Happy New Year. And Happy Major Plumbing Expenses!

Thursday night the kitchen sink backed up for no apparent reason. Well, except for the absurd quantity of lettuce that I put through the disposal because it had been sitting in the refrigerator since Christmas. . . Davy was gone and I had to have a neighbor come help me. I had plunged the sink, but to no avail. It turns out you have to block air from entering the drain from the other side by filling it with water. Who knew? I don't have a master's degree in linguistics for nothin, baby!

Fast forward to Sunday morning. Davy and Mia are out, and Zoe and I are having a relaxing hour alone. I'm cleaning out the guest room closet in preparation for Jenny, our German friend who will be joining us later this month to spend a semester at Austin High School. But I digress. I walk into the laundry room to get something and realize my socks are wet. Crap, is the washing machine leaking? Nope. Laundry room is completely dry. Walk back out into the hall to realize the carpet is squishing. It is literally soaked with water!?! So I pivot to the right and look into the bathroom. Double crap! But really this time. The floor is covered in some kind of sludge. And so is the bathtub. What the hell? This must have happened in the last 5 minutes because the last time I walked through here, everything was fine.

Where ever the water came from (the floor under to toilet and the bathtub drain? there's no sign of nastiness on the actual toilet bowl, so I'm stymied), it has stopped. I get everything cleaned up and cautiously flush the toilet. Nothing out of the ordinary. I run the washing machine and the dishwasher (which were both running during the debacle), and again, nothing. Still, I leave a message with the plumber, set up fans to dry the carpet, and get on with my day.

Monday morning, Mia flushes the toilet upstairs and then yells that it is leaking. What the hell? She "may have used too much toilet paper." So this may or may not be related to the mess from yesterday. Call the plumber again. They're coming this afternoon. This can't be good!!!!