Meanderings: February 17, 2000

Thursday,
February 17, 2000

I suspect I'm not going to be very popular in our house this weekend. See, a few weeks ago I realized that we had three healthy, functional adults with the use of all their limbs living under one roof. As that was the case, there was really no reason for the rooms under that roof to look like the Hell's Angels had used them for a weekend rally.

It really was filthy -- serious dustbunnies in the corners, clothing strewn across the bedroom floors, and crockery in every room. And there was no good reason for the place to look like that, so I sat down and divided up the cleaning chores among the three of us, to be rotated on a weekly bases. Bedrooms, private areas and bathrooms were to be a permanent chore for the related parties -- the rest of the time, we would swap cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the living room/library, and cleaning the sun room/entranceway every week. The plan was to commence the week I came back from London.

Which is -- why, it's this week, as you might notice. And as per my scheduled duty, I've been coming home every night and cleaning the kitchen -- putting the dishes into the dishwasher and turning it on, wiping down the boards and sweeping or vacuuming the floor. On Saturday I'll give it an extra cleaning and mop the floor for good measure, in addition to cleaning our bedroom and bathroom.

I must report, however, that nothing's been done to the sun room, living room, entranceway or library. And as I've carried out my part of the bargain, my two favorite Brits will spend this weekend cleaning their assigned areas, whether they know it or not. Hell, it's not as if we have any money to go out -- they might as well stay home and clean.

And amongst all this sturm and drang, I completely forgot that this was the beginning week for the new SFF.Net Story Dare (the goal is eight weeks, eight stories). Considering how much time I've spent planted in front of a computer at work for the past few days, it's hardly surprising that I haven't relished the idea of more of the same at home. But I did agree to the Dare, and since my competitively American soul won't let me back out, I dragged out and added another 300 words to "Bartok and the Unicorn." I'm going to try and finish it tomorrow night, then spend the weekend editing and polishing, with submission on Monday as my goal. Dunno where I'm going to send this one, but there has to be a market out there somewhere that accepts weird, dark, twisted fiction.

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