Ann B. Davis Day

So I woke up this morning and, with all due respect to Dr. King, declared today to be Ann B. Davis Day, and that we were going to celebrate as a family by cleaning this house.

As you might imagine, the girls immediately disappeared with a neighborhood kid, Brenna is online playing Webkinz, the dog is lying on the floor shedding tumbleweeds of fur, Pearl ran into the kitchen and barfed, Tango and Healy are fighting and letting the fur fly, and Nelson is looking at me like I'm off my rocker.

This is why, for those of you who are familiar with the ranking scheme in the house, I come in at #9 (of 9, of course). Honestly, though, I prefer to think of it as me cracking the Top 10.

Ah well, it's an excuse to play the Beastie Boys at top volume while I vacuum...


Now of course there's a critical difference between me and the beloved Alice from the Brady Bunch: Alice, I'm sure, happily picked up the kids' stuff and put them away. I also put their things away, but "away" for me may well mean "in the trash." My philosophy is: if something has been lying on the floor for a few weeks, it must not be getting any use, and so out it goes! In that sense, I am more like the Grinch, stuffing all the toys up the chimbley.

I have noticed that my tendency to throw things away means that when I clean, people keep a sharp eye on me. Particularly on days like to today, where my cleaning urges fall on trash day. There's gonna be a big load for the trash man tomorrow!

Happy Ann B. Davis Day everyone!