The Perils of Laundry

Our washing machine kicked the bucket. It has been an ornery little bugger for a while now, so it is a good thing that it will soon be hauled away to appliance heaven. I pause to reflect on all the fun times - that stinker pulled all kinds of hilarious pranks on me - like the time the lint trap got so full that the force of the spin cycle/draining shot the mesh catch across the room, sending geysers of water all over the basement. Hilarious. Or the time that Nick noticed a slow seeping water trail sneaking across the floor from underneath Mr. Washer. So fun. Oh! Or the time when Mr. Washer absolutely refused to run any load of any kind of size without going completely unbalanced and rocking and banging it's way across the basement floor, sounding like an army of crazy people were trying to knock through our house. That was so funny. OR, my favorite and last operating memory of Mr. Washer before I pulled his plug - when he got stuck in "wash agitation" mode for three hours and refused to drain or spin and I had to hand wring out a massive load of kid clothes the night before leaving on a trip which was also an extra delight for my RA hands. Bye Bye Mr. Washer.

You would think that buying a new beautiful washer and dryer set (Mr. Dryer was no picnic either, a super cranky old guy) would make me happy. It did not. For as much as these things cost these days, I expect them to lumber through our house gathering the dirty clothes themselves, sorting them, washing and drying them, and then folding them for us and making sure to put them away neatly. I don't think that is too much to expect for what we are asked to pay. HOWEVER, being without the machines (and the consequent travel now needed to get to clean the clothes) I am quickly becoming more than happy to fork over as much as I can to get the machines here. Nick and I went on a hot date to several appliance stores last week and found the best service, prices, and options at Sears. The only glitch is, the machines will not be here until Friday the 5th. So over 2 weeks without a washer/dryer. It is a real joy with kids - you should try it sometime! :)

I cannot wait for our new German friends to arrive and get to cleaning zee clozing. We were lucky to find a great GREAT deal on a Bosch set - same price as the good Kenmore set at Sears. It will NOT fold our clothes for us, but promises to be zo very qviet and evvishent vis ze cloz. :) Is that culturally insensitive? woops. Special thanks to our new foreign friends, the Miele set at the lakehouse that has been doing double duty on our behalf. We really are doing our best to support the global economy. ;)