the bit of snow that fell last night continued into this morning. by the time i was ready to go out though, the snow had stopped, the sun peeked out, and the temperature shot up to 37°. i took a shower, skipped breakfast, then shoveled about a centimeter of accumulation from the sidewalk, before getting my bike from the basement and leaving for belmont.

i helped my father replace the hot and cold water faucet stems in the bathtub. the hot water was simple - we'd already removed it and replaced the washer last weekend - so it was just a simple matter of replacing the old stem with the new one that arrived on thursday. unfortunately, we couldn't remove the cold water stem. we noticed last week that the nut had been stripped, which prompted us to buy a new set of stems. but using our 12-point 1in deep socket, we still couldn't remove the old stem. my father tried hitting it with screwdriver and hammer to try and knock it loose, but that didn't work. now we're thinking about getting a 6-point socket for a better grip.

returning home after dinner, i noticed 2 seedlings in my grow closet. i thought they were basils until i checked the label and saw they were lupines instead. how could this be though? lupines weren't supposed to germinate until 18-21 days. it'd only been a week. maybe they were stray seeds, somehow already in the potting soil. but these seedlings were growing from the center of the pot, which was where i planted them. so now i don't know. i have to wait until more leaves develop to know for sure, one way or another.