Thinking about your family, Lisa. I’m glad he’s under your roof and has your hands on care now. It’s hard to make great decisions when you’re so so sick. He’s lucky he has you. I hope he turns the corner soon

Wait? I thought there was a nursing shortage? Have you tried the white mascara primer? That can make a huge difference and is more comfortable than false eyelashes.

The neighbor sounds like one of those people who is nice but not kind.

You may have to suffer through teaching him to trust your mailbox. We have a couple drop boxes in our neighborhood; including a drive-up box at the post office, but I’m in the suburbs with kiosk mail boxes. There’s no way I’d drive out of my way for daily mail. In your shoes I’d just use your home mailbox and suffer through the grumbling until he gets used to it. Once it becomes part of his routine and he sees that all his mail it getting where it needs to go, he’ll move on. I might cave and promise a once a week mail drop if a drop box is going to be on my way to something, but entertaining the daily requests feels like a trap. Is your dad mobile enough to use your home box yourself? Maybe he can stalk the mailman and put is mail in just before he expects delivery.. My grandmother used her home mailbox, but knew what time the mailman came and would be put out of the guy was “late.” Ditto for the newspaper guy.

The Penny’s has it’s own entrance and a Sephora, so she didn’t pass too many people and she bought her fuschia lip gloss on site. She did have make-up wipes and cleaned her face before leaving. It was truly awful. This is a kid with the gift of applying make-up beautifully. I’m surprised she could bring herself to commit this crime. The photographer loved them. Her twin brother was the assistant and photographer had to explain to him that it was a joke. He thought they just looked like that. Dh said fsil should’ve worn tube socks. 🤣

I was impressed with the research . . . the glasses shapes . . . the Dynasty cheeks, but I feel the punked out on the hair. He should have gone for the mullet and she needed to cut bangs and go for the full claw. She’s wearing my actual Class of 90 jacket. 🤣

I’ll probably take this down tomorrow, but I just had to share the beauty and elegance of young love. These two deserve each other. 🤣 They just waltzed into a Penny’s portrait place in this get up yesterday. These are the kids who photo shopped the Loch Ness monster into their prom pictures in high school. I’m a little afraid of seeing their wedding photos. Rest assured that the young man got a haircut and shave shortly after the session and my daughter washed her face. Feel free to add a caption. Enjoy.

Saying no is SO much easier than hours of manual labor.

This sounds like the whole New Coke disaster!

I have questions! 1. Why would I consider it state-of-the-art for my clothes to take longer to wash? I can get a load from dirty to clean and dry in one hour. I got burned on that deal with my “efficient” dishwasher. 2. Do people who live in the desert have nice, not-swampy laundry that isn’t weighed down with gallons of sweat? (Nothing to do with machines; just curious) 3. HOW do people get holes in their clothes from a washing machine? I’ve used several brands of toploaders throughout my life and I’ve never had holes from them. 4. Can we admit the water doesn’t vanish from the earth when it leaves the machine? 5. To me, “50s technology” means no planned obsolescence and no electronic controls. My house came with the original toilets and thermostat. They’ve been working continuously for 50 years. I replaced two toilets before I realized my mistake. I still have one. It never clogs. 6. Soft water cleans remarkably well. Do they test machines with both? 7. Do sanitize setting in a washer do anything that the dryer/sun won’t do? Full disclosure: I have the older AWsomething Speed Queen and I won’t let Bill have it no matter how much he begs.

It’s not so much a brand loyalty thing with me as a top loader preference. Time is a resource too. Maybe I’ll make a different choice if my area has water shortages in 20-30 years, but for my location electricity is a bigger concern. Electric bills are easily 3-4 times higher than water bills. I thought of rigging for gray water, but my rain barrels are always full and rarely used. My garden suffers from too much rain more often than drought. I’m sure your research is sound and Meile won all the contests. I have their vacuum and love it. I haven’t taken my washer apart to know about the hidden electronics. It looks completely mechanical to me. 🤣

I don’t even remember the brand at the laundromat; just that they were front loaders. It seemed like they took at least an hour. It was nuts. I was used to having things washed and dried in 60-70 minutes. It seemed like the extra 30 minutes of friction wasn’t great for the fabric. Our clothes are just clean. And we hold onto clothes for a ridiculously long time. Do I suspect the quality of the water does a lot of the work, but if I can get clean clothes, 30 minute cycles, a machine that’ll last for decades, and a great warranty for less than a thousand bucks, that’s my sweet spot. I also add stuff to the load after it’s started all the time. I don’t live in a desert. (Some months I don’t have to water my garden at all.) I have zero interest in owning a machine with electronic components or sourcing special detergents. I like that any ole cheap dryer does the trick. I don’t need to source find clothes baskets to lug 30 lbs of clothes up the steps or high capacity dryers to dry a load that size. Should my washer break, I won’t have to track down special technicians because any appliance guy can fix these things. I’m kinda hoping it lives forever and never breaks. It’s about 9 years old now.

I will fight you! When I was waiting for my SQ to arrive I used a laundromat for a month. Those front loading machines were so hard on our clothes. We never had that much pilling with our old top loader (a Magic Chef that lasted 17 years.) I find that clothes get just as clean in a top loader with less wear and tear because they're not tumbling in the machine forever. My machine is 9 years old now, so I can't speak for the newer ones. It has a feature where I can add more water if I turn the knob backwards and hold it. I'm much more worried about electricity usage than water usage. My electric bill is easily 3 times my water bill. Where I live, water falls from the sky . . . often way too much, so my priorities are different. Our water is soft too and I suspect that helps get them cleaner, faster in a tub of water. In fact, I strongly suspect the water does a lot of work and the detergent takes the credit. My clothes even got perfectly clean when I used homemade detergent. Don't tell Spy Car, but my machine has a prewash feature that I use in situations where stuff is super dirty. It washes and spins out, but doesn't rinse. The worst of the dirt gets rinsed away and then you do another cycle that includes a rinse. I use both depending upon what I'm doing. Prewash is a pretty quick cycle, but sometimes you just want to leave the lid up and soak longer. I needed to bleach some drop cloths to make curtains and I soaked them in bleach for about a day. Also, if a storm comes through, I fill the machine with water just in case there's a disruption and we we need water to flush. I just checked my machine. It says something like commercial . . .blah blah . . . extra super capacity . . . blah blah . . . 16 lbs. If there are machines that hold twice as much, I'm not sure how I'd make it up the stairs with two clothes baskets at once. All I know is that my clothes are washed and dried in about an hour; maybe an hour and 15 minutes . . . even my queen-sized comforters. I don't even HAVE a speed queen dryer. Mine is something cheap from Sears.

Does Australia even NEED anything from the US? It seems like everywhere in the whole world is closer.

My speed Queen holds a rectangular basket mounded with clothes. That’s a large enough load in my book. Do people with super high capacity washers have a special source for giant baskets? The only thing I own that doesn’t fit is a double sleeping bag that stupidly doesn’t zip apart. Queen-sized stuff is fine.