Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Random thoughts while I avoid doing housework...

Today we woke up to a nice thick layer of ice on our driveways and roads and to the announcement that school was closed!  There's nothing like a totally unexpected four day weekend.  :)

I spent a very large portion of my day off yesterday on part one of my "fix the kid's bathroom" project.  Both the sink and the tub have been clogged so I played the part of the plumber and pulled apart the drain pipe under the sink and cleaned the grossness out. 
(Now, when the kids spit their toothpaste into the sink, it actually gets flushed away down the drain rather than sit there in the basin for hours.  Ewwww! )
See... all better.

I also poured copious amounts of draino down the bathtub drain and while it is running much better than before, it's still not perfect.
Today I will go at it with a plunger and if all else fails, I'm busting into the access panel and cleaning out those pipes.
  I may not LOVE doing this, but there is something empowering about it all and makes me feel like Wonder Woman.
(With a tool belt and hopefully not a plumbers crack!)
(No visual aid for this one... you can thank me later!)


While I was waiting for the draino to work it's magic, I had time to take a better look at the kid's bathroom.  I'll be honest, I generally try to avoid looking at this room, because it's generally gross.   I do send the kids up there to clean on a fairly regular basis, but teen-age clean and mom clean are two different things.
(Not to mention that neither of those compare to company clean, but I haven't had any visitors in a while.)
   Many surfaces that haven't seen a wet sponge in a while were scrubbed clean.  And while I was at it, I took down the old shower curtain and decided it needed to be replaced, so off to Target I went.
That brings me to "part two" in which I fix that bathtub drain once and for all and hang up the pretty new curtain. 
And I'm avoiding it...
by boring the crud out of you.  

So I move on....

Have you ever heard of Lee-Jackson day?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Apparently it's a holiday only in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  (Seriously... can't they be a state just like everyone else?)  Lee Jackson is not one person, but the combination of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  Now.... I am a New Yorker.  I tend not to get the fascination with the whole confederate army/ civil war thing, but around here... Lee and Jackson are everywhere! 

In fact it was on Lee-Jackson Memorial Hwy that I made a perfectly legal right turn on red only to be pulled over by a cop who then informed me that it was no longer legal.  They put up a brand new sign and then parked motorcycle cops at the corner to catch people like me who didn't bother to look at the new sign, because I've been turning right on red there for two years!
Ugh!


And speaking of Jacksons... my 10 year old recently discovered the Jackson 5.  :)
So we are now listening to I'll Be There, ABC, and Rockin' Robin.  I guess they were popular when I was just a baby, so while I certainly know their music, they were just background music for my childhood rather than a group that I was really into.  It's funny to see what kind of music your kids latch onto.
(I'd really rather not talk about the Tom Jones phase... What's new pussycat?")  :/

Guess I should go hitch my pants up and get some plumbing done.

Wonder Woman!


****Edit****
I got the bathtub totally fixed!!

No more standing water!

randomtuesday

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This stuff is the absolute best on drains: http://tinyurl.com/yz2lrdz.
When I had that whole post-pregnancy hair loss thing going on, this saved our tub.

Margaret aka: Fact Woman said...

I love doing plumbing and things like that. It does make you feel powerful!
You need one of these- http://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Products-83250--25-Foot-Clearing/dp/B000H5ZYX6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295371596&sr=8-1
It's a long snake thing but it clears out those clogs so fast and so far down. No more opening traps.

I hate it when they change the rules and then wait to give you a ticket. They should have to give a 60 day warning only period when they do that. So unfair.

Mary said...

You know, I was pouring copious amounts of Drano down my bathtub, despite my hair catcher thingy and attempts to catch the hair before it washed down the drain. Then I saw that stupid little "As Seen on TV" drain cleaner. It's just a little bendable pipe with grippers on it--dumb really, but I bought it and stuck it down my tub and those little gristly teeth were able to pull up a handful of hair that was just catching on the bottom side of the drain. It was gross indeed but I haven't used drano in months! :)

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Good job on the bathroom. We should have stock in draino, we use it so much.

Lindsey said...

The good thing about my job, is that I work with lots of plumbers so I don't generally have to get into the nasty gunk myself, 'cause that stuff is GROSS. Ew.
However, that means that a lot of my job is dealing with other people's gunk... and that is way worse.

Leslie said...

She is woman hear her roar!!! go you plumber sister....i bet that little gadget mary has would be a great help here at my house. i can't wait to see the new bathroom stuff...and while it all might have been random it sure was interesting.

Grammie/Mom said...

Oh my gosh!! You are just too funny. I love reading your posts. Plumber's crack...that was good. You should fight that ticket. I think there should be some kind of warning, like in a mailing or paper or something. Julia..are you bored?

Bunch of Barrons said...

Great job wonder woman! ;) Love your first shot!

Brooke said...

you ARE Wonder Woman. Go girl! :D I am in awe of your handiness. I bet it feels good though... not that I would know first hand! Hee.

Alita said...

WORK IT, mama. I always love to do it myself, too. When I can. And amen to fixed bathtubs as well.

Is that wonder woman a self portrait? :))))

Anonymous said...

That's my girl!!! :))

terri browne said...

Thank you for this post...I was able to procrastinate on being productive by reading about you procrastinating on being productive. :) Nice work on the bathroom!

After a long hiatus, I am re-entering the blogosphere. First post in over 3 months going up tonight or tomorrow!