Better or not? The Appliance and Drainage Edition

The past week and a half or so, we've been having some problems with our washing machine, namely that it won't wash our clothes so much as pour water onto them without ever filling up, and then leave clumps of soap and unfortunate brown marks on them by the end of the "wash." So, we've also spent the past week and a half negotiating with our landlady to do something about it. (Why something like this should require a week and a half of negotiation could fill a whole 'nother post, so stay tuned.)

It was an intense battle of wills, but we finally broke her down and she decided to send a man over with a new machine to replace ours. He installed the guy, then asked us for a handout because he was here waiting for us for 45 minutes (we were told he'd be here at 7, and he showed up at 6:15). Is that normal? Or did we totally just get ripped off? Anyway, we handed him some cash and figured it was a small price to pay for being able to wash our clothes again. (Especially since J had been sick and piling on sweatshirts when he sleeps, which leads to a lot of sweat, which leads to a phenomenon we like to call "vinegar baby." You get the idea.)

So we happily load up our new washing machine, push some buttons, and skip out the door for dinner at (don't judge us) Pizza Hut!!! We'd been craving pizza for awhile, so we went for the splurge. Anyway, we headed home with our tummies uncomfortably full and J's rear bike tire completely flat. :( I think he was too excited about getting to Pizza Hut and raced over the rocky unpaved roads a little too recklessly.

When we got home, we were met with an interesting mix of smells: beef, onion, fresh laundry, and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on. The beef and onion could be explained easily enough by the beef stew I'd made for J a couple days ago. The fresh laundry was a welcome scent. But the something else...?

Later, when Josh was in the bathroom hanging something up, he discovered...once again, poopy stuff that had been burped up by our drain, all over the floor. ACK!! I would've given anything for that to NOT be the SOMETHING ELSE!! Also, our apartment has 3 drains, and the cruel irony of it all is that this always has to happen at the drain right under our shower head! Which means at the same time I'm trying to get clean, all I can think about is trying not to pop out of my shower slippers onto the cesspool-ridden tiles I'm standing on. Yes, J scrubbed the floor like crazy last time this happened, and I will be spending the better part of this morning scrubbing again, but psychologically, it just drives me a little bit batty.

So now I'm a little paranoid. Is this going to happen every time we do the laundry? and WHY is this happening? And if I'm standing over the sink, brushing my teeth, is the drain ever going to explode, thereby rocketing poo all over my unsuspecting face?! I don't know if I can handle this kind of fear!! All I can say is, if this is some ploy of God's to bring me to my knees...it's working.

Oh, China...