The Leak Saga, Part 3

Yesterday, a steam pipe exploded in a all in mini's room. That's right, you heard us, a steam pipe. Did you even know that could happen in apartment buildings? Apparently it can. Once every 5th floor. So now there is a hole in mini's wall that looks like this:
Of course, one could think to yourself: that's great!! This totally explains the wet plaster smell, the paint bubbling of the wall (and subsequent hole that was "dried up") yet remains inexplicably wet and thus still undiagnosed.

You could think that the mystery was finally solved, and it would be completely logical thinking. Except this wall on the complete other side on the room. So where does that leave us? One mysterious leak has been "simply explained" by poor plumbing in the apartment upstairs. Water lines were cut off. It did not dry up.

Then the "aha" of the leaky washing machine. Which was fixed except the smell was still there. And then the oven was pulled out of the wall so that we could find another leak. The water was shut off and it was chalked up to odd coincidence. Then the steam pipe exploded. And apparently this "part" that broke is only on every 5th floor.

Three (possibly four) crazy coincidences. And none of them have resolved the original issue, because somehow the wall is still getting wet. And remember also that roaches are attracted to the smell of wet plaster.


So Poker Chick is in need of help from you peeps. She needs answers to these questions:

1) Can anyone out there calculate the odds of all of this happening in the same room at the same time? There's gotta be a way to make some money off this in Vegas.

2) Can anyone advise a girl how to have the conversation with the insurance company who had already assessed and paid for the "initial" water damage? "No really sir, I realize how this must sound, I promise we are not making this up for the money.....hello? hello? Are you still there?"

Stay tuned for the exciting saga! It's too bad Poker Chick doesn't have a whole house. Home ownership is so much fun!!

Betcha Thought The Leak Was Fixed, Didn't You?

Several weeks, machines, and thousands of dollars later the wall is all dried up. The washing machine is fixed. We're ready to get the room re-plastered and repaired.

Except there's that wet plaster smell again. Doh!

As Poker Chick weekends seem doomed to torture these days, Friday night started with the oven being ripped away from the wall, revealing a giant puddle of water behind it. The water line from the sink to the fridge has been shut off, theoretically fixing this hidden "leak". Except that something is still wet inside after all that.

Stay tuned for next week, when Poker Chick will report on how her kitchen and bathroom have been completely ripped out and destroyed in order to find said leak. Have we mentioned how much this girl loathes home improvement?

And how was your week?

If you're, er, a human being, you know what it's like to be overwhelmed. Add children to the mix. Add a full-time job that's been working you 60 hours a week for what seems like forever. Add school contracts, figuring out camp, refinancing a home, and about a zillion other things within a one-week window and you have.......

You have a severe drought of Poker Chick posts, for one. What else? Let's see...

Stress
Anger
Irritability
Major sleep deprivation
Scatterbrain
Disorganization
Tantrums (4 year olds don't respond well to too much going on)
A diet of caffeine and alcohol mixed in with french fries and the occasional meal. Hey, a girl's gotta work through it somehow!

Poker Chick is way hotter than this woman (left)

Stress. Life. Chaos. Now, this is not intended to be a rant but a necessary foundation to set to understand the weekend from hell. It was supposed to be the weekend of catchup. It started out well. Poker husband let this girl sleep in (all the way to 9am!! isn't it sad that that really is exciting?) Then she went to pilates, the first formal exercise she's had in months. And probably the first full breath too (thanks, Miranda, trainer extraordinaire!) Then she went to do several hours of work. She was calm. She was productive. It was amazing. All was going according to plan. When the work was done all she had to do was sign the mortgage papers, do 6 weeks' worth of laundry, write 30 thank you notes, and book a trip of Florida. In one afternoon.

You see where we are going with this, don't you?

Yup. It didn't happen. PC came home to more chaos. A washing machine hose broke. Water damage was in the floor, wall, plaster, somehow all the way through into mini's room. Large chunks of paint and plaster were missing next to her bed. And apparently this was also the case in the apartment below as well.

So forget thank you's and papers and catching up on a huge backlog of stuff. Cue schlepping downstairs for laundry and digging through pockets for quarters. Cue back and forth calls from super to insurance company. Cue men lugging 5 or 6 giant machines into PCs apartment for several days to prevent mold. Cue mini now sleeping in PCs room and using her bathroom as hers were unusable. Cue more stress as these machines were louder than plane engines during take-off, and they had to be on 24/7! Cue plumbers and painters and a threatened lawsuit for the neighbors insurance deductible.

And (this really is the absolute worst part for PC), cue cockroaches. Who like the water and came out to play. In her kitchen. And her bathroom. And her medicine cabinet, which she learned only when opening it looking for a Dora band-aid. Cue more calls to the super. Exterminators. Traps. Cue sleepless nights 'cause this girl is a baby when it comes to these things and the dark meant they would come out creeping and crawling.

So, friends and fans. The lesson for you is: if it's been a while since Poker Chick has had something to say, rest assured. There will be an interesting story in it for you soon.

Live From Hell It's A Poker Chick Update!

Poker Chick has been a little behind on posting. There is an explanation, and she'll post pictures of proof. But all we have to say is look up the word "industrial strength dehumidifier", add in a little insurance, a superintendent, and a 'neighborly' coop lawsuit, and you'll begin to understand what the last few days have been like.

More to come, we promise.

A little more, as promised, picture of industrial dehumidifier (right).

(mūd)

mood^{1, n.}

In case you hadn't noticed, our girl's in a bad mood. Which got her to thinking. Why? Let's examine the options:

• Stress. Work has been overwhelming and all-consuming lately. 'Tis true.
• Lack of balance. Today Poker Chick had her first big mom f-ck up, she missed the Purim parade. It was a conscious choice as she had a big meeting at work. The parade was covered by the husband and Big Boy. But she hadn't been faced with that choice before and it sucked. She wished she could have been there to see the mini. The guilt, oh the guilt!
  
• Inadequate sleep. For the past couple of weeks the mini has been getting up several times at night to "make a pee pee". We're talking like every two hours. Poker Chick hasn't been this exhausted since the newborn stage.
• Jet-lag. Well, Poker Chick probably doesn't have jet lag anymore, but she has been on a whole heck of a lot of airplanes in the past week or so. 'Tis draining.
• Malnutrition. Ok so that might be a bit of an exaggeration. But loads of travel and a redonculous work schedule = irregular meals. If you're Poker Chick stress means reduced appetite too. Counterintuitive, we know.
• Bad news. Between sick relatives and a funeral this weekend for a friend's parent, 'tis hard to stay cheery.

Excellent illustration of bad mood flowchart. Thanks, mystery online person!

What puts you peeps in a bad mood? There's gotta be, like, 1,000 valid reasons out there for being pissed off. Don't let Poker Chick be pissy alone!!! Let's all share a good vent as we ponder why exhaustion is making Poker Chick pretend to talk like an Irishwoman.