Dirty Dog

Our dog LOVES to run outside and splash in the creek behind our house. We hose her off and dry her with a towel before letting her come back in the house but apparently she's still pretty dirty. Here is a dirty spot on the wall from her frequently rubbing her back on it to scratch herself. There is a spot like this on each landing of our staircase and here at the bottom of the stairs outside our bedroom--ew! Lucky for us, it wipes off easily.

Stain Remover

I accidentally sat on plate of hot Bagel Bites a few days ago. I had set it in my office chair upstairs and put my drink on the desk in what little open space there was (reason I couldn't put the plate on the desk). I turned to move something from my desk and was then distracted by Alisa who came into the room. It was then that I sat on the plate. Oh nooooooo!

I immediately took off my pants and wiped off the cheese and sauce on the butt and upper leg areas. I put Shout Ultra Gel on the stain and washed them. That Shout has worked for nearly all other stains our clothes have had over the years but it didn't work on these (the circular grease spots were still there). I read online that spraying WD-40 on a stain and then rubbing Dawn dishwashing liquid on top of that and then washing as usual would work. I tried that but it didn't work. It seemed to rearrange the stain--some spots were gone but others appeared and others were larger.

So then I bought OxiClean Max Force today and sprayed it on the stain and washed the pants again. It completely removed the stain! I am SO relieved because the pants are fairly new and are my favorite (comfy exercise pants). To show you how distraught I was after the first two stain removal attempts didn't work, I went to Kohl's to see if they were still selling the pants so I could buy another pair (they were not). Thank God for OxiClean! Sorry I didn't take any pictures of the process.

New Cell Phone Battery

I am so glad to have a new cell phone battery! For the past couple of months, I've had to leave my phone plugged into the charger 24/7 because the power would drain so quickly. When I unplugged it, the battery would show full power but after talking for just 5 minutes, it would die and turn off my phone. So frustrating! Then if I turned it back on, it would show maybe 50% power. I had to plug it in to make a call though.

I bought a new extended-life battery on eBay and I am loving it. I can go days and days without charging my phone now. The battery is bulkier than the original regular one, but it's totally worth it. It still fits in my various cell phone pockets on purses and wrist wallets...it's just a tighter fit.

Here it is with the new battery bulging out the back:

It's quite nice now because the bulky battery protects the camera lense from getting scratched because now it never touches the table or whatever it is laid on: