Uh oh, the laundry's done!

I watched It's A Wonderful Life this weekend for the first time this year (definitely not the last!) and watched Elf while I did a TON of laundry last night. I thought I would describe for you my laundry routine.

1. First I need to make a fire. I get really excited when I can get a fire going with only one match. Last night was not the case, more like 10 matches were required. Then I need to fill up my metal tumpen about half way with water and place on the stove to heat up. Then I fill up my water boiler and plug that in. The water boiler holds about 8 cups of water. Then I sort my clothes. This is a very complicated system where items are sorted based on colors that bleed (ie Walmart dresses which turn things in the water after them purple-ish) and filth. You don't want to watch a work shirt after you wash ger pants that go to and from the outhouse. I like to do 2 loads. The first starts with the dresses and then moves to blacks which includes most of my long underwear. Should I need jeans or my brown pants or my sweatshirt washed they would also go in this load. The second is work shirts followed my khaki work pants as needed, then going to ger shirts, ger pants, pajamas, socks, and undies. Should a dirty item be discovered after its turn has passed, it most likely is headed back to the Water Distiller box I am using as a hamper, better luck next time.

2. So, once the water is hot in the metal tumpen on the stove, I add more wood to the fire, put the tumpen on the floor, press play on my laundry movie of the week, and get to washing. The trick it to wash fast so the water doesn't cool down too much before you are done with the load and to not pay too much attention to the color of the water. Yes it is dark gray color after the 1st, or if you are lucky, 2nd, item of clothing, but I swear it will be cleaner than when you started. Or at least, wetter and more wrinkly. Every item after being washed is thrown in the blue pastic tumpen awaiting the rinse cycle.

After the first load is washed, I dump the water into my dirty bucket. The bucket is called dirty, not because of it's roguish sense of humor, but rather because it resides under my sink to catch the sink water. It is where all used liquid goes and so has to be frequently taken out into the street and dumped. Since winter has come someone arranged the snow in a 3 wall barrier with a hashaa fence making the 4th wall, and this is where people are apparently supposed to dump water so as to not make the whole street a slippery cesspool but rather have one concentrated area. Like a disgusting miniature outdoor skating rink. Hopefully by this point the bucket is only about half full, so I don't have to go dump it yet. I then put more water in the metal tumpen and put it back on the fire, to which I add more wood.

3. At this point I turn to the blue tumpen. I add the no boiling water from my water boiler and some cold water from my water barrel. I rinse and wring out the clothes again and hang on my fancy collapsible clothes rack which I place close to the stove. Again, try not to pay attention to the fact the water is a dark grey. Afterwards I dump the rinse water into the dirty bucket and now have to take it to the street. This involves pulling on sweatpants, sweatshirt, hat, and my slip on brown manly shoes my dad bought me, over the shorts and tank top I wear to do laundry as i gets my ger up about a nice 89 F.

Come back in, take off outer clothes and, just like the song, repeat steps 1 through 3. After ll clothes are hanging up to dry the tumpens dumped, dirty bucked dumped, and water wiped up off the floor, it is time to lie down exhausted.

I really like that my blog spellchecks tumpen and wants to make it tampon.

Patrick leaves Arvaikheer tomorrow. Both he and Amber are going to America! for christmas. Amber left on Friday, so Thursday night I had all 4 of my sitemates over to my ger for Blueberry Pancakes (both Vegan and not-so-much) and French Toast (with syrup!) and a few coctails. The good thing about hosting is you don't have to walk home in the cold afterwards, the bad part is dishes. All in all, a good time was had by everyone!

It looks like I am for sure going to Darkhan for Christmas. A big thank you to Steph and Ryan for hosting! I am psyched. I will only be gone about 5 days, but it will be a nice trip. I might try to take my cat to the vet to get fixed in UB on the way there or back.

10 points if you know where this blog title came from.

I miss you all! A big hug to my Redmond relatives! Sorry I can't be there. love, C