Laundry

I do my wife's laundry.  She works, i don't.  Fair enough.  However, the negotiations, once the deal was broached, were more...complicated.  My portion of the washings can be divided into only two categories; things that take a while to dry and things that don't.  I also try to keep the socks and underwear separate.  Mixing socks in with towels and sweatshirts is just asking for an escape attempt.  They hide in the sleeves or the fitted sheets with, i'm positive, the intention of either remaining wadded and wet in an effort to avoid drying, thus requiring isolation from its twin and making it harder to track.  Or sneaking out during a folding effort of the larger article in which it has stowed away.  I have no "lights" or "darks" per se.  Everything piece of clothing i own is in the greenish, brownish, grayish color scheme and is old enough to have been washed so many times that bleeding is hardly an issue. *side note: most of my clothes are purchased or kept with an eye towards the future.  That is to say that i don't own anything that would indicate a susceptibility to current trends when viewed on whatever means exist for my children and grandchildren to gawk at and make fun of in the future.  A gray-green-brown colored sweater with no fancy collars or cuffs will the same in a laser-generated personal retinal projection as it does now on plain digital photography.  They will have to content themselves with confining their jests to whatever grist they can make from my hairstyle.
My wife's sorting and classifications for her clothes are somewhat more complex.  Not having had enough time (or inclination) to memorize each article of clothing, i am left with a series of taxonomic distinctions based on percentages of natural vs. man-made fibers.  sample: "anything with elastic should be line-dried.  Unless it is more than 60% cotton in which case it should be tumble-dried on low heat, gentle cycle.  Unless that remaining 40% is lycra or wool.  Then it should be line-dried.  But not these pants, which have semi-elastic cuffs, which can be tumble-dried on medium heat, gentle cycle, but only for 20 minutes, at which point, they should be turned inside out and then line-dried.  I don't have the energy to explain the vagaries used to identify distinctions between articles of exercise clothing, an entirely separate species, with their own special drying needs.  And never mind the care required for individually bagging and treating the "delicates," which necessitate their placement in zippered mesh washing bags.  Should i succeed in proper separation, which is rare, with mistakes in technique met with the dreaded comment, "oh.  that should have been line-dried" when seen in a folded stack next to the drying rack.  Placing the articles on the drying rack is not a short endeavor, and has the feel of decorating for a very sad and lonely holiday only i "celebrate."  the time spent festooning the rack is only superseded by the time spent folding her tiny doll clothes.  my wife is a petite woman with matching clothes which means folding them takes on the feel of some task from some obscure tale of ancient mythology.  Its such a tiny pile of dried goods; how can i still be folding halter tops, pants and leggings an hour later?  And the matching of an endless supply of tiny socks?  [harrumph, harrumph].  When i do convince my wife to re-evaluate her clothes with an eye toward reduction of line-dried items, i do feel somewhat bad for those pieces that are "cut" and moved down the from the peerage of hanging items to machine drying.  As if they're now seen as inferior by those items still privileged enough to enjoy the benefits of gentle drying as a treasured, display article.  I will continue to handle this for my wife until such time as i may claim to have been to tired from work to be able to continue, but with this caveat; while i never stop loving her, i do find room in my heart for other feelings at least while i'm hanging the certain percent wool-cotton-lycra-spandex-rayon stockings with care.

4 Lions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvo27XU-ooE

Grand track from an amazing group, during the credits of an amazing film.

Personal Style

I fret about the future every time i choose what to buy or what to wear.  In case a photo is taken, i try to portray a timeless image.  Not timeless, like a chanel suit; rather as in the least amount of explaining to my children or grandchildren.  It was a green sweater now (then), it still appears to be just a green sweater then (now).  No ridiculous collars or boot-cut, slim fit pants.

Around the House

When my wife wears her running outfits around the house, I feel as if we're running an historic house in the future and only I have chosen to wear period clothes.

Inaugural Blaug

I've seen something funny.  Or interesting.  Or both.  This is where I keep track of it.