The Universe is laughing...

y'know, I'd like to blame this week on someone, anyone, but it's just the Universe out to get me. Again...

Sunday, I had the week planned out. Monday was to be my shopping day, because we were running out of groceries, and the natives were getting restless. No, really, it was because with Little Sister out of school, I would have an extra set of hands for shopping and little boy handling. Tuesday and Wednesday were "stay-at-home"/library days, because it would be cold. Thursday, that's my doctor's appointment. Friday...it was open to possibilites. And then I gave the boy a bath.

The bath tub refused to drain. All of that water just wasn't going away the way it is supposed to. And then, the toilet refused to flush. Or drain. WONDERFUL. I kept an eye on it all night (every time I woke up in the middle of the night to pee...isn't being pregnant wonderful) and it was slowly, oh-so-slowly draining. That was good, but I called our landlord in the morning anyway. (It may just be my isolationist tendencies due to impending pregnancy, but I don't really like talking to him. For one thing, he calls me "young lady". riiiight...) He pointed out that it was probably clogged sewer lines (actually, he intimated that it was flushing "women's things" that clogged the lines) and that it would be our responsibility to pay for it to be fixed. Okay, I can live with paying for it as long as the toilet gets fixed. Then, our landlord recommended a place to do the drains. The place where his wife's ex-husband works.

Okay, he should know who would do a good job, right? They did get someone out on Monday, and, in several hours, managed to get a snake through the clog and have everything draining. and put the toilet back in, too! yep, but then there was the aftermath. I spent over an hour cleaning sludge from the bathroom. Sewer sludge off the floors and the walls. Off of everything that was in the bathroom (the guy didn't warn me that it might make a mess. Or I would have taken everything OUT before he started! Perhaps it seemed obvious to him, but I'm not up on all these plumbing matters) Washed all the towels and rugs that were in the bathroom. Got the toilet grease off the wall (how the heck did it get at eyelevel by the window?) sanitize EVERYTHING with Lysol. Clean out from under the sink, where there was more sludge all over everything that had been in the drawers....

And that's when I found that the piping under the sink had been broken. yep. broken. The metal before the PVC U-bend had come apart into 2 pieces. And it hadn't been like that before the drain guy messed with it. After an hour of cleaning, discovering this almost made me cry. I had missed lunch, missed my nap, didn't get my afternoon snack, and now this?

Back to the phone I went. I called up the drain service, to complain about this, and they agreed to send someone out to look at it. (This is where I need to be a better blogger. If I had taken pictures of the bathroom _before_ I cleaned it, I would have proof for when I sued them for improper handling of biological waste. As it was, the bathroom was mostly clean. All except for the spot behind the toilet where this preganat lady couldn't reach because her tummy sticks out too far.) Their guy looked at it, and wouldn't admit to anything. Except that their company only did drains, not plumbing. But, I did explain why I was not happy, (in a very polite fashion) and they should know that I am NOT recommending them to _anyone_ who needs their drains cleaned. He did call up the landlord for me (the guy the drain company sent might have been the ex-husband. i dunna) and explain that it wasn't my fault it broke (I should say not!) but that the metal had just worn out. (I imagine the landlord put it in himself, originally. that's what he gets for using cheap fittings..)

So (this is still Monday) my landlord then calls me up, and says not to worry about it, that he'll have it taken care of. His brother will come by, after he gets off work, and and fix the plumbing bit. I didn't know what time he was coming by, so, there goes the rest of the day (down the drain, so to speak). The brother did come by, trailed by two highschool age (? maybe a little older, but not much) guys. The kids were very impressed by my dog, which is always a good thing when potential juvenile delinquents are in your house. The Landlord's Brother looked at what he would need to do, and we set up for him to come by on Tuesday morning, around 9:30 or 10.

I was so glad it was Monday, and I could go hang out with the knitting group at Panera's that evening. Not that i don't love my husband and family, but sometimes, I need to get out to preserve my sanity.

So, Tuesday morning, today, I drag myself out of bed at a decent (i suppose, for me) hour in order to be dressed and have the boy dressed by the time the landlord's helpful brother got here. hmmm...he didn't show up. Golly gee. can we say that I was a bit irritated? Why yes, I do believe we can. Late this afternoon, the landlord called me up, to explain that his brother had been in the emergency room at the hospital with a stomach virus/bug last night, and had been sleeping all day long. I, of course, was feeling lie a terrible person, since I had been all indignant over my lost day...when of course, if he was sick, it was best he stayed home, and got better (Neither my landlord or his brother are young men. My conscience would feel terrible if anything happened to them because of me...) the brother is supposed to call me tomorrow, and then come to the house to fix the bathroom sink.

We'll see what happens.I still can't use the bathroom sink, and I'm fully expecting us to come down with cholera or dysentery. I'm tempting the universe's sense of humor to say this, but, what else can happen?