How Did You Spend Your Labor Day Weekend?

Here are a few highlights from mine, but first let me say thanks to everyone for still following my blog. I have been absent a while now due to many reasons including, internet problems that finally have been resolved (cross our fingers) and of course the end of summer is always a little chaotic too.

But now that I can go online again, I can't wait to share with you my adventures. Labor day weekend has become a tradition with my husband to escape and bond with his father at a Bluegrass Festival camping trip. So he was away most of the weekend - of course- my first "adventure" had to happen without him at home.

Hmm, where to start?

Saturday:
Well lets start with stupidity. My stupidity. My "ambition" to keep my word to the hubby about taking care of the litter box. For several months, whenever there was a towel or any piece of clothing on the floor, Noodles would pee on it. She knew where her litter box was and she did use it, but it was way down in the basement. So the Vet suggested putting a litter box on each floor of the house. So I gave in and put one in our guest bathroom. I have been very good about cleaning it out every day but I wondered about replacing the actual litter. How often am I suppose to do it? Well, I was in a cleaning mood, so I decided to do it.

I pour it all into my toilet and flushed. Immediately, I realized my mistake...my big, yucky mistake. The litter was not going down. So, not being stupid enough, I flushed again. Yep, the toilet overflowed and I was soon standing in an inch of grey toilet water. I lifted up the tank lid and couldn't figure out how to make the water stop other than lifting up the lever. I am screaming to the kids to run into the basement and find our old towels but they couldnt' find them, so I told them to get our next door neighbor and have her look, and then run over to our other neighbor and ask him to help me stop the water. My rescue team came, found the towels and the valve and now I needed to call the plumber. A plumber on a Saturday, over a major holiday weekend - yea right. So I called the plumber and of course his car wasn't working so he couldn't come, but, he was able to give me some advice on what to do. Put on some long rubber gloves (like I always have some around the house), stick my hand up the toilet pipe and dig out the clog.

So I did. I grabbed a bucket and a plunger and proceeded to stick my hand in the toilet and dig out the swollen, clogged litter. It helped a little, but I could still feel the sludge of it, so I manuevered my arm a little further up the pipe, of course that meant practically sticking my face into the toilet. When I couldn't stick my hand any further, I grabbed a wire hanger and tried. That worked a bit, but still, I couldn't get it all. I am pretty gross by now. Just wearing a long white t-shirt and panties. The heck with modesty, I just wanted someone to help me with this clog. So I headed outside, knocking on my male neighbors doors, hoping that someone had a snake that I could use - nope, nada soul. So I unwind the wire hanger some more, forced it up further into the pipe, and voila, the clogged came loose. I filled up a bucket with wet cat litter. After getting rid of that, I still had to deal with the flood in the bathroom. Thank goodness for Bleach - lots and lots of bleach. I definitely learned my lesson for the day. I will never do that again. But I am proud that I was able to unclogged the toilet and save ourselves $200 plus dollars.

Sunday: Orange soda
Sunday afternoon, I took the kids for icecream sundaes. We decided to sit outside near Starbucks and enjoy the weather and people watch. Our table was in the corner adjacent to two sides of parking. Next to me were two police cruisers. Directly behind me was an empty space with a can of sode upright in it. I didn't think anything about the can, other than someone had littered. Suddenly a car pulls in behind me and POP, the can of soda exploded and I feel wetness on the back of my shirt, pants and feet. The guys in the cars felt awful. I was a bit stunned not realizing what had just happened. They got out and not only was I wet (but minimally) but the police cruisers directly next me was covered in orange soda. I was wearing dark clothes and it dried pretty quickly, but it still sucked. Natalie said to me, "Mom, I know that it was bad for that to happen, but that was still VERY COOL!" Well, she did have a point, but still I could have done without that type of cooling off.

Monday: Beware of Golf Balls.
The weather was beautiful, David was home from camping, and we decided to go on a family drive into the country. All is well, we are having a great time, and David and I are talking about my upcoming eye surgery. Suddenly, in mid-sentence, BAM (let me repeat that very loudly...BAM!!!) Out of the corner of my right eye, I see this white ball fly off the side of our van. Totally confused, for a moment there, I thought it was hail. But it wasn't raining, how could it be hail? What the hell was that? I soon realized that we were driving next to a golf course and our car was just pounded by a golf ball. I was yelling at Hubby to pull over so we can check out the car, or maybe even see the guy who swung it towards us, but he kept on driving, insisting that nothing can be done about it. I wasn't very happy about it. "That ball came very close to the window. How can you not stop?"

Near our house, we stopped to pick up some groceries. When I got out, I looked and looked and couldn't see a dent. How could that be? That ball hit really hard. Natalie was outside looking too and then she pointed and said, "There mommy, it's a hole."

A hole the size of a golf ball. On the back of the car door mirror, was a nice big hole. Thank GOD that mirror was there, or else I wouldn't just be having cataract surgery on my left eye. I could have been having major surgery on my RIGHT eye.

So there you have it - my advertures of Labor Day Weekend? : )