Sink, Steps, and Surf Saturday

Normally, Saturdays are Karen's and my one day a week to start the day together. We sleep in (or "lay in" in English English), we walk the dogs, and then have our one breakfast together for the week. But with Karen in Pennsylvania this weekend, I started the morning early with a pot of coffee, a PhotoShop endeavor, and a project for MMS.

With the photos uploaded to the lab and the MMS project as far along as I could get it, I headed out to good ol' Wal-Mart to pick up a few things I knew I was going to need to surprise Karen. Things like a plumbing repair kit of washers, seats, and o-rings; and a belt sander...you know, the usual things you like to surprise YOUR wife with.

Well, Karen will be surprised as long as she doesn't check the blog!

Sink
The plumbing repair kit was to stop the drip from the spout in our kitchen sink.

It took me a few minutes to figure out how to shut down the water, but as soon as I accomplished that major task, I dove right in to removing the faucet hardware from the sink. When I pulled the innards from the faucet assemblies I discovered the rubber spring-loaded seat on the hot side was worn out. Ta-Da! I'm a plumber! Unfortunately none of the 75 items in the "plumbing repair kit" could fix the plumbing I held in my hand. So, it was off to Auer Ace Hardware for the real thing. Thirty-minutes and $5 later, I was back at it and had successfully reassembled the faucets.Unfortunately, when I turned the water back on, the faucets had two settings: on and full-turbo. There was no "off" position where the water would stop...Okay, I'm NOT a plumber.

It took a few panicked minutes to determine I'd rotated the faucet innards 180 from where they should be. So, once again I took everything apart and then put them back together and Ta-Da! I'm a plumber! Water on, water off and no drip!

Stairs
Last week Karen pulled the carpet from the steps to the landing between our kitchen and the basement. She was tired of the red carpet with black triangles. She planned to pull the carpet, paint the steps, and then put runners on the steps. But when she pulled the carpet the padding on the steps had been glued down with glue manufactured before the EPA was around which held on to most of the rubber backing. She did the best she could to remove the sponge rubber and adhesive...but this was going to be a job for a Man with Power Tools and this seemed to be the perfect morning to be that MAN and to go out and buy the necessary Power Tool: an nuclear powered belt sander...

Lord willing, Karen will come home Monday evening to sanded and sealed steps ready for her to pick the color coat!

Surf
No, there isn't any ocean within 12 hours of here, but there is one surfing DVD to rent over on 2nd street. I rented it. Later this evening Scott, fellow missionary at MMS and gifted harmonica player in our church's worship team, is coming over to grill some hot dogs and watch the surf documentary about the history of surfing large waves.

I haven't surfed since Karen and I were married six years ago (August 25). It'll be fun to at least watch surfing for a few hours.

Thanks for checking in. I need to go seal the steps!