OK, I'll admit it. I'm a slob. There. You satisfied?

Here's my diary: Get up at 5 a.m. Go to work. Get home at 5 or 6 p.m. Dinner, clean up after dinner. Read for an hour (or play on the computer). Maybe watch TV for an hour (hour and a half, tops). I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep.

That leaves me with zero hours to do housework during the week, if you don't count dinner and cleanup after as housework.

SO on the weekend, I do errands (there are always errands), groom the dog, water the plants, laundry (there is always laundry), pick up the mess a little, set up hubby's meds for the week.

But, to my shame, I don't do heavy duty housework. When it gets bad enough, I clean out the refrigerator or clean the stove, clean one of the two bathrooms. Today I do the kitchen floor, replete with doggy muddy footprints and juice spills from hubby that he doesn't notice and has walked in. Sticky. Ugh.

But I'm a slob. I look around at the dust and the cobwebs and the general disarray and I'm dismayed and angry. This is not how I like to live and I just hate living in a dirty mess.

I've even been known to take a vacation day from work just to try to catch up with the housework. Some vacation.

I blame my husband, to be honest. When he spent 6 weeks in the hospital, to my astonishment the house got cleaner and cleaner. Things I put away stayed put. The spills on the kitchen floor didn't happen. I ran the vacuum and by golly it didn't need vacuuming again until the next weekend. The clothes miraculously went into the hamper and stayed there. Nothing spilled itself or went rancid in the refrigerator. The house, incredibly, smelled clean. It was liveable.

The whole experience was an eye-opener. It is possible to keep up with the housework, even if you work full-time, but only if you have help from your housemates. And I'm not talking about the dog.

So today I asked about getting Huber's wife to clean the house (she's been asking if I want help). Housemate's answer? "Not until I've shampooed the carpets." That's hubby-speak for, "When hell freezes over." He'll shampoo the carpets right after he writes the book. And I've been waiting for that for 15 years.

His was, by the way, a typical passive-aggressive response. He promises he's going to do something for you, so refusing or scheduling anyway would be an insult. But he'll never do what he promised, so you don't get what you need/want.

Never let a passive-aggressive know what's important to you. He'll make sure you don't get it unless you just ride right over him--and then he'll never forgive you, never let you forget it. So you're wrong if you do it, wrong if you don't.

And a happy Sunday to you, too.