Lots of blogs today now showing a PR of 0, including this one. w00t. Not. I realized that this whole thing is reminding me of why I don't work well in offices or as a teacher in a school system. To succeed you have to play the game and I hate playing games. This whole PR thing is a big game (except you don't get to look at the rule book). Popularity contests and game playing. Not my thing.

Sorry I've got nothing profound to post. My carpal tunnel is acting up again this week and this little post has been excruciating. I think I'm going to go ice the wrist and then head to bed.

While wiping down my kitchen counter this evening, I came to the sad realization that I need to purchase new flour/sugar/tea cannisters. They are made of metal and the bottoms have become rusty and are now staining my counters. I've had the same set since my first college apartment, so that must mean I got them in 1986 maybe? I think 21 years for a $20 set of cannisters was a pretty good run. I guess I need to stop at Linens 'N' Things or a similar store sometime soon and procure new ones, preferably glass or ceramic. It's time.

For the record, I love that product CLR. Took the rust stains right out.

Here's what I hate about living around other people. The total lack of consideration for others.

The people up the street bought an ATV for their kids. Ever since they have been driving it up and down our street. Since we live at the end of a cul du sac, they have to turn it around right outside my craft room. It annoys the living daylights out of me. One of the kids trying to drive it is not even old enough to be in school yet and drove it right out in front of my car loaded down with younger siblings/cousins. Yeah, responsible parents them. These are the same people that crank up their stereo with Mexican polka music when they're working on the truck (not allowed supposedly to do repairs on premises) so that it drowns out my television.

It sucks because when I get home from work, all I want to do is sit and decompress, not listen to the droning of an atv engine all freaking evening.

Must. Get. Land.

I bought myself the greatest little alarm clock at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. It has an internal battery like a computer that keeps the time while the unit is off, such as in cases of power failure, unplugging, etc. The computer chip also takes into account for daylight savings and such. There are dual alarms so that I can have a Monday-Friday work alarm and then a separate weekend alarm. It's also got a radio in it and a huge display. All in all, not too shabby for around $20.

Here's the problem, though.

Even though it has a dimmer function, the display is still really freakin' bright. Now, not being one to like lots of light when I sleep, it's a little annoying. I was thinking that maybe I could put a piece of window tint on it to cut back the glow, but I don't happen to have any scraps of that around. Going and purchasing a kit just to do a small clock is a huge waste of money since I was so happy to get this clock so cheap. Figures that the guy I used to know that did this for part time work moved to Kansas and I no longer have contact with him.

Does anyone reading this have a scrap of window tint that they'd send me? PLEASE?!!