Keep reading for the new plumbing saga

[cleolinda]

Yes, there is a New Moon trailer. I have not watched it yet, but the general response I'm hearing is, "My God, there's a plot and the trailer actually looks kind of good." Ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause for Chris Weitz.

No, I have not been able to watch True Blood yet. IF YOU SPOIL ME, I WILL KICK YOUR ASS. Seriously, don't even discuss it in the comments. I don't even want to hear it--I'm having a hard enough time dodging spoilers on Twitter and in entertainment news headlines. And yes, I have read the books. But given that the Maryann storyline is a near-total invention and they're also mixing it up early with Sophie-Anne, all bets are kind of off at this point.

Yes, I heard about Kanye and whatever. I didn't watch the VMAs or True Blood or ANYTHING AT ALL because whatever, I don't care. It was a really bad... evening, day, whatever... yesterday. I busted out the decant of White Light again, let's put it that way. So I'm a bit tense, if not outright cranky.

The best linkspam I can manage is over at FriendFeed.

So. Furnace checkup today; all clear. We have a contract with Evans, so they checked that for free, and then two more guys followed on Furnace Guy's heels to diagnose our plumbing problems. We knew we had some toilets prone to stopping up, and you get six inches of standing water in my tub every time you take a shower (repeated applications of Liquid Plumr have gotten it down to only two. It does eventually drain out, though, so it's not, like, the SAME six inches of water). So I take them all over the house--

See, I know what y'all are going to say. Is there a jinx on the house, Indian burial ground, who did we piss off, etc. What you have to remember is, a cheap and shady developer built all the houses on this cul-de-sac about 22 years ago. I love this house to death--it's the first time I've had a decent closet of my own, not to mention a bathroom bigger than a shoebox--so don't blame the house. I love the house. I feel sorry for the house. It doesn't want to fall apart on us; it just had a really irresponsible builder (newspaper instead of insulation. For real). In addition to that, I don't know about anyone who lived here before us, but in the eight years that we've lived here, we've never had any plumbing maintenance done. So of course we're going to find a shitload of things wrong with it. (Keep in mind, we have tried to take care of these problems ourselves already.) This is not evil horrible bad luck; this is inevitable. Such problems, which add up to $1500, include:

The water pressure is too high--this is something of an emergency/priority. Some kind of valve has worn out, and the pressure is at 90 whatever instead of 60 whatever, which is why the toilets keep running, things are getting worn out, we have a weird spraying problem with the base of the kitchen faucet, etc.;

Weird spraying problem with the kitchen faucet and the right-side sink, which is a bit clogged;

Severe calcium/mineral buildups in the 20-year-old toilets, which may need to be replaced entirely--not a problem with the pipes, in other words;

My shower, obviously, which needs a good snaking (that's what she said), as well as my clogged/slow sink;

Probably a few other things--I saw the itemized list--but I am too tired to care what they are right now.

So we're having $800 worth of it done today--the high-pressure problem and my bathroom, since the "taking a shower in standing water" (which I have been doing for way too long) issue is the most pressing issue. The continued expenses (snarling flooded dishwasher, two cars with severe repair problems, all the outlets upstairs getting rewired) just don't even faze me anymore. My mother seemed to think the diagnosis would be worse, so at least there's no catastrophic shock there. I'm working as hard as I can on the Harry Potter e-book thing, although yesterday was bad and I didn't even get in the same room as the computer. And right now I'm having to stay available in case the plumbers need something (where is this or that; a minute ago they asked for a wire hanger) (insert your best Mommy Dearest impression here), so I don't really want to get down to work, get in the zone, and then have to be dragged out of it. But as for the rest of it, I'm pretty much beyond reaction at this point.

Meanwhile, I go see my psych for a quarterly med check tomorrow; she generally insists on a therapy-like hour of chat, so she can see for herself how I'm doing. Is she going to get an earful, let me tell you what.


ETA: Well, I just wrote a check for $921 (taxes added). Yow.

Comments

[editornia.livejournal.com]

*HUG*

I'm finally going to see Coraline 3D tomorrow! It feels like years since I first read about it on your blog.


And right now I'm having to stay available in case the plumbers need something

I know how wearing "being on standby" is. I hope it's easier on you than it is on me. Every time the car goes in for a service, I'm on call all day (waiting for emergencies and hoping they don't come). When I finally get home after picking it up, I tend to just zonk, from the sheer stress of it all.


(The icon seemed appropriate, given the circumstances. I hope that's okay, and not too weird! I can change it if you like...)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh, no, it's fine. I like the mushroom cloud.

[krz4dom.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say that I hope things cheer up for you! Good Luck and all that!

[count-01.livejournal.com]

At this point you must have abs like the side of a battleship from all the kicks in the gut.

[aiyakiu.livejournal.com]

Wow, I will admit, even though I absolutely loathed New Moon's book, the trailer looks decent. I... I think I want to see this movie. o_o;

I'm sorry about all the chaos happening around your household. At least once it's done, you've had your lifetime share of bad luck, right?

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

1) New Moon. Very nice trailer. Gave away plot but made me want to watch more to see how it ends. Very smart.

2) Your life. Holy crap. The schadenfreude wore out a long time ago.

[greedyskunk.livejournal.com]

I am waiting for the day when I can read a string of posts about all of your (deserved) good fortune.

*hugs*

[elbales]

This.

[robinmc.livejournal.com]

Very much this.

[bumblebee-1983.livejournal.com]

OT: Icon love!

Back on topic: I ditto that comment.

[the_rainbow_jen]

IAWTC SFM.

[queenanthai.livejournal.com]

Wil Wheaton says there's a thing in his life he calls "The Balance." Whatever bad shit happens to him, good stuff will happen later in an equal amount (and vice-versa, but still). I predict that on this theory, soon unicorns will gallop up to your house and start shitting rainbows and gold and cupcakes all over.

[t4-flirt.livejournal.com]

I predict that on this theory, soon unicorns will gallop up to your house and start shitting rainbows and gold and cupcakes all over.

This. Wins. Teh. Interwebs.

[elbales]

*dies laughing right in the middle of the staff break room*

[sachielle.livejournal.com]

HAPPY THOUGHTS! HAPPY THOUGHTS AND MONEY THOUGHTS ARE BEING SENT TO YOU NOW!!!

I must say though, that while it's horrible what's going on in your life right now, it's keeping me afloat in my own saga of family drama and soap opera's. Every night, mom and i go, 'well, at least we're not at Cleo life-fail levels...YET.' However, if the tub comes crashing through the kitchen ceiling (like it's been threatening to as of late)on top of everything else going on right now, I may be forced to dethrone you.

[jjloa.livejournal.com]

re: the toilets.

Are we talking about incredibly slow/don't really flush well due to mineral buildup in the small air/water hole?

We had that too. Limestone buildup. Our plumber told us to cut off the shoulder parts) of some hangers & the use the U shaped end, shove that in the hole and use it to break down the limestone.

Toilets went from having to flush 3 times to fast and clean.

Now this may not be the same problem (you mentioned your toilets are old too) but figured I'd mention it in case.

[elbales]

Ouch. God, 2009 is really treating you badly. I'm so sorry. :(

[narfzz.livejournal.com]

Aw, I hope things get better. *hugs*

[xerinmichellex.livejournal.com]

I feel like the only reason the New Moon trailer was good was because they focused a lot on the Volturi. Finally, we see bad vampires amongst the Lisa Frank ones!

As for all your house issues, we're going through the same thing with my mother's car. It's got to be the domino effect--whenever something breaks it sends out a "break down" pulse that takes out everything in its path. I hope you've reached your last domino.

[coffeehouse.livejournal.com]

My mother's house was built in the 50s and we had issues with too little and too much pressure and a hot water heater that ran out before your 4 minute shower was done.
It turned out to be mineral deposits.
so, after the valve that comes in the house, we put another shut of valve, then we installed a $69 whole house filter, the one that filters out sediment, then another shut off after it so when we change it, we don't have to bleed the whole house.

We haven't had any trouble since.

the whole house filter is like $60-75 at home depot or Lowes and the filters you change every three to six months are about $28.

Oh and BONUS!!!!!
I get actual lather with minimal soap and shampoo now.

[fallen-soprano.livejournal.com]

*VIRTUALHUGS* Y'know, for all the crap you've had to go through, you've certainly have found a way to keep it light. I hope everything will clear soon, and again, at least you have a decent sized home. I knew a girl who moved to New York, and I swear she could've made eggs in the kitchen while sitting on the toilet. Slowly but surely you are fixing the problems (slowly rather than surely, I think). Trust me, if I had any extra money I'd send it to you for the 'Help Cleo Get Her House Remodeled and Improved' fund.

:D Stay frosty, and remember, you've always got us here to vent if need be (which you've done quite well in the past).

[vega-ofthe-lyre.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, hon. And boy do I feel you about the taking-showers-in-standing-water thing, the plumbing in my apartment is terrible and I have had to spend hours sitting in my bathtub trying to get years worth of crud out of the drain with tweezers and sticks. It's a really fun endeavour, let me tell you.

[bakerbelle.livejournal.com]

I have shower drain issues also. I haven't tried this "tweezers and sticks" method you mention. Perhaps I should. The only problem is the drain has some weird curves in it or something and I can't get anything past a certain point. I've tried the wire hanger to no avail.

[mellymell.livejournal.com]

First, really hope you get to feeling better! By all means, a breather from the internets is sometimes a necessity.

Kind of weird, we were told our pressure was too high recently as well and told the regulator (which controls the water pressure) must be faulty and needs to be replaced. My problem with that is that he didn't try to adjust the regulator and then retest the pressure to see if it actually worked. I know my husband cranked it up when we first moved here to try to get two sprinklers to run at once. Out decision was to get a pressure gauge of our own to try to adjust/test it and see if we really need to replace the regulator or just turn it the hell down.

We were quoted pretty much the exact same price from a maintenance check of our plumbing (same sort of deal, contract gets you free yearly checkups). But, what made me think it was shady is the guy obviously felt guilty and offered to do it all for around $450. *scratches head* I mean, two of the items were for $117 each to replace toilet flappers that come in three packs at Home Depot for $10 and would probably take less than an hour to do all three toilets. He said he'd do each one for $10. I call shenanigans!

And our house is only 17 years old and we have real insulation. But yes, these problems occur. All part of owning a house. And they do seem to pop up all at once, too.

I was also asked for a wire hanger during our checkup, basically so he could pull all the hair out of our master bathroom's tub.

[shesnotallthere.livejournal.com]

Owning a home is the most stressful thing I have ever done. In the six years I've had mine, I've had to replace the roof, the A/C and furnace, a toilet, and the floors in four rooms (a pipe in the kitchen burst).

The dishwasher died four years ago and I've yet to find the funds to replace THAT. Oh, and the *new* A/C leaked and now there's an ugly brown patch on my hallway ceiling.

Even when everything seems okay, I can't relax. I *know* something else is going to break sooner or later, and I'm constantly on pins and needles, wondering what it's going to be and how much it's going to cost me.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

In your place I would seriously start to wonder if some evil faerie had place a spell on my house and stock up on the salt. Good Lord.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

I hear that in this episode of True Blood, we learn that Sookie is made entirely of chocolate.

In all seriousness, I'm really sorry to hear that you're having a bad time of it. :(

[kws136.livejournal.com]

Why is it that when things get bad, they get REALLY bad. Not to take away from your terror-of-the-household or anything, but when I put my car in for an oil change today, I came away $584 poorer because apparently my (direct quote "break pad has a few fibers left, but your rotors look like they got attacked by a chainsaw." Evidently that's a bad thing.

When it rains, it pours, I guess? Unfortunately, my umbrella has a hole in it. Woe.

[la-petite-singe.livejournal.com]

Seriously, the New Moon trailer makes it look, like...legit. Like, there's tension and actual special effects and actual colors and it looks like the budget was more than five bucks and a box of Pixie Stix, like the first one. Yes, it's still super-cringey the way Bella's like "I CAN'T LIVE IF LIVIN' IS WITHOUT YOU" and shit, but that aside, it looks like a real, honest-to-Betsy Hollywood movie and not a cracked-out student film. I am kind of appalled. I may not have to get hammered whilst watching after all. (I'm still gonna heckle, though. He takes off his shirt in slow-mo. It's hilarious.)

Kanye is FAIL. IN CAPSLOCK BECAUSE HE REALLY LIKES CAPSLOCK. That's all you need to know.

Sorry about all your house stuff! :( I hate when everything happens at once, ugh.

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

Seriously, Kanye. YOU DO NOT STEAL SOMEONE'S VERY FIRST VMA AWARD SPOTLIGHT, WTF.

[la-petite-singe.livejournal.com]

Ah, y'know what? The result was that he looked like a huge tool and Taylor and B. both came off looking super-classy and awesome. So he fails at failing.

[sushixpack.livejournal.com]

One of my teachers mentioned not being allowed to use wire hangers for something the other day and I started laughing.

I really hope everything ends well/gets better/goodgoodthingthataregood happen. I don't know. Just.. best wishes *hug*

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let you know -- today was my first day at my new job, and while I was making awkward introductory chitchat with one of my coworkers, she mentioned something about liking terrible vampire books. And then, entirely thanks to you, I was able to have an intelligent conversation about Twilight. (Coworker: "The sparkle effect was awful.") Even my boss had seen the movie, so he joined in the convo. So, thanks. :)

[edda.livejournal.com]

*hugs of support*

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Just like the first trailer made everyone go "FURSPLOSION!" this one keeps making me think "Suicide by public sparkle!"

[piratewilde.livejournal.com]

http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=NC20611A

New Moon Alice Figure.