Love List

I've been compiling this list in my head for a little while, and just wanted to put part of it down. It's, obviously, incomplete. But, we'll consider it a work-in-progress. And, I'm starting with things around my house.

• While my feelings of cleaning are far from "love," when I decide that the pet-hair-tumbleweed that blows down our hallways and stairs are just too much to bear, I absolutely adore my Oreck XL. Holy cow, what an amazing machine. I'll never own another vacuum, perhaps because this one won't get worn out.
• Having a small person means that I do a lot of laundry. And, most of that laundry has some variety of food stain on it. This journey of parenthood has taught me to appreciate Shout gel (with the scrubby thing on top of the container). I was pretty bummed the last time that I went shopping because I couldn't find it. So, we'll see if the Spray-n-Wash stick that I got does as well. I'm cautiously optimistic.
• Speaking of stains...Oxyclean is a must-have in our house. It's my favorite carpet cleaner and has removed all traces of assorted cat barf.
• Lest I focus on cleaning too much, because I really don't do all that much of it, I wanted to point out my respect for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Maybe it's because I don't clean all that much that I really appreciate the way that things actually work when they're supposed to...let's hear it for lowered expectations.
• An old steady force in our lives for the past 10 years has been my 1998 Pontiac Grand Am GT. It has over 180K miles, no air conditioning, arm-strong windows, two doors, and a heart of gold. I really freakin' love that car. We've been through a lot together, but it has sustained, and for that I am grateful. And, I love driving a car with a standard transmission. I feel like I'm actually driving.
• And, I love stoneware. We got a pizza stone as a shower gift from some friends (around Christmas 2000) and I didn't know what to do with it or how to use it. I know that sounds silly, but I'd never owned a piece of stoneware and didn't understand the subtle differences and advantages of this fine cookware. We still use that pizza stone for all kinds of baking, and it has gotten nicely seasoned to various shades of brown. I recently got another couple of stones, and we're working at seasoning those as well.

So, that's that for now. I love my DVR too, but that's mostly used for Knight Rider...topics for another day's love list.