Confession time?

There's just a few things that have come up over the last month that definitely toe the line of "cheating" as far as this little Stand-off is concerned, so in the spirit of full disclosure I want to go ahead and let you know about the items in question. Then, even if I've cheated, at least I haven't withheld information.

First: FLUXX

Fluxx is a card game that Jonathan and I were introduced to when we were out in Oregon for my friend Bingham's wedding. It's a wild card game, where the rules of the game and the object of the game are always in flux. It's incredibly fun and interesting, and unlike any other game we've played. We looked for the game before we left Oregon (this was the end of December) but couldn't find it, so we left promising ourselves that we'd order the game on line when we got home.

Well, obviously that didn't happen. We stopped buying things instead. But we don't know anyone who owns this game around here, and we've been desperate to play it. When my sister Kate and I saw each other last month, I saw Fluxx popping out of her bag. Pining for it, I picked it up and said to her, "don't you think you should give me this game so that Jon and I can have it, then you and Bill can buy Zombie Fluxx when you get back to Oregon?" I was playing with her... kind of. But I secretly hoped she would agree. She laughed and said she could do that, but then we lost track of the conversation and headed to the airport.

It wasn't until I had said goodbye to her and was standing at my gate in the airport that I looked down and saw Fluxx poking out of my purse now. My smart sister had slid it into my bag when I wasn't paying attention. (Oh, who are we kidding - I was probably in the bathroom.) Because she did it that way, there was no opportunity for me to have a guilt attack and say "No, no - we'll just wait until 2011." Would I have said that? I don't know. I think so. But lucky for me, there wasn't an opportunity. And now Jonathan and I carry the game around everywhere playing it at every available opportunity. We will get rid of something in the house in exchange, but I think is still a gray area. That said - we aren't giving it back. We freaking love this game.

Second: MULCH

After much hemming and hawing, we decided that we needed to buy mulch for the beautiful garden that we planted next year. It sure felt like we were buying something... but does dirt count as "stuff"? And ultimately, that purchase never even made it into the house. We just weren't sure how this one came down with the rules, but at the end of the day, we wanted to protect the investment we made out there last year. So there you have it. My garden is mulched.

Third: THE SWIFFER

One of the things I was most wanting to buy when we started the Stand-off was a Swiffer. We recently put in bamboo floors in our kitchen, and while they are extremely beautiful floors, they also show every speck of dirt that is on them. It drives me completely crazy. But we decided that we owned a mop, and a Swiffer wasn't a neccessity, so we'd wait until next year.

But then Jon's boss had a Swiffer wet jet that wasn't working properly, so he and his wife bought a new one. He told Jonathan we could take the old one, and I came home from work one day to find the thing in our front hall closet. Now we do have a rule about taking something from a friend second-hand, but the first part of that rule is that we have to really need said item, which is where this issue gets stickier. In fairness to me, I did pull out the mop to use it the other day and was disgusted to see that it was actually really dirty and probably in need of replacement. And I have been washing my kitchen floor on my hands and knees with paper towels and 409. So we sort of needed the Swiffer. But in order to use the thing we had to buy the pads that go with it. If we'd already owned the Swiffer, purchase of the pads would have fallen under the rule about replacing household things that we use. But as it stands, we did not own the Swiffer, and the purchase of the pads becomes and extra thing: more "stuff", if you will.

I tried to stay strong in Wal-mart last week, and when I was grocery shopping did not go down the mop aisle. But then, there I was, standing by the meat section and I looked to my right... the pads were RIGHT THERE NEXT TO ME. I caved. I caved bad. And then I came home and isntantly slapped one of those pads on the bottom of that Swiffer and went to work. I'll tell you what... I might have been cheating - but it was glorious.

So there you have it. Those were the three issues in question. I hope you don't think I'm a total failure at my own Stand-off. I've otherwise stayed very strong. But I can't guarantee that there won't be a couple of other things like this that come up. When they do though, you can be sure I'll tell you about it!