Uh-oh...

The Limey and I have hit upon a wondrous, beautiful thing that I think may eventually get us into boatloads of trouble. See, we have discovered that you can get other people to do stuff you don't want to do by paying them!

Now, we'd always had a faint notion that such a thing was possible, but I think it's getting to be less faint and more concrete for us. For instance, the last couple of times we moved, The Limey's work has paid relocation expenses. So we had people come with trucks and do all the lifting and shifting of boxes and furniture and everything. It was great; I thought to myself, Hey, I could really get used to this. It turns out I did get used to it. This move? With no one paying but ourselves? Yeah, totally paying other people to do it, rather than go the "bribe friends with beer" method.

Also, the carpet in the downstairs area of the new house is hideous, and we want to replace it with nice wood floors, but for various reasons can't do it right now. But it needs to be cleaned. It's hideous as well as dirty. So The Limey went to Homebase to ask about renting a Rug Doctor so we could clean the carpet before we move in. Turns out, before they'll rent you one, they need two days' notice. And your passport. WTF? But then The Limey somehow "found" this dude who will -get this- come to our house with his own machine and then just do it for us! All we have to do is cross his palm with silver! It's like magic!

Tonight, sitting at our old place, surrounded by boxes, a dirty kitchen (we haven't been spending very much time here- oh, who am I kidding? The kitchen's always dirty), cobwebs, etc., we start moaning about having to clean this place to get our deposit back. Then we thought, Hey, couldn't we just...pay some to do it? At this point, I put my foot down. No, I said, we cannot. We have to do this ourselves. Dammit, I have principles. (Also, a limited bank balance.)

Ask me later when the boxes and furniture are cleared and I just want the time to set up the new house, though.