I am a slob. My husband, while not a clean freak, is much more concerned with neatness than I am. Usually I can maintain dishes and laundry and Broom Vac-ing the cat litter off the bathroom floor (the cat kicks it out every time she uses the box), but El Grande is the kind of guy who will take your mug while you're still drinking out of it to put it in the sink. As you can imagine, we're constantly infuriating each other. However, I'll confess that I'm jealous of his desire and talent at straightening up. "How does he do it?" I sometimes wonder.
Now I know. As he was starting a load of laundry, he took off the T-shirt he was wearing, used it to dust the outside of the secretary desk, and tossed it into the laundry.
I think we should flip-flop who's home all day.
Ew! of course, maybe this is a brazen attempt on his part to get you to take off your shirt and dust topless?
Posted by: Spacemom | March 24, 2006 at 11:39 AM
"SIGH" I used to be more like El Grande (except I will say that I have never taken off my shirt to dust anything...yet!) but since having a baby I've been much more relaxed about things left around the house.
I think my husband misses my crazy, moody cleaning rampages. Because now I'm just crazy and moody. and messy. Ha
Posted by: Linda B | March 24, 2006 at 11:46 AM
I do think there is something innate about it. I am not a straighten-er. I dont' pick up the toys as the kdis play. Or feel a need to dust. My mom comes over and she can fix the living room in about 10 minutes. In an hour of my attempt to clean, the room does not look substantially different. So I usually give up. I wonder what it would feel like to be bothered enough by a something out of place to instantly clean it. I shudder.
Posted by: Sarah | March 24, 2006 at 11:46 AM
I think I want to be part of a polygamous marriage with you and LOD. But you both have to come- I could use a husband who cleans. Okay Bert cleans, but not often and not well, but the same could be said of me. Oh now you know what slobs we are don't want to come, huh?
Posted by: Lisa V | March 24, 2006 at 11:47 AM
He started a load of laundry??? They can do that???
R
Posted by: Rosie | March 24, 2006 at 11:53 AM
My god, the man is an alien. I'm certain that Evil Genius Husband has no idea where our washing machine is.
-Blue
Posted by: -Blue | March 24, 2006 at 12:54 PM
I just wanted to show off my washtub abs.
Posted by: El Grande | March 24, 2006 at 01:41 PM
Oh El Grande, it's not about washboards or washtubs, but about the washing machine!! That's what makes the mommies swoon. I wonder why Men's Health hasn't caught on?
Posted by: momzom | March 24, 2006 at 01:50 PM
My husband used to be just like that and it would drive me crazy. Now he's more like me, and that also drives me crazy! Poor guy.
Posted by: MoMo | March 24, 2006 at 01:50 PM
I don't know..my husband can spend an hour vacuumming behind the computer desk, but sit among knee deep toys in the living room while I put the kids to bed and never think they should be picked up.
If I could get him to pick up toys for an hour, we'd be all set. And the dust behind the computer? It can wait!
Posted by: Bethany | March 24, 2006 at 02:19 PM
Whoa! My husband would have stopped to write "clean me" in the dust on his way to drop of his shirt... just next to the hamper.
Posted by: Kellie | March 25, 2006 at 04:49 PM
Buy a covered litter box. Now. Preferably one of the $50 rock n' roll ones that takes 2 seconds to clean. SO WORTH IT.
Posted by: Foster | March 25, 2006 at 07:38 PM
No dice on the covered box. The only place for the box has a low pipe and there's *no* covered box on the market that will fit. We've had this poor cat for 6 years and have tried everything about the stupid litter.
A big part of it is that as she gets older (she's 17 now) she kicks out even more.
Posted by: Moxie | March 25, 2006 at 08:07 PM
I am much the same in that I walk around the house picking shit up, etc. Also, I start (and finish) loads of laundry. I have come to learn that this type of behavior is quite rare in the human male, so much so that my female co-workers look at me with a mixture of astonishment and mistrust when this subject is bandied about. I believe that a large precentage of women actually prefer their spouses to stay out of the housecleaning.
Also, the use of the phrase "bandied about" is quite rare in the human male, although that is most likely a good thing.
Posted by: the patriarch | March 27, 2006 at 03:48 PM
a friend of mine recently dusted my television screen with my chihuahua. while the dog did not seem to mind, i am not sure this is a labor saving device that i'm going to implement.
Posted by: betsy | March 28, 2006 at 05:17 PM
Oh god, you have one too?
I have become more obsessed with a clean house, but will never be able to live up to Mick's standards. After all, he adds new ones all the time.
Regarding the litter box: We have a "rock and roll" one. It rocks! Buuuuuutttt....
It completely depends on the cat. One cat was hell bent on kicking out cat litter as if her life depended on it. The other, not so much. We ended up putting a big square of carpet outside of the entrance to the litter box. It holds the litter, and is easy to shake off or simply vacuum.
Posted by: Andie D. | April 01, 2006 at 11:06 PM
I have been interning on Assateague Island in Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge as an eerengndad shorebird monitor. We work on the beach out there 7 hours everyday. There are a staggering amount of balloons on this island and the ones in the area. The current and winds bring many strandings here and balloons are probably the most common. When driving up the beach about 8 miles to survey for birds I counted over a hundred balloons! 120 from what I was able to see. With 7 of them washing in from the waves. There were only about 8 other things I saw that weren't balloons making it a 1:16 ratio of other debris to balloons. It is unbelievable and it has to stop! : (
Posted by: Aspe | July 04, 2012 at 12:42 AM