So much to do

My brother and his family are coming to visit for an entire week. He has been stationed in DC since his return from Iraq and his little family has joined him there. We haven't seen them since Christmas, so you can bet this is a special occasion. Especially since my adorable nephew had his first birthday a month and a half ago. We will be making up for missing that!

Since they will be staying with us I have been running like a crazy person; cleaning, arranging a family gathering and general "people will be staying" stuff, as well as the normal, everyday insanity that is my life.

I have taken you on the above round-about description to tell you about vacuum cleaner bags. Yep, you read it right, vacuum cleaner bags.

We have 3 vacuums; one for each floor. I keep the Roomba on the upper floor. As the bedrooms are there the floor doesn't get as dirty as the rest of the house.

In the basement is my old Dirt Devil Vision. This thing has seen better days. It works well on the tight-woven carpet down there and it's handy.

But, for the main floor, the floor that gets everything from grass to dirt to dog hair, for this level we have the Kirby.

Doug had the Kirby before I came into the picture. It is a serious vacuum. This is the vacuum you buy when you never want to buy another vacuum.

I hate the Kirby. Don't get me wrong, it does an amazing job on the floors. It's just heavy and unwieldy and so difficult to use on stairs. And, it uses bags. GASP! I thought vacuums with bags went the way of the dinosaurs. They may as well for it is difficult to get said bags when you live where I do...

There are 3 logical places for me to purchase said bags. 1)Online. Oops, correction, I can look online but I must call a toll free number. Wow, this company is a dinosaur. 2) Drive to Des Moines, approximately 30 miles. 3) Drive to Ames, again 30 miles.

So, I drove to Ames. For vacuum bags. Since I was there I decided to stock up. 3 packages. 3 bags per package. $13 each. WHAT!? Holy cow! $40 on vacuum bags. But it wasn't a total loss, I got to hear all about the advantages of the Kirby over anything else on the market. Plus the guy declared that the Kirby will outlive me. Oh, goodie.

While in Ames I also filled the truck with E85. Yep, our Explorer is a Flexible Fuel Vehicle. WooHoo! I love when I can practice what I preach! Anyway, the E85 is $.28 cheaper than the 15% ethanol blend I normally use. Now I just have to check the difference in gas mileage. The full report to follow soon...

And now, back to my cleaning. Bathrooms are next on my list. I may have to tell you all about disposable toilet bowl brushes sometime...