( Weekend Update...without Kevin Nealon )

( chiro )

Tags: health, house, injury, puppy
Current Mood: tired

Anyone without Labor Day plans? O's headed out of town, so I'm thinking a small potluck gathering at our house is in order.

Comment here, please!

Tags: family, friends, house

Note to self:

When expecting an electrician, it is probably a good idea to be dressed, even if you aren't called the night before to confirm the visit.

Oops...

Tags: house, house work
Current Mood: rushed

Two things happened this weekend that are of note...

First, O's "As Seen on TV" cupcake frosting mishap, as explained on her blog.

And second...

It is warm here. It is VERY warm here. Talking high to mid 90's with high humidity. Makes it very uncomfortable, and the central air conditioning in the house is...mmmm....wonderful! But, we weren't prepared for it. The winter cover was still on the unit and I hadn't inspected it for winter turmoil. So, to make sure it wasn't accidentally turned on, I taped a note to the programmable thermostat:

"Please leave me turned off. Not ready to be turned on."

Well, Sunday morning after I took the pup out to potty, I wandered to that side of the house and did the visual look-see. Seems ok, so I went inside and turned on the AC, removed the note and taped it to my shirt.

I was then labeled thusly: "Please leave me turned off. Not ready to be turned on."

Well...it was far too warm for nookie, anyway. ;)

Tags: entertainment, family, funny, house
Current Mood: mischievous

As it turned out, I didn't travel to Ilion to visit family. Why not? I had forgotten that O was in a Scrabble tourney in Buffalo and I needed to feed/attend to the critters.

Aimless, pointless chatter meant to make me feel better about what I DID do this weekend follows.

She left early Friday morning, so I went to the store after work and picked up some food items for the weekend. Good deal. Rain was forecasted for the eve, so I decided to forgo mowing the lawn and focus on cleaning the house. Since Shadow passed away, we haven't kept up on housekeeping, so things were in bad shape. I wound up cleaning both the great room and dining room, before fiddling around on the computer a little bit and going to bed.

Saturday, I was up bright and early and found the sun was shining. I took pup out to potty and realized the ground wasn't very wet, so...at 9:30 AM I was out mowing the lawn. Yay me. Got the whole thing done just before the wind started to pick up. It started raining, nay, pouring, not long after.

Saturday is a rugby day. My rugby team was supposed to have a game at 2 PM. "Supposed" being the operative word. Guess who drove an hour round-trip with pup in the car for no game? Thaaaat's right. Now, I love rugby and all, but the team seems to be a bit...disorganized this season. I hope it turns around for the fall. When I got home, I watched the first game of the Red Sox doubleheader, went through some old newspapers (my backlog is almost 2 months...eek!), had dinner, cleaned the half-bath, watched the 2nd game of the Red Sox doubleheader while I fiddled on the computer, and went to bed.

Sunday, I decided to take it easy. I got up earlier than I'd have liked, took pup out, got the paper. Then, went through more newspaper. Cleaned the kitchen (took an hour and a half ppls....an hour and a half!), watched the Red Sox complete the sweep of the Brewers, fiddled on the computer some, and did three loads of laundry.

So...lots accomplished. I'd have liked to have done more...but hey...gotta give myself something to do in the eves this week. :) On that list is cleaning the living room and full bath while keeping the already cleaned areas under control. Maybe I'll be ready to tackle the master bedroom this weekend...though my mother is planning to come out if it rains.

Tags: cool, house

Maybe I should start wearing jeans that show my butt crack. Because sink now drains as expected. WOO!

I had thought before that the issue lied in the P-trap. Not so! With O's help, I carefully snaked the P-Trap after removing it from the sink and lo...no water drainage. Did get some goopy stuff out of there, though, so all was not lost. :)

So, after going through some of the home repair books we have in the library, I discovered a 3rd place where a clog could happen. That would be at... *drumroll*...the drain stop! This is the thingie that goes up and down and allows you to fill the sink with water without it draining.

To fix it, I had to take the whole danged thing apart, but when I did...whoa...the gunk in there. Nasty. Again with O's help, I snaked the drain so that the soap scum and other sundry nasty stuff that was blocking the drain was removed, and then washed the drain stop itself to remove additional soap scum and other sundry nasty stuff. Reassembed, and voila! Drainage!

Still a small issue with the o-ring, though. That's the rubber piece that seals the drain when the stopper is down. It's slightly warped, and that creates some blockage when the stopper is open. Need to revisit that at a later point...

Tags: house
Current Mood: accomplished

Back to house stuff. The upstairs bathroom sink is still plugged. And it's getting worse. Hell..ya wash your hands and by the time you're done, the basin is half filled with water and soap suds...and the tap is on only a few milliseconds before the water starts gathering.

All of which makes me wonder...

I snaked the drain once already. well...more than once. On multiple days. And I was assuming the problem was further down the pipe. Now that I've been watching this blockage keep progressing, I think I've finally realized where the problem is. It's not down the drain behind the wall...oh no! It's in the P-trap!

I'm such a moron sometimes.

And it HAS to be the P-trap because that was the ONLY part of the pipe I didn't bother snaking. The P-trap's location (it's that curvy thing under the sink that holds water and prevents sewer gases from leaking into your house from the plumbing) is close enough to the basin that a simple blockage in there would cause the water to back up into the basin as quickly as it does. If the blockage were further down the pipe, it would take longer for the basin to fill. As it is, it's almost immediate.

So, instead of snaking the P-trap, I'm gonna take the easy way out and stop by the hardware store tonight with P-trap in hand. See...the snake is really a two person job, but with a small piece like this, it's damned near impossible to snake it. And there's also a good chance of busting a hole in the pipe because of the way it's designed. I think it's better to replace the pipe rather than screw around with the snake. This will ensure we have a clean pipe. And hey...the pipe's not in the best shape. Might be original to the 197? house... That's a lot of years for crud build-up to accumulate.

Tags: house
Current Mood: geeky

A couple days ago, I reprogrammed the thermostat in the house because of last month's heating bill. We have blankets and various items of clothing that can be considered warm, and I refuse to pay $200+ per month until Spring arrives for good.

Well...

Apparently this has not been optimal for our Tonkinese cat, Emily. See...last night, she woke me when I felt her fur along my leg while I was sleeping. She had crept UNDER the covers and between our brand new flannel sheets (like sleeping on CLOUDS, yo...) and curled up against my leg.

Now, if you like cats, you're probably thinking something along the lines of "Oh, cute!" or "Awww..." and mushifying. I, however, was more than displeased to be awakened by this particular critter in this manner. I do not like to be awakened by the unexpected feel of wiry kitty fur on my bare leg.

No kitty, that's a BAD KITTY!

Tags: bwah?, cat, house
Current Mood: groggy

I spoke with my mom this past Monday and it's official...we're having 12 people at our house on Xmas eve.

O's parents and sister, my parents, my brother, his girlfriend, his 3 kids, and us. Count 'em. That's 12.

My god.

I've been in preparation/planning for so long I hope the two days will go without a hitch. We're having a snack buffet Xmas eve when my family is here. Included in the buffet are a pepperoni & salami/cheese tray, crackers, Triscuits, baby carrots, celery sticks, red and green pepper strips, hummus, potato chips, Doritos, another bag of "chip" type food, and chip dip. Drinks will include cow's milk (cuz soy is OH SO WEIRD! bleh...), coffee, tea, cocoa, several types of soda, red and white wine, beer, and, if I can swing it in time, a ginger ale/cranberry juice punch...but I don't own a punch bowl. More than enough food, and it's easy prep. Olivia's mother is sure to be hovering in the kitchen asking if I need help, so I'll put her to work. :) The stress here will come from so many people. I don't like crowds much...and when you're related to the crowd... *stress*

Note to self...make sure chip baskets and dip bowls are ready and available. And take a few deep breaths. My family's heading home early-ish the same day...

I need to set the table for Xmas dinner on Xmas eve. I have a lovely stacked place setting for each person. It starts out with a silver (plastic...I couldn't find enough metal ones. :( ) charger plate instead of a place mat. Stacked on top of this is one of our everyday two-tone, handpainted blue entree dishes, a square salad plate, and a small soup bowl. Placed horizontally on the edge of the soup bowl closest to the person is a Christmas Cracker and in the bowl, spilling over the edge will be a gold/silver linen napkin in an etched aluminum handmade chain maille napkin ring (the etched aluminum has a powdery silver look).

We have a sky blue tablecloth with spindly silver snowflakes stitched into it. It should look beautiful with the blue and silver theme and really set the scene for dinner.

Xmas day will prove far more stressful. We'll start the day with a late, lazy breakfast/brunch of fresh baked cinnamon rolls and cereal/oatmeal and open our stockings. Then, we'll start "dinner" around 3. The four-course menu is as follows with approximate times:

3 PM: Spiced Carrot and Orange Soup with fresh baked bread (making this tonight after work and freezing it)
4 PM: Winter Salad with pears, cranberries and walnuts and Homemade Balsamic Dressing
4:45 PM Homemade Pineapple Sorbet served in Champagne to cleanse the palette (prepping the sorbet tonight, too!), served in a martini glass
5 PM: Ham OR Stuffed Portobello caps
Mashed potatoes with garlic, sour cream, and chives
Corn with Red and Green peppers
6:30 PM: Lemon Delight for dessert (a recipe a coworker gave me: one melon ball sized scoop each of lemon sorbet and vanilla ice cream, drizzled with lemon liqueur and garnished with a sprig of fresh mint and a Pirouline cookie)

This should provide for a leisurely meal for O's parents, her sister, and us, and spreading out the meal should present us with less stomach troubles. Plus, I'll be able to clean dishes as time passes as I'll need to reuse the soup bowls for dessert. We might even be able to open presents in between courses.

So yeah....lots planned, lots left to do to prep, but it should be fine...I just need to keep reminding myself of this.

Tags: cool, family, house
Current Mood: nervous

The windows were picked up last night...along with most of the broken glass. There are still a few small shards here and there, but the pieces as big as me? Gone.

I'm still dumbstruck.

Tags: house, house work, windows