Q & A

As you may have noticed, I forgot to finish answering your questions over the weekend. So, I will do that now. Please, if you have anymore, ask away! Unless you'd like to read more crude posts about my dog's rear end, that is. (Yes, that is a threat.)

Heidi asked, "Do you like where you live? Is there someplace else you'd rather live?"

Hmm, good question. I guess that depends on what exactly you mean. If you mean the US, then yes, I like living there. If you mean Texas, then yeah I'm partial to the state. If you mean my city, that's out for debate. It's an alright town I suppose (the recent water issues notwithstanding). However, it does have its drawbacks. We're in a prime location for a hurricane disaster. We've had to evacuate a few times in my lifetime. Now compared to my Floridian buddies, that's nothing... but to me, it's a few times too many! I don't think it's entirely possible to escape nasty weather though. If it weren't hurricanes, it would be tornadoes or blizzards or earthquakes. I do count my blessings that at least with a hurricane, we have plenty of time to evacuate if need be. But have I mentioned how much I *hate* to travel?

Now if you mean do I like my neighborhood, yes I LOVE our neighborhood. It's really quiet and mostly new and it's a good location. Do you mean my house? Yes, I like my house. I would prefer it didn't have paint splatters on the ceiling that I can't cover up properly because I can't find the right "white", and I would prefer it to be bigger, but for a starter house it's great. Is there somewhere else I'd rather live? You know, I'm just not sure. In some ways, yes. I'd rather live by a beautiful lake and mountains than on the coast, and I'd rather live somewhere that's not hot most of the year. But I do like Texas and I love living so close to my parents and I'm not sure I'd trade that for scenery. I wish we lived closer to the in-laws though. Hubby man doesn't get to visit his family in Pennsylvania very often. :o(

Heidi also wants to know, "What about books. Have you read anything you liked lately?"

I've been really lazy with books lately. See the one in my sidebar that I'm "currently reading"? Yeah, no. I'm not. I got about 1/3 of the way through it and put it aside, never to pick it up again except for when I had to return it to the library. I didn't get any new books either. I did buy one, however, titled The Mood Cure and have read most of it. I did enjoy it. I found it very informative and helpful. My dad thinks I'm mildly insane to be so enthralled by a book on amino acids, but what can I say? I'm a nerd. A nerd obsessed with health topics.

I have a lot of books sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read. Sadly, some of them I probably never will because I bought them in hopes I would be pregnant soon. I need to get rid of those books, but I keep holding onto them because I feel getting rid of them (and the few pregnancy tests I kept but will probably never take) would be completely admitting defeat. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, as dumb as it sounds. So they just sit on my book shelf, glaring at me and me back at them.

And finally, "Do you like Mr Clean Magic Erasers?"

This is a fun question. Why? Because I think I'm the only person on the entire planet that does not get all giddy over this product. I kept hearing raves about them so I bought a BIG box of the things, excited to try them out on everything. This was well over a year ago, and I have at least half of that box left, and I know I've never finished an entire eraser. Most of the ones I've used have been thrown away before they were even halfway gone (and yes, I do realize that is probably a mortal sin. I'm now waiting for Jessica to come beat down my door and confiscate what precious supplies I have left). I really don't understand the appeal of them. I know people that love them in their bathtubs. But see, I'm a germ freak, remember? I like to use something that is strong enough to kill small animals on my tub so I can make sure all the e.colis are gone. Lysol is my friend. I *heart* Lysol. Plus, I hate elbow grease... you know... hard work? Not my forte. Magic Erasers take entirely too much oomph to get rid of the scum in tubs.

I've also tried the erasers on the paint splatters on my ceiling. Didn't work. I tried to clean spots off of various things that people raved about, nope, not impressed. Kitchen sink? Didn't work. Cabinets? Nuh-uh. Dirt on dog? Just kidding.

There are two uses I have found for them. One is to clean my microwave. It works pretty well for that. However, so do other products that are cheaper. The other is a stubborn spot I had on my cheapo laminate kitchen counter (I HATE CHEAPO LAMINATE COUNTERS... whew... sorry, had to get that out). You know those plastic grocery bags that have the store logos printed on them? Well, apparently wet grocery bag w/printed store logo and cheapo laminate counters do not a good combo make. Those spots are freaking hard to clean. Even my faithful baking soda struggles with it and I usually have to resort to using Comet (which rhymes with "vomit" so you know I'm not in love with the idea. Actually I'm kidding now too; I *heart* Comet almost as much as I *heart* Lysol. It's just that Lysol is sooo much more useful for killing momma baby butt spiders.) So, anyway, I had my "microwave-cleaning-Magic-Eraser" sitting by my sink and I said to myself, "Self? Why not try it?" So I did. And wonders of all wonders - it worked! That red HEB logo was no match for the Mr. Clean Sometimes-Magic Eraser. I guess I will eventually work my way through the rest of the box. Afterall, we are pretty messy when it comes to the microwave. I swear things spontaneously explode in there and get ickies everywhere, even when they're covered. So for now, my answer is "not usually, but they are fun to randomly throw at people walking down the street".

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