Off to the wilds

Ahhh.  The joys of air conditioning!  I got tired of the house smelling musty and yucky, so I got a rare hair up my butt and decided to steam-clean my carpets.  Boy, were they dirty!  They’re probably still not completely clean, but they are far less dirty than they were.  The only thing that was driving me nuts was having to refill the reservoir for the steam-cleaner over and over again.  They should make a steam-cleaner with a bigger reservoir!

Without air conditioning, I couldn’t have done it, though.  It would have been too damn hot in the house otherwise.  Plus the carpets would have taken days to dry with the humidity we have here.

But the floors are cleaner.  It makes me happy.  However, the house still smells kind of musty.  I am not sure what else I can do.  I’ve sprayed Febreze all over the couches multiple times, I’ve washed the dog’s bedding several times, I’ve spread baking soda in the carpet… I wonder if there’s something coming up out of the carpets from the previous tenants.

Speaking of which, we were at our friend’s house this weekend, and I noticed their carpeting was super cushy.  So I asked if they’d had new carpet put down with some sort of plush padding underneath.  Well, it wasn’t extra padding that was making their carpet so cushy.  Apparently the maintenance people simply laid new carpet over old till there was four layers of carpet there!  I cannot even imagine.  In a way, it’s good because our floors are really hard, what with old carpet and old padding there.  But then most people say that we have the best carpeting because ours is brown Berber.  Everyone else has brown industrial-grade carpeting.

It’s the small things, I guess.

There’s a big thing coming up on my horizon for this weekend!!  I am heading southward to Pennsylvania to see my family for the holiday.  I am so excited about this.  I was chatting online with my cousin tonight, and apparently everyone is going to be there.  All four of my grandparents’ children will be there, along with most of the grandkids.  I haven’t seen my one aunt and her husband and family since we all gathered for my grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary way back in 1997, so this will be a nice reunion.  Unfortunately my sister won’t be able to make it, which is a shame.  And one of my cousins won’t be there either, so we’ll miss some folks.  But they’ll be there in spirit, I am sure!

My uncle has a pool, and Grace is just going to be so thrilled to be able to swim in his pool!  She so loves the water.  I swear, she’s part fish.  She probably gets that from both of us because Kurt and I both love the water.  We’ve been taking her to the pool since she was six months old, so she’s quite comfortable in the water.

What’s also exciting is that we are staying with my cousin and her fiancé.  Usually we stay with my grandparents, or sometimes we stay in this little guest house that’s part of their retirement community.  Either situation is good for us, but the little guest house scares me a bit.  The bed that’s for us to sleep on is an antique wooden bed, and when Kurt and I lay our combined nearly 500 pounds on it, it tends to creak and moan.  I keep thinking we’re going to break it, so I rarely sleep well when we are there.  I’d much rather stay with my grandparents.

But this time we’re staying with my cousin.  And this means staying with someone my age, who likes to do fun things, and who is just an overall cool person.  And the icing on the cake — she just adopted the cutest little puppy that we’ll get to play with and love on and cuddle!

However, this mini vacation of mine means that I probably will not be on the internet for the next five days or so.  Scary thought, huh??  But when I come back, I’ll have loads of photos to share with you all!

Have a fantastic Fourth of July!!