A Premature Goodbye

This week's craziness all started with a decision I made late Sunday night to list our washer and dryer on Craigslist. We are unexpectedly getting a new washer and dryer for Christmas, so I decided to do a good deed and sell ours at a very low price.

I posted the listing at midnight. My cell phone rang at 7:19 a.m. on Monday. Joe was calling to tell me that he had read my Craigslist ad at 3 a.m., decided that was too early to call and set his alarm "extra early" so he could be the first in line. To make a long story short, Joe showed up at 9:30 a.m. with a hand truck and a trailer and left with my washer and dryer. Before he arrived, I received eight calls and 12 emails from other people also interested in the set.

The downside of the speed of this transaction was the new washer and dryer weren't scheduled to be delivered until Friday. I had no backup plan for five days without modern cleaning devices.

As life would have it, the one week we are without a washer is when we most need it. Here's what's currently in our wash pile, listed in order of grossness. If you are squeamish, you may want to stop here.

1.) The normal pile of bibs and dishcloths covered with baby food.
2.) Another pile of cloths covered with snot because Molly has a cold.
3.) My tablecloth and more dishcloths covered with green and red icing and who knows what else, casualties of the neighborhood kids' cookie decorating party I hosted on Wednesday.
4.) All of Josh's bedding and a set of his pajamas because we forgot to tell our babysitter last night that Josh needs to stop by the bathroom on the way to bed, and he had an accident in the middle of the night.
5.) A big pile of towels, bathmats and more of Josh's clothes. Apparently the amount of red and green icing he ate at the party activated some explosive diarrhea (thanks to the makers of Olestra for that term), and he didn't quite make it to the potty. Chris now holds the bragging rights to "nastiest mess cleanup."

We will welcome the new washer and dryer with feasting and dancing. No appliances will ever have been more wanted.

On a better note, the crazy kids' party was really fun, and the springlike weather meant the 20+ kids could play in the backyard. The only party pooper was surprisingly Molly, who was not feeling well. She was not happy during the annual group picture.

We also finally got to enjoy one of the perks of Chris' job last night and sat in the Wachovia box (free food and drinks, seats at mid-court) for the Bobcats basketball game, in which some UNC alumni put on a great show.