Laundry Blues and Reds and Greys

I never know how to classify this one.

Hi everybody, and welcome to Laundry Day!

Way back when, I used to post lists for Laundry Day. Today, however, I just want to talk about how everything comes clean in the wash.

Just over a year ago, E.g. and I purchased the first washer and dryer of our relationship, and my first ever. This pair is on the small-and-happy side, so there’s usually enough for four or five loads when I do the weekly wash.

Now of course, you’re all breathless to know — and to compare notes in the comments section — how I sort my wash. Well, I’m glad you asked! Here’s how:

1. One load of reds. This load includes purples, pinks, oranges, yellows, and sometimes beiges, depending on my mood.
2. One load — sometimes two loads – of greys. This is a catch-all load which may include black jeans, grey tee shirts, maroon socks or deep green office trousers.
3. One load of blues. If there are too many blues one week, I might delegate some things into the grey pile or the white pile.
4. One load of whites.

Let’s see: white, spearmint, grass, forest, lavender, mauve, pink, red.

I never care about sorting fabrics because all our clothes are the rough-and-tumble sort. Everything gets washed on the “Quick Wash” (33-minute) cycle, cold wash, cold rinse, UNLESS there are any barfy dog towels in the whites load. Then they’ll get the “Normal” (60-minute) cycle, warm wash, cold rinse.

I use unscented laundry detergent, and no fabric softener or dryer sheets; all those extra chemicals make me itch.

How about you?

If I cut it in strips, and numbered them, and then velcroed them back together…

Laundry List, and a Game

Today, Tuesday, is laundry day. It’s the day Jack goes home to his mum, so the clothing left here for him has all been worn. It’s a day I need to stick around the house, to see Jack to the streetcar and see to him after school. It’s a good day for scrubbing weekend schmattas and ensuring office wear for the week.

As I was sorting the laundry this morning, I was thinking about the term “laundry list” which means a detailed enumeration. I decided that today would be good time, then, to catch up on little bits and pieces here in Blogland, mainly dealing with the delightful laundry list that is my blogroll. So without further ado, and in no particular order:

1. On April 4, Goodbear posted an interview with Seamus, my WWF Sea Turtle Stuffy. Go straight to it, or if you prefer, click on “cody bear’s friends” for compassionate, often hilarious, photos and newslets on her dog Cody and her daily life in general. She is also the mastermind of DOG DAILY PHOTO, excellent impromptu portraits of dogs she meets around town. She has a gift for capturing each pooch’s personality.

2. This past weekend, I wrote two and-a-half entries dealing with  Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit. Themarvelousinnature has volunteered with the Bird Research Station for four or five years now. She has three entries specifically tagged for that topic: February 23, March 31, and April 2. When she isn’t taking superb photos of songbirds, she’s examining pond creatures or cattail stalks or meadow vole runways or black knot — things we’ve seen and wondered about hundreds of times, but never got around to answering our own questions about them. Themarvelousinnature might just have the answer; go check it out.

3. Another interesting post dealing with birds has just gone up on exploratorium. [Note: as of April 21, the name of her blog was changed to "The Unwound Road".] It’s about birds that go bump in the night, and how office-tower managers and ordinary citizens might help prevent the accidental death of migratory birds. At the bottom of her article are all the links you need for further investigation of the topic. Eyegillian researches the current literature and delivers incisive, insightful surveys examining the crossroads of scientific findings and human interactions.

4. I hate to see anybody lose a contest. So when the results of the Name-and-genderize-the-sea-turtle-stuffy contest came in, I invited the six second-place winners to give me a word, and I would write a limerick using it. On my sidebar now is “Turtle’s Latest Limerick“, currently featuring one for Goodbear. I plan to post a new one on every monthday divisible by seven. I’ll also add a page to this blog with all the limericks in one place. So-o-o-o, for those of you who haven’t offered a word yet, please contact me! Eventually I’ll extend more invitations, but for now, the six second-place contest winners get top priority.

5. I’ve written a good deal about Cai, my Cardigan Welsh Corgi. If you need a more consistent Cardi fix, click over to Checkers’ World or the Yasashiikuma blog. One blog specializes in photo essays illustrating comical Cardidom from the dog’s point of view. The other examines all things Cardigan from the breeder’s point of view.

6. If you’re a cat person, or if you just need a good cry, go read The Aged Cat. Her blog’s raison d’etre recently passed away, and she hasn’t written for a couple of weeks now, but what she has posted is brilliant, beautiful, and heartbreaking. She also serendipitously created  the phrase barklove for dog people.

7. Since beginning this blog just over a month ago, I have made some friends in far places. Lately I noticed that two of them, Goodbear and Livingisdetail, comment on each other’s blogs as well as on mine. All three of us are generalists who write on various topics connected with our personal lives. Livingisdetail, for example, posts on everything from drambuie to duckponds to dumptrucks. Since one lives in the American southwest, the other in Melbourne Australia, and I in southern Ontario, I suggested to Livingisdetail that the three of us should get together for coffee in a location central to all of us — like, maybe Morocco. So-o-o-o, I have a GAME for my readers: Think of at least two other bloggers that you would like to get together with over a coffee, a tea, or a pint. (For non-blogging readers, you can choose either bloggers or acquaintances.) Check out a map or a globe. Where would you meet? Bonus question: What would you wanna talk about? Lemme know! No deadline or prize for this game, just something to think about.

 Time to fold the clothes! Thanks for sharing laundry day with me.