Husband for Hire?

Ben hasn't had all that much overnight call since we've been here, making his internship somewhat painless so far, but of course, true to Finagle's Law (a corollary to Murphy's which adds the caveat —at the worst possible moment) disaster struck. We had already had a pipe burst in our backyard and I was extremely glad that Ben was around to troubleshoot that one (albeit an additional $50 in water bills later).

Again it was a plumbing issue, a rather disgusting one, but at least one I could maybe handle, except that we were on our way out the door to the air show. I ran into the kids bathroom to grab something and noticed that the bathtub was filled with water and gunk that looked like mud, or sewage, but didn't smell too terribly bad. Then I see a piece of chicken floating by, next to what at one time was recognizable as zucchini. And, having just been cleaning out the fridge, I realized that it was the contents of the garbage disposal. Unsure of what to do and not even having Ben's pager number we went to the show (and had a great time, see above). When I came back the water was drained, leaving quite a mess. Still not prepared to deal with it I sprinkled baking soda all over the offending contents (thank you Costco for those ginormous bags), which then sparked the thought to pour vinegar on it and maybe loosen the junk in the drain but most definitely would be fun to watch. And then, although I'm not generally an emotional eater, I went for the pint of Dove Mint-Fudge Ice Cream and gathered my thoughts.

Now, had I been in Maryland, I would have immediately called Joseph Kamerath, construction worker turned doctor and home improver extraordinaire (the ideal home teacher if there ever was one). His drain auger (commonly known as a plumbing snake but I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea) has been in many a household in the Seneca Ward, saving much grief and plumbing bills along the way. But, not an option for me so I turned to Bob Vila instead. Googling "garbage disposal contents in bathtub" came up with few options, and I was sincerely hoping that no one would say not to pour vinegar and baking soda down the drain cause I really really wanted to do that. I found out that that would indeed be okay and was an environmentally, health friendly option to Drano so I went for it. The "show" was not as impressive as I had pictured in my mind and I had little hope that it would make an impact and I chased it with several gallons of boiling water (I knew that nifty quick water boiler that I got in Australia nearly a decade ago would come in handy someday). It looks like it's draining and then I notice a black checker piece among the gunk. We knew something had been causing some draining issues in the past week and I can just pictures Mr. Miles secretly carrying the checker in his mouth into the tub, removing the drain strainer and seeing if it would fit.

Problem solved, although I'm still not sure how the garbage disposal got roped into all of this.