That "New Washer Smell"

So, we continue to sink deeper into this suburban life, as evidenced by how we chose to spend some of our tax refund this year. When we bought our first house in 1998, we inherited the washer and dryer that existed in the house, and at the time we were delighted to have them. It didn't matter that the set was roughly about the same age as we were, only that they worked (and belonged only to us!). The dryer kicked the bucket within the first year, but the washer survived another nine years and two moves. Actually, it was still working as of this weekend, but it sounded like it was going to lift off out of the laundry room every time we ran it, and it didn't always do the best job cleaning our clothes. Sometimes after a load of towels I would find it had walked a good two feet away from the wall, and I was becoming concerned it would eventually just walk out the door and down the street. So we went to Lowes last week and purchased the top of the line Whirlpool front-loader washer. This thing is supposed to be able to handle 16 pairs of jeans in one load (although I would like to meet the family who is washing 16 pairs of jeans at once and offer them my sincerest sympathy) and has a special steam setting that will remove stains without any pre-treatment. We had a little mishap on the first load - we never really had to separate colors in the old washer because I suppose it wasn't strong enough to really cause any of the colors to run. Rob tossed a pair of Riley's purple pants in with all of her other clothes, and it turned the entire load a bluish-grey and mysteriously turned all her spit-up stains bright blue. After that everything turned out great - all stains were removed and our whites were whiter than before. One of the best features is that it is so quiet while it is running Ani can go in the laundry room and eat & drink - the old machine made so much noise I think she was afraid it was going to eat her.

My, my, how things change. There was a time when we spent our tax refund on season tickets for football and massive quantities of beer. Sadly, I'm not bothered by this. You can laugh at me all you want at my excitement over a new clothes washer, but you'll be doing it in dirtier clothes than mine.