poop.

friday night our toilet got clogged. i'm not going to name names, but it wasnt me who did it... after a trip to walmart to get a plunger, we spent at least 2 hours trying to loosen the clog. apparently it was the mother of all blockages...it didnt budge. saturday we called our landlord's emergency line and asked them to send someone to take a look at it. unfortunatley, they couldnt find any plumbers to come that day, but they did find someone to come today. they snaked the main line (which got sewage all over our storage room floor...see pic.) and tried to loosen any blockages - some tree roots were discovered, and a paper towel was suspected to have come from our house (one of the guys opened up the manhole to see if anything floated down).


now, we have a whole section of our lease that explains that our pipes are very old and cant handle what newer pipes can, complete with a whole list of flushing no-nos (paper towles are included). if a plumber finds one of those no-nos, then the service charge falls on the tenant. fortunately, since there were roots removed from the pipes, the landlord said they'd pay for the charges...but he said to be very careful in the future about what gets flushed.

natural security system

parley and i woke up one morning to find a blanket of leaves over our yard. it seemed as though on of our trees had shed its leaves all at once. these are extremely dry, crunchy leaves, so its impossible to approach the house without making a terrible racket. i'm hoping it will keep the burglers at bay.

update...

i didnt get the job for the surgery clinic i interviewed for...and quite frankly i'm relieved. i didnt get a good vibe from that place at all; and i was worried that if they did offer me a position, i'd take it anyway because i'm getting a little desperate. i do, however, have another interview on the 14th for temp staffing services. i feel a little more confident that i'll be accepted. there are also 4 other positions that i've applied for, but havent heard anything about.

i've been playing my violin more and more. i've had some pieces that i've always wanted to learn, and since i have so much time... i tried playing through one of the bach partitas and that was a true struggle....but i made it all the way through (however terrible it sounded, it still gives me hope). currently i'm just getting used to playing again; i dug out one of my old etude books and have been playing through those. once i've worked out the kinks in my fingers, i'll begin tackling those harder pieces.

i believe that's 5 el rancho bucks...