episode @#!*: the Phantom Menace

So we got through Easter with almost no hitch!  We did NOT, for the first time in quite a few years, I repeat, did NOT have some sort of crisis during Easter week.  The cat is as well as can be, the car, ditto.  No trees came down on the house, no extra school stuff shoe-horned in there.  Amazing.  It was practically calm and cool and collected. Now, however, we have dealt with the Phantom Menace which you’ll have to read the whole blog to find out about.

David and Mark came up with an awesome idea for the front of the sanctuary.  I won’t explain the whole thing here since you’ve probably already heard it, but 36 different people did squares to put the whole image together.  I did an almost totally green square at the top.  It is 12 feet by 16 feet, so pretty big.  Here it is:

I thought the services went really well and people loved the installation.

After Easter, we went to the cottage we sometimes borrow.  I seem to update the blog only after we’ve been there so I figured I should put up some pictures of what it looks like. The first is the cottage from the beach and the second is some of the stairs to get up the (I think) 80 feet.

Here are some of the things we did:  we played (thanks uncle Doug)

We read

We walked on the beach when it wasn’t pouring rain:

For part of the time we were joined by our friend Lisa Snapper and her two kids, Bennett (18 months) and Ethan (3.5 years).  Here are all the boys in the tub after those walks on the beach and getting filthy.

There was also some napping.

All in all, it was a pretty good time.  We got back and did a lot of church work and noticed that the kitchen sink was sluggish. hmmmm……

Sunday morning I dumped a half bottle of draino down and it seemed to get better.

Then there was Monday.  Complete blockage.  Curiously enough, the plumbing snake could go all the way through the pipes and come out the other side. But the water still wouldn’t drain.  A special water plunger shot air and a burst of water through the pipes and the water didn’t drain.   Eight sections of pipe were cut and prodded and poked and still the water didn’t drain.  A second plumbing snake purchased today (Tuesday) could meet the first and shake hands with it in the middle of the pipe and come out the other end for pete’s sake and still the water didn’t drain.  It was the Phantom Menace.  David pulled down part of the ceiling and the wall and was thinking that the entire plumbing would have to be replaced.  Our friend Troy phoned to say that he would come over to help and mysteriously, phantom-like, it suddenly drained when he pulled in the driveway.  He said it was his sheer presence.  It was so weird.  There was nothing visible plugging anything, but there you have it.  Well, actually here you have it:

This is the spare bedroom in the basement where the baby who comes over on Monday sleeps.  It’s a colossal mess.

This is the basement storage room.  It’s the far wall behind the open shelving where the biggest mess is.  Over the high cabinets is also an open pipe.

This is a photo that few will appreciate, but those who do will understand why.  This is a joint David put in specifically in case something menacing or phantom-y happened and he could easily open everything up.  He’s a genius. Unfortunately, this Menace was so severe, he had to open things up all over the place.

So that’s what’s been going on over here.  There are only 4 weeks+ of school left and needless to say there are about a jillion things crammed in there so I may not write until after.  Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.