Plumbing--it's not so bad

In an apartment if something breaks or drips and if it's bad enough to justify the hassle, you call maintenance. So in our last place, we called the office when in February the heater wouldn't light and again when we discovered a lake under the kitchen sink. But that dripping sound coming from behind the bathroom wall we just ignored. After all, it wasn't an immediate problem (though I bet it'll become quite an issue in a few years), and besides, what do you do about a drip inside the wall? Break the wall open? I thought at the time, gosh I'm glad I don't own this place.

When you own the house, on the other hand, and you discover a puddle forming in a random spot on the bathroom floor, you just have to face it.

Dabbing at the dribble with paper towels, I traced the water source to the back of the toilet. Shwew. At least it wasn't some subterranean leak were were dealing with. And it appeared to come from the place where the water from the wall goes into the toilet tank. Shwew again. Considering the alternatives, that's probably the best place for a toilet to leak.

I hesitated to tell Uchenna because I knew we'd have to call a plumber and spend money. My instinct was to stick a bucket (or in this case an old margarine tub) underneath and empty it periodically. Fortunately engineers don't think that way.

Uchenna didn't know much about toilets' inner workings, but he's nothing if not confident. He immediately went to investigate, opening the tank, checking out the flushing mechanism, pinpointing the defective part, and shutting off the water source. He even used his iPhone to take pictures.

Since I didn't get around to telling him about it until 11:30, when we were going to bed, we waited until the next evening to go to Lowe's, where we spent a fruitful hour in the plumbing section. That's a section I have never visited before. Good thing he took those pictures because the many replacement parts, while cheap (yay!), can be pretty confusing in all their variety (but I'm not posting these helpful pictures because they're just not that interesting).

On Saturday, we pulled out the defective guts from our tank and replaced it with the new set-up. And it works. No more leak. Amazing.

So with our new-found knowledge we went after the gurgling sound from our other toilet. Turns out we'd both been ignoring it. Also turns out it's incredibly cheap and easy to fix. Replacement flapper --$4. Confidence as homeowners -- priceless (as long as nothing really big breaks).

Birthday Weekend

I've been wanting cake. Reading the cakewrecks blog will do that, even if you don't want the particular example being featured. So a birthday seemed the natural way to satisfy the craving.

But here's the thing: you can't eat birthday cake all by yourself, or even with just your loving spouse. Candles seem a little pathetic at that point, not to mention singing. I know this for a fact, because I tried it last year. That was a great birthday, with a ride on the ski lift over the fall-colored mountains, followed by dinner at a lovely restaurant. But I shouldn't have tried to squeeze cake in, especially since I'm the only cake eater in this house (though recognizing that, I was at least smart enough to buy a little-bitty, two-serving speciman).

So this year I opted for a party as a setting to share cake. It started small enough. I figured I'd invite two couples that we've gotten close to, and their kids (which aren't many). We'd do it Sunday night, because it'd be low-key. Oh, and let's invite that new couple; they need to meet more people. And the friend that I walk with, and her family. She's so much fun. How about that other sister who's been so sweet and welcoming. Let's invite our next-door neighbors, who brought us cookies the very first Sunday we were here. Being neighborly doesn't come naturally to me, but here's a chance to work on that. And finally, that friend from Uchenna's work, the single guy who got hired the same time as we did and gives Uche a ride home every night.

To those of you who came to our wedding, this may sound like a familiar sequence of events. If care is not taken, it may become our modis operandi.

I tend to be slap-dash about planning and logistics, but fortunately Uchenna is not only detail-oriented but also very serious about entertaining. How many pieces of cake will you have, he asked. And how many people are coming, exactly? Some people may want more than one piece. Yes, you do have to count all the children. He also reviewed my spread: You need more to drink than a bottle of Sprite, and better get another box of crackers. Because when everyone shows up, he told me, you can't say, Oh you came. They will say, But you invited me.

Good thing he gave his input, because (1) I was focused on the artistic part--the cake, which took up most of Saturday (I had fun, but don't look at those butterfles too closely), and (2) everyone came. Turns out it was the perfect amount of food for the perfect number of people. And the kids finally put our back yard to good use (thank goodness for perfect weather).

You're probably thinking that these little guys (mini bundt cakes cut and arranged strategically) are slugs. But think of them in context of the butterflies and you'll realize that they are in fact catepillars. When I made them I laughed and laughed. Probably not a good sign.

One last birthday note: I had originally said, let's have a party instead of gifts and going out to dinner. In Uchenna's mind "instead of" became "along with." So I'm very excited expecting a grinder attachment for my KitchenAid. It should come in the mail any day now. Whoohoo! Oh, I also have a lovely card and bouquet of roses on my table. (Happy sigh) I love birthdays.

Labor Day (vol 2)

In our last exciting episode we found ourselves in rain-soaked Oklahoma City, but well fed and settled into our hotel. By the way, we found the hotel through hotwire.com. The funny thing about that website is that they tell you the general location of the hotel, a price, a list of amenities, and some hotel chains they work with, but they won't tell you the actual hotel you're booking until after you've booked it. It's cheap, but it's non-refundable. So getting the hotel felt like a adventure all by itself. Fortunately, it turned out fine, despite its hard-to-find location behind Office Depot.

Saturday got started a little late. I had run over to Target (also right next to the hotel--I'm telling you, weird spot) for milk and cereal and so forth (we were in an extended-stay hotel--though I don't think 3 nights is that extended--so we had a fridge and stuff), and we actually sat down to breakfast at noon. Oops. Oh well, it was vacation. Then we went to the temple. So we did get that in.

That evening we went to dinner in Bricktown, a downtown warehouse district that's been repurposed into a nightlife restaurant district. Our jazz-themed restaurant looked over the canal and had a live 3-piece combo playing. We walked along the canal and even took a carriage ride. I've always wanted to do that! It was much comfier than I thought it would be, even though our driver had to keep the horse from trying to race the carriage in front of us. Just as we got in the car to head back to the hotel, the rain started again. I wondered about those carriage drivers; the weather must really give them fits sometimes.

On Sunday we found a ward (yay church website!) and drove around a bit studying the map. We'd been getting confused because like every few miles, no matter what highway we were traveling or what direction we were going, we kept running across highway I-44. But after exploring with map in hand, I think we've got a better sense of the city, even that crazy I-44. In the evening we ate dinner at a park surrounding this surprisingly large lake in the middle of town. Late afternoon sun over the water and through the trees is one of my favorite things in creation.

Then Monday we hit Sam's Club (where we showed remarkable restraint) and headed home. I always feel like Millie from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers when I go into town and stock up on supplies--last month we even invested in a double-walled cooler so we can transport perishables. Of course when we got home, the lawn looked like it was trying to swallow the house (you've got to watch that lawn every minute), so after a moment for a relaxing breath, Uchenna took care of that. What a trooper. What a perfect vacation: no conference sessions or interviews or looking at houses and asking essential, insightful questions, or even rushing to graduation. Just sleeping, eating in lovely settings, and exploring. Shwew.