on dishwashers and gym memberships

So Tuesday night after we finished doing the dinner dishes, I noticed that the dishwasher was full and ready to run. Not wanting to steal all the hot water from the shower I was about to take, I made a mental note to start it later on. An out-loud mental note-- you know, the kind Matt can hear so that he can either remind me later or do it himself. A few hours later, right before bed, I remembered-- Matt was in the kitchen shutting off lights, so I said "hey! Can you turn the dishwasher on for me?" and he did.

We ate out and then went shopping last night. Therefore the dishwasher never got unloaded. So THIS afternoon, as we spent our five minutes at home between work and going to the gym, I made another out-loud mental note: We need to unload the dishwasher later.

After the gym we went to Publix to do the shopping for the baby shower this weekend. As I was strolling the aisles picking up all the other completely necessary things I happened upon, I noticed that Cascade dishwashing detergent was on sale. "Hey Matt...did you notice if we're running low on dishwasher soap?"

"Huh?"

"On Tuesday. When you started the dishwasher, do you remember if we need more detergent?"

--blank stare--followed by "umm...you didn't put the soap in it already?"

"Umm....no....did you think I did?"

"...yeah..."

So, awesome. Our "clean" dishes have been sitting there for like 3 days while new dirty dishes (okay, like 3 cups and a few knives) accumulate in the sink...awesome.

I guess the silver lining is that at least we discovered the mistake before we unloaded them and put them away!

So may you all be re-inspired to be extra super clear when communicating about household chores with your loved ones. :) And I'm not saying this in a "men are so stupid" kind of way...because probably about half the time, I do put the soap in the dishwasher even if I'm not planning on running it til later. So I really should have been more clear. Lesson learned.

Other lesson learned this week? Maybe I'm throwing my money away going to the gym. So back in December when we started working out, we did just home workouts...stuff we could watch On Demand, a few DVDs, and some basic workout equipment. Then in late February, we joined a gym. Back in the "home workout" period, we would frequently do The Shred (Jillian Michaels). I wouldn't go so far as to say we "Shredded," because when I hear people say that I assume that they are going all out on this 30 Day Shred thing and doing it every single day, each level for 10 consecutive days. That's how it's designed to be done. We would do it like maybe twice a week, mixed in with a variety of other workouts. "Mixed in" because what the heck-- it's like the hardest thing EVER. I don't know how anyone could do it every day! However, I could manage doing it...you know, more or less stick it out through the whole workout, not collapsing too many times, etc. So ever since we joined the gym, we haven't worked out at home much. We either go to the gym or we maybe go running, but we haven't done any videos. So on Tuesday, we both wanted to work out but we were too tired to make the trek to the gym. I thought, hey! Let's do The Shred...I bet it will be way easier since now we've spent 2 months doing "real" workouts at the gym! Matt thought it was a good idea, so we did it. We did the "intermediate" level as a compromise...Matt thought we could do Advanced, piece of cake. I wanted to do Beginner so that I could feel successful. :) We compromised. And...

HOLY CRAP, JILLIAN KICKED MY BOOTY. You would think I'd spent the last 2 months eating Double Downs while watching TV 24/7. Although I did survive the workout, I wouldn't exactly say it was the piece of cake I'd hoped it would be. And I WOULD say that every single part of my body hurt for the next two days, up to and including this very minute. I did crawl back to the gym today, and it felt so comforting to do my lazy-girl workout...which I never before would have considered particularly lazy, but I guess compared to Jillian, it's pretty cushy.

So, lesson learned. I think you can save yourself the gym membership and just buy the freakin $10 DVD and get in pretty dang good shape. But then again...I don't regret my gym membership. I get bored doing the same workouts over and over again. And I don't like moving our heavy coffee table. And I like seeing other people at the gym. And laughing at the ultra-macho men. Like the ones today who were TAKING PICTURES OF EACH OTHER as they attempted to lift this super giant barbell with like 400 pounds of weight on it...and then one of them DROPPED IT. I mean...were they staging photos for their Match.com ads or something? Seriously boys. Seriously. No one was impressed slash EVERYONE WAS LAUGHING AT YOU.

And thus concludes my observations for today. Feel free to share if you can relate to my dishwasher FAIL or working out woes...