A really interesting post about cleaning the floor...

This past week has been busy. School started again, and I started spring cleaning, which for me, means taking the house apart room by room and cleaning from top to bottom. My husband, the neat freak, loves the result, but the part about taking everything apart drives him batty, so I decided to clean while he was in Spain. My son is in college during the day, and most evenings he's in Versailles at the spring firemen's training session, so my only help are the two dogs, who get under my feet more than anything else. Auguste is curious about everything. He loves to watch me sweep - I think the broom hypnotizes him, and he's always tramping through the dust piles and sneezing, or sticking his nose in my bucket of brushes and sponges. I usually end up looking for a sponge or two in his bed.
Right now, I'm waiting for the stuff to work that I put on the floor to strip the old wax off. If you figure that this house is about 120 years old, and that no one has ever stripped the wax off the tiles, you can imagine the layer of wax; Well, it's not so bad, actually. The house is small, and people and dogs walk on almost every area, wearing down the wax. So it's just in the corners and along the walls. (See, I told you this was a really interesting post on cleaning floors...)
I was going to go to the gym this morning, but I figure I'll get enough exercise scrubbing wax.
News on trading:
The braces trading is working really well. What I worked out was giving lessons in exchange for part of the braces payment, and the dentist, who is a very nice woman, decided to give my daughter the clear braces at no extra cost. I was VERY touched, and now I have to think of a present to give her in order to say thank you. (My whole collection of Ellora's Cave books?) (My friend Lynn suggested that, lol.)

And I know, I know...I didn't say a word about the French elections. In this house, almost everyone has a different opinion about politics, so discussions are lively. My son voted one way, my husband another, and I was hoping for yet another candidate. The run-offs are the 6th of May, and in our house, at least, the votes will negate each other, unless someone persuades someone else, lol. I doubt that will happen. Hubby is a stubborn Taurus, and son was born in the Chinese year of the equally stubborn ox. In France, the record for voters' turn-out was bested. I think they said that almost 80% of the electorate turned out to vote, and they voted against the extremists of both sides by choosing the moderate middle. Sarkozy is our conservative and Segolin is our liberal candidate. Both have their plusses and minuses, so it's really a toss-up who could do the better job. But I will predict one thing. If Sarkozy wins, and tries to push his reforms through, there will be more strikes in France than in Italy in its worst years. The French hate change of any kind, no matter what they say, lol.