Mercury Retrograde Chronicles

What a day!  Did you know that Mercury is retrograde right now? All the astrologers say this event will screw up your life in one way or another. It's going on until June 11, but today seemed to be the high point here at the casita.

First, we woke up at ten after five to the sound of poor little Saba throwing up repeatedly. Of course she made sure that the worst of it was all over the flip-flops that I wear around the house.

When I returned to bed, I looked up to see that a crack had formed in the ceiling overnight and the ceiling was kind of bowed downward. Yikes! I emailed Kelly to let her know.

After cleaning up after the cat, Dave went back to bed for another hour or so but I stayed up and put together his lunch for the day. After he left for work, I went back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep. When I woke up, I had some lunch and got into the shower, which promptly backed up. That was followed by the bathroom sink filling with brown, murky water. Then the kitchen sink followed suit. I emailed Kelly to let her know that we needed a plumber.

In the late afternoon, Kevin came over to fix the ceiling. He put a bunch of screws into it and it seems fine now, if a bit screwy. (That's a joke, son!) Then we were just waiting for the plumber. (Of course he came after hours, so it was a ridiculous amount of money, but he was nice and friendly and got the job done.)

In the midst of all that, my aunt dropped by to pick up some kitchen scraps that I've been saving for her chickens. We thought the worms were going to be hungrier than they are, but even after feeding the worms in the composter and the worm annex, we still have tons of peels and cores and such left over at the end of the week. I'm going to start saving them for my aunt's little flock of chickens.

She didn't stay since she had my little cousin with her and they were on their way home. That kid cracks me up. I took a picture of his spiky haircut, which looks like a grown out buzz-cut.

Since the plumbing was backed up, I didn't much feel like cooking. I suppose I could have microwaved something and not worried about the dishes, but we decided instead to just order subs (green chile and cheddar for Dave, roast beef and provolone for me) and a Greek salad from Dion's. It was too much salt, but oh well. I'll deal with the fallout in exchange for having the night off of kitchen duty.  Of course, I still have to bleach the dishes that were in the sink when it backed up, but luckily there were only a few.

Dave had to leave for pilates before the plumber was even here, so off he went. I stayed home and was here to let the plumber in. While I waited, I looked online for paper shades. The one we have at the front door is pretty disheveled. It's been hanging there since before we moved in, so at least 10 years. I've repaired it a couple of times, but it's just time to replace it, I think. I found a new one online at Bed, Bath & Beyond and, while I was flitting around the site checking out the clearance section, I found the next size Cuisinart that has some of the bells and whistles that I wish our little Cuisinart had. It was on clearance, about 65% off retail and $20 cheaper than Amazon has it, so I put it in the basket. Then of course I needed to find something for a few dollars to qualify for free shipping, so I tossed a silicon ice cube tray in the basket and placed the order. So sometime next week we'll be getting new paper shades, a baby Cuisinart food processor that slices and grates, and an ice tray. 

It wasn't too long after the plumber left that Dave came home. By then I had scrubbed out the shower and sinks and left them with some disinfectant sprayed all over them. I was ready to get out of the house for a bit after that, so we went off to Cost Plus to look at some junk (we didn't buy anything) and to Sonic for a giant icy drink.

So that was our exciting day around here!