> getting stuff for people -- other than my kitchen [where I've likely
> been working all day], I've made sure the house is spotless.  I
> mean, I can be casual when it's just the gang coming over to watch
> a movie or something but the reason that I'm able to be casual like
> that is because I tend to keep the place in a reasonable state *all*
> the time...)

My "just 5 minutes a day" rule suffers badly from time to time. I
stopped
the monthly maid service for a few months when I knew I had a ton of big
outlays coming up... but they'll be back next week for the first time in
..hmm, 5 months, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to
it!!
It's a sublime, hedonistic, pleasure that I gave up feeling guilty over,
and
now just revel in shamelessly :)

Oh, good for you! I never considered it a pleasure, I considered it a
necessity (when I could afford it). 5 minutes a day does nothing for me
- I do more than that every day, to no avail. The last time I had enough
income (at which time I also had a big enough house for it) I had a
live-in housekeeper, who also was to make sure (s)he was around when the
kids were home and I was at work. When Lisa gets a place of her own
again I will certainly hire a housekeeper again (or a maid service).
Once a month isn't enough for me, I found once a week to be the best.
One of the alternatives is that the fellow downstairs is considering
moving to Ontario when he finishes school (Workers Compensation
re-training) and one of my daughters would like to move in downstairs.
If that works out, she can take care of my house for me in return for
reduced rent. (That'll work because I no longer have to have half of the
house expenses paid in order to make ends meet.)

> It also encourages me to keep the big
things picked up so that I don't appear to be a total slob when they
arrive.

That's always a help

>Fortunately I'm not a terrible housecleaner... just an indifferent one.
(when I'm alone and no one is coming over) 

My guess would be that I'm worse than you.

>The rules change when I know I'll
have visitors... then the sickness strikes and I worry deeply about the
sanitary nature of my lightswitch plates.

I used to get frantic when I was having visitors, and slave to the point
of exhaustion, but since it never, ever did get the house to the point
of spotless, and only turned me into a hysterical mess, I now plan
things over as long a time as I can, make a written list for each day
before invasion day, and religiously follow the list, which is designed
to get done all of the things that I can see need to be done, but still
leaves me with some semblance of rest and sanity. Since I know no amount
of effort on my part is going to have the house glowing and gleaming in
the way people expect of their own, I just do the best I can and relax
about it. The sanitary nature of my lightswitch plates is not something
that has ever crossed my mind. Perhaps that's one of the things that's
wrong with me?

>> My point was simply that I have an objection to anything that
> makes perfectly wonderful people feel like failures, grossly inferior,
> or worse, grotesque -- and there was certainly some of that
> happening with the "perfect home" ideal that Martha's been
> representing.

>you know, I think that's what it boils down to for most of us here --
we
have a ferocious dislike of being made/forced/expected/required to do/be
anything which goes against our natures, or appears to go against the
natures of our friends.

Amen!!

> Lezlie is our avowed radical feminist, and may
strike some circles as a nightmare, but to us.. hey! That's Lezlie! Lay
off
the invective! Or Laurie as our pasta-is-a-scourge-of-the-menu
phoenix... so
we may make the linguini for the rest, but quietly provide an
alternative.

Danke - of course, I've since found out that I can't digest that kind of
starch at all, so that could account for my life-long revulsion - but
the accommodation is muchly appreciated.

>We are...as a bunch, and a general rule, pretty amazingly tolerant ppl
when
you think about it. Fur/feathers may get ruffled, and have, and will,
but
all in all... shoot, we're a good bunch of apples.

Yeah

Unlike "them" .. the intolerant bastards  



Laurie missing Ptrouble Phoenix 



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