Ask Happy Homemaker!

by compound complex 337 Replies latest jw friends

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Are you in a muddle over domestic chores? Ask Happy Homemaker for practical and up-to-the-minute advice. You won't be disappointed!

    Dear Happy Homemaker,

    Hi. My name is Suzy and I have ugly wax build-up on my very old linoleum floor in the kitchen. Sam (my hubby) and I want to upgrade the floor but are not certain if it would be cheaper to strip the old floor or buy terrazzo. Little Johnny has a flame thrower in his toy box, and I was wondering if we could kill two birds with one stone by melting the wax with heat and barbeque a chicken all in one fell swoop? Today's the 4th (July) and it's raining so we can't barbeque or we'd catch our death. Our church is lousy with janitors who could strip the floor, but Sam and I don't trust any of them any farther than we could throw them. We're into sports and have good throwing arms, too.

    I'm really in a quandary, HH! Please reply asap because we're having company over this afternoon and want to show off our new floor (or, at the very least, a clean floor!)

    Thanks heaps!

    Suzy Q.

    Dear Suzy:

    I feel the flame thrower is out because I have taken the liberty of checking out your homeowner's policy and, should you fail in your intended purpose and conflagrate the house, your agent will search for loopholes to CHA (not CYA). Perhaps you might check out lovely designer painter's tarps and swath your ugly linoleum with one that matches your equally ugly walls (don't ask me how I know). Perhaps, too, your lazy sloth of a partner (I know you two are not married) can plug in the kitchen range, precluding all need for dangerous incendiary devices. Additionally, you're beer-budget folk ... pretty high-and-mighty thinking you can afford terrazzo! I'm not impressed. I don't trust your church janitors either; when I say "no" to their religious tracts EVERY Sunday morning, they ask if they can leave one of their business cards instead, offering huge discounts on their services. Fools.

    I hope I've been of some help, Suzy!

    Yours truly,

    Happy Homemaker!

  • LockedChaos
    LockedChaos

    That made me smile!

    Knock on door
    Offer FREE books/magazines (waste paper?)
    Offer turned down (In a heartbeat)
    Leave a business card (Pioneer Cleaning)
    Get discount on services

    PRICELESS

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear LockedChaos,

    Thank you for your smile! Even nationally syndicated columnists need to know that they're appreciated.

    May I offer you a subscription to a foreign-language version of your local rag? You will impress friend and foe alike with your newly-acquired command of Urdu and curry in the kitchen (or is it saffron?). Well, I'm no Julia Child!

    A discount to preferred customers!

    Happy Homemaker!

  • changeling
    changeling

    I love you CoCo!

    changeling :)

  • crazyblondeb
    crazyblondeb

    Dear Happy Homemaker-

    Why do all my socks disappear into the "dreaded black hole"??

    This black hole has been with me for many years, I cannot seem to get away from it!!

    cbb

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Changeling,

    Impressed by one with such exquisite and highly refined taste as you, I wish to declare today a national holiday and dedicate it to you and yours! The country, it is true, bows in abject humility and servitude to my correct knowledge and instictive wisdom in all matters domestic, yet I want the little people to know that I am at one with them in heart and mind.

    Thank you for the reminder that we all need one another, though it's a given that most Americans couldn't fight their way out of a wet-paper-bag-of-a-household-dilemma without moi!

    What separates man from the beast is his ability to accessorize.

    From the bottom of my heart and the aerie of my well-appointed penthouse, I say Muchas Gracias, Changeling!

    Happy Homemaker!

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Crazy (may I call you Crazy?),

    You have asked the question of the ages. Why, when our Cro-Magnon antecendents did their wash and hung it in delightfully decorated-with-bison-and-naked-huntress images in their split-level cave dwellings, they, too, suffered the persistent loss of one of each pair of CALVIN KLEIN sox (or was it skivvies?) That, I daresay, was truly a blackhole. For, you see, today, 50,000 years-to-the-day later, diggers have found all the missing pairs of CM sox, along with some insignificant philosophical codexes and Van Goghs. Won't their numbskull descendents thrill at the discovery that great, great, great ... grandmother has left behind the true National Treasure - Missing Sox Trove!

    I hope the above helps, or you could affix tie-lines to each pair of sox, allowing, of course, for the wearers to maintain a measure of stride as they leap and saunter. We don't want to hobble the guys too much, or do we?

    Happy Homemaker!

  • nelly136
    nelly136

    Dear Happy Homemaker,

    Why do furniture places send men delivery drivers to do a womans work?

    the last two had firmly wedged my sofa tighter than a nuns fanny between my bannisters and hallway wall before they decided there was no way on earth it would actually go into my front room.

    nothing a handsaw and asthma attack wouldn't fix when they'd left, the sofas look great in the front room the open plan stairway looks quite cool too (bonus! cos it saved me taking out the double glazing),

    any tips on how to recycle wood bannister and rails?

    oh and i'm thinking of doing the garden next week, can you suggest a reputable napalm dealer?

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Nelly,

    Yes, yes! Men are beasts! I am much surprised that the two (I'm assuming two - they always seem to herd in pairs) cretins deployed to do the knowledgeable and apt woman's work were licensed to drive an infernal combustion vehicle; a donkey-drawn cart would have been more suitable.

    I'm given to understand that the sofa's entry into the domicile required a measure of edifice-dismantling ... yes or no? Some times we refer to this as a happy accident. If you feel otherwise, I am sufficiently connected with world-class blackguards and thugs to have these delivery scum extinguished. It's your call.

    Recycling bannisters ... hmmm. You could recreate Tara (GWTW) by erecting a free-form staircase, suspended by skyhooks, in your front yard. Think of the curb-appeal that that should afford your lovely-though-decimated home!

    Please, all seriousness, aside: take care of your asthma! Or was it the guys who were wheezing?

    I, too, love the open-aire look of your home. I can see it ...

    Happy Homemaker!

  • nelly136
    nelly136

    alas theres not much room left for the sky hooks,

    i already have my littleish sooty van on the lawn (the one that blew up while i was driving it home after i'd purchased it) parked next to the stack of knackered tyres from my last 3 vehicles and of course the wildlife area thats sprouted round the edges....if hoovers can be created to suck to the edge why don't lawn mowers cut to the edges?

    of course i've considerately put the old sofa in the garden too so passerbyers can sit and enjoy the art forms, i did kindly offer it to the useless delivery men, but they refused to take it as the fire label had been cut off.......apparently second hand sofas donated to charity must be adorned with a fire label soooooo.......

    does that mean that firelabels are the black box of the sofa world? if a sofa combusted in the front room would that be the only piece of evidence left in the wreckage to prove you had a label (or sofa) to start with?

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit