Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Wednesday night

Feeling better but I still have that bug. No nausea, however. Just the other. I hate being sick.

Big day here today and another one coming tomorrow. Electrician and plumber were here for hours. Right now I'm running the dishwasher for the first time since the beginning of July (or the end of June). The stove works again, but it's not plugged in since I had to spackle around the outlet. The new disposer works great--you can barely hear it. (The plumber said not to make the mistake of leaving it on, since it makes practically no noise when nothing's being disposed of.)

The plumber's work is done--he replaced valves, etc. Nothing leaking. The electrician will be back tomorrow for the final electrical inspection. If passed, he'll be able to re-install the recessed lights, which are still dangling down from the ceiling. He'll also install two ceiling fans.

Sears was also here today, delivering and installing the new microwave oven above the stove.

The plumber warned me about the thinness of the water line from the water source to the refrigerator and showed me what he would have installed. He said if the cabinets start getting wet (from a leak in the line) to call him. Actually, the brand new line I recently bought at Home Depot is the same thickness as the one originally installed by Sears when they connected the refrigerator to the water supply, and it's what the Home Depot kitchen designer picked out for me. So I can't be too worried.

I think the plumber is kind of a crackpot or alarmist. At first he said--much to my dismay, the day he first came here--he wouldn't be able to install the new disposer since the water drained out of it at a level slightly lower than the drain pipe coming out of the wall. Then he found a solution. (He extended the trap to a level below the disposer, so that water wouldn't accumulate in the disposer.) Today he was constantly bitching about Home Depot (the kitchen expediter in particular), saying they should have brought him in before the cabinets were installed and that he wasn't being paid enough for the work he was doing. I don't know. This morning I got a call from the Home Depot kitchen expediter and, over the phone, paid an extra $200+ to his company (i.e., over and above the plumbing charge I'd already pre-paid) before the plumber got here to do this work. I did tell him I'd had trouble with Home Depot myself, and that I hadn't had water since July 2.

Took a two-hour nap after the guys left.

Tonight I was hungry and ate dinner at Red Lobster, across the street from Flanigan's. I wanted to try the new wood-fire grilled seafood that's been advertised on TV and was tired of Flanigan's. The lobster was good (ate it all), the scallops had practically no flavor whatsoever (even dipped in drawn butter and lemon juice and salted), and the shrimp were so-so. I had to make a trip to the bathroom before I left. Took the rest of the scallops and shrimp home with me to eat tomorrow. I wasn't going to waste them.

I'm not going back to Red Lobster anytime soon (hadn't been there in years, and I always say that every time I go). Now that I have the kitchen back working again (almost), I can do better by going to the supermarket and getting fresh seafood and cooking it myself. (The lobster tonight may have been fresh--there were dozens of lobsters in the tank in the restaurant--but the scallops and shrimp didn't taste like it.)

Fortunately, I don't have to wake up so early tomorrow morning.

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