Game 4 and the Garbage Disposal

After Game 3 of the ACLS — like most of Red Sox Nation — I had pretty much given up on the series. Despite that, I still figured that if any team could come back from a 3–0 hole, it would be this bunch of idiots. Even with that bit of hope, it was almost nice to have a bit of distraction in the third inning (with the Hated Yankees up by two).

However, the distraction I got, was a giant mess in the downstairs bathroom caused by a leak somewhere in the kitchen. At first, I figured it was the dishwasher, which had been running, but the water was under the sink, not in front of the dishwasher, so I had to reevaluate.

Pulling the various cleaning supplies out from under the sink, I found that the tops of a lot of things were wet and that things on the side by the dishwasher were dryer than stuff directly under the disposal.

After emptying the cabinet, I tempted fate and turned on the faucet. Water was going pretty much straight through the disposal onto the floor.

Long story short: There was a bit of cursing, a depletion of our supply of paper towels, and a banged knuckle or two, but I disassembled the disposal only to discover that none of the Home Depot or Lowe's around us are open at 9:30 on a Sunday night.

After plugging the pipes and putting a big bag over the sink to keep anyone from accidentally trying to use the thing until morning, I went back to the game in time to see a rally to tie and then a long while until David Ortiz sealed things up for us.

I went to bed around 2:00 a.m. I'd already called in "sick house" to work since I knew I needed to fix the sink), but Celeste had other plans. I didn't see much of her during the game, because I was either under the sink or running out to closed stores, so she decided to rectify things. Most of the 2-o'clock hour was spent alternately comforting her, changing her, and setting off the horizontal alarm.

In the end, Evelin pulled out the cosleeper and we put her in our bed. It's cool to have her in bed with us, but the cosleeper does really crowd the bed (even though we have a queen-sized mattress). She ended up sleeping until almost 7:00 a.m., so I think I'm going to have to live with either a cramped bed or a lot of nighttime waking.

Around 8:00 a.m., I ran out to Home Depot, picked up an In-Sink-Erator Bader 5 Plus; it is a small upgrade from the old Emerson unit we had (from a 1⁄2-horsepower motor to a 5⁄8-horsepower one, and it's a bit quieter). All in all, it turned out to be a three-trip job: the initial purchase; the return to the store for a new slip-joint washer; and the third trip to return the dishwasher connection kit that proved unnecessary.

Including all the trips back and forth (and the inordinate amount of time it took me to get the rusty old snap ring off the old mount), I was done with the job in about 3.5 hours, which was longer than it should have taken, but I can take some solace in the fact that I didn't curse too much.

Since the day was half done (and Game 5 was set to start in a few hours), I decided not to go in for a half day. Instead, I ran some errands and did some chores around the house. (Evelin already had plans to meet a friend to walk the babies around Lake Artemesia.)