Further Draining Adventures

So, while the we're very happy around here that the Korky flapper is doing its job and we're not losing lots of water down the drain, on Monday we were having some issues with sink water not going down the drain.

It all started with a little water backing up in the second sink basin in the kitchen. I decided it had been doing that for long enough, so I got out the plunger and worked on it for a while. After a few minutes of plunging, I had both sinks about a quarter full of water and... well... crud from the drain. I refused to give up, though, and by the time I was done the drains were both running clear.

With all that success, I figured I'd try my luck on the upstairs bathroom sink. It's been running slowly for a while, and it seemed like the logical step up after the kitchen. Of course, the sinks are completely different shapes. And the plunger didn't work quite so well.

Instead, as I was plunging in the bathroom, each downward push would result in water coming out of the overflow drain. So I plunged for a while and then, since the water was now running slower than before -- as well as being filled with brown gunk -- I decided to try some Drano. Wish I could say it worked. But... well... that would have been too easy.

This was the point where I did the really stupid thing: trying to use a plunger on a drain with Drano in it. You see, with the water bouncing around and splashing out of the overflow drain, I ended up with some of it on my hands. So I went into the kitchen and rinsed them. And rinsed them. And rinsed them. You see, on your hands Drano isn't deadly, it's just uncomfortable. It does something to the fat in your skin and I kind of felt like I'd gotten a major chemical peel on my palms. Even two days later my skin is still oddly taut and uncomfortable.

And, no, the drain wasn't fixed even with the plunging and the Drano. So Tuesday morning I called around and found a Drain Guy (different than a Plumber, I was informed), who came yesterday morning at 8am. He was here for about 15 minutes. He snaked the pipe and ran some water through the sink. I wrote him a check and he was on his way.

I love it when water that's supposed to stop stops and water that's supposed to run runs.

Solstice Butt-Kicking

Unfortunately, I haven't been kicking the Solstice's butt for the past few days, it seems that these longest days of the year have been kicking mine. That certainly sounds better than blaming my sleep issues on the miniature schnauzer who was here last weekend, doesn't it?

You see, ever since last week, I've been having conversations with people about how long the days have been. And, well, that means they've been very long in the evening, as well as very long in the morning. Somehow, that seems to be mucking up my sleep patterns. I've been both staying awake later, and waking up earlier.

For instance: Last night, after we got back from a rousing round of "Pub Trivia" at Hell's Kitchen in Minneapolis (Every Monday promptly at 7pm in their "Far Side" bar -- you should come!), I was up until almost midnight. This morning, I woke up as Christopher was getting ready for work (at about 6:30), and wasn't able to get back to sleep (my alarm doesn't go off until 7:00, and I usually get up after two or three "snoozes").

Which is not to say that I haven't had a productive day. I spent the morning arranging for a "Drain Guy" (different than a plumber, apparently) to come and look at our bathroom sink tomorrow morning, watered the lawn, ran a few errands (including a hardware store, a grocery store, and a Target), and still was home by just after noon. Which meant that I could do some baking (Why do I always seem to end up baking on days when it is over 90 degrees?), clean the house (before we head to a family reunion this weekend), and... in a couple of hours... I'll be off to this week's movie with Kelly.

Hmmm... Maybe it's not such a bad thing that I got up so early today. Maybe the Solstice isn't kicking my butt in a bad way, but, rather, in a "get moving" kind of way. Maybe I should make this my normal routine and see how much more I can get accomplished. Or maybe, just maybe, I should go have a nap and hope that this feeling goes away.

Not-So-Easy Virtue

I love when I go to a movie and don't have any major preconceptions about it. It allows for much more excitement when the movie is good. And if the movie is bad, it doesn't ever seem to fall as far from grace as a movie that I've heard a ton of hype about. ("Slumdog Millionaire" fell into that latter category for me.)

I had heard very little about the movie "Easy Virtue" before seeing it. The basic synopsis that I had read said something about a (female) American racecar driver who falls in love with a younger man of means and, after a whirlwind romance, marries him and goes back to his ancestral home in England. Set in the 1920s, what ensues is a comedy of manners, as well as a cautionary tale of expectations versus reality.

The cast is great, with Jessica Biel and Ben Barnes starring as the young couple whose love may or may not be enough to bridge the gap in their ages -- and cultures. The ancestral manse is filled out with Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas playing the young man's remarkably mismatched parents.

I didn't find out until the credits were rolling that this was based on a play by Noel Coward, but suddenly so much of the repartee made sense. (As did the fact that frequently the young married couple sing out-of-tune portions of Coward's songs.) There are a lot of Coward's influences in the comedic -- and, often, uncomfortable -- moments caused by the clashes of youth and experience.

Watching Kristin Scott Thomas try to hold on to the life she has created, while her son and husband both seem to be abdicating their roles is poignant. Watching Jessica Biel make her entrances -- whether out of a racecar, down a staircase, or in the middle of a foxhunt -- is just plain fun.

Now, back to that out-of-tune singing... I fully admit that I was really bothered by the fact that Barnes's character was never in tune. It made me wish that someone like John Barrowman had been given the role. (Granted, Barrowman would have been too old for the role in a movie, but he could probably still get away with it on a stage...) I found out, though, that Kelly (my movie-going compatriot) found the out-of-tune-ness to be sweetly endearing.

So... Given the opportunity, is a little "Easy Virtue" worth your time? Yes. Keep your mind open to the options it presents? Definitely. Overall rating: B+ (Yes. The "sweetly endearing" singing bugged me that much. Sorry, Kelly.)

The Longest Day of the Year

Yep. That's right. This is the Summer Solstice and, thus, the longest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere, at least). And at least two or three times in the past week I've been involved in conversations about how light it was late at night.

But my longest morning of the past week was definitely yesterday. Christopher and I are dogsitting for a miniature schnauzer named Fred, who rather enjoys getting up at ungodly early hours. Yesterday, he got Christopher up for a quick trip to the backyard at a little after 4. Then, less than 2 hours later, he was ready for a longer trip out. So around 6 I was up taking him on a walk around the block (and bringing back two baggies that immediately went into the bin in the garage).

At that point, since I was already up, I took the opportunity to go out and put down a "weed and feed" fertilizer. It needed damp grass, followed by at least 24 hours of dry weather, and I had been planning to do it, soon, but hadn't really contemplated doing it at 6:45 in the morning.

Around 9, I was off to one of the local garden centers which has started its yearly summer closeouts. By 10:30, I was home and working on planting my new finds and by noon I had finally gotten the chance to shower and get cleaned up. (And, yes, a nap was soon to follow.)

Of course... There is something else going on today: Father's Day. Because my brain isn't entirely functioning this morning (Fred, who is now napping soundly, woke me up at 4:19, and then again at 5:48...), I'm going to take this opportunity to steal something about Father's Day from a newsletter that hit my email earlier this month. (Don't worry. It's not copyright infringement or plagiarism--I'm the one who wrote it for the June NoNutsAboutUs.com newsletter.)

Isn't it time to say thank you?

I don't know what it was like in your house, but I know that Father's Day was never quite the same as Mother's Day at our house. On Mother's Day we all gathered together to toast Mom. There were flowers and (well-intentioned but really bad) breakfast in bed and an afternoon of peace and quiet.

But on Father's Day everyone wanted to spend the day with Dad. No one worried about breakfast in bed. No one bought flowers. Instead, the gifts were typically of the family-fun variety.

Unlike Christmas and Birthdays when gifts were actually for Dad, Father's Day brought out the gifts which Dad may never have seen after the wrapping came off. I know that in our garage there are still a croquet set, lawn darts, and possibly even a basketball hoop or two. Sure, Dad helped put them together and set them up, but after that first afternoon, he left them to the kids. (Not that we minded, though...)

So... All these years later, let's all take a moment or two on the third Sunday of this month to say "thank you" to the man who cheerfully played croquet, hung the hammock, and even let us take him to see "101 Dalmatians" (because we were sure he wanted to see it).

And, while you're at it, we doubt he'd complain if you bought him a cookie or two.

** Disclaimer ** The preceding was written as a "feel good marketing" piece. It's not entirely true. My parents never actually had lawn darts in the garage (we had to play those when we were at family gatherings at my grandmother's). The hammock is in the basement. The croquet set, however, is still there. ** End Disclaimer **

I hope you enjoy the longest day of the year. I'm going to go have a nap.

Brain Drainage

I had every intention of posting a nice little "Friday Food" post tonight. I was going to talk about grilling hot dogs out in the driveway on our little charcoal grill, and follow up with a tale of the amazing chocolate malts that Christopher made. (ohmigod. Blue Bunny ice cream was on a 2-for-1 sale this week. And Christopher makes amazing malts. It was a very nice end-of-week treat!)

Then I was going to fill you in on the "Fred-day" that I have been having, as Christopher and I are dog-sitting for a miniature schnauzer (named Fred, obviously) whose owners are on a lake somewhere "up north" for the weekend. He's a great dog. Really. Although, at 4:25 this morning when he got Christopher up to let him out... and at 6:30 this morning when he threw a fit because Christopher left and he didn't know I was still in bed... well... let's just say the morning did not start well.

I contemplated telling you a little of what I've been learning about Islam, Alexander of Macedon (aka Alexander the Great), and how the passage of time can alter historical perceptions, but decided that I had dealt with enough of that after 10 hours of working on my latest editing assignment. (8 essays on various historical topics ranging from the Jewish Akedah to post-9/11 fundamentalism.) I will say that I'm sure that I've now landed on some government watch list because of all of the terms I've had to look up online. I'm sure I'll forget them all by Monday, but right now I've got words like "mujahidin" and "midrash" bouncing around in my head along with "hadith" and, yes, "akedah." (I'm gonna let you look them up yourselves. That way we can all be on the watch list together...)

** Sidenote ** When I spellchecked this post, that paragraph lit up like a highlighted Christmas tree! Not sure why that surprised me. Possibly because, after working around the words for multiple days, they all seem pretty normal to me. ** End Sidenote **

Instead of all of that, though, I decided that today I'd celebrate the fact that I have finally (after 4 tries!) found a Korky 54BG toilet tank flapper and gotten it installed and adjusted in the upstairs bathroom. I have to admit that, when I found it at Home Depot, I wasn't sure it was going to work. It didn't look like the circle of rubber at the back end would fit around the pipe it needed to slide on to (onto?). But I brought it home and went to work. The loop stretched nicely, and I slid it into place. And I waited. I could still hear water dripping. Turns out, the flapper wasn't centered. So I adjusted it. And I adjusted it, again. On about the fourth try, I got it to create a seal. I celebrated this afternoon by listening to (with all due respect to the Mssrs Simon and Garfunkel) the glorious sounds of silence. In fact, I'm doing that right now as I type, too.

What a great way to end the week: with things NOT all going down the drain!

Thursday Thoughts

As this happens to be a rather humid day, I actually turned on the A/C in my car on the drive home. And, once home, I finally broke down and turned on the A/C at home, too. Yes, it's mid-June, and after a few cool and damp days, we're now having hot and humid ones. So... Since I'm a tad wilted, and since I've got a list of things to do, I thought I'd give you a quick list of things to think about, too.

1) Why does wander sound like ponder, while wonder sounds like under? I mean... Ponderances would sound really odd if you pronounced it "punderances."

2) Wouldn't "The Quirky Flapper" be a great name for a speakeasy? Unfortunately, what I really need is a Korky flapper for the upstairs toilet tank. I've been to multiple places and still can't find the right one.

3) Why would anyone cast an actor who really can't carry a tune to play a character who is constantly singing bits and pieces of songs? (You'll learn more about this on the next Movie Monday.) Let's just say that John Barrowman might have been more interesting in the role.

4) What makes everyone in an office flock to a baby when it gets brought in? That happened today, and as soon as the tyke was through the door, every woman in the office was swooning. One of the men in the office who has kids just walked by saying "You can tell none of them have kids. They'd never do this, otherwise."

5) Why, in the middle of a rather large metropolitan area where shooting off fireworks is illegal, are they sold in all of the grocery stores? Alcohol can't be sold in the grocery stores, but fireworks can? Who made that decision?

Okay. I have to get back to some other things. Sorry to bullet-list and run. Don't ponder too long.

Were You Ready on June 12th?

I hope that all of you were ready for the broadcast TV changeover from analog signals to digital. Not that I have any idea what the change really entailed, except that something is now different in how broadcasts happen. Possibly kinda like the difference between Morse code and a telephone. Or something like that.

(No. Please don't try to explain it to me. Much to Christopher's dismay, I really don't care what most of that tech stuff is, either.)

Since we're a cable-connected household, we didn't have to do anything. We were fine. Some of our channels are incredibly clear, now. We spent three hours last night watching competitions on the Food Channel, and I know I should say that it was as if they were cooking in our living room but... well... it was simply like watching TV a week earlier.

Wait. That's not quite true.

You see, a friend of Christopher's who just happens to be a professional chef was here with us. So watching food competitions was nothing like it normally is. Instead, we were talking through most of the shows, discussing recipes for how each of us might have done them, and voicing our votes for who should win and/or lose. It was, as the DTV folks have promised, more like the competition was taking place in our living room. But that was entirely due to the company, and not the digitization of the broadcast signal. (Sorry, DTV folks.)

I guess that says something about my views on TV, or movies, or life in general: It's almost always more fun when you share it with someone else.

Oh. Wait. There is one the thing I want someone to explain to me: Since the DTV transition a few of our local broadcast channels are now completely fuzzy/snowy. What's up with that?