I felt pretty good this morning. I had my dental appointment today, and I was quite proud of myself for having made the appointment in the first place, much less going to it. I thought I'd have lunch with John if my mouth wasn't hurting too much or just plain numb. I suspected a cavity, but it turned out to just be a sensitive tooth. My teeth were just fine, if not a little coffee stained. Some sensitive teeth toothpast and Crest Whitestrips are on my shopping list.

I did have time to have lunch with John, so the day looked pretty good by 11:00. There were even lots of vegetarian choices at the restaurant, so I didn't have to have the usual salad or baked potato.

We went to the store afterward to look for a stuffed penguin for Booie to try and mend her broken heart from having the class stuffed penguin home with her yesterday. We spent nearly an hour consoling her and explaining sharing to her for the zillionth time. I never remember being so attached to any stuffed animal, but I guess Oreo isn't your ordinary stuffed animal. He gets to go home with each child, and then the child writes a journal entry for him. Booie took him sledding and even dried him with a hair dryer afterward. She was thrilled to have this penguin, even calling me at work yesterday to let me know she was first to get Oreo. But when she went to bed, she realized Oreo had to leave, and she cried like one of the animals croaked.

Getting her a new animal probably doesn't sound like the best thing in the world to do, and I'm not usually one to solve problems with gifts. John and I thought it might be a neat project for her to get her own animal with it's own journal. Plus, it was a bribe. If she gives up Oreo today without incident, we told her she might get her own penguin.

We couldn't find a penguin.

There aren't tons of stores that carry stuffed animals in the downtown area, and we only went to one, so we didn't try very hard. But we did find a stuffed seal, and I thought that might be a special thing, since seals are in Antarctica too (The whole penguin thing is done because they're studying Antarctica. It sure was convenient to have a cousin down there while they're studying this!). It's a very pretty seal, kind of silver/bronzy. I think she'll like him very much, but I do worry that it's not a penguin. In a town were the Penguins are our hockey team, I would think all stores carried penguins. Maybe it's because the Penguins suck that stores don't have them. Anyway, I think the seal is more special, but we'll see how it goes over when the time comes.

Now I have to go buy a journal and find something that will serve as a house. Oreo had his own cooler. I'm not quite sure what would work for a seal that I don't have to go out and buy. Our money has been far too liquid the past week, and I would like to avoid spending any more than a few dollars for a journal.

It's even more important not to spend lots of money when I got home to hear the water running. I knew I hadn't washed clothes, plus I never leave the house with the washer and dryer running anyway. I thought maybe someone left a faucet on that I didn't know about or the basement toilet was stuck. None of the usual water outlets were running though. I went in the laundry room and found water trickling across the floor, so I hurriedly turned off the pipe going to the washer, but I could still hear water running. When I looked up, the ceiling was wet, and the window into the back yard was wet too. It had to be the outdoor spigot.

Sure enough, the pipe broke out there, and water was gushing all over the yard and down the side of the house. This is the same shitty spigot that leaked a couple years ago and was replaced by the landlor with the cheapest spigot on Earth. It wasn't the spigot that was the problem though. The seam of the pipe where it comes out of the house was seperated. I couldn't find the valve to turn just that pipe off, so I just turned off the water to the whole house. So much for going to the bathroom.

I called a plumber, got an answering service, and got a call back a couple minutes later. He was ready to come right out, which would have been just dandy except for the fact that I had a vet appointment for the dog in a few minutes. I probably sounded like the biggest idiot on the planet putting a regular vet visit ahead of my busted pipe, but then I'm an idiot. He said to call another number and make an appointment for later. I called there, talked to a guy that did not sound even close to professional and planned to hear a call back after 2. It's a half hour after 2 now. My phone hasn't rung.

Luckily, after some more searching when I got home from the vet, I found the shut-off for that particular pipe. We have running water again. Yay! This discovery made that call much less important. If I don't hear from him later, I'll just call somewhere else. I don't know that I trust that guy anyway.

The vet visit went as well as my dental visit, except that insurance covered my teeth. I shelled out nearly $150 for the dog. God only knows what the cats will cost when they go on Thursday. Even more reason to be more frugal the next couple weeks.

This crazy day isn't over yet though. Booie has Brownies after school. I was supposed to get all their little quilt squares done for this meeting. I tried to teach the girls how to do some basic quilting at the last meeting. They did fairly well, but I don't think any of them will be whipping out quilts now. Of course, there wasn't enough time to finish everything, even though I had 3/4 of the thing done for them. Most hadn't sewn at all, so it was an accomplishment to do what they did. I forgot the next meeting was this week though and didn't finish things up. I suppose I ought to work on those instead of being here, but I'll do it afterward. I don't know that I'd finish regardless.

After Brownies is my counseling appointment. John isn't going tonight. He went by himself last week. I don't know if that's what made him so rock-like over the weekend or if it was all me and my wicked mood swing. I really wish we could both go, but it'll do to have me go myself. At least then I can discuss these horrible, black feelings I get.

I did have things put in prespective some at lunch. Seems some others in our family are having much worse things than burst pipes and occasional moodiness. I don't have to deal with their problems though, only my own. I am glad mine aren't worse, but like anyone, I would like them to be better. I don't think I should be satisfied with the way things are just because our problems aren't as big as other's. It's like saying you're happy you have just a headache because you know it's not a brain tumor. I certainly don't play the "I'm worse off than you" game either. My problems are like a headache, and I realize it as such, but they are still problems, and I need to fix them.

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