A Clean Red-Letter Day

We made it to 32 years! That's Moogie, then-Major (Captain? Who can remember!) Pepper, the Son at age 6 1/2, and our posse.

And I'm currently much closer to that 1978 size than I was this time last year!

We're past the days of elaborate anniversary gifts because someone's going to find us someday, dead and dried up under a pile of the treasures (read: "junk") we have already, but my sweet, thoughtful Pepper is taking me out for cocktails and a lovely dinner at Cafe Adelaide tonight. No dishes for me!

What little sweet, thoughtful thing am I doing for him?

I cleaned the house!

I may not have ever mentioned it, but among Moogie's biggest claims to fame is her championship classification among the world's very worst housekeepers. I'm so darn allergic to dust and dust mites, and I dread those allergy symptoms so very much, that I put off the heavy-duty cleaning until the house is really dirty (and practically guaranteed to make me sick). Having a black lab who sheds hair like Pig Pen in the old Peanuts cartoon strip shed dirt doesn't help, either.

And losing Wendy.

Since we lost her, I've noticed how gross my kitchen floor gets! I recognized how much she "hunted" in the kitchen when she was with us (it kinda used to irritate me), but I guess I never appreciated just how much she "cleaned up" for me in the kitchen. A poof of flour could barely hit the hard wood before she was there, Wendy-on-the-spot, to "hoover" it up. "Hoovering" is what the kennel folks called it when she would keep that nose to the ground, hunting for any stray morsel of anything edible, and sucking it up.

Bouie and Rosie are no good at hoovering. I guess they deferred that job to Wendy for too long to take it up now. Bouie will scarf up meat-type stuff that falls overboard, but he's not that much into veggies or anonymous scraplets of stuff like Wendy was. Rosie, being mostly blind and usually deaf, loved summer squash in her heyday and would yap at me as I was preparing it until I gave her a piece, but these days she just can't see what's going on as she wanders around the kitchen.

Anyway -- Moogie's Mansion is clean! Plus, the termite guy came today and we have NO active termites! That's always a good report in southeast Louisiana!

Okay -- you got me. The termite guy's impending visit also contributed to my whirlwhind of domesticity. I mean, that guy has a high-powered flashlight, and he looks in the corners and behind the drapes!! But a clean house is also nice for one's husband of 32 years to come home to.

So -- I think maybe we'll have a little prosecco in the parlor tonight in fancy glasses so we can enjoy dustless carpets and furniture while it lasts.

Here's to the next 32!