Lyssie vs. the Sink of Doom: rounds one and two.

Let me set the scene for you.

Location: basement.

Players:
Lyssie (me)
The Sink of Doom (a two-sided sink that has a divider that's low enough to spill water from one side to the other)
The Plunger (guest, with a possibly recurring role)
Draino (low-down dirty, good-for-nothin' bottle)
The Barbecue Fork (it's surplus, and very long, which makes it useful for, say, poking in sinks)
Lyssie's Roomate (nique)

Last... Actually, Thursday a week ago (or so, possibly longer, now I think about it), my roommate mentions to me that the sink was stopped up causing the washing machine to backup (it empties into the sink). She also mentioned that the side not emptied into was full of water and had a shirt in it, obviously not either of ours. Our guess was that it belonged to the guys who live downstairs (who are, in fact, guys, despite listening to electronica and disco a lot).

She wasn't sure it would go down, but was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and stuff. But she hadn't messed with the other side of the sink at all.

Then on Saturday, I went down to do laundry and had to empty the washer of about three inches of water (this is simple, luckily. You just stick it on spin until the water has gone byebye). In doing so, I discovered the sink still wasn't working. So I brought the plunger down and got the water moving, dumped some draino down it (again) and poked around the near-empty side with the barbecue fork. I pulled a drier sheet from the drain.

I poked at the other side a little, but not really worried since, y'know, I figured the guys had something going on there.

At that point, the score was something like: Lyssie: 1.3, SoD: .7

This week has been not conducive to doing more laundry, so I didn't go back down until today. The sink was still full on the other side, not to mention there's STILL a fuckton of laundry the boys are obviously not bothering to do (lazy dicks).

Cranky, and tired of it, I pull the shirt out, dump it on the other side and poke some more with the bbq fork, checking to see there isn't anything else.

Nope, nothing. And I find the drain, and discover that it... is flat, and obviously, there's something blocking it. The plunger, despite being useful before would not be useful now.

So, giving up, I grabbed a trash bag (STANDING WATER. AT LEAST A WEEK OLD. NOT PUTTING MY ARM IN THAT NAKED, DAMMIT), and stuck my hand into the murky depths (UP TO THE BICEP). There was indeed something in the drain. A bottle cap. We are all fucking lucky it fell in there, screw-threads side UP, or there would have been NO way of getting it out short of pulling the plumbing off the bottom...

It had fallen in, obviously getting stuck from gravity, pressure, etc. I tried prying it with the bbq fork, but didn't have the right leverage for it.

So I poked around, and found this thingie with a bolt on it, and the bolt was about the right size to use. Stuck my hand back in, bolt went in, presto-change-o, cap pops up and out. I grab it and watch the sink implode as the gallons of water go bye-bye down the drain.

Once SoD was empty, I used some cleaner with bleach to stem the mold and other things growing in it. I might have accidentally sprayed laundry that wasn't mine a bit, too.

Oops.

(seriously. A week and a half. And they just LEFT their stupid shirt in there and didn't try to solve the problem.)

I need to go back down, eventually. And when I do, I need to check something. Because in typing this out, it's occured to me that I think the draino bottle had no cap.

So, current score:

Lyssie: eleventy-billion, SoD: 1.3

In other, non-combatant, news...

Was watching Depeche Mode vids last night, and joked that if they ever neded a Pete Wisdom, they should cast Dave Gahan.

And then the 'I Feel You' vid came on, which has Rebecca DeMorney Lysette Anthony being hot (which is easy for her. mm.) at Dave, and I cracked up. Because in my movie!verse, Emma Frost/Pete Wisdom is NOW CANON. (and, actually, given the LA really looks a hell of a lot like R--look, I'm having to write her name out, because Rebecca DeMorney is NOT Ron D. Moore--ebecca D, she might also turn in a fine performance as Emma Frost. In the end, almost anyone is better than Finola Hughes).

There was also a long round of "When they came for..." mocking every fandom we could. I blame lavendar_menace, really.

Have been watching a lot of Nero Wolfe lately. OH ARCHIE. I kind of want to write the BSG-version of it, now. With Kara as Archie, and Adama as Nero and Tigh as Fritz... This makes Sam Kara's occasional dancing partner. And Lee. And Chief. And Zak. And half a dozen others. With witty dialog and bullets and intrigue.