My Friend Mr. Clean

Y'all, I have made two New Year's resolutions.

1.  Stop arguing with people about stupid schidt.

2.  Stop leaving paintbrushes wrapped in tin foil all over the house.

As you might guess, something happened that caused me to make those resolutions.

I finally finished stenciling the floor in the bathroom, which is a good thing because if it had taken me another set of days off to finish, I might have lost what's left of my mind.  Then I cleaned up the floor really good with soapy water and made chocolate pudding from scratch while I waited for the floor to dry.  When it was dry, I brushed one coat of Minwax Polycrylic over the whole bathroom floor.  (Folks, that stuff stinks.  I mean, really stinks.  I chose to use that because it has a "crystal clear finish" that's not supposed to yellow like regular poly does.)  Then I carefully wrapped the paintbrush in tin foil and found something else to do for a couple of hours while the poly dried.

Part of what I found to do was to call Charlie and rehash an argument we'd had about not spending New Year's Eve together.  (Long story short, he says that it's "just another day" and not worth staying up late for, and I pitched a bitch about that.)  The point here is that New Year's Eve was four days ago and I'm still bickering about it, which is a stupid waste of time and I know better.  But not to worry, because shortly after that argument, Karma bit me right in the hiney.

When I went to put on the second coat of poly, I picked up a paintbrush wrapped in tin foil, dipped it in the poly, and put a couple swipes on the floor.  "Huh," I thought, "I know this stuff's supposed to go on milky white and then dry clear, but the first coat sure wasn't that milky."

Then it hit me:  I was using the brush I'd used earlier to paint the trim in the bathroom.  The brush with white paint in it.

So I cussed.  And I ran out of the bathroom into the kitchen and then back again, because I didn't know what to do.  Then I cussed some more.   And I told Louis, "I just ruined my g.d. bathroom floor!  I just ruined my g.d. bathroom floor that took me hours to stencil!"  (I actually said "g.d." because I don't like to cuss when I'm talking to the babies.)  Then it occurred to me that latex paint cleans up with soap and water, so I tried that.  It worked pretty well on the part that wasn't quite dry yet, but all that running around and cussing gave the first swipe time to dry and it was stuck on there pretty good.  It looked just awful.  I may or may not have cried at that point.

So I went in the kitchen and rummaged around in the drawers looking for help and inspiration, because I really, really did not want to have to paint over that part of the floor and then stencil it again.  I found a box of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  I never use those things because I don't know what's in them, but I kinda reckon that anything that removes crayon and tar is probably not good for me or the environment.  However, desperate times call for desperate measures.  I scrubbed a little with the Magic Eraser and the white paint came right off.  (So did a little of the teal paint I stenciled with too.)

I made resolutions and I made friends with Mr. Clean.  All is well.