HOUSEWORK IS THE PITS

Housework is definitely the pits. Anyone trying to keep a (fairly) clean house knows this is true. No sooner do you get one chore done than it has to be repeated.

Clean the bathroom? Next week--okay, two weeks later--it has to be done again. Mop the kitchen? Two days--okay, a week later--it has to be done again. Vacuum? Next week--okay, three weeks later--it has to be done again! It's like those washing instructions to get out nasty stains: soap up, rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

What brought this up was the top of my refrigerator. My guy, with his long arms, reached up into the cabinet over it and got a pitcher down I needed. When I went to put it away, I had to get a stool. And once up in the air, what did I find? Fuzzy stuff all over the fridge top!

I couldn't believe it! I had just cleaned it when we moved into this house.

Then I realized we moved in three years ago.

So I got my paper towels and scrubbed off the dust and washed the top and got it clean again. Bet if I'd remember to do this every month, it wouldn't get as dirty.

And since gardening is on my same list (To Do As Seldom As Possible) as housekeeping, I will take this time to thank the previous owner who planted and tended all these lovely amaryllis that show up each spring. If he hadn't been such an avid gardener, we'd have had no pretty plants at all. Thank you, Mr. McGoogan!!!

I HATE CLEANING HOUSE

Always have and always will.

So we bought a house and guess what that means. Cleaning. Yep, it isn't brand spanking new but was reasonably clean. Still, when I move into a place I want to make sure it's absolutely sparkling. That way I know it's my dirt I'm diving into when I do regular cleaning.

So instead of being down in the Village -- where the sequel to the movie The Anchorman is being filmed -- and gawking with the other locals, I've been stuck inside a newly painted house.

I can't complain too much. My guy has been working like a peon ever since we closed last month, supervising the roofers, the tilers, the carpeters, the floorlayers, the painters...He helped paint, too, and now he's doing some stuff we didn't have painted and later decided needed painting, like the insides of drawers and cabinets that looked good but were the wrong color.

Oh, and he's been moving stuff out of our storage unit, too.

While I've been scrubbing bathroom toilets, tubs, tiles and a shower that wanted to keep its stains. And scouring closet shelves and the refrigerator, after dusting bookshelves and putting away all the books brought from storage. I still have the microwave and the range to clean, along with a metal rack to hang pots and pans. And that reminds me, the ceiling fans must be dusty... Ughhhh.

So far, the cats aren't helping. They've been barfing up hairballs because we've been leaving them alone and won't tell them what's going on. So not only am I polishing up the new place, I'm having to pick up after them at the old place.

If you haven't caught on by now, I'm pretty annoyed. I want to catch a glimpse of some real Hollywood actors! I want to see lights, camera, action! And I really really want to see the end of this housecleaning morass I've been dragged kicking and screaming into!