Carpet Magic

As you probably know, I like taking new adventures like traveling, windsurfing, someday I'd like to try skydiving and bungee jumping. However it doesn't always take something extreme to make me happy. Over the past week, I've heard from 3 very good friends that they will be coming to visit me in Key West. Katie is coming first from Feb. 5th to Feb. 10th, then Rita and Renee are coming the very next day from Feb. 11th to Feb. 15th. Of course I'm very excited to have some company at the southernmost point in the U.S., but believe it or not it doesn't even take that much to make me happy.

Last Friday was an overall frustrating day. I don't want to go too deep into detail (mostly because a co-worker might be reading this), but I think I almost got permanent lock jaw from clenching my teeth for most of my 8 hour shift while trying not to say anything I might later regret. Then I got home, did I few errands and shortly before going to bed I decided to put on a second coat of nail polish on my toes. You all can probably guess what happened next. That's right, dark red nail polish all over the hotel carpet (and a little bit on the cream colored couch). GREAT! So of course I turned to the internet to find a solution to this problem and fortunately I came across Barefoot Lass's Carpet Stain Tips (http://members.tripod.com/~Barefoot_Lass/carpet.html).

One of the tips, suggested using non-acetone nail polish remover followed with warm soap and water. Blot, don't rub, etc. After a good 45 minutes of blotting while clenching my teeth and seeing little change, I went to bed a pretty ticked off. (I don't really enjoy cleaning and I hate wasting my time.)

On Saturday, I decide to go with the next suggestion listed on Barefoot Lass's from Janelle. She claims that 4 parts hydrogen peroxide to 1 part ammonia (thanks for the calculations, Mom!) works like magic. So I peddled to Walgreens after work and picked up the ingredients. The instructions said to pour the concentration on the stain, cover it with plastic, put something heavy on top and leave it overnight. I was very sceptical. It just seemed a little to easy to work, but to my surprise when I checked the stain this morning it had nearly disappeared. In fact, if you didn't know the stain was there you probably won't notice it.

Before leaving for work, I repeated the process so hopefully it will be completely gone by the time I get home. Thanks Janelle, whoever you are. Your magic solution worked great and it was a good end after having a bad day. I'd still rather go scuba diving, but avoiding a hotel charge is nice too.