Some fun and two projects

Last weekend, I was "not in Kansas anymore." We went to see our first American League baseball game, and it was insane. We watched the Tampa Bay Rays play the New York Yankees (Alex Rodriguez was eligible for his 600th homerun that night, but it came later). The game was literally sold out, the fans were behaving like northern folks not like the polite southerners that we're used to, the teams were excellent, and the parking was outrageous but cheap for us. As we walked up to the stadium, we passed several outdoor bars where people were already celebrating (or something). Once we got to the stadium, we walked inside and saw what looked more like a basketball arena. I decided that the air conditioned dome would work for me any time. Since we didn't care so much who won the game, we could watch the great teams of the American League East battle for first place in their division. And, battle they did! So did the fans around us--with each other. We managed to stay out of most of the drama, but we sure did get our money's worth for our tickets since a sideshow came with the price! Before we left town on Sunday, we went to Clearwater Beach, which was excellent! That alone makes me want to go back. Since it's close, I think we might get to do it next year. Also before we left, we stopped at Target to look for a puzzle that we've been trying to find. It was there.

Our puzzle was inspired (okay, copied) from our friend, Ginger. She has a framed copy of DaVinci's "The Last Supper" on her wall, and we were really impressed with it each time we've been to her house. The 2000 pieces take up a ton of space, so we've allocated our dining room table plus a card table to the project. We've made a lot of progress, and we'll figure out how to hang it up in our house after we're done assembling it. The disintegration of the art is shown in the puzzle, so most of the features are speckled. That's making it tough for us so far, but we're having fun with it even if we do have to find other places in our house to eat!

Keith went to do some yard work for friends today, so I decided to tackle a drip in my bathtub. It's not too bad, but it's been there a while, and I had some time and energy to work on it today. I've replaced washers in bathtub faucets before, so I had an idea of what I was getting into. We didn't have replacement washers at our house (but we did have all the necessary tools), so I made a quick run to Lowe's. I always say that a successful repair project is one that takes only one trip to Lowe's. After I installed the new washer, I put all of the pieces back together, but the handle wasn't working. Turns out, prying it loose broke the ever so slight connection that allowed the handle to open the water flow. The connection should be better, but the parts are old and just finally wore out. So, back to Lowe's I go for a new handle. None of the modern handles fit right, so I got a universal fit model. The handle fit fine, but it would sink down into the flange like the old one had to. Now, I need new flanges, but nothing is short enough to work with our current parts. I'm ready to concede that we can replace all of the parts to get things that work together, and the salesman explains that it will be almost impossible to get something that will fit the plumbing in the wall of the house. We invented a solution that would work "until we get ready to remodel the entire bathroom," he said, but that solution turned out to be unsatisfactory for Keith and me. In the end, I visited three different stores for a total of five visits, and Keith got involved later in the day. Together, we fixed the situation to the point that we can live with it for a long while. I still don't know if I actually fixed the drip that started this whole thing, but I'll discover the answer to that question in due time.

Certainly our trip last weekend was much more fun than our ever-increasing plumbing issues this weekend!