Well, Last weekend we went down to the Wells Fargo World Food Festival (associated with the World Food Prize)...not just one night, but two. It much much bigger then the year before and because of the warm weather, quite a few people made it down to it as well. We hit Africa, Ecuador, Russia, China and India. Everything was very good, and it was fun to go down and have such a variety of foods. The only problem, I think, was that I think the vendors weren't expecting so many people, so there were a few food shortages.
Good event, if it grows like it has been, it'll soon be quite huge.
I took this past Friday and coming Monday and Tuesday off and decided to use the time to do some work around the house that I've been slacking off with....however the weather has decided to not cooperate, so I haven't gotten most of the things outside that I planned on doing. I did start repatching the crack between the driveway and the house, but after dropping quite a chunk of change on concrete crack filler, I decided to go a cheaper, but because of the weather, I have not been able to finish. Hopefully I'll be able to get it in there soon enough. Friday night, I headed over to the Boelman's to get a few ladders, and then proceeded to spend a few hours shooting the breeze with Brandon. It reminded me as to how much I miss "outside work" Brandon.
Yesterday, we went up to the Hoffman's to celebrate their daughter's, Savannah, first birthday. It was a fun time, though, chilly, but good. We had fun going shopping for a baby girl (almost bought her Iowa State clothes too), and ended up spending a bit more then we planned on, but that's cool. I'm sure they'll get used, and passed on. We came home and caught up on our DVR recordings (almost).
This morning I got up quite early, and goofed off until Shannon got up. After she ate lunch, we started peeling the paint of the ceiling. We got most of the problematic places, and we'll sand down some areas, to make the transfer over. Then the fun began. I noticed that an area in the living room, was a bit damp, and in a bit of checking, found a china bowl, placed beneath the tub drain to catch leaks...
Yeah, I can't believe this crap either. I plan on calling our regular plumber to get an estimate...or at the very least finding out how much water actually collects in that (now empty) bowl...
Then while going downstairs to get something, I noticed that the floor drain in the basement was a bit backed up, so I quickly stopped the washing machine and then closed the door, just to wait for it to go down a bit. Wanting to use some drain cleaner, I decided to use a bucket to get the water up off the floor, and after making several trips up the stairs to dump excess water in the sink, and then figuring out that the water was staying exactly where it was at...and even form the drain upstairs was coming back form the upstairs. So we ended up dumping the water out into the yard, to get it down to the level where we could use the drain cleaner.
Not that there was any point to using the drain cleaner, since it ended up not working...even after using an entire bottle.
So after waiting quite a while, I called Roto-Rooter's local number...and...well...got nothing. It rang and rang and then hung up on me. I called the national number, ended up in the same place, but this time I left a message...after waiting a bit, I decided to call somewhere else, and in looking found Mr. Rooter and called them. Turned out they have a newly minted franchise over in Waukee. And because they picked up the phone and answered my call, the proceeded to get my business.
He came in the time frame that he stated, he wore little protective coverings on his shoes. He had a uniform, and a well placed badge with his picture and name on it, all stating a level of professionalism that I tend to like. He even had wheel coverings for his electric snake thing. He came with a list of flat prices for things. So if he's there for 5 minutes or 5 hours, doing X costs this much...so no overtime, which is nice. He was also very personable too.
So on further inspection, he decided what to do and went to work. After unsealing the main drain, he quick called me over to show how much build up was inside the pipe, which probably explains why it was clogged.... He went to work, and in about an hour or so, water was flowing freely from our basement sink into the floor drain and out into the sewer system. We paid for it and they left (I thought the price was quite reasonable for a Sunday night). I made sure he knew that his good customer service left a good impression on me.
Over the course of the day, we talked about our options with the house. It got especially bad today, with all the things breaking, we even discussed the possibility of moving into a much smaller/cheaper place, or even an apartment, until we can get rid of some of our larger debts (wedding, school, my car, and whatever would be left from selling the house). Anyways, I think, we, once again, decided to tough it out for another few years (3 probably) before we try to find a place that we both can live with.
