Only Smelly When It Rains

Do you remember the song "Only Happy When It Rains" by Garbage, sung by Shirley Manson?

For a while, we were miserable when it rained. Not because of the rain itself, but because on rainy days a vile odor would seep into our home from somewhere. We figured out it was coming from our ground floor bathroom, but weren't sure of the reason. We suspected it had something to do with our septic system. 

Luckily, while setting up some maintenance with our local septic company, I was able to talk to a technician and ask him about this. He gave me an EZPZ solution and saved me the hassle and cost of having someone come out to look a this.

EZPZ solution: Pour a few cups of water down any drain that isn't used regularly.

What was happening is a house's pipes have P shaped traps to hold enough water to form an airlock against sewer or septic gases. The trap forms a sort of liquid seal. If the drain is not used regularly, the water in the trap evaporates and the seal is gone. Now the gas can vent directly into the house. Heavy rains must have caused the gases from our system to rise more and as a result, we weren't happy when it rained. 

If you have a similar situation, give this a try!

And the song that inspired the title of this post...

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.

Volcano Tongue Twister

One day my son and I were wondering how to pronounce the name of Thor's hammer - Mjölnir. Mea culpa. I'm really, really bad at pronunciation in foreign languages. Cue YouTube for a pronunciation video. Afterwards, my eye fell upon a video for how to pronounce the word "Eyjafjallajökull." Who could resist?

You may remember in April of 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcano, hidden beneath a glacier, erupted. The eruption and ash thrown into the air shut down air-traffic over much of Northern Europe. The extensive coverage in the news was free advertising and helped to jump-start the tourism boom which pulled Iceland out a deep economic recession.

This is the video below and by the way, is totally the WRONG pronunciation, but it made me laugh and once you hear it, you can't get it out of your head.

No intention to offend or disrespect the Icelandic language. Below is the actual pronunciation.

And in case you are wondering, the correct pronunciation of Mjölnir is [myawl-nir] or listen to it here.

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.

Something to Think About

Insightful quote by Professional Poker Player, Daniel Negreanu, a.k.a. KidPoker

Next post next Saturday, 6:30 a.m.