I impressed the crap out of myself this weekend. I am competent with computers, but general mechanical stuff is something I fail at regularly. My garbage disposal has been on the way out for a while. I was hoping to be completely over my cold before I got under the sink.

But I at least read 3-4 articles on how to change the disposal before then.

5:30 Sunday night and nothing. It died. I had the choice of waiting for a plumber the next day or two or trying it on my own. Well, I went for it.

I went to Lowes and picked up every tool and part I might need to make sure I did not have to make a second trip.

The old one came off fairly easily. It took a minute to see how to remove the collar. The lock ring was a pain to get off.

Getting the new collar on was also a pain. Again, the lock ring.

The part that caused the most issue was the drain pipe. Most disposals have a gasket that goes over the drain pipe and screws into the disposal. This one has a rubber nipple that went over the drain pipe and is held on my a pressure clamp. That was a pain. As the angle was not perfect, it took about 10 minutes to get it fitted correctly so that the disposal did not leak.

And yes, I remembered to knock out the blank for the dishwasher drain. :-D

I let the water run, I filled the sink and let it drain. No leak.

Last night I ran the dishwasher, no leak.

I am impressed with my self. From Oh Shit to all cleaned up and taking a shower, 3 hours.

Not bad for me. A personal victory. Normally I end up calling the professional and writing the big check to clean up my mess and fix it right.

When will turbo Tax, brokerages and employers get the stock option data simplified. Every time I have an issue with the IRS it is over my schedule D. I just received a love letter from the IRS this past Saturday. A tax bill for 27K with penalties. It seems I did not fill out the forms correctly.

Hell I only made a couple of grand on the deal. Dumped stock options just before I left a company. My motto has alway been have stock, sell stock. Basically, never sit on stock options. So I am very glad I did that with this Y! stock. I would have lost more than the tax bill :D

I've been doing my own taxes forever. Read the consumer tax guides every so often. I've been using turbo tax for over 10 years. So I've got most of this figured out. atleast enough to not get audited.

Since this being tax season, the CPA I used when stuff hits the fan was working. He looked at what I did and told me it was a common mistake. So I'll still have to pay, but I'll just have to skip the cappuccinos for a couple of months to pay for it.

Good thing I like lemonade.