a home of one's own

i received an offer from a real estate agent (with promises for a lucrative deal) in the mail about 10 days ago. it came in a white envelope, with addresses hand-written and no business cards. my first response was of course - paranoia. how did he know my name? his own address (1511 manitou ave) revealed that he lived a couple of blocks from me. this was not good. i called the assessor's office to check if they share a homeowner's name with anyone calling to enquire about property (which they do and this policy is quite disturbing). so i asked for his name, address and phone number. matched up. then figured out from his email address that he works for caldwell banker aspen realty, which made it easy to look him up online - with photo. later, i called my neighbor sarah to ask if she had received a similar offer. she had not. and worse luck, she actually took it to mean that her house was not as desirable as mine. obviously, this is a can of worms i'd rather have nothing to do with. but there you have it. as shakespeare said: there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.

this morning, i fixed my first plumbing problem - a clogged drain. for most people, this may not be a huge accomplishment but for me it is. i grew up in a world where you hire someone to do everything around the house, except perhaps changing light bulbs. so when the drain in the bath tub was draining too slowly for comfort ever since my house guest left, i was dreading having to delve into the problem on my hands and knees. weeks ago, when the handyman was over to fix the toilet in the same bathroom, i was tempted to ask him to quote me a rate on clogged drains but in his lecture to me as newbie homeowner he beat me to it saying: 'you have to handle things like leaky faucets and clogged drains on your own because having someone else do it is just not practical'. there went all hope of me following up with one of those requests.
i bought a drano foamer some time ago but put off having to use it for as long as i could but i could see the clog getting worse. everytime i took a shower in the tub i ended up standing ankle deep in dirty bath water - eeeewwwwwwww!
so finally i rolled up my sleeves and like the book 'dare to repair' suggested, used a pair of pliers to pry up the steel cover. i have never had this particular type of a drain in a tub before. i was skeptical whether the plier technique would actually work but when it did, i was overjoyed. i found a mess of hair in the trap which i used a pair of chopsticks to lift out. and then when the trap was clear of mostly all visible locks of hair, i poured the foamer down the drain as instructed and then waited 1 hour to flush with hot water. and voila! i have a smoothly functioning bathtub once again. was easy as pie. really.

note: donot dispose of those disposable chopsticks that come with the take-out. they can prove to be quite a handy tool in a pinch.