Squeeky clean!

Yesterday was our initial visit from the MerryMaids who will be cleaning the place up every two weeks from now on. 

They did tell me that the first visit would cover everything, and that after that, each time they come they would do a specific "extra" rather than doing everything every time.  Okay.  But I had no idea just HOW much "extra" stuff they would be doing.  They came in the morning (2 of them) and worked all day long until after 6 PM!  Good grief!  I felt pretty a little embarrassed at how much grunge they had to deal with around here.  And given that David is still repairing things in the master bedroom and that we are still moving furniture around upstairs, it wasn't all that easy for them to even get to things.  But they did a good job.  The scrubbed all the baseboards (THAT probably hadn't been done since they were installed six years ago!), wiped down all the cabinet doors, cleaned the inside of the microwave, and the outside of the washer and drier.  They cleaned the ceiling fan blades.  And they dusted everything - even the books on all those the bookshelves.

Of course, there are a few things that I do NOT want them doing anymore -- like cleaning the desk in our office.  All my papers are mixed up now, and the computer (where I was in the middle of a number of things) was turned OFF when I came home.  How the heck that happened, I don't know.  But it's hard to believe it turned ITSELF off.  So I don't think I want anyone anywhere near the thing in the future. 

Still, it really is lovely to have the house so nice and clean.  I DO still need to do things like wash all the dog blankets and find a way to store all the stuff that came out of that window seat we got rid of and the master closet. 

When I got home yesterday they had reached the point where they were about to mop all the floors, so Mark and I went out to sit on the front porch out of the way, along with Rocky.  We were all really glad when they finally got finished - Mark and I because we wanted to go back inside and have dinner.  And Rocky because the whole time he was out there on the porch, the Garage Cat kept fawning all over him!   He had had enough at that point! 



He was happy to be out there - at first --



But then when the Garage Cat noticed him and started "marking" him as hers
he got a bit less cheery.  ;-D

He's looking at me at first like "pleeeeeeeese do something about that cat!"

But when I didn't, he seemed to give in and just pretend he didn't notice her at all.



Patient boy . . .

Oddly enough, that cat seems to love ALL dogs.  And they all seem to like her - even if they can't stand any other cats.  Even Joey seems to love having her wander in and out of his legs.  Strange.

Oh - Bryan lowered the "window" between Lizzie's and Arthur's stalls last weekend.  It used to be high enough that they couldn't actually see each other.  So I watched to see how they'd react when they came in Sunday night, but they didn't seem to care one way or the other about that window.  But as it turned out, they just hadn't notice it at first.  Now? . . . the two of them stand near each other and touch noses in there all the time.  Nice.  I guess ALL of our houses are improving, huh?