Gurgle, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

Yesterday, in a fit of efficiency, I decided to streamline my life. First I planned the menu for the week, then I hit the grocery store, and I prepped all the raw veggies for the week.

All was well in my world and I was happily patting myself on the back until I tried to shove all the carrot peels down the garbage disposal. And it backed up. Big time. Darling Husband read up about the GD and said to plunge it. I got the gross plunger out, yuck, and tried desperately to dislodge the nasty clog.

Didn't work.

At this point, I decided to pretend it would drain and took DD and her friend to the pumpkin patch. It was a beautiful day. For pumpkins. Not for sinks.

I stopped in at LOWES and spoke to a very nice young man about my dilemma. He sold me a funky little key turn metal gadget that's supposed to move the GD's motor. I took it home. I convinced my DH, who really didn't want to fix it himself and would rather park in front of the TV watching the COWBOYS kick butt, to save over 200 dollars and try.

If I'm going to spend 200 dollars, I want to get a new ALPHASMART.

Well, we readied ourselves with two bath towels, a bucket, and two bowls. DH released the tube connecting the GD to the DW. OMG, the amount of water and disgusting carrot bits flowing out of there was like watching Satan's child projectile barf.

Super gross.

We quickly put the tube back. Then we tried to use the GD again.

Nope. No go. He poked around the open tube, and discovered THE CARROT PEEL CLOG. A wire hanger was transformed into a poor facsimile of an auger. DH dislodged a few more bits of carrot. But the clog refused to budge out completely.

Now DH was ready to call a plumber. I saw visions of my AS flushing down the toilet and called my neighbors... retired Air Force flyboy to the rescue! My next hero arrived with a wrench and a bucket.

He instructed DH about how to undo more of our plumbing. We did so. We got rid of the clog. Now the underbelly of our sink looked like someone with a very bad hangover had thrown up in it. But the clog was gone. Woohoo.

We turned on the power and the GD leaked! Yikes. Even I was ready to relent and call a plumber on Monday. But our next door neighbor said the plunger we used had probably dislodged the GD seal and we had hope that we could fix it again.

I took my DD's friend home and went to STAPLES to buy a poster board for her in an effort to avoid all moans about how much of the COWBOYS game DH was missing. I returned to discover all was well in our world again.

And that is how I set up my most efficient writing week.

PS: the following items should never be pushed down a Garbage Disposal--carrot peels, potato peels, egg shells and goldfish (the swimming kind, not the eating kind). You didn't read it here, but when my DD's goldfish, PING AND PONG, died, I ran them through the GD cause I didn't want to plug the toilet.