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it was raining this morning, but by the time i woke up close to noontime (i went to bed close to 4am last night) it'd already stopped. i used the bathroom and made some oatmeal for lunch. xiaowu the appliance repair guy was supposed to come today to fix my washer but he called and said he won't be coming until tomorrow. an amazon package was due to arrive in the afternoon but when the mailman finally showed up around 3:00 there was no package for me. my parents happened to be leaving the cafe around that time and i managed to call them and get a ride to belmont.

in the car was an small CO2 tank from a seltzer water making machine from the 1990's, the NSA sparkling water system. the tank itself is reusable (for my ongoing DIY CO2 planted aquarium and home seltzer water making experiments) but it uses a proprietary regular valve. the valve can be replaced but any respectable CO2 refill center would require the tank to be tested for safety before filling it up with pressured gas which may make buying a new tank a better idea. this one is a wee bit small anyway at 2.5 lbs (normally the smallest CO2 tank size is 5 lbs).

researching this old tank got my father into thinking of selling an 8mm film projector we had in the basement. he figured it was worth at least a few thousand dollars. a check of the fairchild seventy 07 super 8mm portable sound projector on ebay showed that it was only selling for around $25, with the cost of shipping worth more than the actual equipment itself. this technology comes from a time when film was still analog and the equipment designed to run these things were not only mechanical but built to last. a solid piece of technology that unfortunately we don't have any use for and not valuable enough to sell.

tang tang's friend came home in the early evening after having spent the day at the museum of fine art. not wanting to cook, my mother ordered pizza for dinner and i went with my father to go pick it up (domino's monday-thursday pickup $7.99/large 3-topping pizza deal). the evening weather was downright balmy with a strong warm breeze and temperature in the 60's. earlier we put the ladders away, figured for sure there wouldn't be any painting work done until spring.

i got a ride back to cambridge soon afterwards. earlier, when my parents came to pick me up, my father dropped off a large aluminum baking pan along with some ramekins priscilla gave them when she moved out of her house and into a seniors home. there was 7 5 oz. pyrex ramekins and 5 large ceramic ramekins. since i'd be making my flan tomorrow, i took the time to make an inventory of how many ramekins i had in total.

i've got a tray of 8 blue ramekins, a tray of 13 clear ramekins (8x 6 oz. and 5x 5 oz.), and a tray of 6 ceramic ramekins (4x 6 oz. and 2x 5 oz.). the size of the ramekins doesn't make a lot of difference since i can fit the same amount of liquids regardless if it's 6 oz. or 5 oz. the 6 ceramic ramekins i'll give to my godmother and her sons since they won't be celebrating thanksgiving at my parents' place this year. the smaller 5 oz. pyrex ramekins i'll give to priscilla. but in total i'm looking to make 27 containers of flan this season, probably the most i've ever made at one time.

i keep on inspecting my golden honeywell heat-only thermostat, trying to figure out how to remove it from the wall so i can install a brand new nest thermostat. that's been my dream ever since a month ago i saw a video of the nest's user interface. i just like the idea of being able to change the temperature via remote control.