Five for Friday: New Things I Learned This Week

Of course, I’ve been stuck on a writer’s block lately despite having all the time on my hand. So, I thought writing about 5 new things I’ve learned or am learning during the week would be cool.

15 minutes a day to a clean house

Know your meme. This is from Hyperbole And A Half.

Sure, I have all the time in the world now that I’m going on the 17th month of being mostly unemployed. But cleaning is still not my favorite thing to do.  Pinterest proves to be a useful and inspiring time suck as I found a few tips to help me get on top of this whole cleaning the house business.

Instead of taking most of the day to clean everything, these tips suggest that the chores are broken into small chunks so you spend less than an hour to work on something everyday. Like this one and this one.  I set mine up like this.

  • Monday: Dusting. Bathroom counters and mirrors. Windows.
  • Tuesday: Laundry. Toilets, tubs, and sinks.
  • Wednesday: Mop. (I don’t have a lot of floor space to mop. Kitchen and 2 bathrooms are simple enough with one bucket!) Clean the piano.
  • Thursday: Vacuum floor, sofa, and fans. Spot clean carpet.
  • Friday: Clean the kitchen, dining room table, and the pantry area.

So far, so good. I have stuck with the schedule except that I forgot Wednesday altogether. LOL  Give me a little break though, it’s my first week! I’m going to catch up with that today.

Pinterest Lab Successes: Clothing and Carpet Stain Removers

Not all things on Pinterest actually work. So I have been experimenting with a few “recipe” here on my Pinterest Lab board.

First, the clothing stain remover. It’s essentially homemade Oxyclean in a liquid/gel form. Mix fresh to use 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part each baking soda and Dawn dish soap. (People swore by the original blue. I use clear so I don’t run the risk of turning anything blue.)  Rub this onto gnarly yellow arm pit stain on white clothing or the stubborn grease stain on dark clothing. Scrub with a brush if you have if. Then wash with everything else. Voila! Clean clothes!  Because this mixture bubbles up, you just have to mix per use.

Second, the carpet stain remover. I didn’t do the whole procedure. I just mix the solution in a squirt bottle, dribble a little on and rub with paper towel, then again with clean water, and blot dry. Works like a charm!

Learning to Run…kind of

For those of you who’ve known me a while, you’d also know that I’m not sporty one bit. You would also know that I have tried and failed at distant running at least once a year. Most of the time, I failed spectacularly mostly because two reasons. One, I wuss out because of my ankle injury or the weather getting too cold. Two, as a former sprinter, I ran myself out of the long race.

Let me put it this way. What I did earlier this week with “walk half a block then run half a block” method, I did it with Adele on my playlist. That’s right. Adele. I was training to slow ballad in attempt to slow my ass down when I get to my half-block of run.  I still found myself sprinting after a few steps anyway.

I walked half a block and ran half a block for 3 blocks, damn near passed out, and was pretty much out of breath all the way walking home. I’m pathetic.

Maybe long distance running isn’t for me after all. Who says I need to run for miles and miles, right? I mean, what really matters in a zombie apocalypse is that few blocks. If you’re not faster than the zombies…or the other guy…in a few blocks, you’re dead anyway.

New Favorite Wine: Erath Winery Pinot Noir

I’m a part of Thirsty Girl twitter tasting crew. They occasionally sent wine to me to taste along with many others online and review them. (Check us out on #TGTaste!) This month, I was set  Erath Winery from Oregon pinot noir and pinot gris. I’m not big on dry white wine but I adore the pinot noir. Lightly chilled, the pinot noir is absolutely lovely on hot summer days like these.

OakMonster - TGTaste - Erath

Sarah Barelles’s Gravity

Back on the piano! Seriously, I need to do this more.

This song so simple to play on the piano yet so difficult to get right. So far my neighbors haven’t  reported any “cat being murdered” noise to the police yet so I must sound alright. Either that or they’re really polite folks. I’m betting they’re really, REALLY polite folks…

What about you? What have you been up to this week?

2 Comments

  1. Annette   •  

    You can also get the Couch to 5K app. It’s about “walk a block, run a block”. Between my extremely flat feet and my back, I hate running in general, but every now and then I try it. Kinect Sports is more fun 🙂 ,

    Plain white vinegar mixed with water is also great to get out stains, including armpit sweat, and doubles as one of the cheapest alternatives to fabric softener (I’ve had to rediscover all my frugal tricks in the last year since the witch is sucking The Hunk dry — financially!).

    Keep walk/running — only way to justify the amounts of alcohol we’re imbibing 🙂

  2. oakmonster   •  

    I’ll look into that app! But that means I have to carry my phone on the run. Right now I’m not equipped for that yet. 🙂

    Speaking of alcohol. Girl…I need to come up to see you for some imPEARment!

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