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the rain woke me up. it was 8:00 but felt earlier because it was still rather dark from the overcast. my kitchen felt moist and cold because i left the door open for dehydration ventilation. i checked the status of the beef jerky that'd been drying overnight. something must've happened because they looked much better, dry like the way jerky should be. i decided to give them a few more hours of drying before turning off the dehydrator.

it was raining hard enough that i was worried it'd soak the dehydrator. i still couldn't close the door because i needed to blow the smell out. every once in a while i'd come by and wipe the rain off of the floor. thankfully the breeze carried most of the rain away from the back door.

my bathroom sink has a leaky faucet, which i decided to fix this morning after realizing i could just turn off the water supply from the valves underneath the sink (no need to go into the basement and figure out which spigots to shut off). the biggest challenge was figuring out how to remove the handles, since there didn't seem to be any attachment screws. finally an online search revealed the secret: just pull the knobs right off! the screws and the rest of the assembly are just underneath. this wasn't my first foray into the world of plumbing (i periodically replace the rubber seatings for the cartridges on my bathtub faucet). i was shocked to see so much hard water deposit inside the faucet when i removed the cartridges, like clogged arteries. how old are these fixtures anyway? they seem pretty modern, but it's hard to date shiny chrome parts.

i soaked the brass cartridges in a jar of vinegar to get rid of some of the deposits. in the faucet housing itself i wanted to flush out the remaining water and then flood it with vinegar to soften the deposits inside. the problem was no matter how much water i managed to soak up with a sponge, the water kept on coming back. that led me to one conclusion: the shut-off valves were still leaking water despite having turned them off. since it was cold water, i went down to the basement and turned off the cold water supply to the sink. that helped, but water was still trickling in, which meant the hot water valve was also leaking.it wasn't leaking a lot though, and i managed to empty the faucet housing long enough to let it soak with vinegar.

i shut off the dehydrator at noon, exactly 24 hours of dehydration time, a new personal record. apparently that's how long it takes to dry 6+ lbs worth of beef when it's raining. i threw the jerky into the oven for an hour of safety baking. i ended up with 6 jars of jerky.

i had a simple ham and mustard sandwich for lunch, along with a glass of mango lassi (using up the last of my mango and yogurt).

the rain had stopped by that point and the sky was brightening but still overcast. i took the opportunity to ride the newly-renovated road bike. the clips are okay, the pedals themselves are high enough that the straps don't drag on the ground (like they do on the trek 850). i honestly don't notice any speed improvements, but i also wasn't going that fast because the roads were still slick from the road. as for the rear baskets, i definitely feel the extra weight, or at least i think i do. they don't weight too much though, maybe a combined weight of 5 lbs. it may not be worth it having baskets on the road bike if i primarily want to use it to go fast. however, if i really want a fast bike, it wouldn't be a steel-framed ross which are kind of heavy to begin with. i'll need to do more test riding before i know for sure.

i went to the cafe to drop off 3 jars of beef jerky. my mother was there with her knitting stuff, sitting next to cafe regular priscilla. since both of them knit, they now have plenty to talk about. my mother was showing me the lace pattern she was trying, and a knit band for another hat she was making.

my father gave me a container of a mixed mushroom dish he was making before i left.

i was thinking about going to home depot to look for replacement washers for those faucet cartridges, but decided to go to masse's instead, which was a lot closer. i showed one of the guys one of the cartridges and asked them if they could find me some replacement washers. i thought it'd be easy but turns out these are custom washers and they didn't have anything that'd fit. the guy reversed the washer and put it back into the housing and told me to give that a try. if it didn't work, he told me to try the plumbing warehouse in watertown.

back at home, i tried the reverse washer trick. it didn't work, the faucet continued to drip. looks like i'm making a trip to the plumbing supplier tomorrow!

my bathroom sink had other problems besides a leaking faucet. the attachment of the faucet to the sink had corroded and now whenever i use the faucet, some water gets underneath the gap and dribbles to the floor. i could caulk the gap, which might fix it; or i could just replace the faucet altogether. i thought buying a new faucet would be expensive, but they're kind of cheap ($20-30 for a regular variety). new faucets also use flexi-pipings instead of metal pipes, so they're super easy to install.

the other problem with the sink is the shut-off valves are leaking too. this is a new problem which happened when turned the valves to close them. i must've jostled some corrosion that was keeping everything in place and now they leak (at least the hot water one does). these are easy to fix though: i just need to replace the washer inside. the hard part is making sure the water supply is shut off from the basement and unscrewing the valves from the pipes.

i had dinner early, around 5:00, simply because i was hungry. i cooked up some rice and had it with the mushroom medley my father made. i watched obama's economic package speech, then fell asleep waiting for the packers-saints to start. i did wake up to see some of the game (do these teams not play defense?). i also watched the end of the federer-tsonga tennis match (federer won, i'm hoping he goes all the way).