Not at work today - after 11 days, I figured I'd take a day off. Nice. Relaxing. yes????

Okay then...

First, my parents are visiting us, and staying with us, for a few days while they look at local real estate - but we do not have enough beds, so they bought and brought a queen-sized extra high aero bed, sheets and matching blanket for my father to sleep on in the basement (insanity - they are indeed loosing it). "Neato," you say, "cool," you say, "what the hell, are you this boring?" you might say...

Well then... my father wakes up this morning and yells up the stairs in an emphatic manner that he needs my mother immediately because he has had an accident in the basement and needs her help. As my mother scrambles to extract herself from our awesome (or in her words, "ridiculous") old school science lab-ish bar stools, I (nimbler) run to the stairs frantically asking my dad if he is okay, or should I call 911 - to which he responds that he is fine, no 911, however, he unknowingly fell asleep in his new aero bed, new sheets and new blanket - with a new pen - which exploded in the night leaving multiple ink blobs on his bed, sheets, blanket - and himself, and he wants everything to look new again, and he is sure that my mother can take care of this for him.

She can't.

Instead, I take my hairspray (does this even work?) and sprayed the washables (excluding my dad), let them sit for a few minutes, and then started them in my truly amazing washing machine!

All will be well - one would think so at least. I still have the day off, I'm off to gather my sweet little niece, and have an adventurous day. And that we did...

After looking at come properties with my parents, we went to shop at COSTCO mostly for chocolates for my staff (they are working their tails off!!!). When we entered the jumbotron store, they had a display of Wii's (we aren't, obviously, Cartman freezing ourselves for the Wii, but we'd like one). I pick one up - it's in my hands - and then I place it back down, because my entourage claims that we should eat lunch first, then shop. Seriously. Fast forward 20 minutes later - all of the Wii's are gone, the display is gone. It's as if it never existed at all.

All will be well - I don't have to worry about work (awesome staff), I'm with my totally adorable niece, and my parents pay for my ginormous pack of TLC bars.

Wait - what's this? The COSTCO checkout decides that, after 5 years, I am not allowed to use the COSTCO American Express card with his name on it... uh okay. Thank you for enforcing the rules, I guess. Today is an excellent day to begin. And, so - no COSTCO jumbotron packages of chocolates for my staff (sniff, sniff). No worries - I'll try Sam's tomorrow!

All will be well - day off, cute niece.

My parents drop my niece and me off at my house so we can play, change the laundry, take the doggie out etc. Fun times for a few hours - just the girlies! We both run into the house, remove our shoes (it's a wiggly toe thing), hop downstairs to check on my dad's sheets (ink blobs), and step into the laundry room... wait a minute, something just isn't right - our toes are not wiggly, they are jiggly sliding through a giant sludge slop of an entire giant tide bottle that has fallen and cracked open onto the carpeted laundry room floor!

I grab my niece and run upstairs and outside to begin hosing off our feet in case the concentrated soap is about to cause irreversible caustic damage! The dog chases us outside and begins rolling around in the tide/ mud slop we just created in the yard - it's fun times all around!!!

okay

So, I try to sop up the Tide with dirty clothes, random tablecloths, towels, whatever I can find. And throw them into the washing machine - works out well, I don't have to add any soap! (side note - the ink blobs did not come out of my father's new sheets etc.).

uhhh...

We go out to dinner since I have been too occupied with my fun Tide project to prepare any dinner at home - and we leave to laundry room open because, although Tide does have a lovely smell - an entire jumbo jug of it can be overwhelming in that small space.

another misstep in my day ...

Turns out, the doggie must like the smell of Tide a LOT, because when we came home from dinner, our sweet yellow Golden Retriever had turned blue and purple from sleeping right in the middle of the Tide puddle. My husband and I rushed the doggie upstairs and outside and began hosing him off like there was no tomorrow. Oh - you do not want to miss the added tidbit of - at this time a blustery storm was blowing threw the neighborhood. Like the kind where branches and trees snap and stuff flies around. Yeah - really? yes. Doggie is psychotic in storms too - this IS good timey!

Doggie is exhausted. Husband and Father are getting a wet/dry vac tomorrow, after trying to scrape the Tide up out of the carpet with a flat shovel (cool). I have started another load of laundry and am contemplating two lessons learned today:
#1. Never, ever, ever leave a bottle of detergent on top of a washing machine - there is a reason that there are drawers underneath these front loaders.
#2. While I am thankful for my day off, I'm even more thankful that it wasn't actually a "day off." I could have been bored.

*SQ* :)