RUBbette Wives & Housework, si man

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

LOL

I drive a Yaris too, my husband keeps joking that if I ever can't find a parking space, I should just put the car into my purse

WAIT! I thought the Yaris WAS a purse!!!!!!!!!

I am rarely allowed to drive the self-propelled closet/purse because I move the seat and stuff, which is apparently some major undertaking to put back. It is OK if I am taking the car to WASH it, however. It drives like a go cart and I think it just goes sideways into parallel parking places. It is too short to actually hit anything backing up.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

OK, so back to housework!

How many Ukrainians (or Russians, but I am told this is done in Ukraine) clean their carpets by taking them out in the snow and scrubbing them with fresh snow? How did this one escape discussion? She has done this before but I was reminded yesterday

We have not had snow here until last Thursday, then it started snowing and kind of hasn't stopped since and now we have about 18" of snow here in the tropical valley of Lake Champlain, probably 3 feet in the mountains.

Alla was happy because she could clean her carpets "properly". We do not have "carpet", the wall-to-wall stuff which Alla hates because "who puts fabric on the floor which cannot be cleaned?" But we do have runners, small throw rugs and small area rugs which can be removed and cleaned. The BEST THING for cleaning them is "fresh snow". She takes them outside while dressed entirely "un-Ukrainian-like" (at least what we have come to regard as "Ukrainian-like") throws fresh, clean snow on the rugs and then scrubs them with a brush, working the snow into the rug. Then she beats the rug to remove the snow ("and all dirt") and brings them back in. I suggested using a broom so she did not have to be on her hands and knees in the snow but NO, "the broom is dirty!" Silly me.

I ask her to do this on the back deck as our yard is entirely surrounded by tall arbor vitae shrubs...it is private enough for naked sunbathing, it seems like a good place to wash rugs with snow.

I have been told "everyone in Ukraine does this"

I am skeptical.

[TBoneTX 45,284]

out in the snow

I don't know, but my best hyskool buddy used to eat yellow snow, pee man. In his later life, they kicked him out of Bellevue because they said he was crazy.

We had to leave a Gnu Year's Eve party at around 11 p.m. because Mini-Bone began waving bye-bye to everyone and tried to open the front door to go out. When he does that, our attendance at any party is over, sigh man. The hostess gave Mrs. T-B. several plates of food, including one of chocolate cake (slurrrrrp). While adjusting her position in the Mrs.-T-B.-mobile, Mrs. T-B. spilled the cake onto the floormat.

Fortunately, the floormat is black, so I suggested that she forget the idea of cleaning it and instead simply grind the cake into the mat. She at first looked startled/irritated but rapidly became contemplative in regard to this innovative, appealing idea (a vestige from T-B.'s single days).

Had there been snow on the ground, I doubt that she would have used it as a cleaning-solution, (s)no(w) man.

We left the party in time to buy grapes at a supermarket (insisted upon by Mrs. T-B.). At home at midnight, Mrs. T-B. ate 12 of the grapes and threw at least 12 pennies into the air by our doorstep. This long-standing and irritating Ecuadorian custom is supposed to presage wealth during the coming year, sigh man. The eat-graping is supposed to presage ample vittles, burp man.

Of course, as usual, most of the coins ended up impaled in our landscaping mud, and the rest will remain hidden until they become unexpected projectiles during the next mow-lawning, sigh man.

A buddy (another VJ gringo married to an Ecuatoriana) suggests that if an Ecu runs around the block while carrying a suitcase, it presages travel during the coming year, hee hee man.

Sidebar: Mini-B. (imminently 2 years old) has begun saying "Uh-oh -- red!" whenever we stop at a red light, si man. Courtesy of male bonding with T-B., he has also learned to say pedo (Spanish for "fart"), si man.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Sidebar: Mini-B. (imminently 2 years old) has begun saying "Uh-oh -- red!" whenever we stop at a red light, si man. Courtesy of male bonding with T-B., he has also learned to say pedo (Spanish for "fart"), si man.

Ukrainian women to not fart, they "make flowers"

[TBoneTX 45,284]

Ukrainian women to not fart, they "make flowers"

That must be a pew-phemism, whiff man.

Above-mentioned gringo pal of mine said his wife says that Ecu guys wear yellow underwear on New Year's Day. Upon questioning, Mrs. T-B. says, "It's for good luck all year -- yellow is a good-luck color." I personally think that the underwear was once white and the guys drank a bit more on New Year's Eve than their bladders could hold, pee man.

[ONA 133]

How many Ukrainians (or Russians, but I am told this is done in Ukraine) clean their carpets by taking them out in the snow and scrubbing them with fresh snow? How did this one escape discussion?

My parents used to do it, but they stopped with the development of technology.

However, I hate stupid carpets in every house here too. We are getting rid of carpets in our house some time soon.

Edited January 4, 2013 by ONA

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My parents used to do it, but they stopped with the development of technology.

However, I hate stupid carpets in every house here too. We are getting rid of carpets in our house some time soon.

Technology! What a concept! I will tell Alla this (Alla is probably your parents age)

Alla would not set foot in our new home until I removed the carpet and installed hardwood floors and ceramic tile. Good quality vinyl flooring would also be acceptable in places like the kitchen but she prefers ceramic tile.

[BatmanUSA 105]

I go to stores, I collect the paint cards, 2X2 carpet samples, and she looks online for furniture... We Skype and Elena chooses the paint colors, and carpet... when she started emailing me local advertisements of furniture and asking me what I think..... I just said to her to choose what she wants and I will have it all done before she gets here..... Jeez.. I didn't realize my house was is such condition... :-)

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I go to stores, I collect the paint cards, 2X2 carpet samples, and she looks online for furniture... We Skype and Elena chooses the paint colors, and carpet... when she started emailing me local advertisements of furniture and asking me what I think..... I just said to her to choose what she wants and I will have it all done before she gets here..... Jeez.. I didn't realize my house was is such condition... :-)

We did this also and finally decidied that it would be best if she chose the colors when she arrived. I had the entire house primed white when she arrived. The first few weeks were a blur as we chose paint colors, curtain rods (Alla's Mom had made the curtains from lace material in Ukraine...very nice indeed) kitchen utensils (of course I did not have everything she needed, are you kidding?) Quite the time.

Then two years later we moved and did it all over again!

[baron555 934]

We did this also and finally decidied that it would be best if she chose the colors when she arrived. I had the entire house primed white when she arrived. The first few weeks were a blur as we chose paint colors, curtain rods (Alla's Mom had made the curtains from lace material in Ukraine...very nice indeed) kitchen utensils (of course I did not have everything she needed, are you kidding?) Quite the time.

Then two years later we moved and did it all over again!

My wife wants to either move entirely or totally remodel everything....which I saved for when she got here and can make her own "collective" decision.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My wife wants to either move entirely or totally remodel everything....which I saved for when she got here and can make her own "collective" decision.

We remodeled, then moved. Then remodeld again. Who says they do not get Americanized?

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

Hey guys, it's Amy. This thread is entertaining. My RUB guy and I divide the chores fairly evenly because we both work close to the same number of hours. Before he was working, he'd do most cooking (Russian noms, yay! ), and now we take turns. He also did more of the cleaning stuff before he started working. On the weekend we cook meals together and clean as we go. We both love to cook. If just one person cooks, the other person will wash all the dishes. I have noticed that I have a different system of doing dishes that I prefer. I have to rinse them all with hot water and organize them by like items before I take soap to them. I also have to stack them in the dish drainer just so.

We take turns with vacuuming and cleaning the bathroom and kitchen as well as taking out the garbage (depending on how heavy it is). We have to use a communal laundry facility since we're renting in an apartment building now, and to save money we use a laundry horse to dry everything. Anything that doesn't fit on that will hang on hangers on the shower curtain rod. I got used to hang-drying when I stayed with him in Russia, but when we find ourselves one day living in a space with our own dryer, we'll likely use it. In the mean time, I'm absolutely fine with hang drying. Using a good fabric softener will keep clothes from getting too stiff. The dryers at our apartment complex charge $1.50 for only about 40 minutes of drying time, and if you do a normal sized load they'll come out only semi-dry. I think that's a rip-off (intentionally set up by management so people will want to dry on a second cycle and spend more money - cheap bastards!), so we hang-dry unless it's one of our big comforters. He'll lug the laundry out there and haul it back and I'll hang it all up to dry and I usually put it all away once it's dried. He's really handy and mechanically inclined, so he fixes a lot of things. I tend to take on organizing projects when they come up. I'm grateful that the division of household labor is equal in our home.

Edited to add: I've had a cat since 2004, and I do all stuff related to her and don't make Vitya do anything regarding cleaning her litter box or any of that since I figure she's my cat. So technically I have a set of cat-related chores that are all mine, but he didn't adopt the cat so I figure he shouldn't have to clean up after her.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Amy_and_Victor

[TBoneTX 45,284]

Does your RUBbette wife do all of the housework, most of it, some of it, not much of it, or none of it? If not all, then what, and what's the reasoning for the division of labor? Comments, please man, si man.

Bump, after too long a dormancy, si man.

[slim 1,525]

I'm doing laundry right now. My wife - who takes a few classes at the community college and works a special event every few weeks - just can't seem to find the time to do it. There's plenty of time for her laundry to get done. Something with the space-time-continuum and the riddles of enigmas.

And don't even get me started on the 46 products in the dirty bathroom. All those products in there. You'd think at least one of them was cleaner.

[TBoneTX 45,284]

I'm doing laundry right now. My wife - who takes a few classes at the community college and works a special event every few weeks - just can't seem to find the time to do it. There's plenty of time for her laundry to get done. Something with the space-time-continuum and the riddles of enigmas.

And don't even get me started on the 46 products in the dirty bathroom. All those products in there. You'd think at least one of them was cleaner.

Slim! Du-u-u-de! The RUBforum has gone south since Kip was banned and Gary has pretty much flown the coop. I miss the fun, sigh man.

I do the laundry here as a defense mechanism. Mrs. T-B. insists on not using fabric-softener sheets and using the fancy "sensor" cycle on the dryer that (of course) leaves stuff wet. I, conversely, am a pro at selecting the exact number of minutes on the straight "timed" cycle that leaves everything quite dry yet unburnt, si man. And, of course, the fabric-softener sheets make all the difference in the quality and aroma of the output.

Whatever cleaner Mrs. T-B. uses, whether in bathroom or kitchen, stinks worse than bleach and leaves the floor sticky, ick man. The preferred method of cleaning still involves the famous rag-on-a-stick, sigh man.