Give me back my tiara

Okay...weird title for a post. I have never felt like a princess or a diva or anything like that. I'm pretty well grounded and down-to-earth, realistic, etc.

However, I am also one who considers 'roughing it' a room that doesn't offer room service. You will never catch me camping. Uh-uh. Never gonna happen. I need an inside shower with plenty of fluffy towels, inside plumbing that works, and a comfortable mattress on a box spring in a room that has a good HVAC. And cable TV. Preferably with HBO.

About 6 years ago I discovered I could hire a service to clean the parts of my house I hate to do and tend to neglect, like floors, toilets, sinks, and bathtubs. For $75/month someone comes in twice a month and does all that stuff including getting cobwebs out of the corners and the dust bunnies off the ceiling fans.

And when we bought this house, we suddenly had lawn to deal with. For another $75/month a non-English speaking guy comes over and keeps the lawn looking really nice. It's always mowed, edged, the flower beds are clean and tidy, branches aren't dropping on to the walkways, etc.

Then the economy hit the toilet. When Ray got his pay cut in December, we had to re-evaluate how we were spending and decided where we were going to cut expenses to be able to continue to live with his pay being reduced. Both the gardener and the housekeeping service were eliminated, along with premium TV channels (goodbye HBO...) and a few other non-necessities. We each had to start cleaning our own bathroom and get better about keeping things tidy.

And we bought a lawn mower and edger as soon as spring time came and the lawn was no longer dormant. After much research, we determined we wanted electric, primarily because they're better on the environment. We looked into the rechargable ones and the reviews were not good, so we bought an electric mower and edger and some really long extension cords. There is only one outside plug and it's on the deck, nowhere near any of the grass.

Ray's first time using the edger resulted in one of the sprinklers being totally shredded. So the edger only got used once. Before he left to work in SoCal, I asked him to be sure he mowed the lawn and cleaned it all up so I wouldn't have to do it. I was hoping the lawn would realize its caretaker wasn't here and go dormant...but the damn stuff kept growing. So I mowed the grass in the back yard yesterday. It really wasn't difficult, once I got hundreds of yards of extension cords untangled (he hadn't used the cord tender I'd purchased). But it was honestly no fun. The front yard has to wait until it's not so hot.

And I guess I am more comfortable in the proverbial tiara than I am behind a mower. I need a gardener again!

And yes, you may offer me some cheese to go with my w(h)ine.