next stop was the chelsea market basket. we came here to get pork grounded in sausage consistency, as the somerville market basket butcher department will no longer do this for us, or at least the few times my father tried (they said their machine is broken). we also ended up buying some napa cabbage here, even though they're 30% more expensive than malden 88, saving us a trip.
we returned to the cafe after market basket. since we were passing by the fresh pond trader joe's, we stopped there briefly to pick up some baby cucumbers.
we finally made it to the cafe by 12:30pm to drop off the supplies. we didn't get back to belmont until 1pm.
my father grilled some trader joe taiwanese scallion pancakes. the clerk at the store actually confided in us that this was one of his favorite new foods. my father also pan-fried some italian sausages, even though they taste best when cooked on the grill. my mother got some boursin cheese that she ate with some breton butter crackers.
after we finished lunch, it was time for plumbing. regardless if we hire a plumber or not, i'd still like to take apart the various plumbing fixtures to figure out exactly what's wrong. that involved shutting off the water main. once i did that, i used a socket wrench to remove the cartridge valve for the hot water faucet in the bathroom sink. it was shorter than i expected. there didn't seem to be a lot fixable, the safer bet would be to replace it entirely, and now seeing it up close, i can start hunting for a replacement part.
the hot water shutoff valve for the bathroom sink had also started leaking ever since we fiddled with it yesterday. i removed the valve completely to see what the problem was. the rubber washer had pretty much disintegrated. the screw holding it in place had corroded to the point where it crumbled into pieces when we tried to remove it with a screw driver. 
after prying off the broken rubber bits, my father took the valve into the garage and came back with the screw removed. after that he put in a new washer with a new stainless steel screw. that'd fix the valve shutting off issue, but what about the leaking from the handle? we solved that by repacking the bonnet with some graphite rope. i didn't think it'd work because we didn't remove the old packing first, but after wrapping the stem 3-4 times, i reattached the valve. both the shutoff issue and the leaking issue were fixed.
next i moved on to the ball faucet in the kitchen sink. disassembling the faucet was pretty straight forward. the corroded rubber washers inside was definitely the reason for the leak. all we needed was to get some replacement parts. i checked home depot online, they didn't seem to carry the items we needed, but we decided to check the store anyway.
first stop was the plumbing supply place fw webb, to see if they carried the bathroom sink hot water cartridge valve. i showed them the photos i took of the valve. they didn't have an exact match, but carried a few that would work, though they were compression valves, and the one that we had was a ceramic valve. the guy said to either bring in the actual valve, or find out the manufacturer, so they can do a more exact match.
at home depot they had plenty of spare parts for ball faucets. we decided to go with just some washer replacements, as the stainless steel ball still seemed to be in pretty good condition.
back at the house, it was getting late, and we decided to do the kitchen faucet repair next week. but it'd just take a few minutes to replace the parts, so i went downstairs to turn off the water as we prepared to fix the faucet. i ended up replacing the cam and packing, 
seats and springs, and added a rubber o-ring for additional water sealing. the repair kit came with a tool to remove the adjusting ring on the handle cap (which will come in handy later). with the parts replaced and the faucet reassembled, the lever handle was still really loose for some reason. turns out i didn't put in the set screw far enough, so the handle was actually still unattached. once we did that, the handle was stable again. when i turned the water back on, the faucet was working, but leaking water from underneath the lever handle. my father figured out by tightening the plastic adjusting ring, it compressed all the parts, and fixed the leaking issue.
so with that we managed to fix both the kitchen and bathroom sinks. the hot water shutoff valve for the kitchen sink isn't working, but it's an easy fix, do the same thing we did with the bathroom sink. as for the bathroom, the hot water faucet is still leaking hot water, but once we find a replacement cartridge, that'll get fixed. the important thing is the hot water shutoff valve is no longer leaking.
there's a few other plumbing fixes that need to be done: replace the laundry shutoff valves; fix the leaking laundry sink (only leaks when turned on); and fix the leaking front yard outdoor faucet (only leaks when turned on, it's a stem repacking issue). they're not urgent, just future projects.
by then it was 5pm, and my mother asked us to grill the italian sausages and buffalo wings. i first climbed the ladder onto the roof to help my father remove the unused antenna cable. i was wearing crocks, which made it super slippery. i finally kicked them off when i climbed down, for safety reasons, i go better traction with just my socks.
it feels like the third consecutive week we've had grilled buffalo wings. grilling them at night reminded me of taiwanese night markets, the smoke and the smell and the noise. the barbecue wouldn't heat up at first, even though the propane tank seemed full. fortunately we had another tank in the garage, and once we swapped it out, the grill started working again. there was a gauge on the old propane tank pointing to yellow. later i learned that when the temperature is cold, the pressure drops inside the tank. when the tank isn't full and you try to use it during cold weather, it doesn't have as much pressure compared to the tank during warm weather.
because these wings were smaller, they cooked crispier. the sausages were really salty for some reason, which is saying something, because normally i don't mind the sodium, but even i found it too salty. besides the barbecue, my mother also cooked up some frozen dumplings.
after dinner my father gave me a ride back home. first thing i did when i got back was to replace the screen protector. i managed to crack it again today while doing plumbing work. i think it's because i put my phone in my back pocket that had a quarter it in, and the coin managed to damage the glass screen protector. so that didn't take long, the last time i replaced the screen was the start of the new year, so less than 2 months. afterwards i ordered some more protectors online.
i went in search of a replacement cartridge valve for my parents' bathroom sink. but first i had to figure out what brand it was. for some reason i never wrote down the name of the manufacturer. i ended up searching my e-mail around that date, for some kind of invoice. i finally found it: 141203 i ordered a set of union brass ledgeback faucet (171-8-Q) from chicago faucet shoppe for $102 plus $11 shipping. with that bit of info, i managed to track down the part number for a replacement ceramic hot water valve assembly: 80079 (1839A-H). i ended up buying one off of ebay for $11.99 including shipping, hopefully arriving later this week.