Farmer H's supper on Monday was a Hungry Man TV Dinner that I'd bought a couple weeks ago. I was fine with making him something else, but he said he wanted the Salisbury Steak TV dinner. It came with two Salisbury Steak patties, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and a Brownie. Farmer H also had two biscuits left over from the previous night.
Anyhoo... you can cook those TV dinners in the microwave, but I prefer to use the oven. I warmed it for 40 minutes, set out utensils, a metal tray to put that plastic meal tray on for carrying to the living room, the butter, and the biscuits. Farmer H warmed his own biscuits in the microwave, and applied butter.
I instructed Farmer H to put his empty meal tray back into the box when he was done, so it would only take up half the room in the wastebasket. I left the box on the counter beside the stove.
When Farmer H returned after eating his meal, I stopped scratching, turned off my music, and watched. Just to be sure, you know, that he followed directions.
Farmer H went to the stove and set down the metal tray. Then he picked up the empty TV dinner box, and stuffed a paper plate into it! The paper plate he'd used to warm two biscuits in the microwave. A plate which could have been used again, for slicing an onion, or covering up something splattery that might be warmed in the microwave. Or at the very least, jammed down beside the other paper plates in the wastebasket, like a sideways stack.
"Why are you putting that plate in the box?"
"Just because it was here."
Farmer H took his empty meal tray and jammed it into the box beside the paper plate. It would have slid right in by itself, but that round plate wasn't fitting too well. Farmer H held the bottom edge of the box, and pushed down vertically on the meal tray to fit it in. As he turned to take three steps to the wastebasket, I saw something streaming from the bottom of the box.
"Hey! What's that? You're dripping something all across the floor, out the bottom of the box!"
"Oh. Huh. That's my green bean juice. I forgot it was in there."
"Well. You'll have to clean that up!"
"I'm going to."
Farmer H took a single (select-a-size) paper towel, got down on his knees, and swiped in front of the stove. Then threw it away.
"Well. Now I'll have spots that turn black with dirt from walking there..."
A person with common sense would have sopped up the liquid, then used a wet or soapy paper towel to wash and rinse that area of the floor. Meaning I will have to do it later. Like I did the area beside the cutting block, when I noticed a puddle of liquid there as well. No wonder the kitchen smelled like green beans!
I guarantee that if I hadn't been watching, the puddle of green bean juice would still be in front of the stove. I guess I'm lucky that Farmer H didn't drizzle it all across the living room carpet on his way to the kitchen.
3 comments:
Good thing you gave him a tray to eat on! I just noticed the tea drops on the very bottome of the fridge where HeWho stands to fill his cup with tea, sweet tea. In the fridge light I noticed more on the floor. Sticky sweet tea. I would tell him to lean it up, but it would still be sticky when he finished. He just recently learned ow to change the roll of toilet paper instead of leaving the new roll on the counter beside the sink awaiting my attention. Now we are working on actually lifting the lid of the clothes hamper to deposit his dirty clothes. He just tosses them on top of the lid currently. I feel your frustration!
I'm fast getting to the point where I would be feeding him outside and hosing off the dishes before carrying them inside in a bucket! Perhaps that's a little extreme, at least during your snowy months.
Kathy,
I'm pretty sure they do such a bad cleaning job because they think it will make us quit asking them to clean up their messes!
We have not yet learned to replace the TP roll here at the Mansion, nor even to take the empty roll off the holder. However... the laundry problem was solved by a hissy fit during our first year of marriage, when Farmer H was told to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, not on the floor. Rather than be bossed by me, he declared he would do his own laundry! Which he is still doing to this day, while declaring he does not remember such an incident.
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River,
Don't think I haven't contemplated that solution!
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