just thinking about the new pipe leak i discovered late last night left me unable to have a good night sleep. i didn't fall asleep until well after 6am, i could already see it getting light outside my bedroom window. i slept less than 3 hours, waking up at 9am to call the plumber (alewife company) after getting the sign off from paul. i got in touch with mike, who wouldn't commit to scheduling a plumber to fix the pipe until after i sent him some photos. he e-mailed me back, said he wanted to see the damage in person first, and asked if i was available monday 2pm.

after eating an expired cup of blueberry chobani greek yogurt along with a butcher shop half sour pickle, i biked to the cafe in the early afternoon to drop off hailey's deworming medication. i also helped my sister replace the gaskets on her refrigerator. my father had looked at it earlier and said they didn't need replacing. when i saw the old gaskets for myself, they were in near pristine shape. the photo my sister sent me was actually a false image, what looked to be rips and holes were actually just powdery scuff marks. so she ended up spending $130 for gaskets that didn't need to be replaced. her original complaint was about the frost build-up in her freezer; most likely that's because it's overstuffed with food, with zero air circulation, has nothing to do with the gaskets.

i left by 2pm. instead of going home, i went on the cambridge-watertown bike path starting from fresh pond to get to the watertown target. that bike path has been under construction for over two years, and they're still not done. at various points construction vehicles were blocking most of the path while contract workers did various fixes: spray seeding some new grass, painting the bridge, etc. they didn't seem to care that i was riding the path, even though i passed a few signs that said it was closed (i also saw people walking the path, though i was the only one on a bike). the path is actually pretty nice if there wasn't all those construction trucks, a very quick trip to the watertown and arsenal mall area from fresh pond.

it's weird going to target via bike, when everyone else get there by car. i got bottles of aussie miracle curls shampoo and conditioner ($3.29 each). i'm currently using pantene and it leaves my hair dry with little volume. the best shampoo i've ever used for curly hair is dove nutritive solutions absolute curls, but they no longer make it anymore. it also had a very strong smell which reminds me of black women's hair care products, which i think was the target audience.

i haven't been to the watertown target in a while, they made a lot of changes, rearranged a lot of the departments, expanded their food section, especially fresh groceries. it seems to be a recent change, because a lot of employees were busy restocking empty shelves.

after target, i crossed the street and went to home depot. i wasn't really getting anything, just wanted to check on the prices of the various materials and equipment i'd need to patch up my bathroom wall. while i was there, this random middle eastern old man asked me to help load 6 heavy piece of sheetrocks onto his cart. he was kind of rude and i didn't want to help him, but there was nobody else around.

i left home depot around 3pm, got back on the bike path and cycled home.

a package greeted me when i got back home. it was new cabinet handles. for some reason the cabinet doors below the kitchen sink are knobs instead of handles. it's the only one that them, while all the other cabinet doors are handles. i looked online for wooden 3-1/2 inches handles but couldn't find any that matched what i already have, so i got white plastic ones instead. turns out they're made from zinc. the whole reason why i wanted handles is so i can hang my dishrags through the back.

my utility bike is starting to chain skip again, so it's finally time to replace the crankset. i got my park tool CCP-22 crank puller and went to work on the bike. first i tried to remove the pedals using a 15mm pedal wrench, but they wouldn't budge. i then tried pulling the old crankset and crank arm off, but they wouldn't budge. while trying to remove the crank arm, it made a loud snapping sound and i noticed the crank puller was at a weird angle. when i removed it, the front adjustable threaded metal piece had split apart. i gave up for the time being and cleaned the bike a bit and oiled the chain before putting it away.

i went online and ordered a new CCP-22 crank puller ($16) and some new pedals ($10) in case the old ones simply won't come up. only later did i realize there were actually locknuts in the crankset and crank arm; to removed the crankset, i first had to unscrew the locknut. using a socket wrench, i went out and removed one of the locknuts. the screw seemed fine, but i applied so much force that it mashed the washer, imprinting it with the hexagon head from the screw. that explained why i destroyed the crank puller tool. the new tool won't arrive until sunday.

for dinner i reheated some congee. i also scooped out some sichaun paocai. it'd only been in the jar for nearly 2 months, and already the daikon radishes have turned soft to the point of being mush. the carrots are okay, and most of the cabbage.