Mercury retrograde.

Yeah, I don't know if any of that stuff is true or not, the stars aligning or misaligning or generally wrecking havoc upon us poor human souls here on Earth.  Though I do know what a full moon does to Mike.  *cuckoo*

I thought I was all prepped and ready for my Menards excursion today after having gotten our bowling alley piece yesterday.

I did a dry fit of the sink in the hole the guy cut for us and it fit ever so wonderfully.  Whew, heh.  I had to pay the guy a hefty chunk of cash to cut that hole and I think both he and I were worried about it.  It's maple, a hunk of 2.5" thick bowling alley with random nails everywhere, then a 12" diameter hole cut in it.  But it fit, my drawing was spot on.

Next I took as many measurements and bad photos as I thought I would need of the whole set up, where the drains were, diameters and such, this, that, the other.

Heh, just a few of the silly looking photos I took in case I ran into a friendly helping plumbing sales associate.

So I'm at Menards, right?  I'm all confident, yeah, I'll nail this, no problem.  I'm wandering up and down the plumbing aisle and you know what I forgot?  To look up how to do the drain part online.  Yeah.  Clever.  Good move.  I get a little nervous.  I'm listening to the sales guys behind me stocking shelves talking about how there's some kind of synthetic cocaine product in Coca Cola....I decide to wing it.

After sweating it out for what seemed like 5 years, I grabbed what I thought would work and a few extra parts to save multiple trips knowing I can return what I don't use.

Here's my stash (and don't mind the insane tile -- it's coming out).  I picked up a p-trap, two 6" extension pieces, an extra nut thingie, a 12" long extension piece, and a drain for sinks with no overflow hole by chance.  And guess what, after a little assembly and dry fit, it seems right.  Wheeewwwwww.  Looks like only one 6" piece and maybe the nut thingie will head back to the conspiracy, errr, plumbing aisle.

I move on to the stain and sealer section as the guy sanded off the finished side unexpectedly.  And wow, what's my deal today, I can't seem to pick something or figure out what the best options are, goodness!  Another 10 years roll by and I opt to try these interesting looking tubes from Varathane that I haven't seen before.

Back home and before I get to all that, I'm unpacking two hole saw bits in order to drill holes for the faucet.  I get going on smaller hole #1 which isn't going smoothly because well, duh, after the fact I remembered I was supposed to put a pilot drill bit in there.  Time to remove the...chuck piece....from the.....smaller bit to.......put on the......bigger bit which, grunt, the Milwaukee tool rep at Home Depot said.....uggghhh, rrrggg, should just.........just, come right off.....don't slice your hand.....Mmm hmm.  Nope.  A friend suggests putting the bit back in the drill but what the?  What?  You're kidding.  Now the chuck on the drill is locked up.  Pace, pace, pace....

All right, fine.  Sometimes you have to temporarily admit to a short term "bump in the road" hold up and move on.  My friend Paula tells me it's Mercury retrograde.  Stuff don't work.  Hm.  I need to look up when that's over.  What did I move on to?  Hung a 30x48 frameless bath mirror.  Without breaking it.  Holy crap, I dodged a bullet (and seven years) somehow.

But I will survive.  I will continue.  These tools will not win over me, damn it.  Ha HA!