Wanda Says…Busy, busy, busy!

/ Wanda

This isn’t a real post.  This is an I-don’t-have-anything-fun-to-write-about-but-don’t-want-to-ignore-my-blog post.

Things have been busy around my house between managing regular daily life and preparing for Christmas, and it seems like all the funny stuff I think to write about is either way too personal or inappropriate.

So, not that anyone cares, but this is a mash-up of everything that’s been going on at my house in the past week…

My husband and I have been trying to find an efficient and safe way to remove silly string from my drive way.  Let me say that not anticipating the mess and difficulty of cleaning up silly string after my daughter’s birthday was an epic fail on my part.  Epic.  We are having a serious drought here in southern California, and I thought once we had a good rain it would dissolve.  Yes, that makes me an idiot.  It didn’t dissolve and my driveway looks like shit.  Vinegar helps to loosen it up and we’ve used a putty knife to scrape it off, but we can only work small sections at a time.  We don’t want to use chemical solvents because the run-off will end up in the ocean.  And spending an hour at a time on my hands and knees scraping the concrete is less than ideal.  If any of you have a suggestion for this, I would be happy to hear it.

We got the tree up and decorated it last weekend.  It’s beautiful.  I love my Christmas tree. With the bow at the top, it’s about nine feet tall.

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And this is Santa.  He likes hanging out in my tree.  He’s cool like that.

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Ho Ho Ho!

The rest of my week has been a continuous flow of cooking, baking, Christmas shopping, helping with homework, play dates and housework.  I hate the housework and the cooking but I love the baking and shopping.  I love listening to Christmas music when I bake.  I think it makes everything taste more Christmas-y.  I also did my Christmas cards this past weekend, and every year I ask myself, “Why the hell do I still send out Christmas cards?”   They are such a jolly pain in the ass.  😉

That’s about it.  I’m sorry I haven’t had time to keep up with my blog reading, but hopefully tomorrow I can squeak out some time to catch up on everyone else’s posts and see what’s been going on in the world.

Happy Wednesday!  🙂

10 thoughts on “Wanda Says…Busy, busy, busy!”

  3. Dawn dish soap !!! They use plain blue concentrated dawn dish for oil spill clean up because it will not harm fish , fowl or the water ! It also is a great way to remove anything stuck to anything !! Its my go – to cleaning product ! I hope it helps ! I know u will need alot and a good shop broom and a hose but it’ll work and it will get you off your knees ! Good luck ! Hope this helps !

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    • Thanks for the help! We did try Dawn dish soap first, and no go. The silly string is dried and baked on the cement. My brother suggested using a power washer, so we may try that this weekend. 🙂

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  4. This is an odd suggestion and you probably won’t get a live person but ……… is it possible to call the silly string people and ask them for suggestions? Just an idea … probably won’t go anywhere but maybe, maybe someone there could help?

    According to one article, “Some municipal authorities are also worried about Silly String for a very practical reason. Sprayed string can make a mess. Several cities have banned the use of Silly String during celebrations, at parades and on holidays like Halloween. In addition to being hard to remove from concrete and brick, the strands are essentially sticky plastic, so they can clog storm drains and take up space in landfills.”

    and …

    “Regardless of where or how it is used, Silly String cleanup is a chore, especially when it is on brick, concrete or stone.”

    What about PRESSURE WASHING? Pressure Washing
    Pressure washing equipment uses water or water in combination with a solvent to remove graffiti from a surface. A solvent may first be applied and then the surface is washed with pressurized water. Sometimes a blasting media, such as baking soda, is used to remove graffiti. While pressure washing is effective, it can wear down the surface being treated.

    From: http://www.graffitihurts.org/rapidremoval/removal.jsp#removal_chart

    If you don’t find a solution … you could always:
    1) repave your driveway
    2) poke your eyes out so you’ll never see the hideous mess again
    3) move
    4) have a silly string clean up party inviting all the kids and more who helped to create this fiasco in the meantime
    5) have a grown-up clean-up party with lots of wine (and other fun party drinks) and every can help clean it up while they’re lit so they don’t care

    I want to come up with a solution to your silly string problem so bad it hurts!

    Keep us posted! Maybe post some photos for us so we can really sympathize/empathize with you!?!

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    • Thanks for all the creative suggestions! LOL! We have discovered that while lemon juice dissolves some of it and helps to loosen the material so it can be scraped off, it also discolors the concrete. My brother, a construction guru, has assured me pressure washing will work. And he is right, because we took the hose to the driveway today to wash off the lemon juice and a super strong spray did break up some of the material. So this weekend we will get a pressure washer and go to town! And you can bet your ass that we will never buy silly string again. Wish me luck!

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