After sponging up a plumbing back up, I managed to pull 245 words out of my fingers toward Threads & Ties. I’m trying to capture that minefield laden dinner where Nikki meets the kid. She’s at a tough spot in her life. Her views haven’t changed since she walked away after giving birth thirteen years ago, but Jeff’s still the only guy for her, and he’s stuck on the kid. The kid comes as a package deal, and Nikki’s tired of being alone (yes, she’s slept with everyone in town, but you can still be alone after you’ve done that). She’s come to the realization that it’s Jeff and Cole, or she’s going to continue being lonely. She doesn’t want to be lonely anymore. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

Yes, I appear to have a blockage in my plumbing somewhere that caused the washing machine discharge in the rinse cycle to back up in unusual places in the house (both tubs, the shower, and the weak seal on the hallway bathroom commode). The good news is the blockage is not total, and things appear to be mostly working, but I’m still going find a plumber to come out and check things over — and fix the seal. My landlord knew about the seal long before I moved in (he lived here from 2003 – 2004), but we agreed to wait until some other problem came along before fixing it. Now appears to be that time. I’d hate to have to mop up something worse than washing machine rinse cycle… (You really wanted to know that, didn’t you?  I thought so.)