I can't stand Braid Lady. SHE'S BACK!!! The door rang on Wednesday and there she was, braid and all. I was supposed to try out a new housekeeper who seemed great on the Tuesday before Braid Lady returned. She was one of the many who responded in the first rush after I listed it on Just Ask Boo. I called her and got a message in Espanol, so I went on to the next candidate. After interviewing three other people with no luck, I went back to this one. I'm willing to sign up at Berlitz at this point.She came with her husband who said she could clean, iron, cooked great and had an excellent driving record. She herself, said very little and seemed shy. When I called her reference (who she still works for 1 day a week) she recommended her highly and said she had even "lent her out" to friends who needed help at dinner parties etc... I was going to have her come Tuesday, before Braid Lady returned from Ecuador, but her husband called Monday and told me she had taken a job for the week. She reasoned a week's worth of work was better than two days, but I was planning on hiring her permanently. I thought I would have Braid Lady back and see if she still bugged the crap out of me. She does. I left the panini maker open, because it needed to be cleaned. When I returned, it was closed up, with stuff on top of it. I assumed she had cleaned it, but checkedanyway. It was still full of gunk. I opened it back up and asked her to clean it. "Do the things come out?" she asked, speaking of the grill panels. "No. I just cleaned it last week. It's not that hard." Rolling of the eyes. I told her I needed her to dust, mop and vacuum Every Week. She said yes, she understood, but I found a fake fingernail where she had supposedly mopped and she definitely didn't vacuum ("Your vacuum stinks"). My friend Martha says "You need to get someone who doesn't speak English." I'm not sure how this will help them clean better, but I'm willing to try anything at this point. My husband said "We've had a revolving door of nannies. We're due for a good one." I may give the quiet, Peruvian one a try next week if she is still available. I don't think I can take another week of Braid Lady's passive aggressive responses.

The Nanny Chronicles/ The UN of Nannies

Braid Lady has been gone a week, as of today and the house has not fallen down around us. Unfortunately, I have not been very successfull in my nanny search. Most don't speak English, have no housekeeping experience or don't drive. It doesn't help that my phone has been turned off since Monday (sent the check in Tuesday) so no one can call in. It is peaceful though. Saturday, I interviewed a former Montessori teacher from San Francisco who: sold jewelry at Nordstroms, sold luxury cars at a dealership, worked for a realtor and was a personal assistant for some impossible-to-work-for (according to her) lady. She was personable and enthusiastic but I think more of a Nanny than housekeeper. She said she thought cleaning was "good exercise". I think there's a lot more to it than that and when I asked her about cooking she said her friends say she is a good cook, so she didn't sound too confident with that. Finding a housekeeper is not the hard part, finding one that drives is. I don't even care if they cook at this point- that is the least of my worries. I guess I will send my husband's shirts to the dry cleaners, since Braid Lady usually irons them. One day when she was bringing his shirts up to the bedroom, she asked me how much the dry cleaner charges per shirt. I told her I didn't know (I don't). And when I told her this summer that I was going to Italy on vacation for two weeks, she said "Must be nice." Her exact words. These images and the memory of her horrible attitude remind me of why I must keep on my quest for a new nanny/housekeeper. But, in the meantime, I saved 200 bucks this week. And no attitude.