What a Weekend...

Hey there.  Oh man...  What a weekend it has been.  I haven't really had much of a chance to rest during the weekend since I've pretty much dedicated that time to prep for my son's first birthday.  We're going with a Super Mario Bros. theme and since it's difficult (and expensive) to buy licensed Mario stuff, the wife and I have been pretty much created all the decorations ourselves.  We've already spent a lot of hours getting them done and we're in the last week before the party and we're still not done!!!  Here goes the breakdown of our weekend...

SATURDAY

So Saturday rolls around and we're up and ready to go.  We figured that we could avoid traffic and what not if we head on over to downtown LA to check out the vendors there that sell party supplies and piñatas.  We got a tip from my compadre that there is a "party district" there and they have all kinds of stuff.  He was certain that we would find it there.  So 10 am rolls around and we're almost ready to go when I hear children scream, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! OH NOOOOOOOOO!!!!  DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD! DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!"

So I get up and run outside, thinking that one of the neighbor kids is hurt or something is wrong.  There is a lot of commotion on their side of the fence so I go around and end up in their yard.  I see my dog, Lucy, and their dog, fighting.  Now...  Lucy is small dog.  She's what you would call a Chihuahua Terrier.  No more than a foot tall.  The neighbor's dog?  Well... she's a Pitbull.  Yup.  Lucy got into it with a pitbull and instead of her saying, "Oh crap this is a monstrous dog, I don't have a chance!", she's up all in the business snapping and biting back.  The neighbor get's his dog's attention long enough for me to yell at Lucy.  Lucy then trots of in my direction, looking like a bloody mess.  I apologize profusely to the neighbor for Lucy getting into his yard and he dismissed it as Lucy just doing what she's born to do. We have this issue where Lucy and Lacy (both chihuahua terriers) dig under the fence and venture into their yard.  They don't mind, since they're good dogs.  They don't destroy anything and they play with the neighbor kids.  The neighbor explained to me that Lucy was trying to get under the fence and when he saw her, he helped her over.  That's when Lucy saw his dog (which was in heat) and they started getting into it with each other.

So I go back into my yard to check up on Lucy.  She's bloody, but I don't see blood pouring out of her.  She does have a 1cm hole in her face.  I could literally see inside her face and that's when I decided that she can't stay outside.  She could get that infected and what not.  I take her inside and start looking up vets.  Considering that it's a Saturday, I wasn't expecting to find any open.  I called a few "emergency vets" and was told that her wound was not considered an emergency since it wasn't life threatening and was given instructions on how to care for her at home.  So I go off into the drugstore and buy a bandage wrap, some gauze, closure strips and some peroxide.  I clean her up as best as I could and get to work.  I cleaned out the wound, closed it, and wrapped it up.  She's looking a little funny, but at least she's on her way to recovery.  Check out the pic I took of her, looking like, well... she just got off a fight with a pitbull.

Lucy... Looking like Rocky Balboa. Hopefully, she'll learn to stop picking fights with pitbulls.

 

I've been addressing her wound and changing the wrap every day.  Last night, the gash finally closed but I do not feel comfortable enough to let her roam around without the wrap.  Hopefully, I can remove it in another day or so because I need to clean her up some more.  She's beginning to smell funky and since she's inside the house, I need to make sure she's as clean as possible.

That incident took up all of our Saturday morning and most of the early afternoon.  We were finally able to venture into this party district to look for what we needed.  We scored on some awesome Mario and Luigi piñatas.  We also got some Mario and Luigi piggy banks and some candy to fill the piñatas with.  Being in the Mario mood, the night was capped off with some Mario Galaxy for the the Wii.

SUNDAY

Football!!!  I told myself that today would be the day where I would just sit in front of the TV and make decorations while watching TV.  I did a lot of decorations, not so much TV.  Football games were on TV, but I didn't really glance up since I got into my creations.  The Raiders lost...  losers!  And I did see Vick get hurt.  Other than that, I got most of my info from ESPN highlights later that evening.  Decoration making didn't end til close to midnight...  and soon after disaster struck...

MONDAY

After making decorations, I took a shower a little after midnight.  I noticed something funny going on while in there.  The water was not going down the drain... hmmm...  I finish up and let the wife know what happened.  She then mentioned to me that there is something up with the toilet, to make sure I take a look at it before I go to bed.  I check it out... and notice right away that it's not flushing.  I pull out the trusty plunger and get to it.  After several unsuccessful tries...  I figure that maybe there's hair stuck in the shower drain and it's stopping the toilet from flushing.  So I start working on that.  No success.... after about 30 mins or so, and it being around 1 am, I decide to go to bed and I'll work on it tomorrow.  Before jumping into the bed, I head to the kitchen to get a midnight snack... cause that's how I roll.  lol  

"SPLASH...  SPLASH... SPLASH..."  What the...  I took one step into the hallway and I step into a pool of water...  Oh man...  there's at least an inch deep of water all over the hallway.  Water EVERYWHERE!!!  I was feeling a dumbfounded and perplexed by what I was seeing and when the wife noticed it as well, she got up and was shocked by the amount of water all over the floor.  I go into the other bathroom thinking that maybe the tub was running or something and it smelled horrible.  But I mean HORRIBLE!!!!  Water was pouring out of the toilet, splashing flooding the bathroom.  The tub was also filling up with the water.  Water then ventured into the hallway and into my son's room and the main bedroom.  S*@T!!!!  The wife and I sit for a second, and then move into action.  

I pulled out my phone and took video of all the water in the bathrooms, tubs, showers, rooms, and hallway.  I figured that I would need evidence for the insurance company.  We pulled out all of the towels and started to soak up the water.  We didn't really know what the problem was so we figured that one of the kids may have flushed something down the toilet.  We didn't really know what the problem was...  So after about an hour or so of soaking up water and draining towels, we got the water to a respectable level...  Then... I made a huge mistake.  I threw in most of the towels into the washer.  Thinking that our problem was inside the house, I figured that we would need clean towels in case there was more leakage.  When the washer got the draining of the dirty water stage... all hell broke loose.  The bathrooms started to flood again.  This time, we only had HALF of the towels to battle what seemed like a never ending flow of water...  The good thing is that we acted fast enough to keep the water in the bathroom and no more spilled over to the hallway.  I then started draining the towels in the bathtub and reusing them to soak up water.

After about a half hour or so and the water level not really coming down... the wife made the comment that maybe I'm making it worse by throwing water into the tub.  She was right.  I should have been draining the towels outside like we first did...  By this time.. it's somewhere close to 3:30 am or 4 am and we're straining water out of towels in the front lawn.  After about another hour or so, we finally got it dry enough where there is no danger of anyone slipping.  I turned off the water valves in the sink and tub, in case the kids get up and turn the water on.  By the time we're satisfied that nothing else is going to down that morning, we go to be.  It was close to 5:45 am... by then, I already told myself I wasn't going to work.  I have a BIG problem that I need to take care of.

I get up at 6:45 and drive the girls to school.  I ask them if they threw anything down the toilet that they weren't supposed to and both said no.  I dropped them off, grabbed some coffee and then got to work.  Still believing that it may be something in our toilets, I looked up getting a plumber's snake.  I picked one up at Lowe's then went to work.  I went into the toilets and nothing.  I tried the sinks and nothing.  Showers?  Still nothing... I then said that I would need to get a pro to do it.  I started looking up plumbers in the area.  I also called my cousin, who does all the plumbing for the building that he is managing and ask for his opinion.  He quickly said that it sounds like the main drainage pipe is clogged.  He asked me to look for a 4 inch pipe outside the house.  I couldn't find it.  I said I would call him once I found it.  I then called Roter Rooter.  They sent a guy out to the house to check it out and give a free quote.  He found the access pipe and said, $200.  i was like, no thanks guy.  I already have someone that's going to get it done.  He leaves and I go at it with my 25 foot long snake.  Nothing... Damn... I needed something longer.  I go to Lowes and looking for a longer snake, but the longer ones are in the hundred...  

I decided to call a local plumber and got it done for a fraction of the cost.  He stuck in a 75 foot power snake and cleared my pipe (sounds funny.  lol)  and found that baby wipes were the culprit.  It was now, close to 2:30 pm and I started to text my insurance peoples to see what's up with that.  The damage is done in the hallway.  The laminate flooring that I installed is starting to warp.  The edges have risen and it's no longer smooth.  The carpet is still damp and I'm worried that mold might start up if I can't dry it up soon.  If it comes down to it, I'm going to need to replace the carpet as well as the flooring.  I'm hearing that my insurance should cover it...  Now I have that battle to look to forward to.  ugh.   Stay dry, friends.  Until then, later!