Two ways to do things . . .

Neomom's back to work tomorrow. After a mini-vacation of 12 days.

It's been nice. We've gone tobogganing, skating, walking . . . a lot of the stuff that we just don't get to do, as a family, all that often. We need to remember to make time for this stuff on the regular days off.

But, you know, as a stay-at-home dad, I gotta say having her home full time throws my schedule and routine off, just a little. (It's okay, I told her this already).

I'm not complaining, really, but there's just some stuff she does . . . that's not the right way. Meaning, of course, not my way.

She doesn't know, for example, how to load a dishwasher. She puts the glasses in the wrong places, the plates in the wrong spots, and don't even get me started on the coffee mugs. And I'm not being anal here. I've loaded the thing so many times that I know how it all fits together. If you put the plates near the back, the pots don't fit. If the glasses are in the centre on top, the bowls don't fit. 

She's the same way with grocery carts. There are two ways to fill a cart. My way and the wrong way. When she joins me on a shopping trip, she not only ignores my well-thought-out list, she spends way to much time pondering which pasta sauce to get, which bacon is best and which crackers to buy. I know this stuff, I have a list and I buy what's on sale. Easy.

And, when loading the cart, you must keep in mind things like the fact that the milk is at the back of the store. You must leave a milk-sized space in the cart, or you will be reorganizing everything in front of the cooler in the dairy section. 

You gotta keep the fruit and veggies (which are at the front of the store) stacked up a little so that you're not putting the large peanut butter or the laundry detergent on top of them. Grocery cart space management. It's my life.

And finally, but most importantly, know where my knives go. In the past few weeks, my knives have been re-organized twice. This is not a good thing. There are three blocks - two for the cheap knives and one for my Henckels. Don't mess with this.

The cheap knives were earned by saving little stamps at the grocery store. They're okay, but they are not my good knives. They don't deserve the same status as the Henckels and they CERTAINLY don't belong in the Henckel block. I mean really!

Oh, and the KitchenAid Santoku knife? It falls somewhere between the two others. I like it more than the cheap stuff, but my favourite knife is the Henckel chef's knife. Always will be. Don't mess with it.

As such, the Santoku has earned the top spot in the cheap knife block, closest to the Henckels, above the lesser stamp knives.

It's all very simple. And if she'd just take the time to study my systems, instead of vacuuming the stuff I missed, dusting the stuff I didn't dust and reorganizing all the stuff that doesn't matter, my world would make more sense. And, most importantly, all my knives would be exactly where they should be when I need them.

Have a great Thursday.