OK..I don’t know about any of you…But I feel super accomplished today!!!Do you want to know what I did? Guess? How about I give you some hints….it took about a week to complete, and involved a few towels, water, a wrench, a bowl, some more water, some roto-rooter super gloop, putty, more water, a paper bag, *Did I mention the wrench already? yeah?…OK. I used it a lot* two plastic trash bags, a bucket, a hanger, rice and a few assorted odds-n-ends!! If you guessed that I….
Created this super cool Peep Diorama….
That would be AWESOME!! But not anywhere close to the nastiness I encountered this past week.
So here’s the deal. Anyone who knows me well knows how i looooooove rice, in all of it’s many forms(white rice/rice krispies/rice pudding–I threw that in for you Carolyn). Since I cook rice just about everyday, I often have a bunch left over at the end of the week*or every few weeks if you want to be precise* when I clean out my fridge. I don’t know why I save it, I just do!! So I have about 15 glad tupperwares full of rice in the fridge, usually in different stages of rot…it isn’t always easy to tell when rice has gone bad, and since I really don’t know what order they got placed in the fridge, I just throw it all away. So last Wed., I was cleaning out the fridge and started in-sinkerating (is that a word..ha ha…it is now!) everything that was in the fridge. I usually don’t throw rice down the drain. I hear my mom screaming in my head: “NO RICE!!! whenever I even contemplate it, but I never knew why she said that!? Well, I had a particularly slimy container of rice, and didn’t want to be smelling it for a few days in my mostly empty trash can, so i chucked it down the drain with the rest of the uneaten leftovers…BIG MISTAKE!! Two minutes later, all of the stuff I was getting rid of came up in the second sink in a nasty slushy slimy mess. I’m talking lasagna, sausages and stew all mixed together. YUCK!! I immediately stopped what I was doing.
Now normally, when faced with nastiness like this I would run to the phone and call MR. Roto-Rooter. He’d come over and I’d try desperately not to stare at his exposed butt *thinking the whole time–doesn’t he know I can see his *ss? Doesn’t that bother him? Why doesn’t he wear bigger pants or a longer shirt? Hasn’t he ever heard of an Isabelt?* as he fixed the drain for me, and all my troubles would be washed away. I’m sure I don’t have to tell all of you folks that we’re in a recession so unfortunately I just can’t afford the same luxuries anymore 😀 So I tried to figure out what happened. Well, it turns out that rice is SUPER ABSORBENT, and since the rice had been the first thing down the drain, it had absorbed all of the water it could, and had formed a surprisingly solid wall in my pipes. I knew it was time to get my hands dirty *figuratively, since I wore snazzy purple gloves…yes I did find purple gloves!!* First, I tried the obvious, and plunged the sink. When that didn’t work I got out the Drano, but all that did was give my sink gas. After nearly burning a hole in my hand from the lye, I realized that this was about to get serious, So I emptied out the yucky gloop into a bucket and transfered it to the toilet where it belonged. Then I did some EXHAUSTIVE RESEARCH *read the first website I could find* and got started on my journey. Next I unscrewed the pipes under the sink* I know, I know…the thought of me with a wrench…ScArY!!*, Then I went to the store and bought something called a snake, and used it to clean out the wall of rice from the wall pipes. The whole time I was doing it, I imagined the hot plumber in my head saying to me… “yeah, I’d like to snake your pipes’–innapropriate? Maybe…Inspiring?…Oh, yeah!!–That got me through the nasty process of scooping & dumping rice and food from the other pipes. I felt really good about having done for myself what would have normally taken several hours, and cost a couple hundred dollars to do! When every thing was all cleaned out, I put the pipes together again, and patted myself on the back. Well, it turns out that my celebration was a little premature…
Now my sink was leaking, and I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I had put all the pieces back together correctly. I called my hubby to see if he knew what could be wrong, but he was no help. Then I talked to my mom and SURPRISINGLY enough, she reccomended both of the things that helped. She told me I should put thread tape on the pipe. I did, and it helped a little, but did not fix the problem completely. My mom also told me to buy plumber’s putty and slap some of that on there for good measure, which is what finally”sealed” the deal *sorry couldn’t help myself* So now, I sit here with unclogged pipes, and a dry kitchen happy…and proud of myself! I’m pretty sure I deserve this….
Have you ever had to do something like this? If so who helped you, and what worked the best?
Leave your answer in the comments (I crave comments like chocolate…)
or
email me at: mama2bellablog@yahoo.com
I did that with pasta once, but I didn’t fix it. I went in the back of the house and cried while Mike and his brothers did the dirty work. I’m embarrassed just thinking about it. “Jaime, why would you put THAT much pasta down the dish disposal??”
What do you expect, I was pregnant!?!
And btw, you’re not really a chocolate person, so I think you should change it to, “I crave comments like Milanos, or pirouettes, or jam bars, or any kind of buttery or toffee-like or fruity treat.”
@Jaime,
Don’t be ashamed of your response…that would be my normal response too 😀
Also, I thought about putting, jam bars, toffee or milanos, but somehow it doesn’t pack the same punch. Most people wouldn’t understand. But eveeryone it seems understands the need for chocolate!!