marcello called me yesterday morning apologizing for the mix-up. he thought his wife told him friday instead of wednesday. he said he could come by friday morning 11:00. i told steve but he told me this morning he wouldn't be home, and to just let myself into his house to show marcello the leaking skylight. there's something kind of weird about being in somebody's house when they're not around. marcello (who looked like a brazilian bartolo colón) came to see the house briefly before scheduling another appointment for tomorrow morning at 10:00 where he'll bring ladders and will actually climb onto the roof to inspect the damage.

when i told steve about the appointment tomorrow and asked if he could be here, he sent me a terse e-mail saying that he and paul will be out of town this weekend. it's annoying that i'm doing all this legwork and he can't afford to be here, especially when it concerns his skylights, which has nothing to do with me. this was what he wanted all along, because as a condo neighbor he seems to be incapable of taking charge of any home renovation projects. my reward is if we do get it fixed, i won't have to listen to him bitch and moan about his leaking windows anymore. and if in fact the problem has to do entirely with his windows, he'll have to pay 100% of the cost since it'll no longer be a part of our shared space (like the roof).

in the early afternoon i went to market basket to get some risotto ingredients. the past few weeks the bottom bracket on my bike has been making all sorts of noises, which means it needs to be replaced. this is something i can do on my own easily, except the threaded cap on my existing bottom bracket is so tightly rusted shut that i need a pneumatic impact wrench to remove it which i don't have. getting it done through my local bike shop is my only option but it's going to cost me - both for the slightly overpriced bottom bracket plus the labor - but i may end up having to eat the cost in order to get my bike back in working shape again. maybe they can also adjust the derailleur if it's not too much work.

drew came home around 5:00. after he made his dinner, i went into the kitchen around 7:00 to make my risotto (took about 45 minutes). something was a little off today, the rice wasn't as tender as in past risottos, but still tasty. i played re-animator (1985) for drew, who keeps on talking about wanting to watch saw even though he seemed to be grossed out by some of the graphic scenes in re-animator. that was followed by swordfish (2011) on cable (spike tv), another movie he'd never seen. i ended up downloading the complete movie because the television version was all edited and interrupted by numerous commercial breaks.