Sink, sank, sunk

Two of our sinks in the house are ... rather crazy at present.

The good news is that the dishwasher worked!
The bad news is that the sink in the laundry room somehow ended up with some of the dishwasher's waste water in IT. WEIRD.

It started with the kitchen dual sink just transferring draining water into each other. Now, I guess that the laundry room sink was lonely, so it had to get in on the action.

But, on the bright side, the bathroom sinks, showers/tubs, and toilets all work.
(So, worst case scenario, I just do the dishes in the dishwasher and drain the laundry room sink OR I could just do the dishes in the bathtub.) (At least until Michael fixes it.)

Mom was very proud of how calm I've been over the whole thing. (I've been calm, even though I'm full of UNBALANCED HORMONES [FUN!!!!!] {NOT.} because Michael was here to be my knight in shining armor and worked at getting the sinks fixed.)

Let's see, what else has gone on .... ....

Tuesday, Mom and I (and the munchkins) went to look for used books. There used to be a Book Bin here in town. But we couldn't find it (since the local parent's news referred to it as still being here, so I had no reason to think that it wasn't!) and we stopped in the Chamber of Commerce building to ask after it ... to find that it really WAS where I thought it had been ... and that it hadn't been there for a couple YEARS!!

But the kind people at the CoC did recommend a couple good bookstores here in town, one of which was in walking distance. And we were able to get a few good books there. (And we went to the OTHER Book Bin, over in the next town, on Wednesday and bought lots and lots of wonderful books there.)

Mom and I were reading through the synopses of the Oz books on Wikipedia (she had printed it out) and were rather laughing quite a lot ... especially at a few of the Ruth Plumly Thomspon summaries ... My mom's now DESPERATE to read "Kubumpo in Oz" about Prince Pompadour of Pumpernickel and Kubumpo, the Elegant Elephant.
I will be on the lookout for Glinda of Oz (Baum's last book. It's supposed to be quite a bit darker than his usual, since he wrote it as his health declined) and Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (by Plumly) who meets Snif the Iffin (a griffin who has lost his "grr" <-- Seriously!!! That's a character's name and description).

Later, we went grocery shopping and bought the kids some new vitamins. Marvel Spiderman vitamins -- three flavors, three characters: Cherry Spiderman, Grape Capt. America, and Apple ... as mom read it ... "The Incredible HUNK."

Oh, we were giggling like mad!

And it didn't help that as we walked though another aisle, I whispered to mom that she should be SO grateful for my self-restraint, because I COULD have slapped an old man's butt and run up so that he would have thought that SHE had done it.
And she whispered back that maybe, if I HAD done it, she could have told him that he was the Incredible Hunk.

Oh, we have a good time together.

Yesterday, while we were getting dinner ready, Mom was making up gingerbread dough (since she and the kiddos had read "The Gingerbread Man" together. I didn't have enough molasses (since I never usually USE molasses unless I AM making gingerbread, which I OBVIOUSLY don't do all that often) ... we substituted what I didn't have with some corn syrup (which later necessitated using another couple cups of flour so that we could roll it out).

Mom mixed up all the ingredients and then told me, "Okay, you can do the next step," thinking that I'd be rolling it out. HA! I looked at the directions and the next step was to chill the dough for at least an hour!
(And I was glad because it let me finish getting my spice cabinet organized. ... and making the list of all the spices that I need to buy. Like ground cloves and dried rosemary!!!)

This morning, we made the gingerbread men (and women) before Mom had to take off (and we went to storytime). As I mentioned, we had to add TONS of flour to be able to roll the dough decently. But the cookies turned out well. And I actually had some frosting in the fridge, so I didn't have to make any. ^_^ Bruise and Bucket had a good time decorating cookies ... Bucket made a "Scary Temple" with candy corns all standing up on it.

(On another one, she said it was Bruise ... and it had a candy corn standing up around the belly-button area. I remarked to Mom that I was glad it wasn't any lower. I think that Mom blushed. Then she chided me for being ill-behaved. :P)

I have a Stake YW meeting tonight. I know that it's important to go to meetings ... but GOSH I have GETTING to them. I know that once I get there, I'll have a good time and all .... but it's the GETTING there part that kills me. At least, this time, I'm going by myself ... so, if I need to, I can cut out a little early so I can get home to watch BONES ... since I know that I'm going to miss being here for the kids' bedtime story (We're now reading "A Horse and His Boy." ... And it's been so long since I've read it. *sigh*) (.... Oh well, I'll just have to read that chapter Friday morning or something).

If the sinks were working, I'd just go and put everything away and finish getting the dishes done. But since they aren't, I'll read instead. (Oh, boo!! Right?? :P)