i rode down to twin city plaza in east cambridge late this morning to visit sally beauty supply. i was looking for 40 volume creme developer for my retr0bite projects. originally i was going to buy it on amazon before i discovered it was actually cheaper if i purchased locally from a beauty supply store. a 32 oz. container of 40 volume was just $4.59; the cheapest i could find online for the same amount was $9.98. i'm still not quite sure what developer actually does, i think it's used in bleaching hair, and it contains hydrogen peroxide, which is the key ingredient for retr0brite (along with a UV light source). 40 volume means it's 12% hydrogen peroxide. at that strength, gloves (and eye protection) should be worn to prevent skin burning. i felt a little self-conscious buying the stuff, and almost wanted to tell the cashier what it was for, but i doubt she cared.

i took a quick peek of the nearby dollar tree (much bigger than the one near by house) looking for clamp lid jars (no luck) before riding back home. i stopped at star market to get a carton of almond milk and bananas for making smoothies at my parents' place (to test out the newly repaired blade assembly). while waiting in line, i bumped into bruce buying some paper towels. i was in a slow line and he checked out before me.

after gathering my things at home, i departed for belmont. i was running a little late today, i didn't get there until almost 12:40pm. my mother thought maybe i'd gone to haymarket. i had a mantou sandwich stuffed with pickled mustard greens and braised pork gelatin for lunch. my sister stopped by briefly with bags of bagels she got from the farmer's market. hailey wouldn't come back inside after hearing a noisy squirrel chattering from a neighbor's tree.

the wave washers finally arrived yesterday, along with the food grade plumbing grease. we had all the parts we needed to finally assembly the vitamix blade assembly. we greased the shaft seal before applying loctite to the inside of the housing as well as the outside of the bearings. we figured the loctite would be some kind of glue but it came out of the tube rather liquidy, as we spread it using a toothpick. my father then pressed the pieces together using a vise. now we wait 24 hours for the loctite to cure before we can use the repaired assembly. even though these are the bearings specified, the shaft sits rather loosely within the new bearings, unlike the old bearings which are tight. we don't know if this will make any difference until we put the assembly back in action.

my mother finally decided she wanted to get a new phone, to replace the iphone 5s she inherited from my sister. the impetus was she tried taking some photos on her walk earlier today but couldn't because she was out of memory. it was an easy fix, i just offloaded all 2000+ of her photos (which only accounted for just 4GB) and cleared her storage. nevertheless, she's overdue for an upgrade. she currently uses the iphone for calls and photos, and my old oneplus one to surf the web and chat. if she got a new phone so could consolidate her devices and wouldn't need to carry two phones all the time (like i used to).

i spent the rest of the day doing research on phones. my mother wanted a phone with a good camera, so it'll either be a google pixel, an iphone, or a samsung phone. out of the three, i've never used a samsung device before, so i couldn't say how good they are, but i've always heard phone things about their cameras. she also didn't want a phone that was too big or too heavy. i told her big meant a bigger screen which would be easier on the eyes compared to the tiny screen of her current iphone 5s. originally i was looking at samsungs, the A51 or the S10 or S10+, last year's flagships. i personally prefer phones with bigger screens, but that also meant more expensive and heavier. the A51 was a good bargain but it's dual GSM/CDMA version only works on 4G LTE for verizon. there's also an exclusive verizon version but then it wouldn't work on other networks, including international ones.

i was also checking out the motorola moto G stylus. it's got a big screen with 128GB of memory and 3 cameras (normal macro, wide) and costs just $250. if we were in a hurry that'd be the phone to get, but i heard its camera wasn't anything that great, and my mother didn't need a stylus.

i started looking at google pixel phones. the pixel 4a seems promising - 128GB, not too big, not too small either, $350. it could in fact be too small, as my mother really likes my old xiaomi phone and wants a phone similar in dimension to that one. i also don't like the fact that it only has one camera, which the trend for all modern phones is towards multi-cameras. then i saw the pixel 4a 5G, slightly more expensive, but a larger screen (though still not a phablet) and has 2 cameras (normal and wide). that phone currently retails for $500, but i'm hoping maybe a black friday discount will lower it within the $400 ballpark. if so, that'd be the phone to buy. they won't go on sale until sometimes in november.

i returned home after dinner. temperature was supposed to drop tonight (even though we did reach the lower 70's in boston), but it was still 58°F when i left. temperature tonight will dip into the lower 40's. my 2ft short surge protectors came, i left one at my parents' place (for the outlet behind the piano) and took the other one to replace the 7ft surge protector that used to be in the living room. i didn't need one that long, a short one will do just fine.

after a shower, i watched some indiana jones on tv before finishing the evening with some saturday night live. adelle was hosting, she lost so much weight i didn't recognize her. i also backed up some photos onto two separate hard drives.