I'd like to invite you to check out Zero Bull Jetted Tub Cleaner. I’m a co-founder of Zero-Bull.com. We make powerful, safe, all-natural replacements for common, dangerous chemicals. We’ve taken a successful industrial cleaner used by Kellogg’s, Carnival, Craft, and U.S Navy and repackaged it for household bathtub use. Pages like this often recommend DIY solutions using bleach, vinegar, or products that use “quat” like Oh Yuck. We have a lot of research on these chemicals as cleaning solutions. The consensus is that bleach and quat are extremely dangerous, and vinegar is mildly effective. Here’s a brief explanation about why bleach, vinegar and quat are not great solutions for jetted tubs: Bleach: when bleach is added to a tub of hot water, the chemical aerosolizes, filling the room with the noxious chemical known to cause asthma, lung damage, and rashes. Also, the corrosiveness of bleach will damage a jetted tub system over time. Vinegar: household vinegar has a pH of about three. Vinegar by itself won’t actually clean out the jets—it’s better at cleaning mineral deposits but can’t cut and remove gunk saturated in biomaterial oil deposits. Quat: Like Bleach, quaternary ammonium compound is known to cause asthma, lung damage, and skin irritation. Quat poses a “high health risk” and “moderate flammability” on the HMIS scale. Oh Yuk is a popular jetted tub cleaner that contains quat. Jetted Tub Cleaner - LInk! Please send your feedback, we love seeing reviews, especially the nasty photos!

t-bird, surgery is 1/31. On the list: Everything! (But we've painted most of what has to be painted, so my job, unlike yours, is just getting rid of stuff and cleaning every surface, like an old-fashioned spring cleaning.) We're empty-nesters so there are no kids' rooms to clean or kids to give attention and time to. Kitchen is about 90% done, foyer (only a little coat closet and some tile and the front door) is done. Workout room was just painted and is finished except for the closet, which is full of old political-campaign paraphernalia I need to box up or get rid of, and I don't really care much if I get to that or not. Downstairs too is my office, which is a sea of papers, and a TV room and guest bath. Upstairs I have the LR, dining area, and MB, along with 1 1/2 baths. So I may be able to get all of this done. I move very slowly because of my knee, so it takes a while. I'm not going to stress about it; whatever I get done will be better than what it was before I started. Storage area in basement and garage will probably wait until later. I'll join you in a 2012 cleanup project. Mine will be to finish up whatever I haven't done, if anything, before I go to the hospital, and then to keep things in order. I'm the messy one and DH is very neat. Good luck to both of us, t-bird. And may we enjoy the process!

Cleaning/updating a freezer is easy at any time of year. Unplug the freezer, a couple of hours before you want to clear and clean it. Bring cooler tubs used for picnics and get enough large cardboard boxes to hold slightly more stuff than is in the freezer, line the boxes with coats, blankets, sleeping bags, etc. if you choose. But I figure that it's not really necessary, for it won't be out of the freezer long, and as long as there's a bit of ice remaining in each item when it goes back in, it's fine. The insulation makes sense environmentally, though, as the stuff going back in fully frozen will mean that the freezer won't need to run as long to get everything back down to the proper temperature. Maybe label them according to product - veggies, meat, baked goods, ready-to-eat, milk (if you live in the country and milk is an essential, some of that may save a trip to town (unless you just HAVE to go to get cigarettes) ... plus I like to buy some extra when, occasionally, it comes on at about half price: a few small chunkies as it thaws don't bother me, and a bit of shaking reduces them somewhat). If some of the stuff isn't dated, you may want to write with felt marker an approximate date on it as to when it may have been put into the freezer. Having cleared off the ice and dried a spot on the item first. You may want to inventory it, as well - if you don't have one, I recommend it. If you do, check each item against yur inventory. After the stuff is all stored in boxes, cover each box with a coat, blanket, etc. Clear off the frost, a quick way to do it is let the exhaust from the vacuum cleaner flow down into it. Clean the freezer. Let all of the liquid residues on the surfaces dry. Replace the food, storing each kind of food in a different location. Make a map of where all the stuff is, possibly a list of each item, and the date you think that it went into the freezer. Where you have several items of one type of thing, make that number of boxes behind the name, with room for two dates in each box. Put the date that you think that each item of the stuff went into the freezer at the top of each relevant box. When you remove an item for use, write that date into the bottom of the relevant box and cross it off if you choose. When you add more stuff, make a new box at the appropriate location for each item, and put the date that it was added at the top of the box, leaving room in the bottom of the box for the date of removal. If you have different sizes of the same item, you may want to have separate lines including name of product and size, then boxes for each size. Simple, huh? Have yourselves a great day or so before the weekend, then the weekend. ole joyful

a2g: under the soup recipe I linked the post from mntrdredux where powerbread was discussed, but here's the direct link to the recipe I used. Usually I take the time to make it over 3 days, it has much more depth that way. But it's good to know that in a pinch you can just throw it all together all at once and still have a decent and tasty loaf of bread: power bread The muffins are nothing special, but they are quite yummy and it gets my no-I-don't-eat-vegetables toddler to get a bit of zucchini past his lips. Here's my mom's recipe for chocolate zucchini cake, I just put it into muffin tins and baked them 'til they seemed done (15-20 mins?). I omit the orange rind and do a mix of whole wheat and white flour. Chocolate Zucchini Cake 2 1/2 cups flour 1/2 cup cocoa 2 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 cup oil 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 2 tsp orange rind 2 cups grated zucchini 1/2 cup milk 1 cup walnuts/raisins (optional) Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside. Mix oil and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. With a spoon stir in vanilla, orange rind and zucchini. Alternately add dry ingredients with wet to creamed mixture. Add nuts, pour into 10" bundt pan. Bake at 350 F for 1 hour Tami-the pulls are Amerock Blackrock, details of my kitchen can be found here