First load

My new washer & dryer arrived today. In the words of mom, who was here to accept the delivery, "The space shuttle has landed."

Mom got a high-tech, high-efficiency LG washer/dryer last year, and I was there to do the first load of laundry in her new machine as soon as the Home Depot techs finished installing it. So it was only fitting that she was there today to greet the Home Depot guys and do the first load in my new GE space shuttle. Er, washer/dryer.

I paid twice as much for the washer as I would have paid for a plain old boring washing machine that does not light up like the space shuttle cockpit or spit water economically from hidden hydro-ports and use oh so much less electricity. But I think someone who purports to be a liberal tree-hugger should be buying EnergyStar products. Then, as I started researching washer/dryers, I wondered why the dryers are not labeled as EnergyStars. Then I realized that if I was *really* a tree-hugger, I would hang my laundry to dry. Eek! So ok, I'm a tree-hugger when it is convenient. (I think The Woodlands has deed restrictions against hanging your laundry outside. That's my excuse, anyway.)

I agonized over getting pedestals for the things, but in the end the marketers convinced me that I would like the 'dump all your laundry in the drawer first thing in the morning, and the machine sorts it all, then washes, dries and folds them while you're at work' option.

OK, it's a dream. But I'd pay extra for that.