Went to the orthodontist yesterday hoping that they'd tell me it was time to make my final appointment. I was sorely disappointed. To boot, my teeth are now sore, too.
I've had a rubber band on my right upper incisor for the last 6 weeks to "pull it out" to fix my bite. Apparently, it didn't move enough for the orthodontist's happiness.
As they did a number of months ago with my bottom front 4 teeth, they put a rubber band across my 4 front top teeth. This pulls my front teeth closer together thus creating space between my front 4 teeth and my 2 incisors. This will allow the rubber band on my right incisor to be more effective and actually pull that tooth out since there will be room now for it to move.
This whole scenario makes my front 4 teeth hurt like hell. I'm on motrin again in an attempt to get my mind to stop thinking about how much my mouth hurts. I can't bite into anything either. I'm losing my patience for this, though admittingly, the results are amazing from what I can see...
I have another appointment March 1, and I'm supposed to be re-evaluated at that time, whatever that means. Maybe I'll get some good news...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Another one bites the dust
Apparently, our bay window overlooking our backyard has the same properties as my parents' picture windows on their house: it is a magnet for birds to fly into head-on, not realizing there's a hard immovable object there at all.
So more than once, we have heard a very loud THUNK and in most cases, we don't see the bird when we go to investigate. In fact, one time, Steve did find the bird, face down in the pacasandra, but alive. So he picked up the little critter, and put it somewhere where it could recover and fly away at its leisure but also safe from neighbor's outdoor cats. No easy snacks for you!
But this time, the thunk captured a victim.
So more than once, we have heard a very loud THUNK and in most cases, we don't see the bird when we go to investigate. In fact, one time, Steve did find the bird, face down in the pacasandra, but alive. So he picked up the little critter, and put it somewhere where it could recover and fly away at its leisure but also safe from neighbor's outdoor cats. No easy snacks for you!
But this time, the thunk captured a victim.
Cardinal
A closer look... you an even see the ice/snow on it!
Luckily, DJ didn't notice it while looking out the window, so we avoided some trauma there. But man... we have a deadly window!
My Laundry Disaster
Laundry Disaster
pronounced [lawn-dree di-zas-ter]
Definition:
A laundry disaster is when the red dye from an item in the wash bleeds on everything else in the load and turns it all pink.
-----
Everyone must have a laundry disaster as one of their life experiences.... it's a rite of passage. It took 34 1/2 years, but I finally had mine this past Sunday. I've always been super-careful when it comes to doing laundry with new items that could bleed, so this took me by complete surprise when it happened, particularly since my laundry disaster had a bizarre result.
And I mean BIZARRE.
For the record, this wouldn't have happened if weren't for the dogs.
So, as in previous years, we had a red and white tree skirt around the Christmas tree stand.
When I took the tree down this weekend, I discovered that a dog had marked the tree skirt, right on the white part. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I have my guesses as to which dog (IO) but it was immaterial since I now had to wash the tree skirt.
I tossed the tree skirt by itself into the washer on delicate cycle (no spin), and cold water. When it was done, it was soaking wet, but I didn't see any evidence of bleeding. So I tossed into the dryer, and I went back upstairs.
After DJ fell asleep for his nap on Sunday, I went downstairs to check on the dryness of the tree skirt. I opened the dryer and to my horror, I found this:
A quick note: you can always click on the picture to get an enlarged version. Then hit your browser's back button to come back to the blog post.
My jaw dropped to the floor. In any other situation, a string of words that could make a sailor blush would have come out of my mouth but not this time... I was stunned mute.
I pulled out the tree skirt, and all the white parts weren't just pink, they were as red as the rest of the skirt itself. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it before I threw it out.
Despite the fact that we had company over to watch the football game, I went upstairs to get Steve. "Steve, come with me right now."
When he saw it, he was impressed. "Nice job, honey!" He tried to rub it off, and barely got any to come off on his finger. But to be sure that was really the case, we decided to throw some dog laundry in to see if the color on the dryer drum would bleed off onto freshly washed stuff.
The dog laundry came out just fine, but the dryer was still pink. Here's another picture of the dryer with a white bag in it for contrast. Although I think there's so much pink that the bag is even taking on a pink hue...
So I did what I do best, and that's ignore it for the next few days. Ok, that's not true, I at least did a few Google searches to see if there were any home remedies out there. Most of the results involved getting crayon or pen off of the drum, but I found a few ideas here and here. Man, what did people do without the Internet???
Still, embarrassed to face my own failure, I let it sit for a few days. I had to do something about it, though, when DJ ran out of clothes yesterday. I had to run a load of laundry for him else he'd have nothing to wear today.
So I thought about what to try. I didn't want to use nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol because I didn't really know what it would do to the drum. I didn't have a Magic Eraser handy. So I mixed a bucket of OxiClean and hot water as Billy Mays' OxiClean ads ran through my head, and started scrubbing.
Lo and behold, the pink started to come off slowly (and I started thanking Billy Mays, God rest his soul...) and boy, let me tell you. Dryer drums are big when you have to scrub every square inch of them 50 million times to get any results whatsoever.
After one round of (a lot of) scrubbing, I saw a marked improvement. I probably spent an hour scrubbing.
I did another round scrubbing, and then I soaked rags in the OxiClean solution, didn't wring them out, put them in the dryer, and ran it on low heat. When it finished, the dryer drum had an OxiClean film on it. To get that off without re-scrubbing with clean water, I ran the rags through the washer, and put them, soaking wet, in the dryer on low heat again. Upon completion, the dryer looked like this:
Then I ran DJ's clean laundry through the dryer and when it was done, it did not have a film of OxiClean on it!
Clearly, the dryer is not perfect, though the dryer door looks almost like new; I have to look really hard and in the exact right spot to find where it was pink. The back of the dryer is still pink as that was the hardest to scrub, but it's a whole lot better! The dryer drum isn't as smooth as when it was untarnished by my laundy disaster; you can tell it still has a little film on it, but that will come off over time, I think.
But seriously, it never even crossed my mind that I could stain a dryer drum. So let my laundry disaster be your warning!!! Don't let your dogs pee on your Christmas tree skirt and if they do, DON'T WASH IT. Just throw it out and get another one. It's not worth it!!!
pronounced [lawn-dree di-zas-ter]
dri, ˈlɑn-/ 
Definition:
A laundry disaster is when the red dye from an item in the wash bleeds on everything else in the load and turns it all pink.
-----
Everyone must have a laundry disaster as one of their life experiences.... it's a rite of passage. It took 34 1/2 years, but I finally had mine this past Sunday. I've always been super-careful when it comes to doing laundry with new items that could bleed, so this took me by complete surprise when it happened, particularly since my laundry disaster had a bizarre result.
And I mean BIZARRE.
For the record, this wouldn't have happened if weren't for the dogs.
So, as in previous years, we had a red and white tree skirt around the Christmas tree stand.
DJ hanging his first ornament (and a good view of our Christmas tree skirt)
When I took the tree down this weekend, I discovered that a dog had marked the tree skirt, right on the white part. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I have my guesses as to which dog (IO) but it was immaterial since I now had to wash the tree skirt.
I tossed the tree skirt by itself into the washer on delicate cycle (no spin), and cold water. When it was done, it was soaking wet, but I didn't see any evidence of bleeding. So I tossed into the dryer, and I went back upstairs.
After DJ fell asleep for his nap on Sunday, I went downstairs to check on the dryness of the tree skirt. I opened the dryer and to my horror, I found this:
My pink dryer drum
A quick note: you can always click on the picture to get an enlarged version. Then hit your browser's back button to come back to the blog post.
My jaw dropped to the floor. In any other situation, a string of words that could make a sailor blush would have come out of my mouth but not this time... I was stunned mute.
I pulled out the tree skirt, and all the white parts weren't just pink, they were as red as the rest of the skirt itself. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of it before I threw it out.
Despite the fact that we had company over to watch the football game, I went upstairs to get Steve. "Steve, come with me right now."
When he saw it, he was impressed. "Nice job, honey!" He tried to rub it off, and barely got any to come off on his finger. But to be sure that was really the case, we decided to throw some dog laundry in to see if the color on the dryer drum would bleed off onto freshly washed stuff.
The dog laundry came out just fine, but the dryer was still pink. Here's another picture of the dryer with a white bag in it for contrast. Although I think there's so much pink that the bag is even taking on a pink hue...
Another view of the pink dryer drum
The pink (nearly red) dyer door
So I did what I do best, and that's ignore it for the next few days. Ok, that's not true, I at least did a few Google searches to see if there were any home remedies out there. Most of the results involved getting crayon or pen off of the drum, but I found a few ideas here and here. Man, what did people do without the Internet???
Still, embarrassed to face my own failure, I let it sit for a few days. I had to do something about it, though, when DJ ran out of clothes yesterday. I had to run a load of laundry for him else he'd have nothing to wear today.
So I thought about what to try. I didn't want to use nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol because I didn't really know what it would do to the drum. I didn't have a Magic Eraser handy. So I mixed a bucket of OxiClean and hot water as Billy Mays' OxiClean ads ran through my head, and started scrubbing.
Lo and behold, the pink started to come off slowly (and I started thanking Billy Mays, God rest his soul...) and boy, let me tell you. Dryer drums are big when you have to scrub every square inch of them 50 million times to get any results whatsoever.
After one round of (a lot of) scrubbing, I saw a marked improvement. I probably spent an hour scrubbing.
Results after 1 round of scrubbing
I did another round scrubbing, and then I soaked rags in the OxiClean solution, didn't wring them out, put them in the dryer, and ran it on low heat. When it finished, the dryer drum had an OxiClean film on it. To get that off without re-scrubbing with clean water, I ran the rags through the washer, and put them, soaking wet, in the dryer on low heat again. Upon completion, the dryer looked like this:
The final result
The not-so-pink dryer door!
Clearly, the dryer is not perfect, though the dryer door looks almost like new; I have to look really hard and in the exact right spot to find where it was pink. The back of the dryer is still pink as that was the hardest to scrub, but it's a whole lot better! The dryer drum isn't as smooth as when it was untarnished by my laundy disaster; you can tell it still has a little film on it, but that will come off over time, I think.
But seriously, it never even crossed my mind that I could stain a dryer drum. So let my laundry disaster be your warning!!! Don't let your dogs pee on your Christmas tree skirt and if they do, DON'T WASH IT. Just throw it out and get another one. It's not worth it!!!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Welcome Baby Jake!
The Steaks send a hearty welcome to baby Jake Nelson Chaffinch who came into the world today! He was born 8 pounds 1 oz! That's a big boy for being 2 weeks early!
We wish his parents, John and Shannon, lots of love and laughter forever and SLEEP for the next few years!!
We wish his parents, John and Shannon, lots of love and laughter forever and SLEEP for the next few years!!
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