I bought a new shower curtain over the weekend, and it lets in far more light than the old one did. Which is nice, but also not so nice. In that now I can see all of the ring-around-the-tub nastiness. I think I do a decent job keeping most of the house clean, but the master bathroom is always the last on the priority list. (Which doesn’t really make any sense, seeing as how that’s where I start my day. I should work on improving that.)
Anyway, our bathtubs are standard builder’s choice plasticky stuff, and I’m not sure if I can use a bleach dilution on that safely. I’ve tried a variety of chemical-laden products, but they’re not doing the job. I’d rather not use that stuff anyway, so more natural product suggestions are very much welcome.
So. What do you use to clean your bathtub? And just so I feel better about my shower, what’s the most neglected part of your home?
Note: Having a grody bathtub does not work for me. It’s What Doesn’t Work for Me week!
My dad gave Rockford and me Visa gift cards for Christmas this year. I always have a long list of Stuff I’d Like to Buy, but the money tree always runs out of leaves before I get around to purchasing any of it. But since Dad specifically said that I couldn’t spend the money on groceries or stuff like that, I decided to splurge on a thing or two from Amazon. And gee whiz, it was fun. I filled up my cart and clicked Send Me The Stuff and kicked back and waited for the loot to arrive.
And then on Monday I got an email that said they hadn’t been able to process the payment. So I harrumphed around the house for a while, and then I found a “call me” button on their site. They called me, I explained that it was a gift card debit card thing, they re-processed it and said it went through and everything was A-OK. So I kicked back and waited for the loot to arrive.
Oh, and I cut the card in half and tossed it in the trash.
And then yesterday I got an email that said they hadn’t been able to process the payment. Which meant that I’d essentially thrown about $60 in the trash. The first thing I did, naturally, was to cry while sending an email to my dear husband. Because yesterday? Yesterday was the day that Pete sits in front of the window to watch the garbage truck pick up the trash. I couldn’t remember whether the card had been in the last trash bag to go outside. I was a little bit panicked. I was also not looking forward to digging through a bag of garbage.
But I did it anyway. I picked through the wet Pull-Ups and the coffee grounds and the roasted-chicken bones. It was almost unbearably gross, and guess what? The card wasn’t there. I grew ever-more dejected, and I carried the bag of picked-over trash out to the big garbage can outside. And do you know what I found there? Another bag of trash! I’ve never been so excited to see a bag of trash! I was so grossed-out by the first excavation, though, that I couldn’t stomach the thought of digging through it just yet. And so I didn’t. But I did send a follow-up email to my husband, in which I told him about it. This is a big pile o' trash by soundfromwayout, on Flickr. Our pile o' trash was not this massive.
Now. Have I ever told you about my very handsome and smart and brave and handsome and wonderful husband? Because he is very handsome and smart and brave and handsome and wonderful, and he volunteered to dig through that bonus bag of trash. Because it was a day older than my bag of trash, it was even grosser. There were horrible, unidentifiable things in there. And with those mucky, awful mystery globs of yuck were two pieces of a Visa gift card.
(I. Love. My. Husband.)
I washed the goo and bits from the card, and I went back to Amazon to make sure I’d typed the numbers in correctly. And I found that I hadn’t. Not even a little bit! Because the card that my darling, handsome, wonderful husband so valiantly pulled from the garbage? It was not the one I’d used. See, I had another gift card, only I was sure that I’d used the one from my dad. The one I’d thrown away. I do have a terrible memory, though, so it’s no surprise that I was wrong. It was rather embarrassing, though, and I felt very bad for poor Rockford. So bad that I woke up early today and made him breakfast.
Oh, and the Amazon thing? I’ll never use a non-Amazon gift card with them again. Twice I’ve called them, and twice they’ve confirmed that everything went through, and twice I’ve gotten emails saying “we can’t process your payment.” The card definitely has enough on it to cover the purchase. So today I’m going to the gift card display at the grocery store to buy an Amazon gift card with my Visa gift card so I can make my Amazon purchases. And then I will kick back and wait for my loot to arrive.
(This post has been rated “Blogmas”-worthy. Thanks, Fadra!)
Last month I wrote a post comparing the 2010 Detroit Lions to the 2009 and 2008 squads on a statistical basis. Because the 2010 season had not come to a close, that post prorated the then-current 2010 statistics over the full season to provide an apples-to-apples comparison. Now the 2010 season is over, so a “real numbers” apples-to-apples comparison can be made. This is that comparison.
Category
2008
2009
2010
First downs
234
281
304
First downs allowed
350
332
320
First down ratio
-116
-51
-16
Third down conversions
29%
49%
40%
Third down conversions allowed
46%
44%
39%
Third down ratio
-17%
5%
1%
Total yards
4292
4784
5423
Total yards allowed
6470
6274
5497
Total yards ratio
-2718
-1490
-74
Rushing yards
1332
1616
1613
Rushing yards allowed
2754
2025
1999
Rushing yards ratio
-1422
-409
-386
Passing yards
2960
3168
3810
Passing yards allowed
3716
4249
3498
Passing yards ratio
-756
-1081
312
Completion percentage
55%
54%
61%
Completion percentage against
68%
68%
64%
Completion percentage ratio
-13%
-14%
-3%
Sacks
30
26
44
Sacks allowed
52
43
27
Sacks ratio
-22
-23
17
Turnover ratio
-9
-18
4
Of the eight above statistical categories — which I would say are the key stats to winning football games — the 2008 Lions were better than their opponents at none. And they won zero games. The 2009 Lions were better than their opponents at exactly one. And they won two games.
But 2010 was different.
In 2010, the Lions outgunned their opponents in terms of third-down conversions, passing yards, sacks and turnovers. Further, they were just barely edged out by their opponents in terms of first downs (-1 per game), total yards (-4.6 per game), rushing yards (-24.15 per game) and completion percentage (-3% overall). And they won six* games. That is an infinite number more than they won in 2008, and 300 percent more than they won in 2009.
I’ll say it now, and I’ll stand by it next year: The 2011 Detroit Lions are going to be playing in the 2011 post-season.
*I think we all know they actually won seven games, but we will call it six for the Carebears fans who might read this.
Confession time: My shower is disgusting. 
Of the eight above statistical categories — which I would say are the key stats to winning football games — the 2008 Lions were better than their opponents at none. And they won zero games. The 2009 Lions were better than their opponents at exactly one. And they won two games.