Sumo Party Done!

[abracanabra]

Thanks to everybody who showed up and made the party a success, despite some unexpectedly perilous plumbing! We had guests in attendance from about 2:30 in the afternoon through about 3:30 the next morning. Much sumo was watched. Much plum wine, sake, and beer was drunk. Much rice and sumo soup was consumed. Many exotic snacks were sampled.

In the beginning of the party, there was some unexpected and not-good excitement when our basement toilet began overflowing from the sewer line (sewer=gross) whenever any water was drained anywhere in the house. This is how I now know that the SA close to us does not have a public restroom. There was sewer flooding. There were way too many towels that I now cringe when I see (despite washing very, very thoroughly). There was great trauma for Phil and the other poor bastards who attempted to wrangle the plumbing problems before they figured out it was a job for a professional. Thanks to Roto-Rooter's speedy service, the entire episode lasted only about two and a half hours, but those were some tense hours. People were called and told to hold off on arriving until we'd figured out what was going to happen next, sumo soup was delayed, plans for alternate locations were made, and everybody crossed their legs and/or hoarded empty plastic bottles.

Special mentions go to the following individuals. opheliac_9 and cvalenti for bringing the strangest foodstuff, durian wafers. lollygirlie1 for best outfit, a kimono complete with wooden platform shoes. bitwise for going above and beyond the call of friendship and mucking about with the plumbing. half_double and leorathesane for bringing the best props, inflatable remote-controlled sumo wrestlers. sevenian for bringing actual, honest-to-God, aged Japanese scotch.

Post-Party Stats:
Beer = 4 6-packs
Plum wine = 0
Sake = 2 quarter-full bottles
Sumo soup = 3 large glass jars now in my freezer
Mangoes = 2
Glass recycling = 4 bags full
Can recycling - 1 bag
Plastic recycling - 1 bag
Trash = 1 overflowing alley container, plus an armchair (thrown out before the party, no fear!)

I kind of wonder what the trash collectors thought when they saw this.

Side-note: The final verdict on the plumbing was that we now need to get a guy with a camera on a wire to send it through to find out if there are tree roots damaging the pipe, which would mean a very expensive and yard-uprooting repair. I'm afraid, but it's worse to *not* know, especially since this might happen again.

Comments

[half-double.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo! We're special! Do we win a prize?

By the way, the red sumo either has a leak or an air-tube, because he's now totally deflated. It's hilarious in its pathos, really.

[chadvalentine.livejournal.com]

it was fun.

[seabream.livejournal.com]

Mini inflatable remote control sumo wrestlers... ^_^' The word 'cute' sort of comes to mind, but only sort of, since it would seem to be disrespectful of me to say so. Neat party.

Re: That plumbing thing.
Ugh. That's terrible. Let's see. Silver lining, silver lining. Hrmm. The closest I get to forensic plumbing is reading Miles Vorkosigan. I'm no handyperson. I suppose that if your sewer pipe does need to be dug up, it's an opportunity to get a backflow prevention valve installed if it hasn't got one already. You may not have need for it though. In my area, though the sewer and storm drains aren't one system, in exceptionally intense rainfall or snow-melt, depending on what elevation and part of the city you're in, since municipal code has changed over time, the storm drains can overflow into the sewer system and turn basement bathtubs and toilets into slow fountains. It hasn't happened to us, but some of our neighbours had various levels of grossness to deal with a few years ago.

Good luck.