A few posts back, I talked about cleaning a racquetball glove. My husband’s glove was pretty ripe and needed something – either a good cleaning or throwing out. I opted to clean it since the glove is only a few months old. After some research (ok – I used the first link in a Google search), I followed the advice of handwashing the glove in lukewarm water. To quote Julia Roberts in Pretty Women – Big Mistake. Huge.

The glove no longer had an odor but was two sizes too small. It is mostly leather, so the glove will stretch some. Still it will never be the same. There is only one thing left to do now – buy my hubby another racquetball glove.

Cleaning is not a lot of fun. It’s true that some people take a certain enjoyment from ordering and re-ordering their lives, however, for most, household tasks are nothing but a pain. There are always more interesting things to do like games, seeing friends or pretty much anything else. So the key is to do your cleaning as quickly as possible. To do this you need to cut some corners: there a couple of tools, like the Dyson dc33 multi floor vacuum, which will help you do this.

Cleaning with an old vacuum is infuriating – you can go over the same spot again and again and never pick up that one pesky speck of dust. To save yourself time all you need to do is get a shiny new machine which will actually clean deeper. This means you can tidy quickly and well, rather than poorly and slowly. Trying picking up a new Dyson: it’s sure to save you time.

If you don’t have a dishwasher you need to get one. Even if you do, you may not be using it enough, as you can throw pots and pans into it to avoid manual scrubbing. Best of all, cleaning this way is actually environmentally friendly as you’ll use less water.

When guests come to stay it can be a lot of work, especially with bedding. So don’t use multiple quilts, sheets and miscellaneous blankets on each bed – instead just use one comfy duvet set which will be easy to clean, and actually more comfortable than a cohort of crocheted blankets.

Alas, cleaning is a necessary evil. But as the old saying goes: ‘work smart, not hard’. If you do these three things you should be able to have a tidy home without putting in a lot of effort.

For the past few months, I have been running/walking at least three times a week. I have been listening to the same tunes and am now ready to fill my Zune player with some new songs. I call up the Zune software and I have to log on. I try but get an error.

I then go to check my Hotmail account that is my Windows Live account that is also used for Zune. I seldom use Hotmail, so I thought the email might have been locked due to inactivity as it has been done in the past. As I try to logon, I get a message about my account being blocked and to have a test message sent to my phone. This will have a code that I can then use to unblock everything. No problem. I put in my phone number and then wait for a text message. No message after a couple of hours. I try again. Still no message. I try once more but then get an error about I have sent too many messages.

Then I try to have a code sent to my hubby’s phone. That works. I get my code and completely unlock my Hotmail. Voila! Once again, I can sign on to Zune through the PC software. So, moral of the story is that if you suddenly have trouble with your Zune login, check your Windows Live. You may have something blocked with Windows Live and can easily get it unblocked. Or – well – relatively easy.

For the past six months, my husband has been playing racquetball and loving it. I have been playing for about a month and love it, too. So after 15 years of marriage, we are finally doing some form of exercise together. My husband got a racquetball glove at Christmas. It has never been washed and it smells. Since I couldn’t find the washing instructions on the tag, I turned to the Internet for answers.

The glove appears to be part leather – or at least something like leather. I know that this means to wash it carefully but wanted to make sure that it was OK to wash. I found some instructions for hand washing a glove in lukewarm water. The article suggested wearing the glove while still wet to form it back in place. Next is to lay it on a towel to dry. That is the stage I am at – waiting for it to dry and praying it smells less wretched. If not, then I will take the other advice I read when it comes to cleaning gloves – toss it and just buy a new one.

Guest post from Spencer Hogg, tech writer at Broadband Expert

With the prominence of mobile broadband across multiple providers throughout the United Kingdom, customers find themselves left to decide between the portability and ease of mobile broadband, or the high download speeds and less-expensive fixed broadband service. With benefits and drawbacks to both technologies, choosing the best service can be daunting. Thankfully, the decision between mobile and home broadband has never been easier.

Home Broadband
Home broadband provides reliable and fast high-speed connectivity to the internet. Services are priced at record lows, and most users can expect speeds of 4MB per second. Higher download speeds permit greater file transfer, which is crucial for those who stream movies and television shows. Home broadband allows for larger downloads, an essential for those who consume large amounts of music, movies, and photos. The service also provides a reliable connection, where mobile broadband modems can lose signal during downloads or VoIP calls.

Though home broadband offers higher download speeds, a more reliable connection, and cheaper rates, there are considerable limitations. A home connection cannot extend beyond the limits of a wireless connection, restricting users from roaming freely while staying connected. Line rental costs, which are not a factor in mobile broadband subscriptions, can cost as much as £12 per month regardless of internet usage during a billing cycle. Switching providers may also prove challenging, as providers pursue different technologies and may require customers to pay for fibre-optic or phone-based lines to be installed in the home.

Mobile Broadband
Providing portability within a user-friendly design, mobile broadband is a popular option for portable browsing and mobile computing. Users can access the internet anywhere, removing the need for wired connectivity. Mobile broadband deals are available relatively cheaply, and can be tailored to specific bandwidth allotments. User-friendly USB modems allow for fast, configuration-free connectivity. What’s more, the use of mobile broadband allows customers to cancel line rentals, saving subscribers this fixed cost each month.

The technology does come with restrictions, however. Download limits are typically small, which could prevent users from downloading large files. Mobile broadband connections are best suited for users which do not intend to download music, movies, and photographs regularly. Once caps are exceeded, many companies inflict overage fees per additional MB used. The mobile services provided are aimed toward casual web browsers, those who stream low-fidelity audio and video files, and those whose primary downloads consist of text documents and spreadsheets. Additionally, the connection provided by mobile broadband is considerably slower than wired connections. While coverage throughout the UK and the US is good and growing, there remain areas where signal strength is weak and mobile broadband is not considered feasible: customers in rural areas may experience frequent connection disruptions as coverage areas increase over the next few years. You can learn more about mobile broadband at Broadband Expert, a popular UK site with some useful information if you are interested in learning more about this technology.

I like to refer to our Jeep as our money pit. It seems every few months it needs some sort of repair. Friday we got it out of the shop where it had been for transmission problems. Got that fixed and then Friday night the ignition switch won’t turn. Luckily, it happened at my husband’s work, so we had access to the Internet and a place to wait for a tow truck if needed.

Apparently this is another common issue with Jeeps. The good thing about having a common car issue is that you can find out how to fix it on the Internet. Apparently you can use some spray graphite in the mechanism that will help with the problem. Here is the solution we used – with your key in the ignition, gently tap the end of it. It was a very Fonzie moment when this little trick actually worked. The key turned right over.

It is a little unnerving that this tapping the key worked perfectly. However, I’m not complaining. There are very few free fixes with this Jeep, so I will take it. If it works, then it works.

Last week I attended a local .net user group meeting. My husband has been wanting to attend one for quite some time, and so I agreed to go with him since he asked if I wanted to. I’m an aspiring programmer, so I thought that attending this meeting would be good motivation. Much to my surprise, I actually understood some of what was discussed – or at least I had heard the terms before.

Terms I had heard of included – code, class, execute, method, UI, shell, Life cycle, public, parent/child and Hello World. The subject was something I’m not sure I understand why you use it even though my husband explained it to me. I’m hoping the next meeting isn’t so ‘inside’ and will cover a broader topic. I was the only one who wasn’t a developer and truth be told, I agreed to go when I knew food would be provided. Oh, and door prizes were given away.

It was a fun experience and I plan on attending the April meeting. My goal is to finish one of the many programming books by the time of the next meeting. Maybe I will understand the next subject a little more.

Life can become stressful when you combine looking after kids, a house, pets and all the little things that inevitably fall at your feet. Week after week this tension builds and you can end up
becoming quite stressed. Thankfully, there is a sure-fire cure for this: the spa. Pamper weekends at a gorgeous retreat will evaporate all your cares with a parade of facials, massages and steam baths.

Pamper weekends are an amazing invention: basically, a group of ladies head off to a spa for two full days – during this time their every need is met, and they can relax in the evening at a sumptuous
hotel with a nice bottle of wine. Of course, you can’t do this every weekend, but a few times a year it’s good to get away with the girls and really spoil yourself.

If you go on a pamper weekend twice a year, that is still probably not enough – you don’t want to let your stress pile up for six straight months! So, arrange to go on shorter, yet still relaxing spa days. You can arrange to have a massage, a pedicure, a manicure and a steam bath all in one day – this will leave you feeling refreshed and tide
you over until your next pamper weekend.

It is a hard task looking after so many people, and it’s important to take some time and put yourself first for a change – this can be hard to do, but it is crucial to carve this space out for yourself. The spa
is the perfect place for this as it will take you far away, let you turn off your cell phone and fall into a truly relaxing experience.

A few weeks ago, I bought Arm & Hammer Scrub Free with Bleach to use to clean the toilets. My mom uses it and swears by it. Even though it isn’t used for toilets, it works well. Just a spray when you are done and by the time you use it again, the toilet is cleaner.

I am happy to report that it is working great. Our toilets have never been so clean. In fact, my husband really likes this system. He sprays after every trip to the bathroom. He has even added spraying the tub after he showers to his cleaning routine. If cleaning is easy, then he will do it, and it doesn’t get any easier than spraying.

Now if only I could find an easy solution for clearing cutter that we could all get behind, everything would be perfect.

Aside from working in the yard this week, I’ve been using my computer skills to setup my parent’s computer. After fighting with Vista for months, I decided that it was time for a change. I installed Windows XP on it in hopes that it will make it easier to connect to the Internet.

Right now the computer connects through our wireless router. For a more reliable connection, I plan to run cat-5 cable from our home to the shop. A wired connection will be much more reliable than trying to connect with the wireless game router. It is a project I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time.

I will need at least 100 feet and thought I had enough cable at home. Looks like I was wrong as I was trying to run it. I’m way short, so I will be ordering some from Optimization-World.com. Then my computer networking job will be complete, and here is hoping that the wired network will solve the connectivity issues.

It does feel good to call on my networking skills. That is the downside of being a housewife. You don’t get a lot of opportunities to use your work skills. It is fun to practice what I know and to be able to help family. It’s win-win all around.