Carpet Watch 2008

7:55 a.m. and Suzanne is still asleep. This is quite remarkable in that she is normally up between 6:30 and 7 and it is sunny today. I guess we really tired her out the last few days with our many and varied activities.


Let's start with Wednesday--on second thought, let's totally forget Wednesday and move immediately to Thursday. Kirk had his spring musical program Thursday evening and he was given a speaking part to perform. This isn't the first time Kirk has been in the spotlight. When he was 4 he played the peddler in the Pelican Gathering Preschool play, "Caps for Sale." He was also an extra in a soon-to-be-released movie called "Multiple." You can check him out on the Internet Movie Database website... Kirk Brown - Child in Park. He had a speaking part in the 2nd grade production of "The Frog Prince" back in February, and now he snagged a role as one of the narrators in the musical "Glow." It's about fireflies. Kirk has occasional moments of shyness, but overall he's pretty outgoing and likes to be in front of the crowd.


Suzanne sat there during the entire program trying to imitate the hand motions that were a part of the songs. She really got into the music and clapped enthusiastically after each song. Her teacher tells me that she loves circle time in school, especially when they sing. In fact, there is a little boy who refuses to sit with his legs crossed and his hands in his lap. Suzanne got so annoyed with his flopping around that she got up, walked across the circle to him, and firmly helped him cross his legs and put his hands in his lap. Then she marched back to her own spot and sat down. Woe to the kid who disrupts Suzanne's circle time!


Friday was baseball, of course, and for once it wasn't rainy. Kirk had a bit of a meltdown when he didn't get to play the position he wanted, but Suzanne was happy. She likes to sit on the end of the bench with the boys, and many of them have had a couple of years to get to know her, so they don't mind.


Yesterday we went to the Home & Garden Show at the Clark County Fairgrounds. We like to go to events there because it is


1. Easy access from I-5
2. Plenty of parking
3. The Clark County Dairy Women make wonderful milkshakes


We go to the fair every year and we occasionally go to concerts in the Amphitheater. Last year we saw ZZ Top and Chrissie Hynde. The ZZ boys are darned old and apparently quite deaf, but Chrissie Hynde (who is pushing 60) sounded great and was wearing these killer boots that I would love to have. Not being a rocker chick, however, I would probably look quite silly.


But back to the H&G Show. I have a system for choosing which booths to stop at. They have to talk to me first. If I make eye contact and they don't at least say hello, I don't stop. C'mon, if you are in sales and you can't at least squeak out a howdy, you should probably find another career.

I found a fun guy to talk to at the Bio-Ox booth. No, this is not compost created by oxen, it is a cleaning product that is supposed to take out odors and all manner of organic stains from virtually every surface in your house. As I told the guy, I don't care if it removes stains from my toilet, all I want to know is will it take out poop stains from the carpet in my daughter's room. That's it--if the poop comes out, I will buy some. He showed me how it works on red wine, soy sauce and tea, and how it cleaned the carpet pad as well as the carpet, and its ingredients are water, hydrogen peroxide and orange oil, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember. Now, perhaps I'm grasping at straws, but I bought a bunch of it in the hopes that my carpet could be saved. After we got home, I mixed a sprayer full and tried it out on some kitty barf, poopy spots, and a stain of indeterminate origin. I have to say that I'm rather amazed because everything came out. I had to scrub on a couple of stains, but overall I was pleased with my test. We are going to put some in the carpet shampooer today and really give it a test drive.

I'll keep you posted on the Bio-Ox situation. Gotta go now, though--it's pancake day at church and Kirk hates to be late...