That Sinking Feeling

The other morning I heard something fall into the bathroom sink drain. It sounded metallic and heavy, much like a 3-karat diamond ring would sound. Although I don't own such a ring, I hoped that the Diamond Ring Fairy had left one on the bathroom counter as a gift, so I got my tools and set about fetching it.
Now any half-baked home plumber like me knows to remove the  P-trap and retrieve the object. But someone had glued it, and I broke it. Then I broke some other stuff.  I had made somewhat of an ass of myself, again.

But I wanted to make a complete ass of myself. So I went off to the hardware store.

They had what I needed, and it was only $14.38. 

I bought one, and sure enough it worked.

The package contained  some sinister, medical-looking objects. In spite of myself, I got the pipes back together.

Did it make me feel like a complete ass? Absolutely. There nothing but nasty water in the P-trap. Whatever clanked into the sink that morning did not go down the drain. What did go down the drain was $18.02 and my belief in the Diamond Ring Fairy.