Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Plumbing backed up today. Managed to track it from the kitchen sink, down 20′ of pipe crossing my basement and locate it just a foot or two shy of where it meets the main sewer pipe. The good: it was only three feet downhill from the clean-out plug. The bad: there was 20′ of wastewater stacked above the clean-out plug. The ugly: I lost my grip on the clean-out plug.

I have an awesome picture of me covered in what is essentially sewage. But, I got the situation resolved. Or did I? I thought I got it but, no, turns out I hadn’t. Back to the clean out plug and this time I think I got it. I better have, because I am not taking a fourth shower today.

Moral? Twenty feet of waster water in a stack is under a bit of pressure. Snakes need to be at least 25′. Wear goggles. Bleach the frak outta everything. Pour a few buckets of water down the clean-out plug to make sure you got the damn clog.

On the bright side, I think I saved about a hundred bucks from calling in a pro.
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After showering for the third time I went grocery shopping. The spaghetti sauce I stockpile was on sale so I picked up a case. (And, yeah, I can make a dynamite sauce from scratch but when I can buy a jar of sauce for one dollar it makes doing it from scratch kinda pointless.) My eye caught something and, sure enough, the magic shrinking ray has been busy.

Right side is a jar purchased November ‘10. (Yes, I datestamp the food that goes into storage.) On the left, a jar purchased today. 23.9 vs. 26 ounces. Or, put another way, about 10% less. This stuff was on sale for $0.99….or was it? With a 10% reduction in size, compared to the previous size, this jar costs $1.10…ten percent more than the larger jar. Hidden inflation. I would say “coming to a supermarket near you” but, actually, its already there.
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I was going to play with my birthday wok yesterday but the plumbing fiasco screwed it up. I wasn’t going to do a bunch of cooking and then not be able to wash the dishes and have dishes stacked up in the sink for a few days. (At which point the wife points out that leaving dirty dishes in the sink for several days has never been a problem for me before…..) So now that I’m pretty sure I got the thing unclogged (and it bloody well better be) I can fire up the stove and get cooking. Tonight will, ideally, be sliced up pork loin, red & green peppers, onions and a spciy chili sauce served over rice. Ideally. We’ll see.