Just so you know

Hi Folks,

Sorry for being a slacker and not posting forever. Its been busy. 

Good news:

1. My family survived Hurricane Ike!!! Thanks to their excellent preparations they really didn't fare too badly. They put plywood over the windows, had a generator to keep the fridge, freezer and ONE fan going, had a couple hundred gallons of water and lots of food. They were out of power for a little over two days, they had some branches out of the trees and the like but were otherwise VERY blessed and they're okay. They were VERY grateful for the generator so at least they could have COLD beverages and fresh food. They even got their land line working today and cell phone reception is getting back to normal. 

2. Adam got the time off work so we get to go visit my folks for Thanksgiving!!! YES! WHOOP! I am SO excited! AND we're hoping to go to the Renaissance Festival the day after Thanksgiving so that will ROCK. The Texas Renaissance Festival is the largest in the nation!

3. The kittens are doing GREAT! They just had a trip to the vet to get their first round of shots and they're now up to weight (they used to be way underweight) and growing like mad! They've more than doubled their weight since we got them! And Gabby and the kittens are getting along MUCH better now. 

4. The kitchen sink now drains. Although I may never call my home warranty again. I decided to give them a shot since they were 20 bucks cheaper than the other plumber I would call (one of my friends from church - his uncle is a plumber and comes highly recommended by like half the congregation). Well, the home warranty people can't come out until today (the sink clogged on SATURDAY), which probably should have been my first warning. So he shows up does his thing and then declares that he can't get his snake any further than 6 foot down and that I have old cast iron drain pipes and they corrode and collapse when they get old so that will have to be ripped out and replaced. Oh and the home warranty doesn't cover that and it will be a couple grand and depending on where my drain lines run it might involve jackhammering up my foundation. If I'm lucky I'll only have to rip up the back porch. In the mean time I'm running with a drain line smaller than a pencil, don't run ANYTHING other than water through there. I still have standing water in my dish washer when he leaves but water drains okay from the sink.

So after he left and I managed to keep from puking at the thought of having to tear my house apart I decided to call my friend's uncle. He said he'd be there in 30 minutes (I'm already loving this guy). So he's here in less than 30 minutes,  goes in there and does his thing, comes back out. My sink is draining fine, my dishwasher is drained. He says he got his snake down there 15 feet. The wonder plumber says that its a little tight but it's draining just fine and there's no need to replace anything until such time as he can't get his snake down there (which is not today!). 

So lesson learned: home warranty is a bunch of weenies. I called them and spoke to a supervisor to place a complaint, they say they haven't gotten the report back from the contractor yet so they can't say or do anything and they're saying that they can't give me a refund on my money (which I think I should get on account of them not doing jack crap and lying to me) b/c thats the flat charge for coming out to my house. At this point I'd like to shoot them with a bazooka. 

But at least I can wash dishes again which means my sink won't smell forever which is exciting.