i went running today, after a week long hiatus because i went to new york city last week. the temperature this morning was in the 40's, but rose to the mid-50's by the time i left the house around 10:45am. i had a slight pain in my heart area, front to back, that went away after i started running. it was cool in the shade but very warm in the sun. on my way back i stopped to take some photos, including identifying a kansas hawthorn (Crateagus coccinioides) AKA large-flowered cockspurthorn. i even tried one of the red fruits - over half an inch in diameter - that was crispy and tart.

i took a shower after getting home. for lunch i made some indomie mi goreng noodles with a poached egg.

i was supposed to get some bathroom wall finishing materials, but my father went on an emergency supply run to baifu (south boston) after realizing they were nearly out of dumplings. he took the honda and i needed the larger car to carry the sheetrock i had to get. instead i took measurements and did one final round of demolition, removing the few remaining pieces of sheetrock that needed to be replaced.

part of that work involved removing my toilet bowl so i could get access to the back wall. i've always known that the shutoff valve by the toilet was broken, and wouldn't close completely. i ended up shutting off the cold water in the basement. that also didn't fix the problem, and i had to shut off another valve further up the line. that too failed to close. so in the end i just wrapped a towel around the inlet pipe before i removed the faucet packing so i could replace the washer. the old rubber washer had turned hard from age, i replaced it with a new 1/4 washer. it failed to seal the first time, and the washer was caught inside the assembly. when i dug it out with an awl, i managed to tear the washer, so i replacement it with another new one. second time around was the charm, or at the very least it managed to stop the leaking.

so for the time being i don't have a toilet tank. i can still flush the toilet, i just need to use a bucket to do so, manual style. this is actually a good thing, because it will force me to quickly finish the bathroom renovations so i can put back the toilet tank. my taiwanese relatives arrived next next monday, so i have less than 2 weeks to get everything done.

removing some of the last sheetrock was also a struggle, because they were screwed in place. some of the screws were hidden beneath a layer of spackling paste, but i managed to find them using a strong rare earth magnet. a few other screws were located behind the walls. i managed to get out all of them except two. i tried to cut the screws with an oscillating multi-tool, but those screws simply would not cut. i managed to extract one screw my force, the other one i tried cutting again but failed, probably damaged the blade in the process. i'll going to see if the orbital jigsaw i bought 2 weeks might work better in cutting off the screw head.

i started at 2:30pm and ended up not finishing until nearly 6:30pm, opting to get the supplies tomorrow. that's when my mother called me and said i needed to come in to work tomorrow, instead of thursday. i will have thursday and friday to continue my bathroom repairs.

since i had some wet dirty towels from the plumbing repairs, i decided it was a good opportunity to wash them with vinegar and baking soda. i didn't have enough towels for a full load so i threw in my laundry as well, mostly dirty clothes from new york. i washed them without detergent, just vinegar and baking soda, before tossing them in the dryer. they seemed cleaned enough. for dinner i heated up a pizza in the oven. i was already full after eating half the pizza, but decided to eat the rest because i didn't want leftovers.