Yesterday did not go as planned.

I was hoping to "finish up" (HAHAHAHAHA) a purging project that has been consuming a lot of my time and energy lately.  It's the annual pre-holiday clearing of the old stuff to make room for the new stuff...specifically toys and other assorted kid possessions.

Instead, I discovered something REALLY gross in our house that hijacked my day and gave me the willies each time I thought about it.

As I was stuffing a queen sized mattress pad into our washing machine, I noticed a little water pooled in the bottom of the enormous rubber ring that surrounds the entire opening of the front loading machine.   Underneath this pooling water was a bit of mildew.  And then I saw another patch of mildew in another spot.  And then I lifted the outer rim of this enormous rubber ring and I saw SO. MUCH. MILDEW.  In our washing machine!!!

This rubber thing is so curvy and contoured that there is just no way that I could clean all of this mildew out appropriately.  Even when I stuck my head in there and pulled it open and scrubbed.....ICK.  I tried to use the more eco-friendly vinegar to attack the ick, but the ick just laughed at that.  I pulled out the Clorox bleach pen and tried to toxify the ick.....but it just wouldn't budge.

When we moved into this house about 6 years ago, this washing machine was one of our most expensive appliance purchases.  We bought it to be green.  And now it is turning black.  And icky.

I went online to search for "Maytag Neptune mildew" and uh-oh -- lots of hits.  Turns out there was a class action lawsuit against Maytag for the design flaw that leads to the mildew build-up.  And Maytag lost.  Did we file a claim?  Nope.  Did we know about it?  Nope. 

Before I called Maytag to get this problem resolved, I knew I would have to dig out the owner's manual and receipt for the machine.  OH NO.  These papers are filed neatly in our enormous filing cabinet, so I knew I could locate the file easily.  However.  This filing cabinet is in that closet.  You know, that one closet in the house that is in worse shape than all the others.  The one that you shove everything into, close the door and pray for the next person who opens that door?  Yeah, that one.

As I tried to access the filing cabinet, the avalanche of crap fell on me, but I did locate the file.  I called Maytag and they suggested that we should have been cleaning out the rubber ring with bleach every month to prevent this from happening.  Excuse me?  I paid over $1,000 for a top of the line washing machine and I need to clean it monthly?  And leave the door open after each use for proper drying, in my teeny tiny laundry room that serves about a zillion purposes in our household?  I think not.  That machine is supposed to clean for me, not be cleaned by me.

They tried to get away with giving us NOTHING.  I convinced them to at least send us the replacement rubber (which is now supposed to have better drainage and an anti-fungal coating) free of charge.  Who knows if the Mr. will be able to or want to wrestle the black icky ring out of the machine and replace it with the new one? And if this will be a suitable solution? Whatever happened to the smiling Maytag man who shows up and makes it all better?


Since I couldn't face the black ick without him, I decided to face the avalanche of crap that was now spread all over the playroom floor.  And let me tell you -- it sucked.

Do you ever wish that you could just pick up your house and shake it out like a dusty rug?  And that all the crap and clutter that you don't want or need anymore would just roll on out the doors and windows and line itself up in the gutter?  But I suppose that's not a very green thing to say.  I guess it would be better if the stuff just disappeared into thin air, without polluting any part of the environment. 

Yeah, I need a little twinkle of the nose, a la Samantha on Bewitched.  If only.

The birthday festivities are finally finished.  The party was Saturday, the real day was yesterday and the school celebration was today.  Cake, cupcakes, pizza, pancakes.....just a few of the ways we celebrated the big 6th birthday of our little guy! 

He got lots of fun gifts that would keep him busy if he were ever inside long enough to play with them, but he has started to hang out with a pack of boys that play street hockey and he is in heaven.  He is the youngest, but there are two boys who are a year older (1st grade) and then a bunch in 4th grade.  They play on the opposite cul-du-sac, which is crawling with stay-at-home moms, and everyone looks out for my little guy.  Lucky for me, he still wants to snuggle when he comes inside....but he's growing up fast now that he's in elementary school.

I even got a call tonight from the mom of one of his friends, asking if he could go there for a sleepover on Friday night.  In Kindergarten?  Really?  That's not happening for us.  I know other families are ok with it, but we have only let our daughter do it once, for a small slumber party at our neighbor's house right across the street, and that was when she was in 1st grade already.  Kids are in such a rush to do everything these days -- what is there to look forward to anymore?

On another topic, I need help from the Dog Whisperer.  Our dog is so overly protective of me and the kids when the Mr. is not here that he is putting a serious damper on my ability to converse with anyone who comes to my door.  I get so embarrassed because I come off like the dingbat housewife who has no control over her household!  I even told the painter a few weeks ago, "I have MUCH better control of my kids, I swear."

Seriously, if one neighborhood kid comes to the door and then walks inside to get a cup of water, the dog goes bonkers -- barking, jumping, carrying on for the entire time the poor kid is indoors.  But when the Mr. is here, the Chinese food delivery guy can come up to the door without the dog even making a sound.  He didn't even bark once as the 15 costumed kids bearing weapons (and their parents) came traipsing in and out of our house on Saturday -- because the Mr. was here.  Geez, even I wanted to bark at that crowd.