Friday, April 01, 2005

Much to Gain...Much to Expel (apparently)

As you can see from the comment left yesterday by “BD” (a/k/a Papa Duck), I am married to a man who knows about financial responsibility. More to the point, he’s an auditor, both at work and at home. He audits. He audits grocery bills, he audits phone calls I make to the pediatric nurse when the Duckling is sick (“Why can’t we give her water?”), he audits everything. Don’t get me wrong, we’re two peas in a pod in this regard for the most part. This frugality on both of our parts allows me to stay home (that and my previous salary wasn’t really going to be worth much after we took into account day care, parking, gas, wear and tear (on the car and our marriage), etc.) and for us to splurge on other more important things (like a car that has ABS, 4WD for idiots and heated seats).

So it should come as no surprise that when he found me picking up Tide one day at Wal-Mart, I was audited.

“Why do we use that one? This one is half as much and I’ll bet it’s just as good,” he comments picking up another brand.

“I like the way Tide smells and I know it works.”

“Look at this one though, it’s a third of the price,” finding an even cheaper competitor, “Try it.”

I did. The brand was something called Sun. It sucked. Bad. Like I’d wash things immediately after they got a stain and they wouldn’t come clean. For whites, this wasn’t much of a problem because most laundry issues can be solved with a few cups of good old chlorine bleach. It leaves my laundry room smelling like a pool too, which reminds me of those “vacation” things we used to go on prior to the Duckling’s arrival.

Anyway, this week I had had it with Sun. The poopie and puke events of the week tested Sun once again and it failed miserably. While on my retreat to Target I picked up some Gain. My SIL uses it, so it has to perform well (I’ve seen her laundry…it’s clean). It’s less than Tide, so that would please Papa Duck.

Well, as I sit here in the computer/laundry room nursery office (yes, it really is all purpose) I have to say…I love the smell of my laundry. You know those commercials where the perfect wives are unrealistically sniffing their laundry and seem to be getting some kind of contact high off of it? That’s what this stuff is like. I want to just go bury my nose in the drying shirts but the fragrance is so eminating I don’t have to…it’s all around me…I love it. And so far, it seems to be efficient at poop and puke removal.
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Duckling Update: We had a really rough night which resulted in a phone call to the pediatrician on duty who, as it turned out, is our new primary care physician as of midnight ("Just wanted to call and let you know we're you're newest patients!!!"). Actually, the doctor was fabulously warm and in good spirits when we woke her up at 4:45 AM...anyway, lots more puking and pooping and crying. She has the rotavirus which takes about 5 days to run its course...we're on Day #4...wish us luck! She's doing lots of sleeping and Mama Duck even broke down and let her keep her Pootie today (which is a HUGE no-no in my book...but she's just miserable and it keeps her from getting herself so worked up she pukes again).