Sunday, August 18, 2013

S.L.O.B.

Tom and I have been married a whole lotta years. More than 40 and just barely less than 50. We've had ample opportunities to be exposed to each others foibles. But let me say at the outset, I do believe I have fewer foibles than Tom. Just sayin' (although I could be lying about this to preserve whatever stature I have with folks who know us).

So, one of the things that just drives me crazy is that Tom uses his hand to wipe surfaces. Rather than use a dish rag, sponge, paper towel or any other medium that might leave anything less than a nasty streak on whatever surface he wipes, Tom uses his hand. For whatever reason, he somehow thinks running his hand across a wet surface is an adequate clean up method. You and I know it's not.

Not to completely diss him, the man does the dishes regularly. If I cook, he cleans up. He also cooks...and cooks amazingly delicious stuff. He empties the dishwasher and fills it. He does his own laundry most of the time. He's not opposed to making our bed. He's also been known to vacuum, sweep and dust. All of that in addition to mowing the lawns and general yard cleanup. Oh yeah, and running his business and working his ass off to make a living. He really is a great guy. I shouldn't complain.

But, this hand wiping thing drives me nuts. Whatever food residue happens to be mixed in with the water on the wet surface is merely spread around and the surface winds up being streaky, sticky, grainy, disgusting!

Today he made Ricotta Gnudi to serve with a Fennel Cream I was making. They were beautiful little pillows of puffed up flour and ricotta. Delicious.

After dinner, we both cleaned up, but he was at the sink before me, putting dishes in the dishwasher, washing pots and.... yes, wiping wet surfaces.

I have a stainless steel farmers sink. It has a deep 4-inch ledge at the front. When I walked over to put a couple of dishes in the dishwasher, I noticed that he had wiped... with his hand... the sink ledge. It was streaked with water mixed with flour, fennel cream and who knows what else. Arrrggghhh!

I grabbed the dish rag, ran it under the hot water and wrung it out until it was no longer dripping and wiped up the ledge of the sink, but not without comment.

"God, Tom, you wiped this up with your hand! Dude, you are such a slob!" I know. Not very appreciative of a guy who's already loaded most of the dishes in the dishwasher and washed all the pots and pans.

But, in his ever so positive spin, he replied, "Slob? Slightly Likable Old Bastard?"

Yeah, babe. Although, quite a bit more than "slightly likable."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I like you both. And the yin and the yang of this really works, as a couple. I know one couple that is painstakingly neat, and they sort of get on my nerves. I know another couple, two slobs, and that's not so attractive either. When they have me over, warning their place is a mess, it's so beyond mess I'm speechless.