I am the master blaster, destroyer of errant metal bits

Our garbage disposal has been kind of clanky sounding, but I couldn't find anything wrong and even used the shop vac on it and did the ice cube cleaning test (which revealed a leak). Then I took a flashlight and carefully rotated the hammers and base, and found a stainless steel screw partially lodged in the side. After removing it with needle nose pliers and a flashlight held in my mouth, I tested it again and it was still really noisy. I checked it again (hours later, because I'm slow) and there was a brass screw lodged in the edge of the base. I tried to remove it with pliers, but it was stuck. Then I tried to drill it out and broke two drill bits. Finally I took a large, flathead screwdriver and just hammered on it, looking like a tv sitcom repair cliche. I was finally able to punch it into the basin and now our disposal is humming along quietly. I was pretty stoked and told my wife immediately, and before she could under-respond I gave her a few suggestions for appropriate responses:

"You mad genius. Take me, you've earned it."

"I'll never doubt you again"

"This totally makes up for everything you've broken."

I refuse to answer to any name or title tonight other than "Master home repairman, and slayer of garbage disposals."

My wife is the home repair person in the house but the one thing I have found out about home repair vs. normal white collar work stuff is that there is a clear end goal and if you accomplish it, warm fuzzies are yours.

Tell her to stop washing screws in the sink.

Disgustipater wrote: Tell her to stop washing screws in the sink.

Yeah, I don't even want to know how they got there. I tend to leave loose screws all over the place, and so they might haven gotten wiped into the sink when the counters were being cleaned. I don't even dare bring it up, because it will just lead to the "you should have put them away properly" lecture 15c subsection 4.

Wear it with pride, you've earned it.

I often try to get my wife to recognize as you did with your list of acceptable titles but she stubbornly refuses to comply.

As Gary said, there is definitly a rewarding feeling when you take something that's broke and make it work. I hate Hate HATE working on a car as I'm doing it but I feel pretty damn good if I can rectify the problem.

I just want to know how metal screws ended up in your disposal.

My wife and I give each other bounties. If we fix something that would have cost $500 for a guy to come in we get to spend $50 on ourselves, 10%. The bathroom floor job had me in airplanes for a couple of years.

I just got a call that the pipes are frozen at home, which may fund my SpaceCorp prepub. Good news!