Busy Weekend and Minute Mystery

The weekend was action-packed. Daisy Dumont's paw is fully recovered! I will not miss the visits to the vet but I will miss leafing through the NYC Pet Project book while waiting for the doctor. Look! It's Richard Kind and his three dogs! Look! It's George Hamilton. Look! It's a lesbian couple with a three-legged cat! Anyway, thanks Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group.

Saturday night we watched The Good German which was OK but not very interesting and not worth of an Everything I Consume.

Sunday we went to a friend's birthday party in New Jersey and by Gwendolyn's bed time the family was completely exhausted. I walked a cranky Owen around the apartment as The Wife read stories to Gwendolyn.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I know and dread that sound. As a homeowner, I hate leaks like Darren McGavin hated the neighbor's dogs in A Christmas Story. We had two bedroom leaks in our old apartment and have a had a bathroom and window sill leak in our current one.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

I found the source. It was a new one; the water was coming from the top of the heating pipe in my kitchen. I stared at it for a minute hoping it would stop and go away.

It did not go away.

I went outside and climbed up the fire escape to look inside the Upstairs Neighbor's apartment. Maybe it was an air conditioner or, as has happened before, a hose was left running on the roof. The apartment was dark and I remembered that the Upstairs Neighbor had been out of town. There was nothing going on on the roof, either. I went back in the kitchen and looked at the ceiling.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

At this point you have all the clues you need to solve this mystery! Can you?

The Wife was still reading to Gwen so I grabbed Owen and went upstairs to check things out. The Upstairs Neighbor's door was open but the apartment was dark. I knocked and called out, "Hello!" but I didn't hear anything. Even though I know from mysteries this is when you usually find the dead body in the bed I went inside. Hopefully, holding a seven-month old would protect me from trespassing charges or fleeing killers.

"Hello?"

No answer. I looked around the apartment and saw the refrigerator open, empty and out of its usual position.

"Hello there, give me a second to get dressed."

It was the Upstairs Neighbor calling out from the bedroom. I walked out of the apartment and waiting in the hallway. A few minutes late the Upstairs Neighbor came out and said she'd been defrosting her refrigerator and fallen asleep. Since she had been away for so long there was no food in her fridge so she thought this was the perfect time to defrost. She said she was still on "London time" and had been sleeping since 4:30. The Upstairs Neighbor got out some towels and dried up her kitchen floor. In a few minutes the dripping had stopped.

Home ownership is never dull