Of Plumbing and Driving

Just a quick update concerning the plumbing situation I mentioned before. You know the one where the toilet decided to go bust and leak nice clean toilet water down through the floor into our kitchen right above the stove... Ya that one.

It turns out that I am not only very very bad at drywall repairs but I should not have closed it up to begin with. So, on the advice of at least two reputable sources (a plumber and my father who just knows a lot about anything to do with houses) I spent and hour cutting out all of the drywall and joint compound that I jammed into the hole (and trust me, it was just jammed in there, I wish I took a picture) as well as an bit extra, slathered the whole area with mold retardant paint and left it to dry.

So now we're left with a lovely hole gaping above our stove for as long as it takes to save enough cash to hire a professional to fix it (I am no professional, in fact I am the exact opposite of a professional).

On another note, we should expect a great ice and snow storm! We're due me thinks. I for one absolutely love snow in all its forms! Though ice does make for a perilous commute here in DC due to the absolute panic that seems to set in the minute the first flake falls. Though, the more I think about it, that panic also seems to set in during any and all adverse driving conditions. Actually I think that their is a constant state of panic that over takes DC drivers the minute they get behind the wheel. I would guess that it may be due to the realization that there is, what seems to be, an overwhelming number of bad drivers out there. Due to that number, panic sets in out of fear of bad drivers, thus making you a bad driver because your in a panicked state...

Well, now on to good things...

K is back for the untimely business trip! That makes me happy. Especially because I no longer have to resort to lecturing the animals on my take of Quine's theory of logic or the pros and cons of latex versus oil paints or why I so desperately need a hobby....

Also I'll be going home from work shortly and will get to brush my teeth! I forgot to last night before leaving and I hate the fuzziness that my mouth develops over a ten hour shift if I don't brush beforehand...

Please excuse the ramblings, I am always a little overtired on the first night shift of the week.

Cheers!

Some Time To...

Nothing like a mental hiatus to make you wish you could take a real hiatus. Over the last week or so I've been doing as little as the world will allow, which is a lot more then I would like to be doing. Due to some situational situation-ness I had a wonderful 6 days off, just me and the animals. It seemed like a great time to catch up on some personal tasks I wanted to do and maybe finish the book I started reading about 6 months ago, didn't happen (well partly).

Last Friday I was talking on the phone to the folks when the panicked voice of K came from the kitchen saying that there was something I should see. So I said a quick goodbye and went to take a look. And there, above the stove, dangling from the ceiling was a giant bubble of paint. Yes, the kind of bubble you get when there is a rather large water leek in the ceiling above. After uttering about 30 to 100 rather course words we scrambled for a bucket and placed it under and gave it a poke.

I'd say about a gallon or 3 came gushing out, nice, brown, slightly off smelling water. As well as about a square foot of drywall.

Due to the excessive amount of foul language that was used at this point I think I should move on with the story.

After dropping K off at the airport on Saturday I was off to the hardware store for, well at this point I was only guessing would be a long list of things that are needed to fix gaping holes in drywall. I was right, putty knives, joint compound, joint tape, sandpaper, sand screens, oh and not to mention drywall. Since my original plan for this mini vacation was repainting the living room I picked up some paint too.

To make a long, involved, aggravating story that is filled with swears and the realization that I am about as good at drywall repair as a drunken 9 year old, the ceiling looks like a drunken 9 year old tried to fix it and we will need to hire a professional to fix it in the future when we can afford it.

I say when we could afford it because I omitted a portion of this story. You see after draining the bubble and cleaning up all of the mess that came with it, we realized that there was no more water coming down. This was good but odd news. Where had this water come from and why had it stopped? So I want on up stairs to see what could be seen in the bathroom (which is above the kitchen), nothing. No toilet overflow, no shower leek which I had been hoping for.

WHERE THE HELL DID THIS WATER COME FROM!

So a plumber was called and thank the lord he could come today.

After close inspection it was determined that the leek WAS from our incorrectly installed toilet (and yes it was post flush water... yum) and it would have to be removed to be fixed. It was also brought to our attention that the reason that our toilet was flushing so poorly prior to this is that it was no good, something about build up of calcium making the pipes about half the size they needed to be. The fix? New toilet, new gaskets and a through cleaning of rust from the fittings. The price? About 900 duckets.

Thank you O' prior owner who thought you were the handiest handy man to grace this earth. The list of crap you have screwed us on by not knowing what you are doing is growing at a geometric rate! Form the pipes filled with grout in the basement floor that will have to be jack hammered out to the incredibly bad "finished" basement construction. From the jimmied electrical systems that have outlets housed OUTSIDE of the baseboard to the paint you splattered all over the floor (conveniently covered with rugs and furniture when we looked at the place). And now this incorrectly installed toilet...

I'm not saying that the house is bad or a lemon, but there are a few things that are really just killing me.

Plumbing will put me in an early grave.

On the up side, I managed to trim out the living room and paint it a wonderful earthy gray with white trim and one red wall. Of course I've stayed up till 2am every day for the last week working, trying to complete this project before Saturday when K returns. I now have just one stretch of trim to finish painting and one more coat of red to apply for this FIRST room to be done. Then? Then on to the rest of the house....


Who needs a drink.......


Cheers

More Time, Less To Do

So apparently next week the entire country is coming to DC. I can't blame folks for wanting to be here for what every one seems to be calling the "OBAMAPOCALYPSE" or, in other words, the inauguration ceremony. At first I entertained the idea of trying to get tickets but I found out that the average senator or rep was getting about 100K requests for the less then 1000 tickets they had each. Then I entertained the idea of just going to the mall to see what I could see, after all I am off work for most of the week due to circumstances out of my control (namely a bunch of idiots that can't seem to do a very simple task so I must suffer their incompetence) but after the thousands of news reports about the overwhelming number of folks coming to town and the complete gridlock that is expected, I decided against it. So now I am left with the unfortunate situation of being off work, house bound and alone (if you don't consider the company of two wild and crazy dogs, a cat that loves to pee and a tank full of fishys actual company) due to the untimely business trip of my K.

I had considered taking the opportunity to try and best my drinking alone marathon record (set back in the late 90's) of incomprehensible drunkenness (three days) but due to the realization that I am NOT invincible (I think that set in in around 05) and that I detest hangovers unless they are for a really good reason (by good reason I mean someone put a bottle in front of me). So I decided against that as well. So what will I do with my long house bound weekend, 5 days of BLANK.

And that may be just what it is, I'm sure some of the time will be filled with admirable activities like scooping up dog poo or cleaning up cat pee or maybe if I am really lucky a tv overdose!

That all just sounds so depressing, but unfortunately true, though I am intrigued by the possibility of painting my living room, now if only we could agree on a color... maybe I'll just do it anyway................................... and see what happens (if I'm never heard from again after next week you can guess why).

So as it comes, tomorrows Friday (well today is Friday actually for me because I am working Thursday night making Thursday Friday until it's actually Friday and then Friday is Friday) and I have no solid plans beyond sleeping till noon and cooking a Friday dinner. It's an unfortunate truth that having more then one day off without any solid plans makes me a little uneasy (uneasy like I'm wasting a good opportunity, not uneasy like theres an ice-cream truck driving by and that weird driver is staring at you again...) but I'll have to make due.

Or maybe I'll just help out with national security by as El (soon to be not) Señor Presidente suggested...

"People say, 'How can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil?' You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."-Washington, D.C., Sept. 19, 2002

Now that sounds about right! know any shut-in's I can go harass with love???????

Mental Haze

That’s about it.

My brain has been on vacation for the last week, of course I have too but I had to come back to work yesterday and unfortunately my brain decided to stay on vacation. It's making it difficult to do some pretty menial tasks. Talking for instance or writing or just making it to work on time (something I have not done yet this week). To be honest the freezing rain was the cause of my ten minute delay tonight but the lack of a functioning noggin has not helped either.

Perhaps it was the week off or the 100's of hours logged in front of a TV or the bottles and bottles of wine and beer consumed or the complete lack of doing, well anything really. I must have lulled the thinking parts of my brain into a coma, now I just need a weekend to wake them up again...

I had planned on talking about one or two of the wonderful bottles of wine I drank last week or the plans for repainting the complete interior of my house (which I did NOT start on last week as I had thought I would) or even maybe come up with some poignant political commentary on some political person (of who's names I can remember none of which) or the lack of a really really good pizza anywhere near anywhere around here.

Alas I cannot put together a complete sentence or pertinent thought on any of the above subjects. So perhaps tomorrow or the next day I'll revive some of that gray matter into a cognitive state, at least enough so as that I can regale you with some witty remarks about a fine red wine from somewhere in Europe or the very strange incident that keeps occurring with my old neighbor and his odd excitement about doors and giant warehouses filled with them...

So until I am coherent enough to explain myself,

Cheers

Working Christmas Night Away! (just like Santa)

It's Christmas day. It's 1 am. I'm at work.

Not what I would call the best case scenario but it will have to do. Tomorrow, after a long night of work tonight, is our first (and maybe last depending on how it goes) annual "Day After Christmas" party. I think we sent out about 40 invites and so far about 20 "sorry we can't make it because (Insert generic excuse such as the in-laws are going to be in, the weather is supposed to be bad, I'll be to hungover, I may have to poop that day)" so it may be just us and about 300 dollars of wine and food, mostly wine.

But I remain optimistic, not about the party but about the wine and besides Saturday I'll be off to get some fish for my new aquarium! and all that wine...

So apparently it seems Friday will end up being about 7 or so gusts and one over tired and rapidly drunk Draffish. Is it really that tacky to get sloshed at your own party? what about just one of the hosts? is that even more tacky? Probably... but then again I've never really paid too much attention to my state of tackiness, besides I usually can't avoid getting a little tipsy after only four hours sleep.

To be honest, anyway it goes it should be fun, at least I won't be at work!

and on that note Merry Freaking Christmas! NORAD says Santa will be here soon!!!!!!!

Cheers!

Of News and Things

Have I been absent?

No not really. More just not having done anything that anyone (including myself) would find interesting enough to read.
I am in the process of setting up my first aquarium in a long time. Exciting I know. This is the first one for about 13 years, when I was a bit younger I had five going at once, with all types of fish and a turtle and crabs and crayfish.... So I was lucky enough to get one for Christmas! (we did our gift giving early because I'm working through the holiday) which was just perfect, I really needed a hobby so here I go again! we'll see if I get the bug and end up with another 50 or 100 gallon tank...

Other then that, I am thinking about painting the interior of the house, or at least portions of it, though probably not until mid January (I need to find something to do during the Inauguration that will keep me IN the house)

As far as crazy news for today, we have a few points of interest;
The Bethesda flood
Shooting at the Wheaton mall

Other crap

I'm sure if you live in the area you have seen the pictures of cars being washed down the street by a massive flood caused by a 60 inch water main bursting in Bethesda. Crazy! What a mess, that will take a while to clean up!

A gang related shooting at the Wheaton mall (nicely located close to home...). Apparently a group of four or so respectable young gang members decided to dual with another group of four or so highly regarded individuals. As these young ruffians beat each other about the head and whipped out their pistolas an undercover cop got involved and chased one down shooting him (or so I heard). All this occurred right outside (and INSIDE) of Macy's which was subsequently locked down for an hour or two. Gotta love you local gang members during the holiday rush! I love being alerted to things like this by seeing 6 or so helicopters hovering in the sky all facing the same direction, makes one a little nervous....

To keep on the crazy crimes topic, has any else noticed that there have been a lot of bank robberies of late, 6 that I have noticed, one occurred moments before we walked on by a Bank of America on University about 3 months ago. Is this a sign of the economy or just that I live in a bad neighborhood?
I also read a good piece in the Gazette about some hotels in Silver Spring on 13th st that have had multiple arrests for prostitution and drugs and even some bodies found in rooms. I wouldn't mention it but I think my folks stayed there last time they came to town... Won't be staying there again...

Lastly The Post had a wonderful article about an Iraqi spy under Hussein that lived in MD and was arrested and charged recently. That’s also very nice...

Cheers

and lastly they have arrested a

Another Italian

So here it is getting on in the evening, waiting for my folks to arrive from MA and my wife from work. Naturally I decided what better time then now to pop a cork on a new bottle of vino and see what we have. Tonight it's Arceno, PrimaVoce, 2004 - Italy, on sale for 12 buckaroos.

After a slight mishap, lucky I had a backup.

As I first took out the cork the nostrils detected a fruity but acidic alcohol smell... better let it breath for a bit while I go breathe somewhere else....

Back for the first little sip, little sip because the folks are en-route and I am on 3 hours sleep in the last 24 so I don't want to be passed out on the floor when the get here. Though the evening may go smoother if I am (parents are fun).

Too my surprise, though still a little bit of a dry bite, very tasty indeed, maybe two sips...

My nose was not crazy about it at first but upon return I have decided that I could be enticed by the mocha and fruit aroma, though it was still a bit acidic. I wouldn't go calling it extravagantly delicious but I didn't want to vomit so that's good.

As for the first taste, I think I detected fruit like prunes and cherries in there as well as chocolate and spices that lead into a peppery woody finish. I'd also say that it most assuredly has a better body then I do.

The acidic and boozeyness of it was a bit Strong right out of the bottle but giving it a good half hour to take a breath fixed that and the balance of tannins and fruit helped greatly. Besides, who would want to drink a wine that wasn't a little bit boozy? All in all I'm not too disappointed (who could be for that price!). Tentatively I'll rate this a +4 for good taste and an easy finish though I'll refrain from solidifying this until tomorrow. Time to wait and see how I feel the morning after...

Well it's not the morning after but I can most assuredly remember waking up that fateful Saturday morning knowing only two things. One; I must get out of bed, take a shower and spend the day "touring" DC with the folks. Two; My brain hurts.
Yes indeed, Arceno may make a good companion for the evening, but this Italian is not fun to wake up with. This fact MAY have been compounded by my staying up late (after 11, remember I worked all the night before and only slept for 3 hours) and the fact that the bottle is now empty along with some (or all) of another....

As for an officially unofficial rating wholly decided and bestowed by myself, +3 (The I might be nice tonight but in the morning I'll make you feel like I killed your cat award). As a disclaimer I am only lowering it by one point because it was tasty and these painful and bitterly remembered after effects were probably brought upon by my own foolishness as well as exasperated by the fact that my folks expected a chipper chauffeur and tour guide during the 4 hours we were at the American History museum. As for the museum I actually do recommend it. The remodel is not too bad and the "America at War" display was stimulating. Just don't go on a very hungover Saturday, the screaming children everywhere will in no way make your brain feel any better.

Cheers!

A Holiday Post

There it is, the old homestead, painstakingly adorned with crisp whit lights. All decked out for proper holiday celebrating, designed to lift the lowest of spirits!

To think it only took two trips, actually a trip and a half, to the Wallet Depot for a ladder and two more trips to the local hardware store for a dozen or so strands of lights. It took a trip and a half because I purchased a ladder, strapped it to the roof of my little VW and got halfway home before we decided that this ladder may be a little too short and since I am so bad at making any and all purchases we went back to get a slightly longer version, didn't want to get home and not reach the gutter (which was really in the need of a good cleaning, things were growing in there!). They didn't have one. Well they did but it was fiberglass so it weighed about 50lbs more and cost about twice as much, I took it anyway. Three hours later, eight rotten leaves in the mouth, three near plummets to my demise, one slight shock from a broken light bulb and it’s done! I feel wonderfully Christmassy, I just wish that damn strand on the tree would stop flashing, damn fancy ass lights with a defective button!

I am not usually a holiday nut, but I do love putting an obscene amount of lights on the house and blasting Christmas music while drinking eggnog all night long, wait, I guess that does make me a little bit of a holiday nut. Nevertheless, I enjoy the festive nature of the holidays more the "Go out and buy Buy BUY!" portion (though I guess most of the festivities do involve a bit of buying but that’s mostly booze and ladders (one should note, these should NOT be combined unless one wants to spend the holidays in traction) which are the more enjoyable parts of celebration, well at least the booze is.

So even if you do find the holiday season a bit tacky, materialistic and full of incredibly bad made-for-TV movies why not enjoy the good portions! Portions of spiked eggnog, Christmas ham or goose, portions of pie and then some more portions all of the above until you pass out on the sofa, then get up and so it all over again!

At least that’s my credo.

Cheers!

The Good, The Bad and The Drunk

I've decided to help out my fellow humans by giving an unbiased review of the wine I drink ungodly amounts of. No reason I can't put my liver abuse to some good use and share the wonderful and horribly headpoundingly miserable experiences with the rest of you folks so maybe you won't make the same mistakes I have.

An Introduction:

I'm not going to lie, I have absolutely no formal training as a sommeliers (professional wine person) but I do have years of boozing under my belt and I can tell a red from a white most of the time, I'm still a little confused where a blush falls. So don't worry, I may steer you wrong some or all of the time (like that time in France when I accidentally bought cooking Sherry to go with my Roquefort (also accidentally purchased) cheese took a sip, argh!, then a bite of my cheese, In the name of god that’s bad!, and almost lost it) but at least a not so good wine is still a wine, and wine is good.

Let me also say, I am a red wine person. Though I do love wines of all shades and colors, I primarily drink the reds. And I will include an image of the bottle when I get around to taking pictures or scanning in the label (I'm lazy).

As for a rating system, I had considered dividing the drinkability by the number of drinks, subtract the remainder from the number of ounces in the bottle and then multiply that by pie (the food not the math equation) take that, flush it in the toilet and see how many time it takes to go down, before just giving it a score of between -3 and +7. Yes that will be it, and I'll also come up with some completely arbitrary name for each score that will be different each and every time, because it really doesn’t matter and I highly doubt any of you readers really care anyway...

Oh, and I also promise to include any antics the may or may not occur while the imbibing is taking place, not that that kind of thing ever happens to me anyway.

That said, TO THE WINE!

Montecillo Crianza Tinto (Red) - Spain - 2005 - $17.00
Quite an easy drinking red Spanish table wine if I do say so myself. The first sip or two were a bit strong in the nose but that passes if you properly let the bottle breath for a bit (or just pound that fist glass or two so that you don't notice anymore or at least just don't care). Some dark fruitiness to it, like plums or cherries and you can most assuredly taste a wood cask (or maybe that’s just me). Over all I would give this one a +3 (The Purple Tooth Award) for good table manors, going well with all kinds of snacks like olives and cheese (if your as pretentious as I am) or just Cheeto's, not inducing nausea, having a good "bouquet", not causing me to act in a silly sort of a way too soon, and mild hungoverness from finishing that 2nd (or 5th maybe?) bottle.
Goes on the good list!
Rated +3

Fetzer - Cabernet Sauvignon - California - $11.00
Now I know some folks may like this staple American wine (it always seems to be the only brand that my relatives can buy for those ill fated "get togethers" that end up with my aunt flying off the side of the road on the bike with two flat tires that she hasn't ridden in an unknown number of years or some cousin deciding that 35 is NOT to old for cartwheels) but I am not a fan. I find it a bit bland, sort of like a glass of juice with ice but the ice is all melted but your out of juice so you drink it anyway. That’s about how I feel about all those Fetzers, not a fan but if you poor it in my glass and I don't have something that’s a bit more tolerable, then I'll throw it down the old pipes for a good time and not complain about it, until someone shows up with something better, then I'll shamelessly make fun of it and anyone who happens to have brought/be currently drinking it. I'd talk about the "nose", but I don't like to put mine near it... As for a rating? I'd have to give it The Fuzzy Eyeballs Award of -1. Awarded for lackluster performance on the old taste buds and an attempt at a standing ovation in the hangover department, nothing says lovin like waking up and feeling like there are two kittens in your head fighting over your eyeballs.
Rated -1

So those are the two wines I remember drinking last weekend, the good old County Liquor and Wine Shoppe is having it's holiday sale so I have quite the mishmash of different and interestingly named wines in my wine cellar (and by cellar I mean the cardboard box in the corner by the washing machine) so I can only be expected to remember the first two or three bottles drank in an evening. Maybe next week I'll try and take notes while I can still write legibly enough to decipher it the following morning, or maybe I'll just look at the empties and make up some more B.S. No worries though, there are a dozen or so bottles left and I plan on making a big "holiday" purchase of heavily discounted wine again this week, or at least enough to get me through the next few weekends. In either case the reviews will keep coming like it or not.

Cheers!

P.S.
I will make some sort of half arsed attempt to learn more "proper" terminology when I can muster enough giveacrapness and I'm not so drunk.

Another Normal Weekend

So the weekend passed with little of interest occurring. There were far too many sick people coming to my hose for my taste (if your sick stay home, that applies to going to work too. Keep your plague to yourself!) So I'm bracing for a cold, got my Zink and oranges all lined up. I went and walked through some Christmas light displays, that was actually very nice. It happened to be the first night that we've received a discernable amount of snow, so it was actually very, well, Christmassy.

I'm not sure if it's the economy or folks just deciding that Christmas is for losers but I seem to remember a lot more folks lighting up their homes. I think that mine is the only house on the block with lights and there are only two others on the whole street that I've seen. Perhaps it's not green to light the house anymore, using up all that electricity for no reason other then not looking like your the Grinch. Oh well, I'm a fan of Griswalding up the place (never enough lights!) though I must say that the worst thing to happen to Christmas since boxed fruit cake is the inflatable lawn ornament. God almighty I hate those things. Huge inflatable snow globs and behemoth sized Santa's stomping atop the roves. Most folks can't seem to stop at one distasteful inflated rain dear; no they must invite Wal-Mart over to puke every damn inflatable object imaginable onto their lawns. I shudder to think what will be next... I actually can't think of much that would be worse to me, maybe next will be giant robot Santa's and Rudolph's prancing about, though at least with those their exists the slight possibility of the robots going rouge and mauling their owners then going on a twelve day rampage spreading Christmas terror coast to coast!

But I digress and ramble.

We made the annual trek to the tree lot, about a mile from the house. It's the tradition now to walk and buy the tree and carry it back, making jokes about getting tree-jacked. We always do this the weekend after Thanksgiving, though I have recently found out that it is actually illegal to buy or sell a Christmas tree in Montgomery County before December 5th. It's true, someone actually reported a church that started selling on the 29th and the County shut them down until the 4th. What on earth for? I can't imagine, though it does make the whole carrying an illegal Christmas tree though town all that much more exciting! I think next year we'll wear ski masks...

Other then that, most of the weekend was fairly unremarkable, though I am happy to say that I have finally fixed the plumbing problem in our kitchen. It seems that cheap faucets can go bad. Yes after spending hours replacing the pipes under the faucet to no avail, I was advised by my folks that cheep faucets have plastic innards that eventually wear out and stop working... so after multiple trips to that depot place that shall remain nameless (funny, I used to enjoy going there... when I rented) I returned once again to go faucet shopping.

I am astounded to say that the experience was actually very pleasant; well, parts. First the salesman knew just about everything there was to know about faucets. Yes he actually did. He explained all the inner workings and the benefits of the different brands and why some cost about 70$ and others closer to 300$. It turns out that when buying a faucet it can pay to spend more, as much as the idea made me cringe. So that was the bad part of going, the huge hole that that place burns in my wallet.

Installing went amazingly well. No more pesky nuts and bolts and gaskets, but clamps and clips! After taking just about an hour (that out with the old (45 minutes) and in with the new (15 or so) I held my breath.... turned on the water and........... Well I got sprayed in the knees because I didn't actually attach on key component quite tight enough.

So I re-tightened it, mopped up some water, and turned it on and...... HOT WATER!

I hope that will be the last plumbing fiasco for a while...

There are more exciting (if your idea of exciting is sitting in the waiting room at the dentist for a root canal) stories I could regale you with, but I think you've all probably had enough for now.

Cheers