Birthdays... and toilets.

Marieke is now 30, and to celebrate the occasion Curt threw her a great birthday party at the Milky Way. Let's see... Party consisted of pizza, salad, whatever kind of tasty beverage you wanted to buy, a quiz of Marieke trivia (which Doug & I ROCKED! Yes!), an album of embarrassing Marieke photos - including one of her and a giant Brownie who I'm sure scared all the other little Brownies into earning their badges - bowling, Latin dancing, cake, and the requisite singing of Happy Birthday. Marieke looked splendid in her party attire, and Curt did a great job organizing the evening. Curt seems to be very good at organizing, and takes pride in making sure events stay on track. Taskmaster!

So here are some photos of the evening. First we have Marieke in her perfect party pose:
Then we have one of Curt scoring all of our "How Well Do You Know Marieke" quizzes. We were the top scorers, so we challenge Curt to make a harder quiz the next time. No more of these questions about Marieke's favorite book as a child, or Marieke's illustrious career as a Brownie. Ask us something really challenging, like which tooth did Marieke lose first as a wee one. Bring it on!

This next one is a good one - a candid shot. We've got Curt photodocumenting for the evening (Marieke was not the resident photographer that night!), Marieke holding court like every good birthday girl should, and Mark yawning (too much Latin dancing, maybe?). We know how to rock the place, right? But really, it was a great party!

This leads me to my next topic for the evening... toilets. So this weekend we had visitors. Chris and CHRIS were down from Maine. And on Saturday while we were trying to show CHRIS a good time before his lovely lady arrived, we discovered that our upstairs toilet was leaking. Yes, it was leaking. In case you ever encounter strange puddles of water near your toilet that you've never experienced before, it's safe to assume that there's a problem with the toilet. The water was leaking out of the toilet where the handle/flusher connects to the bowl because the flush valve no longer was properly regulating how much water was filling in the tank. So there was too much water filling in the tank. My initial reaction to the toilet problem was pure distress. Immediately I start seeing dollar signs as I dream of all the other things that are going to start falling apart around the house. Doug stays calm, though, and starts to do some research on why our toilet might be leaking. It was an educational afternoon for us, though I'm sure CHRIS would have preferred doing something else other than hanging his head over our toilet tank. Now he knows more about toilets, though, if his in Maine ever goes bust.

So apparently our toilet flush valve went kaput on us. This we learned on Monday night after Doug did some more research (and after we discovered ANOTHER plumbing problem on Sunday, this one more severe and that merits its own post altogether). My lovely husband went to Lowe's while I was at Curves, got some kind of Flushomatic part to replace our old American Standard original, and voila. In about a half hour our toilet is in business again! Yay! Doug had such a good time (and I have him on film smiling during this ordeal) that for a minute or two he was thinking about becoming a plumber, à la Grant on Ghost Hunters. That fancy didn't last out the evening, though, so I guess no career for Roto Rooter is in his future.

Here are a few photos of the toilet repair. This first one is proof that if only for a brief moment Doug was excited about plumbing. Here he shows off the new flush valve:

This is our empty toilet. The flush valve will be going in that bare spot on the left of the toilet tank.

Every master plumber needs an apprentice, and Meg is the chosen one this evening.

Here is the final exhibit. The finished product. The toilet's put back together, flushes right, fills properly, and Doug can't help but feel good about his manual labor. I feel good about it, too - way to go! Now we don't have to walk downstairs to use the other bathroom pre- or post-sleeping. I know, I know, that's definitely one for White Whine ("I can't believe I have to walk downstairs to use one of my other two bathrooms this morning!"), but I admit to having whined that all Sunday and Monday. Thanks to my husband, I am whining no more! (about that anyway...)