no surprise

i had a dream last night about philip roth. he and i were just hanging out, walking around town, window shopping, having a coffee, spending an evening together. it was fun because we were not talking as if he were a phenomenally accomplished author and i was an undermotivated wannabe author. perhaps there was an occasional reference to a book of his, but largely our conversation went to other topics. it was a relaxed and pleasant dream. mr roth sure is a nice guy.

kara's birthday is the 23rd and the surprise of my major gift to her has been ruined. now, i understand that many folks might not find a kitchen sink garbage disposal the most romantic or otherwise appropriate of birthday presents, but it's the sort of thing that i knew kara would love. i bought the machine a few weeks ago and it's been stashed behind a bookshelf in my office here. i had a guy come out yesterday to install it, and how terrific it would have been for kara to come home from work and find the thing fully installed and ready to go!

it wasn't to be. the contractor said that the trap on our sink was too low and water doesn't flow uphill. that latter bit i actually already knew. apparently the former bit is not uncommon in older houses such as ours. he said he could install it but there would be backups into the sink and he advised against it. so now i'm on a mission to alter the piping under the sink somehow to allow for garbage disposal installation. i called several plumbers yesterday afternoon, left some messages, and then i went to the vet to have eliot's asshole tidied up.

eliot's been rather schmutzy in his nether regions and scooting his butt on the floor quite a bit of late. he was foul smelling and appeared uncomfortable, and i figured his anal glands needed expressed. so i went ahead and took care of that - or, rather, the vet did - and now eliot smells much better indeed. he's more snuggly.

when i came home with eliot, kara was home from work and, of course, there were messages from plumbers on the answering machine, wanting my business and being very specific, mentioning garbage disposals. i suppose i should have made it clear on my messages to them that the thing was a gift for my wife? so anyway, now she knows. she's thrilled; it's a perfect birthday present for her. i'm glad of that, sure, but disappointed that i won't have my moment of surprising her.

the project is still on, though. i'm still looking for a plumber to do the job. then i might contact that original contractor to do the electric work, because there is an electrical component to a garbage disposal as well, as we know. but that's after the machine is in place under the sink and not something i'm thinking about now.

in other news that's at least as thrilling, our new front door is due to arrive and be installed this afternoon. me oh my. i am hoping the inclement weather won't be a factor in their accomplishing the task. i don't know. they were actually supposed to call yesterday to confirm today's appointment, but they didn't. so part of me is afraid it won't happen today at all. oh how it want it to happen, though.

and on sunday kara successfully hooked up our tivo. what a crazy thing is tivo. we recorded two programs sunday night, a new show called "living with ed," about actor ed begley, his environmentally conscientious home, and his less environmentally conscientious wife; and "intervention," about addicts and their familes wanting them to get clean. the tivo also recorded about six other shows on its own, thinking we might like them. we didn't like any of them, and deleted them all, but i suppose it was the thought that counts. a quite nice aspect of this thing is that we can fast-forward through the ads of shows we record. i do like that.