Adventures in Plumbing and Easter Candy

Since I don't have any kids to buy candy for, and I no longer receive a visit from the Easter Bunny (sniff), I'm left to my own devices to obtain Easter candy. Of course, the day after Easter is the best time to stock up on all your favorites at low, low clearance prices. This year for me that resulted in a bag of the Hershey's Robin Eggs, a bag of the new 'Strawberry Milkshake' flavor Robin Eggs, and one box of the bunny shaped Marshmallow Peeps. The new Robin Egg flavor is not bad, but I think I prefer the original. As far as the Peeps, I don't know what I was thinking. I really don't like them that much. I felt compelled to buy them out of some sense of tradition, I guess because my Mom used to always get them for us. One time I bought some of the Halloween Peeps, only to have them sit around for a year before throwing them out. I also love Cadbury eggs, but I missed out on those this year.

And now for something completely different. I've had a faucet in my bathroom that has been leaking around the base for quite a while. I've been getting really tired of trying to clean the gunk that builds up around the base, so I decided to fix it. I thought that most likely there was a gasket around the base that needed replacing, so I endeavored to remove the faucet from the countertop. Whenever you do this always remember to turn off the water going to the faucet first. I learned this the hard way in college via a toilet repair. Having water spray out of your toilet and thoroughly drench you on the day you graduate from college is not a lot of fun! You can tell I really deserved that engineering degree!

Anyway, so I removed the faucet only to find there was no gasket involved, just a plastic cover on the bottom. After doing a little internet research I discovered that what I most likely needed to replace were the cartridges that sit under the knobs on the faucet. These actually turn out to be very easy to replace. Now, getting the faucet installed back onto the countertop wasn't the easiest thing I have ever done. But I done it. The leak is gone, so I guess I can add that to my 'Can Do' list. Next plumbing stop: toilet. What I thought would be a simple flapper valve replacement (doesn't that just make you think of a 1920's flapper) turns out not to be the case since my toilet doesn't seem to have a flapper valve. Hmm.