House Cleaning Schedule - An Experiment

Cleaning the house can be such a drag sometimes. 

It’s something that has to be done, and I always feel great once it’s finished, but getting motivated to start is the hardest part.  We’ll go through cycles of super-cleaning the house every weekend, then it just peters out until it’s been over a month and there is a nice layer of dust covering everything.  So, I’ve come up with a little experiment that should help keep the house clean on a regular basis.

The way I figure, if it is part of a daily routine, like showering and brushing teeth, it should be easier to keep up with it.  I wish I had the time to do a full top-to-bottom house cleaning every day, but instead, I’ve split up the chores so that each day a different room gets cleaned and each room gets cleaned once per week.  Other chores are divided up throughout the week, too, to keep the project manageable.  Here’s the plan:

• Sunday: Bedroom. Porch day.
• Monday: Office. Organize papers day.
• Tuesday: Living room. Water the plants day.
• Wednesday: Bathroom 1. Organize dishes and silverware day.
• Thursday: Hall, closets, laundry room. Polish shoes day.
• Friday: Kitchen. Clean out the fridge/pantry day.
• Saturday: Bathroom 2. Laundry day.

Other chores to be completed as needed: wash dishes, take out the trash, organize toys, make bed, and anything else pertinent that comes up.

On each day, the room gets cleaned top to bottom, starting with the ceiling fan, then walls and windows, everything in the room gets dusted/scrubbed/organized, and finish with the floor (vacuum carpets, scrub tile, or clean wooded floors).

I’m going to try the experiment for a month and see how it goes.  Hopefully, if all goes according to schedule, the house will stay in great shape all the time!

Wine Tasting Notes - Skouras Saint George Nemea Aghiorghitiko 2008 (Greece)

Wine Tasting Notes - Skouras Saint George Nemea Aghiorghitiko 2008 (Greece)

Well, it is time for another wine review!  Several months ago, my wife and I had some friends over for dinner- another Korean/American family.  Their daughter likes to play with our daughter and we always have a lot of fun together.  We had this wine for the occasion.

I had never tried a Greek wine before and I was super curious about what Greek wines are like.  I had been saving this bottle for a few months and was excited to crack it open with our friends.  This wine has a deep red color with a bit of a shine to it.  When pouring this wine into the glass, it explodes with aromas of spice and dark red fruits.  There is also a hint of smoke that brings the fruit and spice aromas together.

When it first hits the palate, this wine as a very soft, silken texture that is a delight.  The acid and tannin content is present, but not overbearing; personally, I enjoy the texture of tannins and I found this wine to have a supple amount that was pleasing on the tongue.  The raspberry and blackberry flavors that the aroma promised along with a touch of the spices are in the forefront of the flavor of this wine with a deeper, earthy base that came as somewhat of a surprise to me, as I did not detect this when I sniffed the wine.  After researching this wine a little bit, I found that the Aghiorghitiko varietal grows in clay soil, so this must have crept its way into the flavor of the grape.  The finish is long and satisfying with the spice and smoke aromas and flavors mellowing into a mild black pepper note.

We couldn't believe how much we enjoyed this wine!  All of us commented on how wonderfully smooth it was to drink and how excellent the taste was!  Even into the second glass, the taste continued to grow on us and it was our favorite wine of the evening.  The Saint George Nemea Aghiorghitiko is a hidden gem among the wines that are available.  I've only been able to find it since then in larger warehouse-style liquor stores next to the Italian aisle.

http://www.skouraswines.com/

16. It is never ok to wear your pajamas outside of the house.

First Impressions of Korea

The first time I visited Korea I was traveling with my wife.  It was exciting to fly overseas, even though the flight was a good twelve hours.  The announcements on the plane were all done in English, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese.  For each meal, you had your choice of a Korean meal of a Western meal.  The service was fairly decent and the movies were pretty good.  We even got some decent sleep on the flight.  After we landed at the Incheon International Airport (it is actually outside of Seoul), we made our way towards the customs and immigration area where there were only two large signs:

KOREANS                             FOREIGNERS

That pretty much sums up how it is: Korea is a homogenous society with one language, culture, food, etc., and everything else is foreign.  That is what makes it so interesting to visit Korea as a foreigner, at least for me!  Everything is so different than anything in America.  Anyways, I remember seeing these signs and thinking, “Well, now I will be a foreigner for once so I will know what it is like.  This should be interesting.”  After passing through immigration, we collected our baggage, changed a few dollars into won, and passed into the large atrium at the ground transportation level.  For me, this was like passing into another world!  Everything was in Korean- Korean TV, Korean announcements, Korean advertisements, Korean snack shops, and everybody speaking in Korean.  I was so happy I had my wife with me, because it was a little disorienting, but amazing nonetheless.  If I was on my own that first time visiting Korea, I think that it could be overwhelming without having a good knowledge of the Korean language.  The other thing I noticed right away was how many people were there.  It was packed!  There were so many people gathered and I didn’t realize how sparsely populated America is until I experienced this crowd.

We purchased tickets for a “limo bus” that would bring us to the neighborhood where my in-laws live where we would be picked up by my brother-in-law.  The seats reclined on the limo bus, so it made for some smooth riding and we even caught a few winks of sleep.  Looking out the windows, all of the road signs were in Korean.  Everything, I mean everything, was in Korean!  I saw a speed limit sign with the number “120” on it and I just about panicked!  I asked my wife, “Do the buses really drive 120 miles per hour?”  She just smiled and said, “They sure do.”  I thought for a minute, then realized that Korea must use the metric system, at which point my wife burst out laughing!  It was a pretty good joke, albeit at my expense.

I don’t remember a whole lot else, since I fell asleep pretty soon after that, but I do remember these three things from my first trip to Korea:

1.      Everything is different from America.

2.      It’s crowded.

3.      They use the metric system.

More adventures to follow from my trips to Korea.

Top Ten Baby Things We Bought

#9 – Gerber Graduates Kiddy Cutlery (Fork, Spoon, and Knife Set)

We tried several different types of silverware from when our daughter first began eating solid foods all the way through today (she is almost 2!).  Some of them worked pretty nicely, such as the miniature silverware that Asiana Airlines gives you with your meal.  Others were not so good.  But this Gerber Graduates set is really pretty good.

What I think I liked the most about this set is how the pieces are easy for our daughter to hold with wide handles, but the eating surface is metal, just like real silverware.  The fork tines are not too sharp, either.  We don’t let her eat with the knife yet, but it is also very safe.

http://www.target.com/p/gerber-graduates-kiddy-cutlery-3pk/-/A-12154745

15. If you have a complaint with a business, take it up with the manager; don't wait until you get a survey, and don't go online and publish bad reviews- that's weak.

Adult Tantruming

Here's another new slang term we've been using around the office the last few weeks: adult tantruming.  This one's pretty much self-explanatory- any time a grown man or woman pitches a fit and makes a fool out of themself for not getting their way, they are exhibiting an adult tantrum.

Have fun!