Into the Fray

We have had a slow-moving bathtub drain since the spring.  During our showers we'd end up standing in a couple inches of water.  We tried everything - Dran-o and Liquid Plumber, bleach, boiling water, a plunger, a plastic zip-it thing and a hand held snake.  Nothing worked.  Every couple of weeks we'd have a conversation that went kind of like this:

"We should call a plumber."
"Yeah, we really should."
And that would be it.

 So I was perusing Yahoo! Answers one day to see what others had to say about slow bathtub drains (and, oh, how I love Yahoo! Answers).  Someone mentioned this thing called Kleer Drain, so I looked it up.  Kleer Drain uses a CO2 cartridge to shoot a blast of air down the pipe, clearing out the clog.  It sounded too easy, but I looked up consumer reviews, and people were raving about it.  So I picked one up at Home Depot for about $25.

The package looks kinda complicated (at least it did to me), but it's really not.  It only took a few minutes to put it together and install one of the four CO2 cartridges.  I was so excited.  I put a few inches of water in the tub, put duct tape over the overflow thing, pressed the end of the Kleer Drain apparatus over the drain to get a good seal, and pushed down on the handles.

 And nothing happened.

 There were a few bubbles from the drain and an exhaust-y kind of smell from the cartridge, but I knew right away that it didn't work.  My heart sank.  I pictured myself using the other three CO2 cartridges, accepting defeat, and continuing to put off calling a plumber.  I half-heartedly unscrewed the cap, took out the old cartridge and put in a new one.  Went back to the tub, got a good seal, pressed down, and....  Bubbles!  Exhaust-y smell!  SUCCESS!  The water in the tub drained in record time.  The drain works better than the day we moved in now, and I am one happy homeowner who doesn't have to call a plumber.

I love this thing!
Check out www.kleerdrain.com if you've been avoiding calling a plumber, too.

I recently went to Solly's for the first time.  I might get a big "duh" here, but that place is not child-friendly at all.  I was warned before we went that it is small inside, so I knew that our group of six adults and two children would probably not be able to eat together.  It doesn't help that we went during lunch on a Saturday.  They do have a sizable waiting area, so that was good.  As we sat there I couldn't help redesigning the place in my head, because it seems like they could have accomodated more people if things were arranged a little differently.  Anyway, I took our son to the bathroom to change him, but they had no baby changing station (though I think there would be room for one), so I changed him on the bathroom floor.  When we were seated we were lucky enough that three of our group got to sit together at the counter, and the other three (and the two kids) at the one table they have next to the waiting area.  When I asked about a high chair I got a "No, sorry,"  so I went out to the car and got Henry's infant car seat for him to sit in.  (We switched to a convertible car seat last week, so that wouldn't even be an option now.)  I ordered a cheeseburger, fries and a hot fudge shake.  Apparently it was a good thing that I sat at the lone table, because my friends who sat at the counter said they could see the blocks of butter by the grill and watch just how much the cooks were using on each order, and that it was a little disturbing.  I'm more in the 'you can't have too much butter' camp, though, so maybe I wouldn't have been bothered by it. Our food arrived, and the (in)famous butter burger was pretty good, but I can't say it was worth almost $5.00.  And the small plate of crinkle cut fries was - What?  Really? - an extra $2.50.  The shake, also pricey at $4.50, was so delicious it was worth every penny, and so large that I couldn't even finish it.  And my friend said that her onion rings were really good.  Overall, I thought that Solly's was overcrowded, overpriced, and overrated.  But I know that it's a beloved Milwaukee institution, and I will probably give it another shot sometime.  Maybe when Henry's old enough not to need a dang high chair.  It would be awfully hard to hold a kid and eat a butter burger at the same time.