Hello!
This week has been very draining. Actually, in a manner of speaking, this morning was draining, and the rest of the week wasn't so much. To fully understand, I need to take you back a few weeks. Our bathroom sink was starting to get a bit slow on the draining side. It wasn't so bad, but it was noticeably slower. We left it alone, but during this week it started getting worse. This has happened before, and so yesterday morning, as part of the Great Apartment Clean of Fall 2010, I disconnected the stopper from the sink and started digging around. I've done this before, and it has always helped. The usual suspects came out, some hair, some dirt, some still white soap. Satisfied with my digging, I connected the stopper again and ran some water through. Still slow. That's weird.
I walked out into the living room and picked up the new little flashlight (Australian translation: torch) that Liz got me for my birthday. It's a cool mini Maglite - it has different features such as strobe, SOS and a few others, that are all selected via a twist of the wrist thanks to an accelerometer (at least that's what the documentation leads me to believe). I disconnected the stopper again and looked down...
At that moment, I felt like I was in a movie. It was the type of scene where people at war see the opposing army and just how big it is, and they realize they're going to need a much bigger screwdriver and to change their tactics if they're to win the battle. We had so much more to do that I left it, and decided to finish the other tasks that needed to be done around here, and put it off until tomorrow. Basically, I sounded a temporary retreat to rethink my strategy.
Last night we brushed our teeth before bed, and the water just sat in the sink. I told Liz about the massive clog I had discovered, and that I was going to look at it in the morning. Luckily the water had all drained by this morning (we weren't sure if it would or not), so before I showered I readied for battle. I took everything out from the cupboard beneath the sink. It was an easy thing to do, because it is all in a sliding drawer. My plan had changed from yesterday: the new plan was to outflank it, catch the clog by surprise. I removed the stopper like yesterday, hoping to make the clog look up - it would never suspect a sneak attack from beneath. I put a bucket down, and removed the bending pipe beneath the sink. Armed with the trusty screwdriver, the longest we have, I started to dig. Small chunks fell out. I didn't want this to happen - now the clog knew I was onto it. Trying to end the battle quickly, I stabbed upwards - the screwdriver pierced something squishy. I twisted the blade and yanked it downwards.
PLOP.
The clog was massive - an entwined mass of hair, soap, dirt and a small rubber band for good measure - a couple of inches long. The smell of death (clog) filled the air. I called my trusted lieutenant.
"Liz..."
She stopped when she saw the clog, then began running water through the drain. The minions of the clog started dropping into the bucket - we were winning the battle. The screwdriver returned to make some more pivotal strikes, then, the battle was over. Connecting the bending pipe and stopper again, we ran some water, and it all drained successfully. The territory occupied by our hideous clog foe was free again. And, as a special bonus, there were no leaks. My lieutenant took the fallen enemies outside, and I showered.
I reflected on my victory - thinking about how this had to go on the blog, and about how satisfying it is sometimes to get things done around the place. No matter how small. We've actually gotten a lot achieved in the last 24 hours, which people may see the fruits of soon.
Now, if only I could change that light bulb in the bathroom. That, though, is a battle for another week.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Catch up
It's been so long since I posted... Most activities lately have revolved around the wedding, but I expected that they would. We've made some big decisions (bigger than charcoal grey) and should be in a position to make some announcements soon. It's good that we're trying to get so many big things done now, because it means that we won't need to worry about them later on and can take our time handling the small things. Apart from all the wedding stuff, here are some other things that have come up and would have been talked about on here, had I been keeping up to date...
Last weekend Richard came over and hung out for a while. He was talking to Liz who was also reading a wedding book at the same time. Sensing that she wasn't listening, he jokingly said "It's going to snow tomorrow!" Liz looked up and said "Very funny, Dad." The next morning she woke up, showered and checked the weather. Possible snow mixing with rain but probably not making it to the ground? That's pretty funny. Then, I got out of bed and looked outside - snow falling, to the ground. It turned to sleet about 5 minutes later, so, where I was at least, there wasn't anything on the ground. Except for on our back steps, which looked like a sno cone had been poured on them.
Been watching some TV too. I keep giving The Clone Wars a chance, but so far this season it has been tremendously disappointing. Continually jumping around the timeline, giving screen time to characters who really aren't that important, filling in boring story lines. Heck, Anakin has been in only a couple of episodes - he fought in one, in another he dropped Ahsoka (who hasn't died yet) off then flew away, then last week he played whipped secret husband to party-planning Padme. This is the guy who's going to become Darth Vader. I don't want to see him being told to make sure the droids buy fruit and don't get ripped off!!! Hopefully they'll turn it around soon. Starting tonight. Obi-Wan gets back on the screen after a few weeks away.
One cartoon that hasn't been disappointing has been South Park. Awesome all the way. The last 3 weeks have seen them carrying out a superhero story arc, which built on an episode from last season called "The Coon" (the Coon is Cartman's superhero persona). It told more of the back story of Mysterion (my favorite), and introduced characters like Tupperware, Toolshed, Mosquito, Iron Maiden, The Human Kite and Mint Berry Crunch, collectively know as the superhero organization Coon and Friends. One of the elements that I enjoyed about the episodes was the comics that they integrated into the story - they had the look of stylized story board sketches which I had seen for South Park before and looked cool.
We've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender as well. I'm really into the show and keep wanting to know what's going to happen next. Good thing about watching a show years after its release is that you can watch more straight away. Right now I'm liking it much, much more than The Clone Wars. We've finished the first season and are now a couple of episodes into the second. It's already created a few questions for me, which Mike, who is a season or so ahead of us, has told me are answered later. Zuko is my favorite character - he's a banished Fire Nation prince trying to capture the Avatar to regain his honor.
Behind our building at work is a canal/inlet that leads out to Long Island Sound. From the fifth floor the waterway does not seem very wide, and a few weeks ago Brian thought he could throw a rock across. He couldn't, so now Mike is keen to try. I got some rocks at the beach last weekend, and Mike and I tried yesterday. Mike landed probably 80% of the way across, me about 60%. We're going to try again, but I know I won't get all the way. From our throwing point, the shortest distance to the other bank is around 80 - 90 yards at high tide - if you skew the angle a little, it blows out to 100 yards. I know I'm not throwing a rock 100 yards!
Tomorrow is the 4th Annual Queens County Chili cook-off competition and pig fest, which means we're making chili tonight. If it's anything like last year's contest it will be a lot of fun - eating chili and chili dogs - it's a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Mmmm... chili... but what I want most of the time is peanut butter. Here in the US a lot of peanut butter has junk in it, so we try to get stuff that has as little as possible in it. Problem with that is it can get expensive. We were getting an organic one when it was on sale, but it was still more than regular peanut butter. All it was was peanuts and salt, and it was good (in taste and ingredients). But then we went to Trader Joe's a couple of weekends ago and I saw they had organic peanut butter: cheap organic peanut butter (by that I mean inexpensive). Only ingredient - peanuts. It is great. It spreads well, even straight from the fridge (the other one kind of came out in big chunks, even though it was smooth).
I'm beginning to wonder if it is finally happening - I'm getting on the US peanut butter wagon.
Last weekend Richard came over and hung out for a while. He was talking to Liz who was also reading a wedding book at the same time. Sensing that she wasn't listening, he jokingly said "It's going to snow tomorrow!" Liz looked up and said "Very funny, Dad." The next morning she woke up, showered and checked the weather. Possible snow mixing with rain but probably not making it to the ground? That's pretty funny. Then, I got out of bed and looked outside - snow falling, to the ground. It turned to sleet about 5 minutes later, so, where I was at least, there wasn't anything on the ground. Except for on our back steps, which looked like a sno cone had been poured on them.
Been watching some TV too. I keep giving The Clone Wars a chance, but so far this season it has been tremendously disappointing. Continually jumping around the timeline, giving screen time to characters who really aren't that important, filling in boring story lines. Heck, Anakin has been in only a couple of episodes - he fought in one, in another he dropped Ahsoka (who hasn't died yet) off then flew away, then last week he played whipped secret husband to party-planning Padme. This is the guy who's going to become Darth Vader. I don't want to see him being told to make sure the droids buy fruit and don't get ripped off!!! Hopefully they'll turn it around soon. Starting tonight. Obi-Wan gets back on the screen after a few weeks away.
One cartoon that hasn't been disappointing has been South Park. Awesome all the way. The last 3 weeks have seen them carrying out a superhero story arc, which built on an episode from last season called "The Coon" (the Coon is Cartman's superhero persona). It told more of the back story of Mysterion (my favorite), and introduced characters like Tupperware, Toolshed, Mosquito, Iron Maiden, The Human Kite and Mint Berry Crunch, collectively know as the superhero organization Coon and Friends. One of the elements that I enjoyed about the episodes was the comics that they integrated into the story - they had the look of stylized story board sketches which I had seen for South Park before and looked cool.
We've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender as well. I'm really into the show and keep wanting to know what's going to happen next. Good thing about watching a show years after its release is that you can watch more straight away. Right now I'm liking it much, much more than The Clone Wars. We've finished the first season and are now a couple of episodes into the second. It's already created a few questions for me, which Mike, who is a season or so ahead of us, has told me are answered later. Zuko is my favorite character - he's a banished Fire Nation prince trying to capture the Avatar to regain his honor.
Behind our building at work is a canal/inlet that leads out to Long Island Sound. From the fifth floor the waterway does not seem very wide, and a few weeks ago Brian thought he could throw a rock across. He couldn't, so now Mike is keen to try. I got some rocks at the beach last weekend, and Mike and I tried yesterday. Mike landed probably 80% of the way across, me about 60%. We're going to try again, but I know I won't get all the way. From our throwing point, the shortest distance to the other bank is around 80 - 90 yards at high tide - if you skew the angle a little, it blows out to 100 yards. I know I'm not throwing a rock 100 yards!
Tomorrow is the 4th Annual Queens County Chili cook-off competition and pig fest, which means we're making chili tonight. If it's anything like last year's contest it will be a lot of fun - eating chili and chili dogs - it's a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Mmmm... chili... but what I want most of the time is peanut butter. Here in the US a lot of peanut butter has junk in it, so we try to get stuff that has as little as possible in it. Problem with that is it can get expensive. We were getting an organic one when it was on sale, but it was still more than regular peanut butter. All it was was peanuts and salt, and it was good (in taste and ingredients). But then we went to Trader Joe's a couple of weekends ago and I saw they had organic peanut butter: cheap organic peanut butter (by that I mean inexpensive). Only ingredient - peanuts. It is great. It spreads well, even straight from the fridge (the other one kind of came out in big chunks, even though it was smooth).
I'm beginning to wonder if it is finally happening - I'm getting on the US peanut butter wagon.
Monday, November 1, 2010
One decision down, many more to go...
In amongst all our regular weekend activities, like grocery shopping, Liz and I managed to do some other stuff this last weekend...
Saturday saw us running errands, one of which was to return a book to the library. While there we checked out (multiple meanings of the words) some wedding books. The most beneficial one, I feel, that was picked up was "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Being a Groom". I've read a little bit of it, and it's told me a couple of interesting things.
We also went to a Bush concert. It was pretty good. It was at the theater in the MGM Grand "Hotel" and there weren't a lot of people there. It got a bit over the top at the end as the lead singer, Gavin Rossdale I believe his name is, started pulling girls up onto the stage. They were all dancing while they played their last song. One girl thought she was in a strip club I think, because she was doing some pretty "I'm not in front of a large crowd" moves.
Saturday also saw us make our first decision about the wedding. It wasn't a large decision, but it was our first, and every decision, no matter how small, goes into making up the whole. We decided, wait for it, that grey is going to be part of our color/colour scheme. I'm happy about it; I love grey. To be more exact it's charcoal grey that made the list, so I guess people (at this stage that includes Liz and I) will see how it is incorporated on the day. Well, we'll have to decide before then.
On Sunday we checked out a couple of possible venues. One of them is no longer a possible venue because it wasn't very good. It didn't speak to us at all and wasn't what we were looking for. The other place is still a possibility, but we want to check out some other places as well, and find out more details about this place to make sure it will fit what we want to do.
We watched some more Avatar: The Last Airbender as well. We're 12/20s, also known as 6/10s or 60% of the way through the first season (based purely on episode count, I'm not counting down to the second or anything like that).
I should go make a start on dinner. Pizza tonight. Not taco pizza though. I'm going with bacon, pineapple and onion. I haven't had bacon in a while. I don't know why - bacon is great!
Saturday saw us running errands, one of which was to return a book to the library. While there we checked out (multiple meanings of the words) some wedding books. The most beneficial one, I feel, that was picked up was "The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Being a Groom". I've read a little bit of it, and it's told me a couple of interesting things.
We also went to a Bush concert. It was pretty good. It was at the theater in the MGM Grand "Hotel" and there weren't a lot of people there. It got a bit over the top at the end as the lead singer, Gavin Rossdale I believe his name is, started pulling girls up onto the stage. They were all dancing while they played their last song. One girl thought she was in a strip club I think, because she was doing some pretty "I'm not in front of a large crowd" moves.
Saturday also saw us make our first decision about the wedding. It wasn't a large decision, but it was our first, and every decision, no matter how small, goes into making up the whole. We decided, wait for it, that grey is going to be part of our color/colour scheme. I'm happy about it; I love grey. To be more exact it's charcoal grey that made the list, so I guess people (at this stage that includes Liz and I) will see how it is incorporated on the day. Well, we'll have to decide before then.
On Sunday we checked out a couple of possible venues. One of them is no longer a possible venue because it wasn't very good. It didn't speak to us at all and wasn't what we were looking for. The other place is still a possibility, but we want to check out some other places as well, and find out more details about this place to make sure it will fit what we want to do.
We watched some more Avatar: The Last Airbender as well. We're 12/20s, also known as 6/10s or 60% of the way through the first season (based purely on episode count, I'm not counting down to the second or anything like that).
I should go make a start on dinner. Pizza tonight. Not taco pizza though. I'm going with bacon, pineapple and onion. I haven't had bacon in a while. I don't know why - bacon is great!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)