I'm sick of this gender equality. I want to be superior.

FUCK. Short story: I have some kind of huge plumbing leak and no idea when a plumber will get here or what they will say/do. I fear it involves ripping up both my garage and my living room, possibly. AND I almost set the house on fire.

Long story: Decided it was time to get off my ass and do errands. Walk into the garage and everything was dripping and there was water spraying from the wall/plumbing that goes into the wall.

I freaked, turned off everything I could see that turned off, got soaked, called plumber, called javachik (because she's been through this), called insurance company. Took a whole bunch of pictures for documentation. Tried to figure out where the hell the house water shutoff is, since I don't know and was only able to turn off hot water and it still sounded like something was going on. Called plumber again.

Went upstairs and thought "well, I guess my kale chips that are damp can get re-cooked now, since I'll be in the house", tossed them in the toaster oven. Ran upstairs to get a powerbar from my room. Came downstairs and the KALE WAS ON FIRE. Grabbed towel, turned off toaster oven, unplugged toaster oven, filled convenient mug with water, opened toaster oven, smoke came out, closed it and turned on fan, opened again and flung water into toaster oven, then managed to pull out tray and douse thoroughly.

Please for the love of god I do not need anything worse today.

meara - stay away from fire and water. Also possibly earth and air.

I want to be superior.

I am more than willing to concede your superiority and I'm pretty sure Mr. Peabody will back me on this.

meara, call the city. 24 Hour Emergency - Water, Sewer, Drainage - (206) 386-1800

Timelies all!

Spent most of the workday standing at the lab bench, hunched over. Did not help with my shoulder/upper back issues at all. (Tried sitting, but there are no kneeholes so I was hunched even more.)

meara, the whole house cut off will usually be on the street side of the house. It can be outside on the house or in a hole with a lid on it. If you have a basement or some kind of utility area, it could be there. It's possible you don't have a cutoff valve with a handle. I don't, which is why I have a special wrench thing for the cutoff by the water meter at the street. It's possible that could be turned with regular pliers, if you can reach it.

I think the water shutoff must be by the street. But plumber is here, seems to have found problem (hope) and its just the hot water.

Oh jeez, meara! Good luck.

Jesus, Vonnie, I'm glad you and your co-workers are okay. Suzi, glad the surgery went well. meara, glad the plumber is on his way. Good grief, people, stop having stuff happen.

You've probably thought of this, meara, but be sure to ask the plumber about the shutoff so you'll know. The wrench things are pretty cheap.