1 more day!

i planned on going to see the race around fresh pond this morning (10:30), to take some dramatic photos of the runners braving the snow in early april. but i learned last night that the snow would stop around 9am, so it wouldn't be that dramatic. that was the excuse i used to skip the race so i could sleep in.

i woke up around 10am to find mary still at home, taking a shower and busy making lunch in the kitchen. she hogged the bathroom for nearly 40 minutes, while i desperately had to relieve myself. outside, the landscape was covered in a layer of thin wet snow, much of it already melting. i didn't even bother to shovel, most of it was gone by the time i left the house around 11:30am to my parents' place.

originally i planned on taking the bus, as i was expecting the weather to be much worse than it was. but the sun was out and there was hardly any snow left, so i decided to take the bike. i know, i said yesterday that i don't like to bike so close to my departure date, but riding the bike would allow me to take a video of this unusual april snowfall with my action camera.

even though i missed the race, the stretch of huron avenue along fresh pond was still sectioned off by the police. there weren't anybody running, but i did see runners walking home, their bib number evidence that they were just in a race. by the time i got to the end of huron avenue, the police were about to leave. 1-1/2 hours should be more than enough time to either run or walk a 5k.

my mother made belgian waffles for lunch. the strawberry preserve that we opened up a few weeks ago and stored in an air-tight container had a little bit of mold on it, which we promptly removed so we could eat the rest. my mother was finishing the last few episodes of tomorrow's cantabile, a korean soap opera on netflix that for some reason had traditional chinese subtitles (i guess for hong kong and taiwanese customers).

i planted my seeds. i'm pretty open-minded in regards to how successful these seedlings will be. if i get a few viable plants i'll be happy, if i don't, i'm okay with it as well.

soon after my father came home, we left for my aunt an uncle's place in arlington for dinner. the special occasion was to welcome my sister's godmother and also to see me off to china.

(photos forthcoming if i can get around to processing them; i'm a little busy at the moment, in preparation for my china departure in about 12 more hours)

putting my bike away as i got home, i noticed a large pool of water in the basement. at first i thought maybe there was something wrong with my furnace (which has a water pump to pipe out the condensation), but the area around the furnace was dry. i followed the source of the leak and realized it was coming from upstairs, directly where my washer was! i quickly raced inside the house.

mary was doing 3 loads of laundry, including her sheets, her blanket, and her pillows. she had clothes in the dryer, clothes in the washer, and a pile of clothes waiting nearby. after turning off the power in the basement, i opened up the washer to look for the source of the leak. everything seemed normal, except around the rim of the wash basin was a ring of abrasion that wasn't there before. when i asked mary about it she couldn't explain it, although she did say that the machine was making a funny noise early, but she thought that was normal. she either filled the washer to overcapacity (which she denies) or loaded her clothes in such a way that it got caught something, splashing water out of the drum, into the inside of the washer, and down into the basement. i watched as she ran another load of laundry, to make sure it wasn't leaking again.

satisfied that it was a one time leak, i closed up the machine and went into the basement to clean up the mess. it wasn't just a little leak, but enough so that it soaked the insulation underneath the floorboard. i used a dirty rag to sop up the water with my bare hands, then squeezed the filthy water into a trash bag. i'm not sure how long i was doing this, but enough so that my back was beginning to hurt. all the while, mary was oblivious to the mess she'd created. and to make it even worse, the house reeked of fish because she was making her fish head stew earlier.

i got home around 9:30pm and i didn't finish cleaning up until 11pm. so much for my last night in cambridge being a peaceful affair.

i took the time to say good bye to mary, since i wouldn't see her until june. "oh, you're leaving tomorrow? i completely forgot," she said, which makes her an idiot because i'd been packing all this weekend, and just yesterday i had the 2 suitcases in the living room.

around midnight i heard mary rustling in the kitchen again, and heard what sounded like banging from the washing machine. apparently she was trying to wash a single pillow case, attempting to set the washer on the lowest setting. not only is it a waste of washing machine, but with such a light load, it's easy for the water to splash out during the spin cycle when it's virtually empty. maybe that's what happened earlier. either way, being how secretive she is, i'm pretty sure i'll never know the truth. all i can say is if she continues to be a living nightmare when i return from china, i'm going to ask her to leave, rent money be damned. i rather live poor and starving then have secret mary systemically destroy my house.

i told her it'd be better if she just washed the pillow case by hand. but she'd already started filling the washer, so i had no choice but to run the final spin cycle to empty the machine of water. she was just going to hang up the wet pillow case from the shower rod, but i took it from her and threw it into the washer to spin dry.