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Live from the Fillmores Midwest

We like to call it Minnesota Nice

Me: Miss Fix It


For the past few months, my bathtub drain has been driving me crazy. Maybe it's because "drain" is not at all what it did. I'd pour a half a bottle of Draino down it, find my problem fixed for about three days, and then discover the shower water about calf-deep once again, only 5 minutes into showering. What's the deal? I've lived in a house full of four sisters, all with mid-back length hair, and had no such problems. I've lived in apartments with 5 other girls, all using the same shower, and never found such problems. And now that it's lonely ol' me (and my cutie daughter and son a couple times a week) using this shower, why is the drain getting clogged on a ridiculously frequent basis?

I kept waiting for Jonathan to fix it. I guess because somewhere in the back of my mind it seems like this sort of thing should come innately to men. But bless his heart, when Jonathan was home no one wanted him fixing things around the house. We wanted face time with him. Quality time with him. Bonding time with him. Fixing shower drains didn't seem like quality enough time.

So I took it upon myself, finally, to resolve my problem. I found some basic steps on the internet, and proceeded. I obtained the toilet plunger from under the sink. Lined it with a thick layer of vaseline. Filled the tub up with a couple inches of water. Removed the drain head. Put the plunger in the water and sealed it around the drain opening. Pumped it back and forth four or five times, listening to the water moving back and forth inside the pipe. Yanked the plunger off the drain. WHOOSH! Something happened somewhere, and then I heard the rapid rushing of water down the drain. YES!!! I did it! Drain plug problem solved. And I must admit, every time I take a shower now, I look down affectionately at my little drainy wainy and take pride thinking that I fixed him. What's my next household project? Hmm... Recaulking the shower? Putting in marble countertops? Reroofing the house? Probably.

What I do at night when Jonathan's not at homeWhere are mine?

Comments

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 03:11

Michal writes:

Connor just unclogged our sink drain about 5 min ago. But now with such ellegance as yours!!! I am so proud of you, but a womans gotta do what a womans gotta do!!

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 03:58

Mechee writes:

I love it, I love it! You sound like a true Munson. Too bad you weren't home for New Years, dad could have used your help laying down a new electrical line for the fridge! Way to go sista.

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 16:50

meredith writes:

good for you, melanie! i'm always so proud of myself when i complete DIY projects too! i need to recaulk our tub/shower as well, so let me know if you figure it out!

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 17:40

Becca writes:

Nice work! Please post pics of when you retile the roof--I'd love to see that.

We had the same drain issues a couple of years ago and I fixed ours too! Whoot! What up girl power!

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 18:38

Cheryl writes:

You go girl! I admit that I definitely don't do that kind of stuff- I have William do it. So I'm super proud of you for doing it!! Keep us posted about your next projects

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 20:51

Anonymous writes:

there are jobs i won't do, like vacuum out the car and mow the lawn, that is man territory as far as i am concerned. plunging somehow has fallen to me. good work, I never would have thought to look up how-tos on the internet. genius.

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 20:51

Stace writes:

oops, that one was me. BTW, I think you are MS. Fix it.

Anonymous 13. January 2009, 23:10

Mary writes:

Super impressive! You really should decorate your home with the "Rosie the Riveter" poster that says "You can do it" Do you know the one I'm talking about? If not here's a link http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://archive.ccm.edu/rosie/images/WeCanDoItPoster%255B1%255D.jpg&imgrefurl=http://archive.ccm.edu/rosie/&usg=__xzOtVDlzqlkNTuv7ZnIhcjOD6SU=&h=1115&w=844&sz=139&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=lwfYFF20nwmMrM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3DWWII%2Bwomen%2Bposter%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG
You should at least put the poster in your closet or the backside of the bathroom door!

Anonymous 14. January 2009, 03:04

Nina writes:

Thank you, thank you, Melanie, for a good laugh today!!! I, too, am experiencing the same problem right now in my bath tub. I will have to give you a call a get the story over again so I can become familiar with how to fix my own little drainy wainy. This was definitely my laugh of the day...THANK YOU!! Adios.

Anonymous 15. January 2009, 23:23

Robyn writes:

Yay Woman Power! I totally took apart my DVD player the other day to clean the laser lens. We Rock!

Anonymous 3. February 2009, 20:12

Laura writes:

Hi! I need to do the same thing to my tub drain. It isn't that bad yet, so I'll probably wait for a while :)

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