it's good to take a break from the blog, but i'll retroactively fill in the missing weekend days eventually. it's going to take a while to sort through the 1800+ photos (7.5% 70-300mm telephoto, 3.7% 17-50mm medium range zoom, 44.2% 10-22mm wide angle, and 44.6% 60mm macro).

my mother called me today to let me know the "good" news: i'm getting a new china roommate in 48 hours. you can say i was a bit upset. but the idea of making a little cash on the side was too good to turn away (use that money to supplement my mortgage payment or finance a future trip). and it'd only be a month. i am however not looking forward to the bathroom training. my mother only found out about the news herself just today as well. there was some early talk about a visiting astrophysicist in mid-august but nothing ever came of it until today when the advisor said his researcher had already arrived but staying in a hotel for a few days until he could find more long-term housing.

this new roommate situation means my carefree single living will be on a 30 day hiatus. it also means i have to clean up the house, particularly the guest bedroom and the bathroom. there's been so much traffic in the spare bedroom this year, i've left it mostly empty just out of habit. besides dust, there are just a few empty boxes and a couple of books. the bathroom needed some minor touch up work, including recaulking the tub and replacing the worn out toilet seat. it's weird but i feel kind of sentimental about that seat, and tried in vain going online to see if i could find the exact same model (no luck). i remember buying it when i first moved in, it has a nice floral pattern on the cover that sort of matched the look i was going for. maybe i can just keep the lid but toss the seat.

the replacement logic board for my father's dead 60gb hard drive arrived this afternoon. i nervously swapped out the old board with the new, not knowing if it'd work or not. the drive started to spin but clicked repeatedly, unable to mount on the desktop. that was pretty much the last straw, and hope for a successful data recovery looked bleak. i threw the drive in a ziploc bag and tossed it into the freezer in the desperate hope that chilling the spin mechanisms might miraculously made it work again for a short period.

i left for belmont, where only hailey was at home, growling at me to let her out into the backyard. my mother returned soon afterwards. my father had to work tonight so we just had ramen for dinner, nothing special. in the early evening my mother and i went to home depot to buy a porcelain bonsai-esque pot and so i could search for a replacement toilet seat. there was easily 2 dozen different styles, but the only one that caught my attention was a simple and cheap round kohler model that was also all sold out. we made a quick visit to target across the street, where it was mobbed with college kids making their back to school purchases. target only had a handful of toilet seats, all ugly and inspiring, not worthy to be sat on.

i left soon after my father came home. as soon as i got back, i took out the hard drive from the freezer and tried to see if it'd work. it still wouldn't mount, leaving me with tragic paperweight.

i dug out the old bathtub caulk earlier in the afternoon. after a shower and thoroughly drying the tub area, i reapplied a new strip of caulking. whatever it is i'm doing must not be working because i seem to be recaulking ever 6-8 months. i use the easy-to-apply squeeze tube variety (the kind that looks like a tube of toothpaste) but maybe i should switch to a different brand.