"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
> Vox Humana wrote:
> > "Sam D." > wrote in message
> > ...
> >
> >>"Vox Humana" > wrote in message
> .. .
> >>
> >>>I'm back from a week away at a relative's house. It was a bad
> >
> > experience
> >
> >>>all around, and home never looked so good. In addition to the
> >
> > unpleasant
> >
> >>>circumstances of the visit, Thanksgiving dinner was truly awful:
> >>
> >>You have me wondering. Did the cook who prepared this dinner receive any
> >>comments about it from the guests? I mean, what can you say when you get
> >>served food like that from a relative?
> >>
> >>Either my own memory is fading or I've been fortunate. I remember some
> >>individual items that have been bad but I can't recall ever having a
> >>Thanksgiving dinner that was bad overall, and I've eaten Thanksgiving at
a
> >>lot of different places. What I can recall are a couple of unpleasant
> >>Thanksgiving experiences because of some family bickering.
> >
> >
> > There were only three of us. It is my policy to never criticize food
that
> > someone prepares for me. I was very cautious about the portion size
that I
> > took knowing that there was a good chance that it wasn't going to be
tasty.
> > I ate what I could, but I couldn't eat the stuffing. No one said a
word.
> > The "cook" said "If I had to cook like this every day I wouldn't eat."
I
> > silently agreed with her.
> >
> > In addition to the bad food, there were 15 dogs. I had to wear shoes
the
> > entire time because the carpet had wet spots everywhere as did the
> > furniture. A couple of dogs crapped on the floor during dinner. And,
as
> > unbelievable as this might seem, the adult son (and I use the term
"adult"
> > in reference to his age only) had used the upstairs toilet, flushed it,
and
> > it overflowed. He threw a couple of towels on the floor and went to
bed.
> > The filthy water soaked into the living room ceiling and all the drywall
> > tape was hanging. The carpet was wet with the contents of the toilet
water.
> > Unfortunately, he did this twice within a few days. It was like eating
> > dinner in a badly maintained kennel attached to an outhouse!
> >
> >
>
> And then what happened! Did the host fly into a drunken rage and cut
> you in half with a bread knife?
>
> (This story just keeps getting more and more believable!)

Nothing violent happened. However, after dinner, I had to work on her
bathroom. The reason that I went early was because she wanted me to
wallpaper her bathroom. (We all know how much fun that is!) She had her
son-in-law put in a new ceramic floor and a new vanity and sink top (Her son
destroyed the old one.) I asked her to removed the old wallpaper and scrub
the walls so the room was ready to paper. She didn't bother with removing
the paper -- she said "It wasn't calling me so I never got around to it."
The SIL put in the floor but didn't grout it properly, nor did he finish the
cove tile that made up the baseboard. He didn't attempt to grout that
incomplete cove tile. The new vanity and sink top were simple set in
place - not attached to the walls or each other. There were a couple of
large holes in the wall were someone had used a towel bar as a grab bar and
pulled the anchors through the drywall blowing out fist sized chunks of
gypsum. It took me three days to get the paper off, the walls patched,
ceiling painted, and cabinet installed. When I prepared to hang the paper
it was obvious that she hadn't purchased enough. I hung all I could, but
was short an entire double roll. On Thanksgiving day I had to install a new
light fixture and grout the floor. The next day she decided she wanted the
remaining scrap strip of paper hung regardless of the fact that it wasn't
possible to match the pattern and that she would have to purchase more paper
anyway. That is the point where I thought there was going to be shouting.
I went ahead and hung the paper. Amidst all the chaos and other work, she
wanted me to install a new laminate floor in her master bath! I told her
that I couldn't do it. She went out and bought the materials anyway and
told me where I could find them when I needed them. I told her that I
wouldn't be needing them because I wasn't going to start another project!