VD in a nutshell

I stole this from Marius, who stole it...

What are your middle names? Wayne and Marye

How long have you been together? 3ish years.

How long did you know each other before you started dating? 10? 12? A long time.

Who asked who out? It was kind of a mutual thing.

Whose siblings do you see the most? She met one of mine, once. I met hers, once. I'd say we're tied.

Do you have any children together? No.

What about pets? Five cats and a super-turtle.

Did you go to the same school? Nope.

Who is the most sensitive? Her.

Where do you eat out most as a couple? Hmmm... Well, there's Joe's Place most every Friday, and Moe's for lunch most Saturdays. Then there's the Chinese buffet on occasion. I'd say Moe's probably wins, though.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? I'd have to say Ohio.

Who has the craziest exes? Oh yeah. Me.

Who has the worst temper? When she gets her dander up, it's pretty volatile, but I think I have the worst.

Who does the cooking? Mostly me. I'm a fairly decent cook, and I like to do it. I can't bake for beans, though, whereas she excels...

Who is more social? Well, I work at a bar, so I'd say me, but we're both kind of homebodies.

Who is the neat freak? Definitely her.

Who is the most stubborn? Pig-headed? Me? Yeah. Me.

Who hogs the bed? The *damn* cats.

Who wakes up earlier? Her.

Where was your first date? Depends on what you consider our first date. It's a little fuzzy, and differs upon which way you look at it. Either way, at an event.

Who has the bigger family? Oh, most assuredly me.

Do you get flowers often? Get? Never. Doesn't matter, anyway, as the cats would eat them

How long did it take to get serious? No long. We've been friends for a long while, and had an "online friendship" thing going for at least a year.

Who eats more? I finish most of her meals...

Who sings better? I'm not bad, but she's awesome.

Who does the laundry? Shared, but she does the lion's share.

Who’s better with the computer? I'd say we're equals.

Who drives when you are together? Usually me.

Who picks where you go to dinner? Shared, mostly, but I like giving her the choice, as I'm really, really, really not picky. Not saying she is, 'cause she isn't, but since I don't usually care, why not give her the choice?

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong? We're about even on this one.

Who wears the pants in the relationship? It's mutual

Who has more tattoos? Me. With one.

Who eats more sweets? Hmmm. Probably her, but not by a large margin.

Our Valentine's was spent as every one has been since we've been dating - apart. She had a demo in Tampa she was coordinating, and I had to stay home and work on the plumbing. She came home early enough to still be Valentine's Day, so we mostly hugged, kissed and went to bed.

The plumbing did not get finished on Saturday, as I discovered, after several hours of tearing out walls in the "spare" bathroom, which we don't use and are going to completely remodel anyway, that I really just couldn't fit beneath the vanity to work on the sink. I ended up calling my friend Micheal, whose diminutive stature came in handy. He went above and beyond the call of duty, and we managed to get it all fixed on Sunday. It was a nightmare, with one thing after another going wrong, but we handled it.

That was my Valentines.

Still, no content

Well, I still have nothing. Life kind of sucks right now, as we still do not have any hot water in the house. Until I can get there and start tearing out walls and, hopefully, gain some kind of sudden plumbing knowledge via osmosis, and fix the broken pipe/valve, we continue to live in a cold world. So, barring anything useful or even fun to report, I give you another photo guaranteed to give aneurisms to Marius...

In lieu of content...

I give you this... (Especially for Marius...)

Can a brutha catch a break?

Fates are conspiring against me. I’m starting to wonder what horrific sin I committed to deserve such a backlash of Karma. Probably had something to do with water…

About six months ago, the hot water heater went kablooie. Well, it didn’t exactly blow up, as I don’t have a hole in the roof (anyone watch Myth Busters?), but it did give up the ghost in a major fashion. That particular fashion was to develop a not-so-slow leak, purging its 30 gallons of internal fluids all over the foyer. But that just wouldn’t be “major” fashion, in and of itself. No. This had to go one better. The shutoff valve for the heater tank refill was broken. What this means is that the 30 gallons that emptied themselves on the floor? They refreshed themselves. Constantly. There was a continuous flow of water upon the floor. Luckily (hah) it was a "relatively" slow leak, and we could "keep up" with the flow, until the repair was completed.

Then there was the fiasco with Lowe’s. We found a decently priced water heater (and decent was still fairly indecent), and they had installation services available. We didn’t really have the $300 to dish out for it, but as it was a gas heater, it was beyond my meager talents to install. We’d even called the night before to make sure that they could do it and the woman said, “No problem, let’s set it up over the phone. Do you have a credit card available?” Well, we didn’t want to make said transaction on the line, so said we’d pay for it in the morning when the store opened. No problem.

We got to the store and everything seemed well… We found the water heater we wanted, for the price we found online. Excellent! There was a sign right there that said “Installation guaranteed”. Said it right on the box, too! Now, we just need to wrestle it onto the trolley and figure out how to set up the installation. The two escapees from “Dazed and Confused” wearing the orange vests ought to know something, right? “Oh, we totally don’t do those.” What?? The sign says you do! The box says you do! The woman on the phone, who tried to take our money, said you do!! “We’ll make a call to our service center to double check.” They both walked around the corner and returned within 30 seconds, literally. “Yeah, we don’t do that.”

We had to call a plumber to do the job, and ended up paying 2.5 times what Lowe’s ‘promised’ they’d do it for. I was miffed. After calling Lowe’s and escalating up to the corporate level, the only satisfaction I received was a “Sorry, we’re working on hiring someone for that” and a promise of 10% off our next “big project”. Well, the store policy on “installation guaranteed” has changed. They no longer make those promises. They’ve added all kinds of little disclaimers to it. At least I’ve forced them to be a little more honest about it.

Well, flash to this weekend, and the water that suddenly started appearing in the hallway. I explored all the possibilities. I recently had to do some work repairing the tiling around the tub, so that all got re-sealed, and the silicone between the tub and wall was redone. The small hole in the bathroom trap drain got taped up as well. The leak seamed to have stopped, or so we’d hoped.

Last night, as Sheeps had gone to bed, I sat down at the computer to finish listening to a friend’s Podcast. Sheep’s frantic calling of my name had me come running. Luckily, she wasn’t asleep yet and heard “kachunk, whooooosh” come from the bathroom. I tracked the hissing sound to vanity and, upon opening the door, discovered a rather light spray coming out. I reached in to shut off the supply valve, and the whole pipe cracked off in my hand, and the spray became a steady stream – of scalding hot water hitting me in the face.

“Shut it off! Shut it off! Shut it off!!”, I calmly stated. Okay, I screamed it at the top of my lungs, as I slammed the cabinet door shut in a hopelessly foolish attempt to stop the water. Sheeps had no idea how to shut it off, nor should she, and I should have known better. I really didn’t know myself, but had a vague idea. I ran to the hot water heater closet, and managed to find the shutoff valve leading to the bathroom. The good news is that the hot water is currently off to the bathroom. The bad news is that the hot water is currently off to the bathroom.

This repair probably requires a plumber’s fine touch, but as we still owe Unka Sammy 600 smackers, and we still hold on to a small shred of hope of actually attending Gulf Wars (I haven’t missed one since One), I’m going to stay home this weekend and try my hand at plumbing. I should be going with Sheeps, as she is running a major SCA demo at the State Fair in Tampa, and I’m supposed to be helping, but I’ve got to try and fix this thing… No big deal. Just break a hole in the wall, replace the broken pipes and plumbing. Skills that I completely lack. But it'll be a learning experience, right?

So, any of you happen to have been plumbers in a former life?

Her Morning Elegance / Oren Lavie

This is just too kewl to not be shared