i went outside and shoveled the sidewalk. it wasn't much, around an inch at most. it was all going to melt anyway with temperature today reaching the lower 40's, 
but i didn't want the trampled slush to refreeze overnight. besides, don had already cleaned his side of the sidewalk down to bare pavement, and this would be another thing i could lord over my neglectful upstairs neighbors.
today, after using the bathroom and a hot shower, i was on my knees in the bathtub, snaking the endoscope down into the drain to see what was going on. the didn't take long, about a week later, but the blockage has returned. this is strange because when i first used the endscope to inspect the drain a few days ago, the drain - at least up to the trap - was completely clean. my inspection this time was the same as the last.
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so i then went down to the basement and opened the trap. i snaked both wire hanger and endoscope into each end of the trap, there didn't seem to be any blockage. so now i'm wondering if the blockage is further down the line, from where the plastic bathtub drain pipe meets the sewage mainline. to get to that section i'd need to open up the cleanout nut on the long plastic horizontal drain pipe, but the wrench i used didn't have enough leverage so i wasn't able to release the cleanout. so i may have to call a professional after all to take apart the whole drain assembly and maybe either clean it out thoroughly or install a new one. that is, if i can't find a DIY way to fix it myself online.
i made myself an italian sub for lunch, starting to get bored with so much eggs and kielbasa and sauerkraut every morning. i would never order an italian sub outside, maybe because they're so easy to make at home. i drizzle some cider vinegar on the bread and added hot pepper rings (pepperoncini) to spice things up.
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in the afternoon i biked to belmont. when my parents came home, i went with them to burlington, where my mother wanted to visit jo-ann fabrics and crafts to get some yarn. today only they had a special seniors 20% off everything deal if you show you're age 55 or older. she finally found some fishermen's wool. afterwards we went to h-mart to get some groceries.
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we ate a bunch of ready-made korean dishes for dinner. i biked home after that, knowing that karen was already back since 6pm because i checked the dhcp client list.
when i came home i suddenly realized i didn't have my oneplus one phone. did it fall out of my backpack? because the pocket i normally keep it in was open. but then i called my parents and remembered i left it in the bathroom when i used it before i left.
karen finally paid me the rest of the rent tonight. we chatted a little bit in the living room, i found out her birthday was recently, 1/28, the day she arrived in boston. i had a hunch it was in january because she told me her birth year was 1980 but her age as 37. she also told me she had to borrow some money from her father to have enough money to come to boston and stay for the next 4 months. she also tried selling her car but when there was buyers, she and her boyfriend decide to use it for uber (not sure if that means they drive the car, or they rent their car to the uber fleet).
because i didn't have my oneplus one phone, i couldn't partake in my bedtime routine of watching some netflix or showbox before going to bed. so i dug out my old hisense 7" android tablet and fired it up. first of all, there was no power in the battery because i haven't used it for so long. secondly, it took forever to update all the apps, which made the tablet incredibly slow. with patience, i did manage to access showbox and watch the end of true grit (2010) before going to bed.