A Treatise on Young Women, Ziploc, and Bounty

Do you remember when you were a kid and you told your parents that "NO WAY" were you going to be the kind of parents they were? You know, because they were sooooo mean when they didn't let you get your ears triple pierced. Stupid parents. But now that some of us are parents, we see that we're totally doing those things because, well, they made sense. Those things make me laugh.

Then there are things that you never really noticed your parents did until you moved in with someone else and they did them differently. For example, there were three things of infinite worth in our household: young women, Ziploc bags, and paper towels. The baggies and towels were not to be used in any haphazard manner (neither were the young women, for that matter). Oh no, we used Ziploc bags and then reused them (especially if they were Ziploc brand--oooh, we knew we were living the high life when we had brand-name Ziploc baggies!). It was quite a frequent occurrence to see them drying on the side of the sink after a good washing. And paper towels? You better spill an entire gallon of milk before daring to use even one paper towel. Even then, maybe you could get by with using only half a towel.

As another example, my mom never put pots and pans in the dishwasher. We always had to wash those by hand. Consequently, neither a pot nor a pan has ever seen the insides of my dishwasher. Until tonight. On Tuesday I made these mini muffins. The dirty muffin tin sat in the sink for nearly 48 hours because I hate cleaning muffin tins. Hate. Apparently the hate I feel for this task is greater than the love I feel for a clean kitchen. That's saying a lot. But I finally broke down after dinner tonight and realized that it was time to clean it (after realizing that Chuck wasn't going to be nice and do it for me). While I begrudgingly cleaned the darn thing, I asked Chuck if they make mini muffin liners because I'd totally buy those. He remarks, "Why don't you just put it in the dishwasher?" WHAT? You can do that? A muffin tin in the dishwasher? I never! But I did. And it feels so good. Sorry Mom.