Vinegar works pretty dang well on cleaning the grout in your bathroom.

I've been in the process of cleaning my shower about once a week, just to make the project a little more manageable. My shower grout may be the only thing that will prevent me from getting my full security deposit back, which is something I'm trying really hard to get. I had to pay a lot for my security deposit -- the equivalent of a month's rent, to be exact. I hadn't rented before, not even in college, so I had to pay a little extra to show that I was trust-worthy. The new place had a pretty strict screening process, so the security deposit is really cheap. Especially for 2 people. So I'm really trying hard to get all of that money back.

I had never used vinegar for hardcore cleaning before. I mean, I've always used it for washing floors because that's what my mom does. But I guess I never put much thought in it. For the bathroom, I usually use one product for mostly everything: Scrubbing Bubbles. Good stuff. But it just wasn't getting the job done in the shower. It fought back the mildew, but didn't quite defeat it. I figured there must be a better solution. So I Googled it.

After 30 minutes of reading through home remedies (I didn't want to drop any dunkets on some expensive cleaning product), one woman swore by using vinegar. Plus, she said, it's natural so you're not dumping a bunch of chemicals down the drain. Sounded legit to me.

Holy crap. I'm not even kidding. It works so unbelievably well! I poured about 2 inches of white vinegar into a juice glass, grabbed my 99 cent Walgreens toothbrush I use specifically for cleaning, and went to town. That mildew just melted away. It was way less work than the cleaning products!

Seriously. Go into your kitchen right now. Grab some vinegar. Bring it into the bathroom. Grab an old toothbrush or sponge or something like that. Dip it in the vinegar and try it out. It's great. I promise.

From what I could see (and drink) at the Twins home opener tonight, Summit is no longer offered on tap at the normal Field Fare counters. Instead you have to go to the special Summit carts. There you pay the normal $6.50 and get a cup somewhere between 12 & 16 oz, instead of the normal 22 oz.

Rip-off.

Or is it?

I've been saying it for years (well, maybe only 4) that it never made any sense to buy Mich Golden Light at a Twins or Vikings game when you could get a Summit for the exact same price. I guess Summit finally got smart and started charging the same for less.

The moral of the story is, I'd still rather pay more for a smaller glass of much better beer. It still kinda sucks though.

My life has gotten so busy. "Has gotten" meaning in the last year. I used to have so much free time, but I guess that's what happens when you find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with. The problem with the busyness, though, is that I really don't think much of it is blog worthy.

Like this weekend. Umm, Friday I had to work later than normal and then got some work-related emails later at night and had to take care of them. Saturday morning, I woke up and had some more work-related emails that I had to address, then went to J's 2nd cousin's 3rd birthday party. That may seem like a bit of a stretch, but she's really close to her cousin and we see the 2nd cousins (4 little girls) a lot. Actually, the 2nd oldest will be the flower girl in our wedding. And then after that we went to IKEA to look at Armoires for when we move into the new place. It actually ended up being a nice little Saturday. We wanted to go to Bed, Bath & Beyond as well, but we didn't have enough time....

And then today I did my dishes like a mad-man, and started cleaning the grout in my bathroom. Woot! Woot! Seriously.

Other than that, we've just been doing either wedding stuff or preparing to move in together. Here are some random updates:

Wedding date has been set: April 10th, 2010
Church has been booked: Northwestern College's Chapel in Roseville (J graduated from there)
Reception site has been booked: Profile Event Center off of University Ave in Minneapolis, 2 blocks from the U of M
Food has been chosen
Cake style & place have been chosen: Just prepare yourself for some amazing cake
DJ Booked: Not much to say, other than we got a great deal
Photographers booked: Another great deal
Engagement pics date booked
Guest List negotiations started: Should be a long & drawn-out battle
Wedding Party Decided: My two brothers, J's brother & Tulgren will be the groomsmen, My sister in-law and three of J's friends will be the bridesmaids, little 2nd cousin will be flower girl, no ring bearer, and ushers are up in the air
J is now in the process of trying on dresses

Random move updates:
Basically that the money we've made from signing our new apt & selling old furniture is being used to buy new furniture that will better fit our life together. And it's a really fun process! For those of you who don't know my spending methods, when it comes to buying something big like furniture I tend to over-analyze, scrutinize, and think about it for way too long. Just like my dad. With J, we think about it for like a day or two, go over all options, and then buy it. Whamo. Just like that. Kind of fun.

And there you have it. That's the big huge update on my life.