Plans Gone A'Gley

Yesterday afternoon, the Viking (having had a short day at work) picked me up after school. We went to the local warehouse of home improvement, bought topsoil to fill (or top off) the raised beds, plus some other odds and ends, and then headed home to fill (and top off) the raised beds, finish marking the horrible, terrible, very bad, no good essays, and sink into a pleasant evening of not much.

Ha. How oft the best laid plans go straight to the dogs.

The soil was safely delivered to the raised beds. I got started on the essays while the Viking went to work on hacking down some of the Asiatic bittersweet which threatens to overwhelm the back yard. When he'd had enough fun with that, he came in to wash his hands. It was at this point that things went horribly pear-shaped. The (cheap, off-brand Delta knockoff) faucet on the sink broke.

The volley of expletives from the Viking was probably more dramatic than the actual failure of the plumbing. Nevertheless, there we were, with the water to the sink turned off to prevent any more drama. We sighed deeply and looked at each other. 'Back to the warehouse?' he said.

'Back to the warehouse,' I replied.

After selecting a new faucet (which involved inspecting all the available models, plus some of the shower fixtures and the in-stock pedestal sinks), we returned home, where the Viking commenced the removal of the old faucet and drain and the installation of the new ones.

In the end, all was successful -- there is a new, functional faucet with two taps, and an equally new, functional drain assembly that does not leak. That getting to that point involved several hours of the Viking squeezing himself under the sink, occasionally shouting quite startling oaths and imprecations, while I alternated between trying to mark the essays and provide extra hands for certain phases of the operation is probably not worth mentioning.

Perched on the edge of the bathtub and surveying his work, the Viking remarked, 'You know, we could replace the fixtures in the shower too.'

'Yes, dear,' I replied soothingly, 'but not tonight.'

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