posted on October 10, 2000 07:36:56 PM new
While we're talking about visiting relatives anyway . . . What are some of the weird things your houseguests do? I am getting ready to host one of my husband's friends like I did last year about this time. He absolutely refuses to eat a meal at my house. I'm no Martha Stewart but my house is clean and I am a fair cook. Every time we would sit down to eat he would drive 15 miles to get fast food and then come back. I asked him if he liked what we were having and he said yes. This went on for three days last time. Another guest always uses the bathroom in the middle of the night and never flushes the toilet because they are afraid that will wake someone up. I would much rather be temporarily awake than to get up the next day and be greeted by THAT in the bathroom!
posted on October 10, 2000 07:50:17 PM new
Hi hammerchick....maybe your husbands friend doesnt eat there because he feels hes intruding? Why not just ask him "why dont you eat with us?" Beats guessing. And no comment on what the other guest does, lol.
Edited to add that the only thing I can think of that is considered "weird" (although it isnt...more like irritating) is hubby's brother think he owns the clicker to the TV. Nothing like watching those two battle it out on who gets control of it
posted on October 10, 2000 08:52:58 PM new
Okay, my sister-in-law comes to visit from Seattle. She unpacks all their stuff...including bread. Bread? You brought bread on the airplane from Seattle? We do have bread here, ya know. Oh, but it's this special wonderful kind and it's so much better...
So we go to visit them in Seattle. We unpack all our stuff, including two loaves of Wonderbread, which we proudly put on the kitchen cabinet.
posted on October 11, 2000 12:53:37 AM new
Uh-oh....I must be a weird guest!
I prune dead leaves off of houseplants when
I visit my mother-in-law, she's got to the
point where she *deliberately* leaves them
on so I can take them off!
Oh yeah, and if I can find a vacuum cleaner,
I'll vacuum the floors when they aren't
around, especially in the guest bedroom
(I'd never do it in FRONT of them....)
I also have a tendency to start cleaning
stovetops and kitchen surfaces in my
mother-in-law's house...but she never
complains, just thanks me...
And to think, I always worried about
having the kind of mother-in-law that
would take a white glove to my mantle..
posted on October 11, 2000 02:00:04 AM new
My brother-in-law and his wife lived with us for a few months, and they smoke. We're a non-smoking home, so we asked them (and they agreed before moving in) to go outside to smoke. But they'd stand on the front porch, just outside the front door, with the door open, and smoke and talk to us (inside the house) at the same time. It was interesting ...
Between that and some other things (most unmentionable here!), we ended up having to ask them to move out.
As far as actual guests go, we also have a certain friend that "forgets" to flush the toilet. Sheesh.
posted on October 11, 2000 04:46:53 AM new
Lisa, that was way too funny about the Wonderbread! I forgot all about my cousin who brings a cooler full of food when she comes over, but she drives. Nobody cares because she brings good stuff!
posted on October 11, 2000 09:07:07 AM new
When my mother in law comes for a visit, she changes the toilet paper rolls in all 3 bathrooms to hang "from under", rather than "from over" the top of the roll. It's really weird, since she doesn't do it as the roll needs replacing. She does it within the first couple of hours that she's here. She has never said a word about it either. I just change them back whenever I see they've been switched, and then the next time I go in the bathrooms, they'll be switched back. This goes on, back and forth, during her entire visit, usually 5-7 days. Neither of us mention it, but it kind of bugs me. I think it's a control issue. Also, when she's here, she likes to do our laundry. I've asked her "nicely" to not do it, but I've caught her "sneaking" the laundry down to the washer. I just have a thing about my laundry. I'm very particular about how it's done, and when she does it, my whites come out grey or pink, since she throws everything in together. Plus she likes to run a whole wash with only 3 or 4 items in it...like a pair of socks with 2 bath towels. All in all, she's a great woman, but she likes to "help" too much.
posted on October 11, 2000 04:32:34 PM new
I second the motion for "No houseguests". I hate having houseguests. I hate BEING a houseguest. I prefer motels all the way around. Was it Greta Garbo who said "I vant to be alone"? That's me.
posted on October 11, 2000 09:20:21 PM new
Ooh I hate it when they mess with the toilet paper KatyD!
I cleaned my house from top to bottom before my mother's arrival and what was one of the first things she did? She thumbed through the yellow pages to find me someone to come clean the house... grrrrrrrrrr! I asked her what was up with the neat freak routine because I don't remember her being Tidy Tina when I was growing up. humph!
posted on October 12, 2000 08:46:52 AM new
I never could figure out why I heard the shower go off and on several times when my ex-brother-in-law would come to visit. He would wet his hair, turn the shower completely off, shampoo it, turn the water back on again, rinse, turn it off again, repeat. Is that common, do you all do that? I guess if we did, it would conserve a great deal of water. I feel so sinful now letting the water run the whole time I am in the shower!
[ edited by hammerchick on Oct 12, 2000 08:48 AM ]
posted on October 12, 2000 10:51:04 AM new
hammerchick, I lived where we had cisterns for our water. 3000 gallons cost from 187$ to 250$. I still shower like that.
posted on October 12, 2000 11:30:35 AM new
KatyD, hide the laundry soap! Disconnect the washer hoses! Put a long piece of masking tape across the top of the washer with a big NO written across it!
The next time she comes for a visit, put the T-paper on the rolls "her way" before she gets there.
posted on October 12, 2000 11:35:48 AM new
When I was assigned to a ship, you HAD to shower like that. The evaporator (E-vap)could only make a certain amount of fresh water a day. We called them "sea showers", as opposed to "hotel showers" when we were tied up and had piped in fresh water. If you were caught not taking sea showers while underway, you got assigned to clean the E-vap. Trust me. You don't want to work in engineering if you are not an engineer.
When I visit my mom, the first thing I do is buy 2 weeks worth of food. My mom is a little relaxed about the expiration dates on things, and brand X rules at her house. Some brand X is OK, some is just plain nasty.
I just bring my own.
When my mother-in-law visits me, I do a spring cleaning to prepare. Even though she's blind. But I'm ready for inspection irregardless.
I just wish she wouldn't try to help me with the dish washing. She can't see the dishes, and she wears gloves so she can't feel them either.
posted on October 12, 2000 12:19:21 PM new
Re: the non-flushing houseguests: We have friends who live in California, near San Jose. About the time their first child (now 12) was born, the Bay Area was in the midst of a years-long, severe drought, with many water use restrictions. Their children grew up learning to flush only once a day, no matter how many times the bathroom was used. What a shock it was to the kids when the water restrictions ended and they had to learn totally new habits that previously had been scolded as wasteful!
So perhaps the nonflushing guests had lived under similar circumstances?
posted on October 12, 2000 07:32:59 PM new
When we had that drought in Calif it was awful. We put dishpans in the sinks to catch the water while running to get hot. We would then use that water to flush the toilet or water plants. No baths just turn water off and on for shower. Brick in the toilet tank I forget what that was for LOL. Everyones lawn died, no flowers. It was hard to get back to wasteing water after it ended.
posted on October 13, 2000 05:36:09 AM new
The brick sealed in plastic in the tank displaces water=big savings. A friend suggested it to the hotel he worked at- they had an incredible savings on the water!
posted on October 13, 2000 07:02:28 AM newhammerchick - Fun thread. It's great to read what habits some people have.
I shower similiarly to how your x-brother-in-law does. We're on well water, and it's very hard, (can't use a water softener). I turn the water on and get wet, shut the water off, soap up and wash.....then rinse. The soap suds are rinsed away too quickly if I don't.
Lisa Loved the bread story too.
Meya Your advice to KatyD was perfect. That'll get 'em everytime.
....maybe your husbands friend doesnt eat there because he feels hes intruding? Why not just ask him "why dont you eat with us?" Beats guessing. And no comment on what the other guest does, lol.
