50 Cent Miracle Clean

First of all, Conrad and I discovered last week we have Hurricane Ike damage- yes, from one and a half years ago! We noticed the bathroom ceiling was leaking and we've had problems with the garage. So the other day I noticed some roofers down the street - they walked down and examined the roof and showed me all the wind damage. You could literally peel the shingles off the roof !!! So they suggested we call the insurance and then call them back. Conrad did- and the adjuster came by yesterday to check out the roof - APPROVED - they gave Conrad a check (minus our $250 deductible) and we scheduled a new roof to be put on next week. AN ENTIRE NEW ROOF for basically free. God bless insurance. ... and also, if we decide to sell vs lease, this is an EXCELLENT draw. YAY! I am so stoked!

.... yesterday I was reading Hints from Heloise like I do everyday - and she had a quick hint for cleaning out the coffeemaker. Cleaning the coffeemaker ???? I had never thought of this. So today, following instructions, I went to Wal-Mart and got a gallon of vinegar for $1. I used half a gallon (hence 50 cents) to fill up the coffee pot. You run one cycle of vinegar (like you were making coffee) and then turn off the pot for 30 minutes. Then, pour the vinegar back in, run it again ... then POUR IT DOWN THE SINK - the part that has the garbage disposal. Apparently vinegar eats bacteria and kills odors. WHO KNEW? So pour that down the drain and refill with water. Run a cycle. Pour it down the sink and do it again, times two.

SO, to sum up- two runs of vinegar and three runs of water (fresh every time) ... and I left in the strainer just to see what we caught. OMG ... GROSS GROSS GROSS. I noticed my coffee tasted a little weird lately but I thought I was just getting spoiled with the Dominican and Hawaiian stuff ... NOPE, I had CRUD inside my coffeepot. DIS-gusting! *sigh* but at least it's clean now. I don't even know what it was really - Houston has hard water- and I don't usually use distilled, so maybe it was just ... mineral deposits and stuff. I can tell you the vinegar when it came out the first time was a light brown color- I assume that came from old coffee stuck in there ... GROSS

Tip from Karyn: turn on your ceiling fans and maybe open the windows. HOT vinegar is potent!

Kah