Potty Training take 7

I think I'll rename the 7th dwarf. Lets call her Dopey. She certainly seems to be the clown of the castle.

Snow White thought that since the other dwarfs are working at the mines most of the day now, and getting their little heads full of grand ideas and learning that she would attempt to get rid of all the extra diapers that we have had lying around the house.

Those of you who have a few dwarfs of your own will not find it hard to believe that all dwarfs are not identical. Well, our 6th was so difficult to train that we had expected our 7th to be just as difficult. I guess we just got lucky.

Dopey was so easy to train, it was almost as if she trained herself. The trick with her was a new potty seat, and new panties. We skipped the training pants all together and went to regular ones. I guess timing really is everything, or maybe after 6 times the 7th is just easy. When anyone who reads this gets to 7 let me know and we'll find out if this holds true for all.

Have a Happy Day!
PC

Please Provide Plenty of Pluming Problems

Please excuse the alliteration but over the course of the last 2 months we have had just about all the plumbing problems we can handle here. PC is just about going bonkers trying to figure out how to not only fix things but also how to pay for the fixes.

Last March we had the floor drain in the laundry room back up on us. This was the worst backup we have had. We figured the same method of fixing it would work, you know run a snake down the cleanout? Well this one was a no-go. It made matters worse because part of the snake broke off. Our next option was to send a camera down the drain (can you say $$$) well just for the camera crew (no we did not get a hollywood contract out of the deal) to show up and put a camera in our sewer pipe was $300 plus. They pulled the manhole cover in our yard, and ran the camera all the way to the end of the main line coming from the house. Can you guess what they found? Nothing. We thought that for sure they would find a blockage with part of a snake in it. Well, they backed up, and ran the camera up again. This time we paid particular attention to the junctions coming in to the main line. We found the downstairs shower (they have a camera finder to tell you where the camera is underground), and the main pipe from upstairs, and the downstairs toilet. That is all. Anyone see a problem yet? What about the kitchen drain, and the laundry room drain. Why aren't they connected to the main line? The plumbers came into the laundry room and kindly pointed out to me that there has been some drain work in there already. Some of the floor had been replaced already, and guess what, it was obviosly for the missing drains. Well, $3600 dollars later, they busted out the concrete floor, and connected all the drains in the house to the main line.

Whew! plumbing problems solved right? Think again.

Last weekend, I noticed that the water near the downstairs shower that we thought was coming from the dwarfes not utilizing the shower curtain properly was actually coming from the location near there where the drinking water comes into the house. In fact, it appears to be through the same hole. Yesterday I tried to remove some of the wood and framing around that location, and loosened one of the weld joints just before the main shut off valve. That allowed even more water to come in. The ground water from our spinklers was already comming in through the hole, and now drinking water was coming in from the hole in the pipe joint. Thankfully the city utilities has an emergency number and they came and turned off my meter. I only hope that I don't break it more while trying to fix it today. I hate to be the optimist, but odds are slim since I'm dealing mostly with galvanized pipe. If I do make it worse, it may end up as a $1200 repair to re-run the main line from the meter into the house.

Wish me luck.

PC

My Confession

Good evening everyone. My name is PC and I'm addicted to genealogy.

Wonderful you say? Well, maybe.

Hmm... I wonder if there is a 12-step program for this addiction. I suppose that there are lots of worse addictions I could have. No, please don't buy me the genealogy addict mug I don't drink coffee or even hot chocolate.

Oh the thrill of finding one or two more names, dates, or places.
I have recently been looking through my Uncles source files. There is still a lot to do there as far as documentation, and research. I was able to find some names there that haven't been documented yet. It was thrilling, and yes, I did find that one of my ancestors could have been married in a different place than I had originally thought. We'll need to do more research.

While we were sitting at the dinner table, I noticed that one of the buttons on my shirt was coming off. The dwarfs asked why. Well, It was about the place where my genealogy flash drive hangs down from my neck so I said that it was a sign that one of my ancestors wants me to do more genealogy. Well, we had a good laugh about that.

For those of you who read this and wonder what it is like to be addicted to genealogy, here are a few indications.

10 indications that you are addicted to genealogy.

1. You wake up in the middle of the night thinking that maybe John Doe lived in New Mexico, and not Texas. Then you spend the rest of the night on the Internet.
2. You're spouse calls the Library to see when you are coming home.
3. You get excited when you drive past a cemetery.
4. You plan family vacations to places where you need to do research.
5. You spend date night with your spouse at the library.
6. You have your research on a flash drive and carry it with you at all times (except in the shower.)
7. Your dream vacation would be to spend a week or more at the LDS Library in Salt Lake City.
8. You have switched to a fiber-optic Internet connection just for research purposes.
9. All of your Internet favorites are related to genealogy.
10. Whenever you sit at the computer your children / grandchildren ask. "Are you doing genealogy again?"
    

PC