Not a housewife.

I am not very good at the housewifely arts. This should be apparent to anyone who sees my house on a normal evening (yarn strewn EVERYWHERE, Tejas' clothes piled here and there, junk mail on the futon, floors in need of a mop, quick things like fish and asparagus for dinner), except that I usually try to contain the mess at least a little before we have visitors. I'm borderline untidy, and Tejas is just plain messy, and between the two of us we undo any cleaning in about thirty seconds flat. On the other hand, mess gets on my nerves--a few books on the floor and tousled sheets I can stand, but anything more starts looming in the back of my mind--so on Saturday I spent a couple hours picking up all sorts of assorted mess, mostly yarn I'd left in little caches and random stuff Tejas had left everywhere, and sweeping everything within an inch of its life. (I decided Tejas has to unpack his own bags from the Memorial Day trip to Portland. I just zipped 'em up and stuck them in a corner so they weren't so obviously messy. One has to draw the line somewhere.)

So now the Hobbit Hole looks pretty nice again, and just needs a scrub for the bathroom tub (I hate scrubbing the tub, especially since I gave up my nice effective toxic Comet scrub in favor of baking soda. Hate you, baking soda!) and a mop pretty much everywhere, and a good dusting. And then it will be Very Clean. And will remain so for approximately half an hour. Case in point: I cleaned the kitchen until it sparkled (except for the floor), and though we have cooked nothing in the meantime except fish, asparagus, fried eggs and oatmeal, it needs scrubbing again. Grr.

Have to say, I'm really glad Tejas and I lived together for quite some time before getting married--otherwise I'd worry about the non-housewifeliness and, you know, the yarn everywhere. As it is, well, he knows what he's getting (and so do I). I dislike scrubbing tubs, but I'm willing to do most of the cleaning and make him dinner most nights and lunch every day, and learn Indian cooking so he gets some familiar foods (my Vegetarian Indian cookbook = security blankie. I loaned it to a friend once and was SO nervous till I got it back). And he's messy and doesn't know how to clean much, but he does dishes and helps me carry laundry to the laundromat down the street and cooks dinner sometimes and breakfast every morning. And I know that he likes to sleep extra on the weekends, but doesn't mind if I listen to booktapes and knit while he's napping. It all works out pretty well, and it's nice to know that we actually like living in the same place, instead of it driving us crazy.

Lack of craftiness

I finished the fingerless gloves (pictures later--forgot the camera) and knit about an inch on the melon scarf, and that's about it! Not much done around the Hobbit Hole this weekend, what with all of Sunday spent helping at graduation. But it's A LOT CLEANER, gosh darn it!