Housework June 22-28: do I do anything that isn't food-related?

The list of housework items below leads me to believe that no, I do not. Things are a bit skewed at the moment, though, because my guy is in the middle of going through a bunch of his stuff (5k books - I am not exaggerating) and since they are in stacks all over the floor, I’m suppressing what would otherwise be a powerful urge to mop. As it is, I’m wearing slippers indoors because the floors are slightly gritty (you wanted to know that, didn’t you?) - less the result of real neglect and more a reflection that since it’s summer, we tramp in and out a lot from the back yard.

Soon this will all be resolved - or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

June 28: 3.5 hours
I always spend more time on housework on the weekends - partly because I cook, partly because I garden, and partly because I like going through things and throwing them out (you would think this would mean I have nothing left, but no).

1. 1.5 hour: French toast with fresh plums for breakfast, and two loads of dishes
2. 1 hour: going through my three-inch-high stack of old Cook’s Illustrated while chanting my cooking-magazine mantra: “You don’t need the hard copy! That’s why you have an online subscription!”
3. .5 hour: rescuing the wisteria, cilantro, and fuschia from crispy sunstroke death in too-small pots
4. .25 hour: dinner prep: leftover vegetable soup from two days ago plus a frozen pizza contributed by my guy

June 27: . 5 hours
My guy went out by himself to a David Sedaris book-signing, so I got self-indulgent for dinner and ate a bowl of straight pasta sauce. Yummmmm.....OK, I also had some of it on toast with mozzarella. Grand total: 15 minutes. I’m sure I also put something away (mail?) so chalk that up for another 15 minutes. No time on breakfast prep due to the awesomeness of Donut Friday, which my friend B was kind enough to put on Calendar so I’d actually remember to go.

June 26: .5 hours
... all of which was spent making bruschetta.

June 25: 1 hour
Made vegetable soup from scratch. It rocked, in spite of my initial skepticism of shredded carrots and grits (grits?!) in soup. This was my first recipe from Jacques Pepin’s Fast Food My Way, which for years I’d thought was actually my guy’s cookbook rather than mine. The flaws in my mid-term memory leave me wondering how I get anything done at all; the cookbook is actually inscribed to me (it was a gift), so there really shouldn’t have been any doubt about whose it was.

There’s probably 5 minutes in there to pour a bowl of cereal for breakfast, too.

June 24: .5 hour
Was out late with T for our weekly commiseration about attempting to write while holding down a full time job. Topic for discussion: how damn hard it is to keep focus when your whole day is spent skimming, rather than focusing on, data and stories.

June 23: 0 hours
Which matches up nicely with going out to see Sex and the City with a good girlfriend, which is how I spent my evening. Really no one should do housework on a day when they go to see Sex and the City.

June 22: 2 hours
Split up somehow between picking plums from the trees in the yard, a couple of loads of dishes, and making breakfast and dinner.

Housework June 21: 3 hours

I know, huge jump. Here's how it breaks down: 

1 hour: general kitchen-cleaning-up + breakfast-making (tea, toast, fruit). Yeah, that's a long time, but there were a bunch of piled-up dishes kind of everywhere. 

2 hours: more kitchen-cleaning-up + dinner-making (curried cauliflower & sweet pea soup, with a side of sauteed beets with lime; very yummy, but the first time I'd made either one so it took forever). Then after dinner I decided this was a good time to clean all the counters, the stove, the pans I didn't get around to earlier, etc. I may be overestimating slightly but not much. 

What's not included: the hour and a half or so my guy and I spent figuring out what pieces of art we want to hang. We've been in the house a year and a half so it seemed like a good time to sort out our interior decor :) Also not included: the time I spent in the yard mulling over why exactly the gardeners saw fit to remove my grapevine, while leaving intact the giant palm-like shrub with sharp poky fronds which extends threateningly halfway across the front walk. Yeah, I know, that's what you get for such a lazy, bourgeois setup as having gardeners, but it's not my choice; we rent, remember, so it's a property management co thing. If it was up to me I wouldn't have a gardener. I'd have one of those no-electric-power push lawnmowers and develop an incredibly buff upper body by manicuring our tiny lawn half to death.  

Housework June 20: 15 minutes

... which I don't actually remember so I'm estimating. I think I put away some laundry. I had breakfast at work since it was Donut Friday (mmm, donuts) and then dinner out in Half Moon Bay since it was The First Day of Summer. The First Day of Summer meant that my guy was ridiculously miserable in town - he hates heat - and I get cold easily, so I figured the hot weather would be right in the middle if we headed to the beach. For the record, it was perfect. I also love that the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co allows dogs on their patio. It seems so friendly.  

It occurs to me that if I ate at home more often there'd be a hell of a lot more housework. And that people with kids generally eat at home more often, since (I assume) packing the kids up to a restaurant is a pain, and anyway they might scream once they got there. I have no kids + I eat out a lot, therefore minimal housework. 

Interesting. 

Housework June 19: 15 minutes

... which consists of pouring myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast & offloading the dishwasher. Not bad. Again, though, I had dinner out: an alumni thing for the University of York. This leads me to wonder why I find it sweet that York includes me in events, and annoying that Columbia asks me for money. Maybe I just answered my own question. York is so eager to get an alumni group going over here in the Wilds of the Western US that they're ridiculously excited when I respond to them in any way - whereas Columbia wants cash. Sigh. In contrast, York spotted my drinks and calamari at the Thirsty Bear: "It's on the Uni!" said with the big smile that always seems to accompany someone who doesn't often get to expense things and is just thrilled to have the chance. Sweet indeed. 

More thoughts after reading comments: 884 pages of housework instructions? Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but I didn't know it was possible to clean drains before they were clogged. What do you, pour down soap? That can't be right. I may not know what I'm doing but I have at least noticed that one of the primary ingredients in drain-clogs is soap scum. 

And multi-tasking housework is still housework; I'm not trying to optimize my life (that would be too much like work), I'm trying to figure out what it takes, measure the status quo before considering whether I care to adapt.