when i arrived in belmont this morning i found my father painting the underside edges of the shingles on the western side of the house. we do this because the roller can't paint that close to the edges. i ended up taking over edging duty while i let my father do the rolling. rolling is actually less strenuous and more fun. but i don't mind the hard work that goes with edging, and besides, i'm used to climbing ladders anyway from all those months of sanding work.

rolling is so quick that my father ended up waiting for me to finish painting the edges before he could roll the rest of the house.

i'd set up my action camera to do a time lapse video of us painting. i had everything set up but i made the rookie mistake of not turning on the external battery pack. without it, the camera can only record for about an hour before losing power and shutting off. i only discovered this problem after lunch, so there's a gap of several hours in my painting time lapse.

i also dug up all the jerusalem artichoke tubers, after learning yesterday that can be an invasive perennial weed. my father was interested in eating some of them, but they were planted in beds that'd be treated with termidor, so not sure how safe they are to eat.

for lunch my father went to burger king and brought back some halloween whoppers with black buns. the buns taste like regular buns, but it's completely black, even on the inside. it does have an unusual side effect of turning your poop green, which i later discovered.

we finally finished painting the western wall by around 2:30pm. if i thought the house looked good yesterday, then today was even better. essentially all areas of the house have been primed now (with a few exceptions, like the basement door frame and sunroom window frames). next week, we start with the 2nd and possibly final coat. on the western wall we might do 3 coats just because there's no much sun exposure year after year. just priming alone, we used up 5 cans of yellow-tinted prime, and 1 can of white prime. we'll use the same number for the final coat, with possibly 6 cans of yellow exterior paint (to account for the 3rd coat). at this rate, barring any rainy weather, would could be completely finished by next weekend.

before dinner my father and i went to home depot to do some miscellaneous shopping. we bought some rags, a spool of blue tape, and a can of de-icing spray (for the snowblowers). we looked at door sweeps (for my backyard door), doorbells (didn't have the one i wanted), and front door lights.

after dinner i returned to cambridge.

ana came home after midnight. she told me about a friend of a friend who's a doctor (maybe a phd student?) doing research here in boston for a few months. he found an apartment for november, but currently sleeping on a friend's couch. he was interested in staying at my place while ana's away on vacation for 2 weeks. what she was essentially telling me was she wanted to sublet her bedroom! it seems kind of preposterous. here is a roommate where every once in a while i'm seriously considering kicking out, and now she wants to sublet her room? i told her no. she said he might be interested in december. i said in that case maybe, but he can't sublet while she's gone. besides, i'm looking forward to not having a roommate for the next 14 days!