It's a holiday weekend and you know what that means at the Bossy Doghouse - a plumbing problem! Yep, we have a grand tradition, if something goes wrong it won't be on a weekday, it'll be after hours, and if it's on a weekend, it will be a holiday weekend. This morning I went to rinse the coffee pot and heard - and then felt - water gushing down below the cabinet. The old garbage disposal had rusted out and fallen off the drain pipe, and when I turned on the sink the water ran straight down and flooded the cabinet and then out over my feet. I had hoped it would hold together until the new cabinets (and new sink and disposal and dishwasher) went in, but no such luck. I'm just thanking God for my own laziness right now - if I'd turned on the dishwasher before bed last night I'd have flooded the entire house while I slept.

I grabbed some towels and mopped up most of it already, and after I am fortified with a pot of Starbucks' finest and my cold meds kick in, I will finish cleaning out that cabinet and mopping up the rest of the water. The cabinet needed to be cleaned out anyway, it's not a big deal, and I can actually live without the dishwasher. I need to figure out if I can just cap off the offending drain pipe and still use the other side of the sink, or if I'll actually have to get a plumber to rework it temporarily to keep the sink functioning. What a pain in the ass. It's just evidence of the state of decay in my kitchen's working parts - the new kitchen is a necessity, not a luxury. Okay, so the granite countertop is a luxury. But worth it.

Thank God I didn't run the dishwasher. Thank GOD I didn't run the dishwasher. It drains through the same line. Because the dishwasher is over 20 years old I already have a superstition about letting it run when I'm not home, I just don't trust it, but I've turned it on and then went into the bedroom more than once (figuring I'd hear or smell anything suspicious) but I'd never have heard the water flooding the house. I'm only mildly annoyed at the state of the sink because right now I'm mostly relieved that I dodged a huge catastrophe.

Yard progress - the Yard Boys came by to get paid for their work so far (with their surfboards in the back of the truck) and said that I should go ahead and order the sod, they've got maybe two or three more hours of cleanup and they'll be ready to lay the sod, and the backyard will be done! Whee! It would have taken me all summer in my "ample spare time" to do what these two did in a couple of days - they are worth every cent I'm paying them.
On the diet front, portion control has begun to work - I broke the up-and-down-the-same-two-pounds plateau this week, by a whole half pound. It's not much but it's significant because I have passed a set point that I've been unable to break for what feels like forever. The South Beach Diet Cookbook hits the stores Tuesday and I definitely will be buying it. I already eat so much chicken and fish I feel like I'm one of the cats, and some new ways to prepare the old standbys would be nice.

Isn't this a knitting blog? Does she ever talk about knitting?

Okay, I've watched these knit-a-longs for a long time and never joined one - either it was for something I don't need or I wasn't ready to start it or whatever the reason, I tend to watch but sit out the actual "along" part. Critter Knitting is the first time I've "signed up" and it didn't even require signing up. But
Becky is throwing a Bucket-along right when I was thinking I wanted to make one myself - the bottoms-up bucket in Cotton-ease, to be precise - so maybe I should jump in on this one too.

Meanwhile, I finished the dog-sized Critter Knitters blanket and cast on a bright green cat-sized one. I am not out of Homespun yet, and I'm growing more fond of it with each blanket.