Wordless Wednesday > Ghetto Scrabble

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love Veggie Tales with a passion. Here's a great, funny but real history of St. Patrick, a great missional man who spread the love and truth of God.

The Cost of Beauty

So, on Wednesday, Billy and I had a great time at PF Chang's (see pic in the previous post). But y'all didn't get the funny side of the story.

I was excited to get a little dressed up for the evening. It's not normally my thing, but c'mon! This is a special day! So, I fit back into the cute black capris that I wore the first day Billy and I met. I had a cute red and black top, and some hot black heels that I literally hadn't worn in years. These shoes made the outfit. I was looking pretty darn good if I do say so.

As we walked toward the restaurant, I noticed that my left shoe was a little too loose, so I figured I'd need to re-buckle when we got inside. I sat down when a bench opened up to do so, but it didn't see to help. I tried again, and noticed this time that the strap was broken. It had come off of the shoe where it attached right near my heel.

"Nice," I thought. But I played it cool... tucked the strap in under my foot and elegantly walked to the table when it was ready for us (and thank God that Billy thought to call for reservations. That place was hoppin' for a Wednesday night!).

Dinner was great, but as we were almost ready to leave, I needed to stop at the ladies room. It was more than a little awkward to walk in a broken shoe, especially when my normal footwear is a pair of well-worn Vann's. But I am a woman! So, I did it with grace.

We came outside and saw a Mac store, so of course, we had to head in there. My foot was starting to hurt from the way I had to hold the shoe on with my toes, but we don't get a lot of chances to hang out without kids, so I really wanted to spend some more time with Billy before we headed home to pay the sitter.

Somewhere between the iMac and the iPhones, my other shoe broke.

Yes... I'm serious. There I was, in the Mac store, looking good with two broken shoes. But that didn't stop me. On the way back to the car, we stopped at a couple of jewelry stores to get a watch battery for Billy and a ring polishing for me. The cool people at Kay's didn't charge for either one. :)

Finally, on the way to the car, I couldn't stay cool about it anymore. I told Billy my feet were hurting because both my shoes had broken.

He offered his condolences and gave me a piggy back ride to the car.

I joked about the leg workout he was getting, and when he put me down I could feel the muscular relief he experiences as his body could go back to it's normal 160 pound burden.

So, I said, "Hey... aren't you glad I lost 20 pounds in the last year?"

He just smiled. And I laughed. It was a good time.

Wordless Wednesday > 3 Year Anniversary

21st Century Cleaning: Review of Scrubbing Bubble Automatic Shower Cleaner

So, the cool people over at BzzAgent.com hooked me up with a neat little gadget from Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. Brilliant, huh?

When they asked if I wanted to test it out and tell people what I thought, I was like, "Uh... yeah!" I already used Scrubbing Bubbles as my cleaner of choice in the bathtubs and sinks, so I was hoping I'd be pleased, and I am. Here's the low-down.

the set-up

Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner is a daily cleaner that is safe on most showers and cleans literally with the press of a button. The "new and improved" version that I got has two sprayers that rotate 360 degrees. One sprayer sprays wide, reaching most of the shower. The other sprayer sprays more focused targeting the rim of the tub.

The cleaner machine sells for around $14.99 for the whole contraption, which comes with a bottle of cleaner that is supposed to be about a 21-day supply. We've used ours for 14 days, and I think it will last longer than 1 more week. Refills cost $3.99 each. Coupons are available when you sing up for The Scrubbing Bubbles Bulletin.

the good

Quick and Easy: This is really the biggest benefit of the cleaner. No more scrubbing the shower stall. Heck! This is so easy that Billy has taken it as his task. Each morning after he showers, he simply closes the curtain and pushes the button. Viola!

Fresh Scent: I can be picky about smells. I've always found that I like Scrubbing Bubbles smells. But this shower cleaner is even more mild and fresher than their spray foam. (I will say that the automatic toilet cleaning gel I got in my bzzagent package is pretty strong, but it works, too, so I've decided the scent is worth not donning the rubber gloves and sticking my hands in the toilet once a week!)

It Actually Works: I will admit... I was super skeptical. Most things that are toted as "easy" are not good cleaners. I typically believe that you have to put some effort into it to do a good job. This shower cleaner is curing me of that belief.

the bad

One Noisy Little Bugger: The cleaner beeps at you for about 15 seconds before it cleans. You know... so you can make sure your door's closed, curtain closed... whatever. Once it starts it makes more noise than you thought it could, but it's not obnoxious. The first time Billy used it, he thought it would wake me up, but it didn't.

Missing Spots: While the cleaner's nozzle rotate 360 degrees, they don't tilt up or down. So, the spray only hits the walls about chest high and down, leaving the top 1/3 of the shower uncleaned. This is not a big deal to me, since we don't tend to get the top 1/2 of our shower dirty. But, it's something to note in a review.

A bigger deal is that it doesn't seem to cut through on our textured shower floor. The videos on the website show a very dirty shower getting clean, so I didn't clean my shower before installing the auto cleaner. The walls are looking good, as are the ledge of the tub and the shower curtain, but the floor is falling behind. It's getting clean, just not at the same pace.

the verdict

Definitely a great product! I typically wouldn't spend $15 on a cleaner product, but when you look at it as a tool, instead of just the cleaning solution, I'd say it's worth it as a one-time investment. The refills are a little pricey, too, but I would say that if you clean your shower really well before using this tool, you could get by with every other day and stretch out the cleaning solution to up to 2 months. That only averages about $2 a month (without coupons!)

Have you ever tried an automatic shower cleaner? Would you?