Snowing in Sammamish

I just snapped this picture outside my front door of the gorgeous snow that has been coming down since about 3:30 this afternoon.

About thirty seconds after I took the picture, the power went out at 8:06 p.m.

Airing my Dirty Laundry

Sammamish needs a laundry service. We already have pick up and drop off dry cleaning, grocery and meals and who knows what. Why not laundry?

When I lived in Boston in my post-college, single days, the washing machines in my 100 year old building were down in the dirty, dank basement, ate quarters and hardly dried clothing. When I couldn't make the trek to Mom's house, I dropped off my clothes at the local laundry and got my clothes washed, dried and folded for about $15.

Did I mention I hate to do laundry? Add twenty years, a husband, a couple kids and an obsession with consignment shops--voila!--a laundry disaster.

A few years ago, I took my overwhelming heap of laundry to the ONE place I could find in the area that would do your regular laundry--Overlake Village Maytag Laundry. They don't have a website. They are tucked right next to either a QFC or Safway off 24th near Sears. The guy behind the desk laughed when I presented my five trashbags full of laundry. The $150 I spent (at $1.15 a pound) was well worth the clean, folded laundry I brought home in only two trash bags. My husband and I spent 45 minutes organizing and putting away the laundry. It was great. Until it was time to do laundry again.

For me to keep up, I need to do about two loads of laundry a day. I'm not just talking one change of clothes per person per day. There's workout wear, work clothes, lounge clothes, art projects gone bad, potty training gone bad, change of heart in the middle of the day, pjs, sheets, pillow cases, etc.

Did I mention I hate laundry? So, if I let a day or three slide without doing laundry due to illness, busy schedules, or plain old spite, the pile naturally just grows and I can never catch up. That's not true. One time, before my in-laws came, I did about eight or so loads of laundry a day for two weeks and I caught up. But, then it started to pile up again since I wasn't doing laundry while I was entertaining--I thought it might be rude.

Today, about four years after my first journey to the Overlake Village Maytag Laundry, I went again. This time with seven bags full--each about 20 pounds. "I never saw so much from one person," laughed the attendant. I didn't tell him that I didn't even include my three-year old's clothing that can be done in one or two loads.

I sucked up the mortification and told him that he could make a killing in Sammamish if he started a drop off/pick up laundry service. He didn't believe me that there was a market and wasn't interested.

So, here you go, Entrepreneurs. I may be severely laundry phobic, but I cannot be the only one who needs help with the laundry now and then. Think of working moms and dads, pregnant Moms, famiies with MANY children, the elderly, people suffering with an illness, or people like me who just cannot stand doing laundry daily.

I found a service that helps out kids living in dorms called Dorm Mom that helps students with laundry, shopping, etc so they can focus on their studies. Yeah, whatever. I think in college I had 3 hours of class a day and I only did my own laundry. You can study during the spin cycle. Why not a service called Mom's Mom? I don't need constant help...like a nanny or maid. I can certainly cook and clean and do the laundry while raising my young ones into smart, polite, dynamic people, while juggling everyone's schedule and keeping up on world events. I just a little boost now and then...set back to zero to try it all again.

Services like Month of Meals (my favorite) and Dinner's Ready have proven to be a success here. Families need help with more than meals---give us a hand with laundry! The market is there, people...take the idea and run with it! There are countless other services just like this all across the country. For example, in Saugus, Massachusetts, there's Laundry Express. In Kirkland, there's Pressed 4 Time --- perfect if their service area came reached out to Sammamish.

This is my plea to anyone looking to start a business--combine it with a latte delivery service and you'll have the happiest Mommies around.

The Answer My Friend

I woke up to the new year with a howling outside my window. It's a blustery day up here on the Plateau. The sky is grey and the trees are swaying.

The last few years living here have given me a healthy appreciation for the power of wind. I've also come to terms with it. For some reason, our little cul-de-sac seems protected from these southerly winds. I'm not as paralyzed with fear as I was one Hannukah Eve a little over a year ago.

However, a tree in my neighbor's yard still provides me with an inkling of doubt that we are safe from falling branches on our roof. I can see the tip top of it whipping in the wind through the skylight in my childrens' bathroom. It's strong though-the seemingly fragile tip rides the gusts with a vengance and won't let go.

It's grey out. It's windy. The start of a new year. I hope that the rest of January is as uneventful as today.

World Peace and Scary Santa

Last week I stopped at the Starbucks in the Safeway shopping area to pick up some teacher and babysitter gifts. I had my three-year old son with me. A woman approached him and asked him what he was he wanted from Santa Claus this year for Christmas.

He hid behind my legs--all things Santa scare him. Have you seen the Santa who trolls the Safeway shopping plaza with candy canes hanging on his belt looking for little ones to either delight or freak out? My 7 1/2 year old daughter who is now wise to all things Santa and Tooth Fairy happily takes the candy cane while the little one hides from the scary man in red.

The woman at Starbucks joked with my little guy asking if he wanted "world peace" and of course I had to share my story from when my little girl was two and a half.

That year, we went on the Snoqualmie Santa Train ride and at our destination, we went to meet Santa.

Jokingly, but not so much, we told our little girl to ask Santa for World Peace. When it was her turn, she completely fell apart. The picture I have is of a terrified little girl just trying to get away from the creepy old guy.

She left with a pocket full of fear and a Northwest Railway Museum key chain. It was one of those plastic tubes with colored gel and glitter floating around inside. She loved it and treasured it--despite her trauma.

A few days later, she was in tears. "Where's my World Peace? Where's my World Peace?" she cried. Yup, she had lost her keychain--she thought its name was World Peace.

World Peace is still floating around here somewhere in a toy bin. Every once and awhile we find it and declare we have found World Peace! We just don't talk about the Scary Santa

Gunno Looses Both Races

Yesterday afternoon, as I ventured off the Plateau going from the 228th Fire Station north towards Redmond, I noticed that MOST candidates had removed their campaign signs already!

Thank you! Thank you!

It was as if there was a race to see who could remove their campaign signs the quickest and I LIKE IT. I can imagine the candidates running to pull up their signs as the polls closed on Tuesday night, checking their maps of where they posted them so as not to miss a stray on a side road.

Noticably still planted in the ground were Stan Gunno's and Mark Cross' signs. In this race, they both lost.