Seattle Trip Report: Finale

“That mountain kicked my butt.”
~John

Our final two days in Seattle we ventured out away from the city to do some hiking. In the cold. In the snow.

Yes, we’re crazy.

Our first hike was Mt. Si in North Bend, Washington. It’s an 8-mile round-trip hike that has a 3100 foot elevation gain. So, it’s a pretty steep hike. And we haven’t done any mountain hiking since we were in Colorado last summer. And, due to unhappy circumstances, we were only able to be in Colorado for a couple days and only did one short, fairly easy hike.

So, even though we do work out on a fairly regular basis at a gym, we live in Texas: the flat land of no trees. The hike was not a piece of cake for us.

Even so, we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery on the hike. Apparently Mt. Si is one of the most popular hikes in the state (OK, maybe just in the area), but since it was cold and snowing we didn’t really feel like there were that many other people on the trail with us. Add some ice and snow to the steepness of the trails, and it was a challenging hike that has motivated us to work a little harder at the gym in preparation for Colorado this summer.

Needless to say, after Mt. Si we just headed back to the hotel, took a hot shower, and ate leftovers while watching a DVD. (Two Weeks Notice, if you must know; John was adequately exhausted to not even care that it was a chick-flic, though, in all fairness, we watched Gladiator the next night.)

Our second day of hiking was a combination of shorter hikes to see some waterfalls: Snoqualmie Falls (which is really just off the highway), Twin Falls, and Coal Creek Falls. Again, it was cold and snowy, but really beautiful. The Twin Falls trail is pretty easy, and actually included a few smaller falls as well as the big Twin Falls.

Before Coal Creek Falls, we attempted to visit Franklin Falls. Although it had been snowing pretty consistently most of the day, none of the roads we had yet seen looked anything like the road leading to Franklin Falls:



We decided to just drive down to the trail parking lot and see if we could even hike very far without snow shoes. Shortly after passing a snowed-in house complete with a truck in the driveway buried in an avalanche of snow, we came to this:



And that’s when we decided to turn around in our little compact Pontiac G6 rental car. We also had a conversation at this point about snowmobiles and how it would be nice to have one and that both of us agree it would be a fun thing to do, especially if we could find a way to do it for free.

If you haven’t noticed, we’re really all about "free".

So on we went to an alternate trail: Coal Creek Falls. The park where this trail is located consisted of multiple trails, not always well marked. We scrutinized the map for a while. I had printed what I considered to be pretty detailed directions on how to make a loop trail and see the falls. Off we went.

We got to the falls with no problems, and, thankfully, no more rain or snow! The problem came when we hiked another mile or so past the falls and got to a split in the trail that was marked with names not on my detailed directions for the hike. After some discussion we decided to just turn around and go back the way we’d come from.

We probably hiked longer than we planned and ended up going up and down and up and down a hill that we probably should have bypassed completely, but, on the bright side, we got to see the falls twice.

We consulted the map again when we got back to the parking lot to see where we went astray. That’s when John got the brilliant idea that we could have just taken a picture of the map, like so:



Then we would have had the map with us on the trail. Ummm, maybe next time.

We really had a lot of fun on our trip. Having to sit in separate rows on the fully-booked flight back home was not the greatest way to end the trip, but we took comfort in the fact that the flight was free…and then we treated ourselves to pizza for dinner once we got back home.

Mmmm. I might be able to eat pizza every day.

But not tonight. Tonight is leftovers night, and having leftover pizza in this house is rare.

Seattle Trip Report, Continued

So, we spent our first two days in Seattle seeing the sights of the city. Well, not all the sights. Honestly, we have seen a lot of cities and we prefer to be out in nature since we have to live in a city in real life, but we try to do some unique things when we find ourselves in a big city.

Join me on a recap of the first part of the trip.

Our first day in town we walked around the Pike Place Market in Seattle. Markets are commonplace in Europe, but perhaps not so large or well-visited in the U.S. “The Market” in Seattle attracts millions of visitors a year, and, unlike most European markets, consists of actual permanent buildings that house stalls and tables. “The Market” has been around for over a hundred years now, though it has been saved and revitalized by a grass-roots effort in the ‘60s.

Pike Place Market is a great place to go to get free food samples. The famous fish market where the merchants throw fish to each other resides here, and let me tell you, that fish counter draws a crowd. Unfortunately, we discovered no fish get thrown unless someone actually buys something, so you may be standing there amid the throng of tourists for quite some time waiting for an actual buyer to come along. We were too impatient to stand there very long. (And, truth be told, John hates seafood and wasn’t that thrilled to see it flying through the air anyway.)

Daily Dozen Doughnut Company is a great stand that sells mini-doughnuts: regular, powdered sugar, and cinnamon. We highly recommend the cinnamon variety. There’s a little stall with a bar counter and stools looking out the window next door where you can enjoy your doughnuts and people watch.

If you want coffee with your doughnuts - no fear. It’s everywhere in Seattle. In fact, the original Starbucks is in the Pike Place Market area, so we opted to go there for coffee (for me – John doesn’t drink coffee).

(For the record, I don’t care for Starbucks coffee so much. I know, I know. Some of you may truly be offended. It’s bitter coffee. I get a flavored latte of some sort to disguise the coffee flavor, though I really prefer good coffee unsweetened. Nowadays, the problem with that is I have to make my own good coffee. Sometimes it’s nice to have your coffee made for you. Wow, am I lazy! Actually, during certain times of the year, Starbucks has a pumpkin spice latte that I sometimes crave, so those Starbucks gift cards I get for Christmas really do come in handy!)

John picked up some hot chocolate from a local bakery vendor in “The Market” before we stopped in at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese. Here, you can get a lesson on how they make their cheese, and look at huge vats of dairy in various stages of the cheese-making process. That’s not really why we decided to stop by; we lived in the Netherlands for a year and a half and took at least three cheese factory tours during that time. If nothing else, we know how cheese and wooden shoes are made.

No, the real reason to go to Beecher’s is for the macaroni and cheese (thank you to John’s sister for clueing us in on this delicacy). It is maybe the best macaroni and cheese in the world. We split a small one, seeing as we had snacked on the airplane that morning, shared a bag of doughnuts, sampled other delectables in “The Market”, and had a coffee and a hot chocolate. Good stuff.

Another unique Seattle activity is taking the Underground Tour. The Seattle you see today is one level higher than it originally was. The first level of the city center is still, in fact, there, underneath the sidewalks and streets. Due to tide levels and sewage problems, the streets and sidewalks were eventually raised. The tour is funny, informative, and interesting. We highly recommend spending an hour and a half doing this.

We are quite accustomed to walking a lot on vacations, so we never used the public transportation. Within the touristy area of Seattle the buses are apparently free, but we always feel we’re wasting time waiting for the bus to come so we usually end up walking. We walked around the International District (ID – used to be Chinatown, but I guess that’s no longer politically correct). We walked along the waterfront. We walked around Pioneer Square and Belltown. We were exhausted what with the walking, the early morning flight, and the two hour time change.

So, we went to Noodle Ranch to sit down and eat an early dinner. This is a great Asian restaurant if you’re into that kind of cuisine. And we are.

Our hotel was about a 30-minute drive outside the city. (Yea for HOV lanes!)

The second day we got a little bit later start, but we still managed to drive into Seattle, find parking and briskly walk to Safeco Field, home of the Mariners, just in time to buy tickets and join the first stadium tour of the day. Since the Mariners weren’t in town the weekend we were there, we decided to do the next best thing and take a tour of the stadium. It was just us, a family of four, and a guy from New Zealand. It was pretty awesome to go into the press box, the visitor’s clubhouse, and onto the field. Though it was cold, thankfully the rain and snow did not start until later that day.

We spent an enjoyable afternoon at the Seattle Aquarium, mostly inside out of the cold. It’s a nice aquarium, and we were lucky enough to get to see the giant octopus move around…a lot! According to the staff members of the aquarium that was really unusual. When we were done it happened to be raining. On our walk back to the car, the rain started turning to snow.

We decided to go to Discovery Park anyway. It’s a huge park in Seattle with several miles of hiking trails. Again, our timing was perfect. We took a two or three mile hike through meadows and forest, down to the beach, then back through the forest and meadows, all with light rain at the most. The highlight was seeing two bald eagles in a magnolia tree. (Thank you to the single man hiking behind us for pointing them out to us; we’re sorry we were slightly concerned you might be stalking us out in the middle of the forest).

Just as we finished our hike and got in the car, it started snowing…hard. The snow continued all evening, so though the traffic was pretty horrific, the view from our warm car (yippee for heated seats) was beautiful. And it felt so good to crawl into a soft, warm bed at the end of the day.

Jealous

That's how I feel today.

I don't feel jealous too often. Not that I'm a saint or anything; maybe I am entirely too realistic (and/or negative) and have trained myself to believe that having those glittery objects or that perfect "outward appearance" does not equal happiness. Or maybe I've done enough counseling to realize there is always depth, darkness, or some form of discontent lying beneath that glamorous facade.

I believe the one thing in the world I can be truly jealous of is someone else's trip to Disney World.

I know it is fleeting and a complete temporary anesthesia for the reality of life, but I am always so happy to be at Disney World. And in the state my life is currently, I could use that escape from reality.

My parents are vacationing in Micky World this week, and I talked to them briefly while they were in a park this morning. I think talking to them, knowing they were in the park, hearing background noise straight from Disney World put me over the edge. Plus, I just remembered that one year ago, we were in that euphoric state of being just days away from a trip to Wally World ourselves.

I have tried to start writing a final installment of the Seattle trip report, but to no avail. Hopefully later today my mind will be able to focus more clearly on the task at hand rather than conjuring memories of that fabulous trip to Orlando we took last year.

Stay tuned.

Seattle: A Few Thoughts

This trip report on our anniversary get-away to Seattle seems to be coming in installments. Sometimes when I sit down to write, I’m not quite sure where the post is going to go.

Today, I’ll just share some random thoughts that might be helpful if you and your loved ones are thinking of traveling to Seattle.

And if you're not, then keep reading anyway. It might be entertaining.

Our trip started dark and early at 4 a.m. when the alarm awakened us. Of course, since we had a 7 a.m. flight requiring us to set the alarm to wake up at a ridiculously early hour, I woke up at 2 a.m., worried that the alarm wouldn’t go off for some reason, and continued to doze only lightly while keeping one eye on the clock.

The bright side is: the traffic in Dallas at 4:45 a.m. on a Thursday morning is nonexistent. We got to the airport with no problems. Parked with no problems. Got checked in with no problems. Got to the security desk…that’s when the problem arose.

It seems my driver’s license expired this year on my birthday, unbeknownst to me. I am now finally in the habit of leaving the house for domestic flights without even thinking about digging out my passport, which was a necessity anytime I flew anywhere while we lived in Amsterdam. So, armed only with an apparently expired driver’s license to identify myself, the security guard informed me he was going to have to write in huge black letters across my boarding pass “No ID.” Then I had to wait five minutes for a “female assist” to come pat me down, search through my belongings, and exclaim that I certainly don’t look my age and at first she wondered why they would be so up in arms about a high-schooler not having an ID. (For those of you reading who are unaware: it’s been over a decade since I was in high school.)

For about five minutes I worried myself with thinking about having to now go to the dreaded driver’s license office after our vacation to get a renewal. Because I worry. But, I’m getting better at telling myself it doesn’t do any good, so five minutes of worry is a great improvement over four hours, or four days.

P.S. Thank you to the state of Texas for sending me a reminder in the mail that my driver’s license was about to expire. That would have been helpful.

I guess tip number one would be: Make sure your form of ID for airport security is not expired, just to make things a little easier.

By the way, on the trip home, the Seattle airport security didn’t even notice my driver’s license was expired. Also, I forgot to remove the Ziploc bag of liquids and gels from my carry-on bag and no one noticed. John (accidentally) showed the security people his rental car receipt instead of his boarding pass after walking through the metal detector and security let him by without a comment. The man chosen by airport security to be searched was a 90-year-old man who was having trouble standing up without assistance; I doubt he could wield much of a dangerous weapon.

I’ll let you make up your own mind about the effectiveness of the TSA.

Seattle is a great place to go to see both city and nature in one trip, especially if, say, you have free hotel stays at a major hotel chain that only exists in cities and is no where near, say, Yellowstone National Park.

We spent our first two days touring the city while the second two days were reserved for some hiking in the mountains. Thankfully our 7 a.m. flight was on time and not nearly full. Also, thankfully, the flight was almost four hours long, so I was able to stretch out and take a good nap to recover a bit from the lack of sleep and early morning start before we landed and hit Seattle running.

We discovered that if you drive around a bit parking can be had for less than $16/day still fairly close to the city center. A rental car was a necessity in our case as we were staying in a Seattle suburb about 15 miles north of the city and were planning to drive out to the mountains.

Speaking of hotels, we can definitely recommend the one we stayed in: SpringHill Suites in Bothell, WA. According to Trip Advisor, it seems this is quite the international hotel, with reviewers from as far away as Germany. (I have no idea what that review in German was all about, but he or she gave it 5 stars, so it must be good. I’m sure it is something along the lines of, “Wow! What a nice hotel with air conditioning and a shower curtain in the shower, and with the dollar so weak this place was dirt cheap for us...somewhere around €10 a night!”)

After the torture of trying to figure out in Dallas where the new HOV lanes have entrance and exit areas, it was really fun, and a super time-saver, to use the HOV lanes in the Seattle area. In case you’re concerned, as we were for the first day, you can indeed get in and out of the HOV lane whenever you want to with no legal repercussions.

My final tip of the day is about coffee. First, you must buy some Douwe Egberts coffee because it is really the best in the world. Second, put your coffee scoop and some coffee in a Ziploc. Pack some coffee filters in your baggage as well. Voila! You can now savor great coffee in your hotel room and leave the sad little generic coffee packets supplied by the hotel cleaning service for the next unsuspecting guests. This greatly improves the start of the day. Who wants bad coffee when vacationing?

Where are the blogs?

I am obviously no die-hard blogger. When on vacation I do not check my email, my answering machine at home, or my cell phone voicemail (at least, I don’t check it much). And I don’t blog.

But I do think about blogging certain adventuresome, hilarious, or odd vacation happenings for when I am once again at home.

John and I took a little anniversary trip to Seattle last week/weekend: five whole days of vacation. It was great, especially since John’s abundant overtime at work has lately left me wondering, “Who is this guy I’m living with?” and “Hmmm. There are men’s dirty clothes in the hamper; John must have been home sometime this week.”

Oh, I exaggerate. I generally see my husband for at least 15 wakeful minutes a day.

So, you can see how it really didn’t matter much that while it was in the 50s and 60s just one week before we arrived in Washington, it didn’t get above 45 degrees the entire time we were visiting. It didn’t matter that it snowed. Quite a bit. The first evening in town we heard on the local news that this was, in fact, the latest in April that it has snowed in the Seattle area since 1972.

I guess our experience was truly unique. At least, unique for the past 35 years.

You might remember that in a previous post, I waxed eloquent about my love for cold weather and snowy winters. Honestly, I really would rather be cold than hot. Seeing as it is a muggy 85 degrees in Texas, I’ll take 40 degrees with snow any day!

No matter how often I see it (admittedly it’s not that often), I just can’t get over the beauty of snow!

Our second evening in town, we left Discovery Park in Seattle after a short hike just in time. As soon as we closed the car doors it started snowing. Since we had gift cards (thank you, dear family, for the Christmas gifts – we like to spread them out over as many months as possible), we stopped at a Macaroni Grill next to a shopping mall for dinner. I say “stopped at” as if it were on our way back to the hotel or easy to find; it was neither, but we had gift cards tempting us with the promise of free dinner. And since it was snowing, a “blizzard” according to my Texas-raised husband, and it was rush hour, and the Google directions were quite confusing, it took nearly an hour to drive 15 miles.

Oh, but it was all worth it when we got into our car after the meal and witnessed one of the funniest sights of our vacation…

A car pulls into the snow-covered mall parking lot right across from us. Now, it is probably close to 8:30 in the evening by this time. Still snowing quite a lot. Still freezing cold outside and windy. It is rather dark, so we don’t get a good view, but a man gets out of the driver’s side, pokes his head back into the car, and looks like he was wrestling a dangerous animal the way he keeps darting around. Finally we see the man stand up and a woman emerge from the car…wearing shorts…and house slippers! While we’re taking in the sight, the man bends down enough to allow the woman to hop on his back so he can carry her to….where? The convention for bizarrely, inappropriately dressed shopping mall patrons? We were laughing too hard to notice where they scurried off to.

And now that I think of it, the scene probably tickled my funny bone because I myself could be in that exact situation. Almost. I’m not entirely sure I would ever knowingly go out in public (or anywhere for that matter) in shorts when it was snowing.

I was in a similar situation, actually. Just last week. Without the snow, because, you know….Texas in April.

John and I went to the Wal-Mart to stock up on snacks for our vacation. It was a last-minute decision one evening, so we hopped in the car. We arrived at the Wal-Mart, John got out of the car, and I had my door opened and was about to step out when I notice – I’m wearing house slippers!

I’m sure that had it been snowing, and had I not been mortified to go into the Wal-Mart wearing house slippers, John would have gallantly carried me in piggyback. As it was, John stood staring at me as I retreated back into the car and closed the door, then opened the car door enough to tell John, “I can’t go in; I forgot to change out of my house slippers!”

We drove all the way back home so I could put on real shoes before heading back to do our shopping. Oh, yes we did. Because there was no convention for bizarrely, inappropriately dressed Wal-Mart patrons that evening.

Apparently you have to go to Seattle for that.

Happy Statue of Liberty Day!

You know what the Statue of Liberty represents, don't you?

Obviously, the Statue of Liberty stands for truth, justice, and...tax day.

While driving around town this morning, I noticed several of the nationally-known tax offices had stationed employees dressed as the Statue of Liberty on the sidewalks in front of the buildings.

I guess taxes can be considered pretty "American", but then, I'm fairly certain most other countries have the tax system as well. Hmmm.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to breathe free...send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me..." Well, I'm pretty sure the homeless don't even pay taxes. But perhaps if you're tired and tempest-tossed on April 15, the neighborhood tax accountant is just what you need. Maybe handing over those tax files with only hours left to mail in your forms is a great liberation (except for that $200 you'll have to pay said tax accountant, but we'll ignore that bill for now).

The costumed tax office employees held no signs, but were simply waving at the passing cars. Apparently no signage is necessary; don't we all automatically associate the Statue of Liberty with taxes? I'm not sure when this trend started or why it makes sense. Any suggestions?

With that, I'll just say Happy Statue of Liberty Day (sounds so much nicer than Happy Tax Day, don't you think?).

Attention, please.

Did you misplace your goat early this morning? Around 2 a.m.?

I mean, I understand those pesky bars on Lower Greenville in Dallas don't allow pets inside. So, I completely understand that you had to leave the goat outside. And you probably tied it up, right? With a nice, sturdy rope?

Well, your goat must have gotten hungry waiting for you to finish up your late-night partying and chewed right through the rope. (Or maybe it was a chain; I wouldn't put it past a goat to chomp straight through metal. Those goats will eat anything.)

Then your goat discovered it was free to wander the streets of Dallas. I must say, after the rope/chain, your goat must have sensed a need for some wholesome, organic nourishment since it was spotted running toward the nearby Whole Foods Market. I don't blame the goat; that's some good eating!

But, just so you know, the Dallas Sheriff's Department now has your goat in custody. So, you might want to put that on your to-do list for tomorrow: call to reclaim goat.

Striving

It is a beautiful day: sunny skies, cool temperatures, no wind, green leaves popping out on the trees. It’s Saturday, which means I get to see my husband today and tomorrow. We have dinner tonight with friends we haven’t seen in a really long time. I am sitting here, in a sunny room, writing and praying and drinking the best coffee in the world. In a minute I’m going to get to eat a kolache from West, Texas (more specifically from Gerik’s Ole Czech Smokehouse in West, Texas because all those other more prominent kolache places along the highway are just wanna-be’s).

Happiness. Hope. Relaxation. Peace.

But inside myself, there is tension. This week some things happened (besides the clogged up kitchen sink and the house that caught on fire) that make me think…

Aaaaaaaaaack! Ugh. Why don’t the pieces ever fit together? What is going on? Why me? What now?

I have experienced doors opening after long waits and opportunities falling into place only to be followed by other doors closing and some pieces being yanked out of the picture completely. Basically, this means the open doors now lead to nowhere and the opportunities that fell into place are now hanging out all alone rather than as part of a big picture.

And I don’t know how hard to force things back together into some semblance of synthesis. Or if I should go with the flow, however frustrating it seems, and try not to feel irresponsible for making promises or volunteering and then backing out. Again.

Sometimes I just wish God would send me a presentation outlining what the next steps are and how I should go about moving on in life.

Maybe today I need to be happy with the sunshine, the coffee, the company of friends and family, and the green trees. All blessings from God, who could be trying to communicate in a less obtuse fashion…

Here’s some hope. Be at peace. Relax.

Have a kolache.

Excitement Abounds

Yesterday and last night brought the not-so-unexpected chance of severe storms; springtime in Dallas is fraught with thunderstorms, hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. We have experienced all of the above, with the exception of a tornado (thank goodness!).

It turned out to not be such a bad weather day for us - just a little rain and lots of wind. However, when we went to bed last night there was still the chance of severe storms, including a tornado warning, for early in the morning.

Naturally, the first thing I thought when awakened at 3 a.m. by a siren was, "Oh my gosh! We need to get in the closet! Is there a tornado?"

The siren was quite short-lived, but then I noticed flashing red lights shining through our bedroom windows. As John hopped out of bed to take a peek through the blinds, I, in my state of "middle of the night" wakefulness, ran through various scenarios:

-Are there flashing lights connected with tornado sirens?
-Is that strange noise I hear a tornado? Tornadoes sound like trains, right? Does it sound like a train?
-No, I don't think it sounds like a train. And the sirens stopped after about ten seconds.
-There are people talking. Is there some kind of tragic accident out there?

So, what scene met our eyes when we both finally found our glasses and made it to a window with an unobstructed view?

Three firetrucks, a police car pulling up to block the intersection, a couple people milling about the fire trucks, a fire hose attached to the hydrant at the corner, and smoke pouring from a house next door to the house across the street.

The house was on fire! We saw no flames, but the fire hose, fire trucks, billowing smoke, and eventually the exit of numerous firefighters from the garage pointed us to the truth.

Our neighbor directly across the street went over to check things out; John just stood on our sidewalk to observe from a distance, not wanting to get in the way of the firefighters. We don't know the people that live in that house since they are very rarely seen and have not attended any of our Christmas open houses. We'll have to check with our neighbor sometime about the details.

We never saw an ambulance, so we assume everyone was OK. Also, the extent of damage could not be too horrific, since, by the light of day, the house looks normal from the outside. Most of the activity last night seemed to center around the garage. We saw some firefighters pulling the car out of the garage.

Or, we could let our imaginations run away with us. (Something we never do. Really.) Maybe someone purposely set the fire, either to collect insurance money or commit suicide, and the ambulance had come and gone by the time we woke up and got to the window to appraise the situation.

What with all the flashing lights even after the fire was extinguished and the fire hose removed from the hydrant, and the blinding light that the electric company set up to (we suppose) cut the electricity to the house, and the constantly loud noise created by the engines of three firetrucks running, it took us quite some time to get back to sleep.

Of course, this commotion planted the seeds for me to have crazy dreams once I did manage to fall back to sleep: something about multiple friends staying in our tiny house with us, scheming to start our own company, living by the glow of red light bulbs, all while a massive storm was brewing outside and the back door kept blowing open. Oh, and I was continually making pots of coffee for everyone while being the lookout for any tornadoes that might descend.

After what seemed like only minutes of rest, our alarms sounded to wake us up, and everything was cleared up across the street. It kind of seems like it was all a bad dream. I'm pretty sure the people who live in that house across the way are thinking the same thing. Except for them it must be more like a nightmare.

Not the Kitchen Sink!

To set the stage:

Yesterday I started feeling achy, tired, and less than 100% well. No fever, but I imagine the severe achiness has something to do with a vaccine I got last week. Throughout the day yesterday I steadily felt worse and worse.

John is finally working in town this week after spending the last four weeks at jobs in Waco and Harlingen. In fact, he is not only working in town, but came home last night at 6:00!

Because he got home so early, and because he has put on the “busy season pounds” from being stuck in an office 80 hours a week, he decided it would be a great idea to visit the fitness club to which we belong. Since he is a man, it will probably only take about two weeks of a regular workout schedule for him to lose whatever weight he wants to lose.

While he was at the gym, I dragged myself off the sofa to make dinner. After all, my hubby has been eating out for the past month and would really appreciate something cooked at home. (I might add that I think this home-cooked meal should also be something pretty healthy – after the work-out and all.)

Well, we didn’t really eat until close to 8:00, so we were cleaning up dinner dishes around 8:30 or 8:45. Both of us (me – because I felt like death warmed over, John – because he was so happy to just be at home) were looking forward to vegging on the sofa together.

So it begins:

The kitchen sink had other plans. In the midst of rinsing dishes, both sides of the kitchen sink begin vomiting food particles and refusing to drain.

First, we did what any rational couple would do in this situation: stand and stare at the disgusting mess, hope running the disposal might help (it doesn’t), and talk about going to get the plunger all while willing the water to just drain.

John decided we really need two plungers, so luckily we have one plunger and an “apparatus.” The “apparatus” has a technical name, I’m sure, but all I know is that it is an air-pressure gun used to unclog drains. It has, in fact, successfully unclogged one drain and failed to unclog one or two others.

Working with an “apparatus” that apparently has a success rate of roughly 40%, we go to work without a great deal of confidence.

Sure enough, the plunger/”apparatus” scenario does nothing to unclog the kitchen sink, but does manage to spray us with bits of food and dirty kitchen sink water. It’s time to take drastic measures.

At 9:00 at night, John is now under the kitchen sink, dismantling pipes, while I hand over the large bowls to catch all the water. We empty the U-bend, stick a plumber’s snake down the stub-out pipe, and retrieve pretty much nothing except a tiny bit of sludge. Since the plumber’s snake didn’t seem to have cleared anything gross out of the pipe, we are seriously considering a call to a professional. At the last minute, we choose to go ahead and reassemble the drain as best we can to just see if perhaps anything has been miraculously fixed.

We don’t know how it happened, or how long it will last, but it now seems that water is flowing normally once again. I keep telling John he did exactly what the professional would have done, except probably with a smaller, much older plumber’s snake. In a matter of half an hour or so, John has saved us around $100.

I have a very handy husband. And, at least for the time being, our desire to save money outweighs the laziness that would demand we just call someone to come out at 9:00 at night to fix the chaos.

I am pleased to report that, so far today, the kitchen sink appears to be in working order. We hope this evening will be a bit less exciting.