"Another Big Red Letter Day For the Baileys..."

(* thanks for the quote, George.)

Woke up this morning, (too early, mind you), to the sound of my lovely dog puking up the chocolate that he'd eaten in the middle of the night from my son's Valentine's Day stash in his room. Cadbury Creme Eggs and chocolate covered cherries, (ugh! I'd probably puke 'em up too). No wonder it smelled like chocolate... Say, isn't that supposed to kill them? Well...(no...I better not go any further with that...) Anyway, by some miracle, he had the foresight to lean over the couch, where he was sleeping with my son, but then he just puked in my son's clothes on the floor. Oh, and a bit on the carpet also. So it was in to his kennel with him, where he proceeded to puke again.

Fast forward a bit to my wife asking me to clean the hair out of the drain so she could give the dog a bath. Hmmm...it's frozen to the drain. (Our bathroom is right over the garage, and it was quite cold last night.) Well, I'll just run some warm water to loosen it up, (don't remember why I thought of doing that because now, over half a day later, it seems kinda silly). No wait, I guess I won't do that, because the faucet is frozen as well. So began a long process of trying to warm up the pipes and melt the ice. We had the heater going much of the day, and kept pouring hot water in the tub, (oh yeah, it wasn't draining either), scooping it out when it got cold and replacing with more hot. Finally, I thought, I'll bring the space heater down to the garage, under the plumbing, and let it run in there for a little bit. Back up to the bathroom, where we started to hear some action. It sounded like ice was moving around, and water began to trickle, but then slowed and stopped. The water flow in the bathroom sink then slowed as well, (yes, it had worked there), where my son had been filling up a bucket with hot H20 for the dog's bath. But even when the water stopped on it's own, or when the faucet had been shut off, (sink), there was still this odd sound as if the water was running somewhere. Well, do I need to say it? Yes, it was pouring out into the garage from the pipes in the garage ceiling. Near the space heater, splattering onto pictures: OMG, it was, like, everywhere! All this just minutes before I needed to start getting ready to go and deal tonight, (Poker this time, not as much fun as Blackjack. Ya' see?!? I just couldn't catch a freakin' break!). I had to turn off the water at the main valve into the house, so the waterfall finally stopped. But that meant no water, period. So I made an executive decision and took the kids to Grandma's, where they could at least use the toilet. Now they're there, wife is working 3rd shift, and I sit trying to call plumbers who say 24-hour emergency service in the yellow pages, but yet don't seem to do this kind of work when I finally get ahold of them. Or they do, but they're gonna have to charge me time and a half on the weekend. Oh yeah, and shove a plunger up my a$$ too. (Well, perhaps not that last part - that's only what it will feel like.) Oh well, that's OK. I had that $4.00 left over from my check this past Thursday after paying bills that was just burning a hole in my pocket.