back at the house, i rummaged in the basement to find some bathroom wall fixing equipment and materials. i grabbed my folding ladder to access the upper portion of the wall. i also remembered there was some galvanized corner beads, but they were all short, 1-2ft at the most, nothing long enough to span the entire height of the wall. i could probably piece together enough to bridge the whole wall, but might just be easier to buy a new single piece, they don't cost very much. i did find some plastic corner beads that were 8ft tall, but they look more like they'd be for inner corners. i also checked the space underneath the plumbing, to make sure there were no more leaks, and to see how much insulation i needed to fill the gaps. i noticed some mold which i wiped clean with a bit of bleach spray and paper towels.
i ate my sushi while watching the news. later i swept the sidewalk clean with a broom and transplanted one of the backyard impatiens to the front yard side pot (there used to be an impatiens but it died). i then biked to huron veterinary hospital to pick up hailey's medication. my sister told me her dog tested positive for whipworms. the dewormer medication (panacur) is expensive at $100.
before coming home, i made another trip to market basket to get some frozen soft pretzels on sale.
in the late afternoon i ate a quarter of the date-filling mooncake. it's so dense, it's impossible to eat the whole thing in one sitting. an hour later, i baked some soft pretzels in the toaster oven.
i ate while watching tigerbelly on youtube, bobby lee's video podcast. for some reason i find it really compelling, especially when he chats with other comedians. bobby lee's been around a long time, yet his star has shone as much as other comics, despite being a favorite amongst his peers. he's also never had his own special before, but his stock is on the rise, with more recent high-profile projects, a special is only a matter of time.
| instant pot century egg & pork bone congee (3-6 serving) | |
|
2 lbs. bone-in spare ribs
3/4 cup short-grain rice |
1 tsp salt 1 tsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 century egg, chopped |
| blanch pork in boiling pot of water for 3 minutes. add rice, water, ginger, salt, sesame oil, ground white pepper, and pork to instant pot and cook on high pressure for 35 minutes. let cool (natural release) for 20 minutes before venting remaining pressure. remove pork, discard bone, shred meat, return to instant pot. add chopped century egg, medium sauté to thicken congee. once desired consistency reached, serve with pickled radish and scallions. | |
i haven't made century egg pork bone congee since july, nearly 3 months ago. i always have some frozen spare ribs in the freezer on standby in case i need to make it. the recipe is easy, there's just a lot of waiting: 20 minutes for the pressure to build, 35 minutes of pressure cooking, then 20 more minutes of non-pressurized "natural release" cooking, followed by a few minutes of quick sautéing after removing the bones and shredding the pork.
i ate while watching the red sox game, a rare victory. the AL wild card race is crazy, with 4 teams vying for the two spots. yankees are currently ahead the red sox by 1 game, while the mariners is 1/2 game behind the sox, while the bluejays are a full game. there's only 4 more games left in the regular season, boston needs to win out or have seattle or toronto lose a game. even new york has to be careful, a yankees loss could catapult one of the teams behind.
on a whim, i decided to pull out more leftover insulation from the bottom of my bathroom plumbing "box." that's when i noticed the fiberglass insulation was still wet, while everywhere else inside the box was dry. the most likely culprit is the corroded copper pipe has a very small leak. i took some photos and wrote my upstairs neighbors a carefully crafted e-mail letting them know the pipes were still leaking and needed to be replaced. most importantly, they'd pay to fix it, because it's their pipes. when the plumber comes though, i may have him do some other work, like fix the blockage in my bathroom sink hot water valve.