I had a lot to do yesterday...clean the entire house, do at least 6 loads of wash and some errands. Then I had to bake a cake for dinner at my in-law's house. My son's birthday is Tuesday and we were celebrating his birthday in addition to visiting with family we don't see very often.
I got up early, got ready to go work out and put in my first load of laundry. Fortunately, before I left the house, I was near enough to hear the water pumping onto the laundry room floor instead of out the drain. I turned the washer off right away and my husband headed to the basement for his snake. I went to workout and figured it'd be fixed before I got home. I was wrong.
When I got home, he'd run the snake through nearly 20 feet of the pipes from the kitchen and when I turned on the washer to see if it would work, the water came back out. About the only good thing is that I have a front load washer that uses way less water and the water was mostly out by this time. I shut it all down, and then loaded the wet clothes, along with the rest of the laundry into my car and headed to the laundromat, where I discovered that the "double sized front loaders" are smaller than my washer. I ended up doing four loads there. It was NOT a pleasant experience. I asked one woman a question about the price of the washer and her response to me was "keep putting in quarters till it says zero". WHAT says zero? She shrugged her shoulders at me. What I thought was a timer (!) was actually the number of quarters you need to put in for the "double sized front loaders". Don't ask.
The loads actually took 35 minutes so in under 45 minutes I was headed home with about a ton of wet clothing.
When I got home, I arrived just after my husband who had just returned from the rental place. He had rented a BIGGER snake. Scary. This one was long enough to go from the laundry room nearly to the street. Nothing came back. That either meant that there was nothing there in the first place or he pushed it out...or something else is wrong. Needless to say, I didn't try to wash anything else since if I have to call a drain expert, I'd rather do that on a weekday instead of a Saturday. There are still three loads of wash that never got done.
After we got all the chores done, it was nearly 1 and I still had the cake to make. About two years ago I bought pans that look like large Oreo cookies. In the past, I've used a chocolate cake mix and it looked ok, but never great because the cake was so soft that it tended to crack. The people at Williams Sonoma suggested I try the recipe on the box, which made a brownie-like cake that tended to hold its shape better.
So I made a cake from scratch for the first time in years. The batter WAS very brownie-like and I followed the directions EXACTLY. Baked it 35 minutes, cooled it 15 minutes and then removed it from the pans. When they were cold, I swear, I could've used them for frisbees. By now, it was nearly 3PM and we had to leave at 4:30. I didn't have time to make another cake so I whipped up the buttercream icing (which was fast and turned out great)and assembled the cake. It really looked like an Oreo cookie but I have never made a cake that I could actually pick up with one hand and turn it over so the bottom side, which looked better, was on top. Never.
I took it to the dinner with disclaimers that I would NOT be offended if no one ate it. Everyone said that it LOOKED nice and I figured it would end up in the landfill-the garbage is for decent used food, this was pretty awful.
As it turned out, it wasn't bad. The outer edge had a crust to it, kind of like a cookie, but inside it was moist and brownie-like. They were right-it was just as it was supposed to be. I just wish someone had told me that it would be very flat since it didn't rise like a normal cake, and that it would be hard on the outside. I thought it was very rich and a small piece was enough. There were no leftovers to bring home!
Last night I was exhausted. I think it was mostly because I was so stressed all day. And I still don't know if I can use the washer safely. That might have to wait until Tuesday when I have a whole day here...but it's my son's birthday and we're having company for dinner. I don't know if I want to hassle with a drain guy AND get a big meal ready. By the time I have a day to wait, my laundry will be all backed up again.
I just hope I'm not headed to the laundromat again. It's a very scary place!
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