Weekend round-up, Pandora - like anyone can stand another Pandora post, the joys of microfiber (or I am officially the dirt fairy) and what the heck are old people with acne supposed to use on their skin anyway?

1. Pandora - (If you want to read about cleaning skip to #2 or my skincare question skip to #3) Since it was time for Pandora's routine service I figured I would ask them to look at all the other stuff I've been collecting on the list.  Like the power doors yes again and again and again, oh and there is a CD stuck that won't come out.  Not a huge deal but I'm sick of The Captain and Tennille and that hanging wire.

They said nothing wrong with the CD player and the doors are fine and that wire is part of an after-market back up beep beep beep thingamabob that's not covered.  Since it's never worked I don't miss it.

They also were like, by the way did you know you have an oil leak?  Why no. 

Oh yeah, one of the engine gaskets is leaking I'll see if it's covered.  And I was pretty much all, you do that but I knew it was covered.  When I got the warranty I specifically asked about engine gaskets because the head gasket is what did in my last van, may she rest in peace.

Or pieces, I'm not sure which.

I sighed the sigh of the warrantied and felt a huge knot in my stomach anyway.  No matter how much I don't have to pay I get a shot of adrenaline like that day on the Garden State Parkway when the car in front of me spun out and somehow but I don't know how, missed me.

I watched the chaos in my rear view mirror as what seconds before was four lanes of traffic going 65 mph  devolve into something that was a cross between pinball and air hockey only with cars.  And screaming. 

It takes a while for your body to know it's safe. Even though your brain kinda does it's still pumping out adrenaline. 

So hearing that, Oh hey did you know you have an oil leak from an engine gasket?  but not having to pay feels a lot like not being in that accident. 

P.S. - The CD is still stuck and the doors still go up and down at will.

2. Cleaning up - I'm not done decluttering, maybe I'll never be, but I realized I've done a lot over the last few months.  Another thing I realized when the dust settled is this place is really, really dirty.

It's hard to even know what's dirty when there is stuff all over.  You can't see the dirt.  Baseboards, I mean who even thinks of baseboards when you're overwhelmed with a to-do list you feel is impossible to get through.

A few months down the road I can see the baseboards and it's not pretty.

I tried my favorite brush.  I've had it for years, it's as perfect as it was when I bought it.  It was like eight bucks and and it's called The Tile Brush

It's a great brush, study as anything - Perfect for a ton of jobs but it took the paint off the baseboards.  Huge duh on my part.

So I thought about it and decided to try the Don Aslett Microfiber Cloth set...  And yes, I bought them myself.

The set ncludes four 16" x 16" blue towels, four 16" x 16" green towels, and two 6"L x 4"W x 1"H blue microfiber-covered sponges

  I read the reviews and really for me, it's hard to weed through them for any sort of balance.  Some people seem to open the boxes and no matter what, harp-playing angels sprout from  boxes marked QVC; other people just want to say,  Eh, sucks. 

But I'd looked around for microfiber cloths and these were what I was looking for:  large size, double-thickness/ sometimes called plush and each side had different fiber lengths.

I'd also never seen the 'sponges' and was interested in trying those even though the contrary reviewers said, Awful, fell apart in three wipes. 

Just got them and really like them.  I don't normally like the way microfiber feels (at all ) and these I don't mind.  So plus one.  They clean really well, sometimes just with water.  Something gooey, soapy water.  A tough job, a spray of Windex.  Plus two.

You can take them to the sink, rinse and clean again - The day I cleaned the baseboard after I realized about the paint - I used paper towels.  An entire roll.   I use probably a roll a day.  I got these yesterday and I don't think I used a single paper towel.  Plus three.

I already threw one in the washer and it came out just fine.  Plus four.  I tried the sponge.  I don't know how it will do over the long haul but it's fine so far after spiffing up the microwave.

And  five...  I have a light wood banister that I thought was discolored.  It's as old as the house and I don't know why but it never occurred to me that the discoloration was dirt until I was carrying one of the dirty wet cloths up to the washing machine.

On a whim I ran one up the banister. Oh. Oh. Oh.  Then I grabbed my camera and did a little video.  You don't have to watch the whole thing to get the idea but watch a little of it...

And that's with water only, using a dirty cloth.

I feel like the dirt fairy.

3.  EEK!  - My face is breaking out like nobodies business.   I'd always expected it to go away when I got older but being that I now pee when I sneeze I'm thinking that I'm old enough that if it was going to go away when I was older it would have.

I do have Retin A from the dermatologist which I hadn't used because, well...  I guess I wasn't ever quite this motivated or the acne wasn't ever this bad or maybe I was just lazy, I dunno.  But I need to have some other sort of skin regime.

I'm going to use the Retin A now which limits me some plus the acne will probably get worse before it gets better (Retin A does that)  but I really don't even know what else to use.   Should I go the Cetaphil route? Or is there some other cleanser that's better?  Scrubs are kind of out - just tried them and it was a week of a pimple a day.  Don't want to repeat that.

I really need some moisturizer suggestions.   I really don't know what to use.   What the heck does an old person with acne supposed to use anyway?

 So that was probably the longest post ever...  I'm sorry.

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Even oatmeal makes it uphill in February eventually...

I got the silicon river stone sink mat. Finally. 

As you recall I described the bottom of my sink as, and I quote.... " a mess.  The white fiberglass has worn off so even though it's clean, the bottom looks like a healing bruise; all manner of off-yellows and tans with some odd greenish blues thrown in. "

And maybe you thought I was exaggerating to be funny because I didn't include a picture so here's one...

People who ate dinner at my house would look in that sink and gulp a little and I could see the thought bubble...

I found what I thought would be a nice solution from The Storage Store  and while shipping (that cost enough to send an elephant) occurred days (and days and days, one whining post, a migarine and two emails) after they promised I like the result.

It doesn't hide the discoloration that's going on beneath it, nothing will, but it cuts down on the grubbery of that entire scenario with a pleasing aesthetic.

It's also nice and soft so I will cease breaking vintage glasses in there.  I've broken three in the last few years and the sobbing that ensued as I was picking shards of my now defunct vintage lovelies  from the garbage disposal was just pathetic so that's over too.

All in all, with the exception of the migraine - A success.

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What happened to the floor....

The other day I pulled up the bathroom rug to see what would happen.  It's been down a while...

The long answer is the rug had  become connected to the floor on an atomic level so when I pulled it up, well first off the floor screamed and second off the rug sucked ALL the tiles right out of the grout (and broke several smack in half) like I don't know, a maniacal Endodontist was gleefully doing what came naturally to a floor full of impacted wisdom teeth.

That was the long answer.  The short answer is I have to get a new tile floor for the entire master bathroom.

Mostly, I'm just ill.  That's the very, very short answer.

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Retro Tuesday from my kitchen

One of the reasons I love Freecycle is because every so often something just spectacular pops up.  Last week someone had to cull her beloved vintage cookbooks and man, I so felt her pain.   I totally would have taken them all - She wanted to keep them together - but, I just couldn't.  I recently had to let some go and told her so but this I wanted so bad...

I said, please oh please let me have it....  I didn't hear from her for a few days and I thought she found some kind soul with lots of room to take all her jewels but then she wrote and asked when I could pick it up.

 It's a Betty Crocker Recipe card file ( circa 1971 I think) with the recipes and other stuff like dividers .... some little book business in the back.  I don't know stuff that came with it I suppose.   There are three sections without cards which are - Hm....  Recipes kids can make, something I can't remember and Impromptu gala something or others...

I'm kind of sad about not having the Impromptu thing because those recipes must have been grand.  Or cheesy.

Either way I would have loved them.

I know Retro Tuesday is usually from a magazine but this was so cool I couldn't resist!

Want to link up for Retro Tuesday?

Put a link in your blog, email me and I'll put your link under this post!

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Eye brows, ear brows and something I can't talk about....

So yes, the make-up brush thing...   Babes Rockin Mami  does fabulous Make-up Mondays a lot and she got me interested in watching You Tube videos of  gals that put on (the most amazing) make-up, review make-up, talk about make-up, and have more make-up then I've seen in one place including the department stores that employ perfume snipers (man, don't you hate that?)  And I've also been floating around a website called Makeup Alley where Make-up is some serious business.  These gals call their most favoritest products Holy Grail products.

That's serious.

I had no idea how much I'd lost touch with my Makeupeian side.  For real, I hardly have any.  I have exactly two eye shadows - a very pale green and a very dark plum.  For years I've had the same two.  I'm not talking the same two colors, I'm talking the same two.

And the only brushes I have are two, inch long sponge applicators that came with the eye shadows and I don't think I ever washed them.

I'm pausing this post as everyone goes ew.

I've been learning so much.  Not just that I have to wash those brushes.  Which I did this morning, so hush up that ew.   My recent obsessive video viewing taught me that eyebrows are important and I plucked mine out for all intents and purposes decades ago and baby, they showed me.  They didn't grow back.  

Okay well some did.  The eleven hairs that grew back were the ones that are able to grow five feet in length and turn gray on contact with air and what the heck's up with those five feet long gray eye brows that I thought only showed up only in the ears of ninety year old men and hey! If you're counting on that only happening to Grandpas like I did, don't.

So I'm stuck with ear brows over my eyes pretty much.  And it's a ridiculous predicament so don't over pluck... And really, I got nothing to color them up with cause all I got is pale green stuff and dark plum stuff and the brows - well,  the ones that aren't gray - are light. 

And if eye brows are supposed to frame the face, honey - I don't want to know what pale green ear brows would do to my face.

So let's not go there. 

So today I felt the need to get in touch with some make-up. No, actually it was more a desperate thing because I was scared of the sitcheeashun getting any worse  Seriously I was sweating. Which did not make me any more attractive for reals....

  Rite-Aid had buy one get one free on Wet n' Wild which is cheap to begin with and all the gals on Make-up Alley and You Tube rave about the stuff so I got my self some new ($14 TOTAL) things, ladies.

And even some brushes.  BRUSHES!  Actual brushes.

And something for those ear brows.  Although it doesn't claim to help ear brows, it claims to be the ultimate so I'm hopeful.

Now I had wanted to talk about this too...

But I just can't.  Every time I try I get sick.   I'll give you a hint though.  Remember this?  It's a lot like that only like a millions dollars worse.

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Last day for the back to school giveaway, make-up brushes, eye brows and chin break outs but only maybe those...

 Enter the back to school giveaway here!

I'll be posting later about my make-up brush issues and probably my eye brow issue... and my chin break outs (maybe but to tell you the truth I'm sick to death of those)  but I want to remind everyone with disorganized kids that today is the last day to get in on the giveaway for this...

And oh!  One more thing speaking of school.  Guess what?  My kid decided to go to college.  Yes, for real.  And he's starting Wednesday so I'll probably be posting about that soon, not that speaking of disorganized kids reminded me of my kid. (Really, honey it was a coincidence...)

Moving on....

This is a great giveaway if you have kids with lockers because every important paper in the free world ends up at the bottom of them....

Make sure you go to the original post guys, and enter - there will be three winners!

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