Does smooth sailing exist?

I thought I'd give a quick update while I had a moment to myself. The weekend has been "interesting." My dad arrived on Thursday night, my mom the next day. The highlight has of course been Tovah. They have fallen head over heels in love with their new "grand-fur-child."

For the most part, Thursday and Friday were smooth sailing despite the extremely bitter cold temperatures which much of the nation faced. I used to think teen degree weather was cold, but damn, the single digit, below zero cold air really gives a new meaning to frigidly, ice cold weather. I don't know how those people in Alaska, Wisconsin (I heard Eau Clair is currently -22 degrees), Colorado, South Dakota, etc. handle all this type of weather.

Then, on Saturday morning before work, things began to not work correctly. Err plumbing that is. The likely culprit was due to the very cold weather. This wasn't too big of a deal, so I called my plumber in the morning. We all went our usual business. In the late afternoon while at work, I got a pitiful call from my mother, saying she tried to do a second load of laundry, and everything was backing up into the tubs. Great. I called my plumber again who I had not heard from (unusual for him) as well as left a message for my landlord.

By late evening, my landlord called back, saying he would come up early this morning and see if he could find the problem. I left to head to the kennel this morning, thinking my landlord would be there early as he said. Apparently, our definitions of early are different. He didn't arrive until 11 AM. Meanwhile, my plumber had already finally called back and was on the way to my place. They both thought frozen pipes, so a salamander heater (whatever that is) was placed by the pipes to warm them up and the furnace turned up. Now, it's just a waiting game and to clean up the tubs and all. This is so reminiscent of this past summer when something similar happened. That was a saga in and of itself. I doubt you really want to read about that, but those posts are archived in April.

A few other things. My lovely menstrual cycle decided to appear early, so I'm feeling fat and bloated as well as dealing with eating out most nights. Oh, and did I mention that apparently, I must keep myself awake in case of passing out from the salamander heater and its effect of carbon monoxide poisoning! My landlord apparently told my parents that if we smell something or start getting drowsy to step outside. What he got wrong is that well, you can't smell carbon monoxide! Right now, I have a door cracked, so we shall see what happens.

I've also heard some off the wall comments from my dad. I'll have to post that another time.

On a positive note, my new satellite dish got set up yesterday, so now I have access to local channels and don't have to buy a converter box. I'm also well stocked on A LOT of food since both my parents decided to buy me groceries.

More later, that's it for now.