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just this the morning alone, GC pushed me to the limit of my roommate annoyance threshold. i woke up at 9:20am which was kind of late, but that's only because i was up until almost 5am reading the way of kings (nearly finished). it was quiet in the house so i knew it was one of two things: that GC hadn't gotten up yet or maybe gotten up early and already left for work.

of course it was the former, as the room to his bedroom was still closed. since i was in a hurry to take my morning poo, i couldn't courtesy wait for him so i went ahead and used the bathroom. it was not a satisfying bowel movement as i get anxious when i know others might need to use the bathroom. and sure enough, minutes later, i heard him coming out of his bedroom. even though he wasn't knocking, just knowing he was waiting made me immediately finish up, not yet complete with my morning ritual. i gave the bathroom a courtesy squirt of 15 year old air freshener before i exited.

so GC went in the bathroom, and i noticed every morning he stays in the bathroom very quietly for nearly exactly 20 minutes. i don't like how he can stay so long inside when i'm always in a rush if i know someone else might want to use it. also something i've noticed over the past few days but haven't spoken about is that GC pees on the floor. this is so common with male chinese roommates that i'd almost be surprised if it didn't happen. it's not much (i've had roommates in the past where it seems like they're peeing mostly on the floor instead of the toilet), but it is annoying.

i shouldn't be shocked given how GC revealed to be last night he doesn't even use soap. what kind of weirdo doesn't use soap? as with chinese tradition, GC didn't take a morning shower (chinese like to take their showers at night). then he was in the kitchen but was in no hurry to leave. i even heard the sound of chopping, like he was making a hearty breakfast before leaving, but i didn't hear or smell any additional cooking. also he was whistling, which he started to do a few days ago, and that gets really annoying really quick. finally, mercifully, after an hour later, he left for the office at 10:30am.

steve send me the latest water bill, subtracting $20 because he said they left their sink running one weekend. apparently this happens a lot, as one other time they left a leaking toilet running. but who turns on a sink faucet and forgets to turn it off? apparently my upstairs neighbors, that's who.

i finally finished reading the way of kings by brandon sanderson. it took me a while to finish, but in my defense the hard cover edition is over 1000 pages long. the dialogue can be anachronistic at times, the character and place names typical fantasy-trope nonsensical sounding, but the story is just amazing and i can see why it has a perfect 5 star rating out of 5000+ customers on amazon.com. the final battle scene involving kaladin gave me goosebumps. i can't remember the last time a movie or television show or book gave me goosebumps. while i was working on the final few pages, i quickly downloaded the next installment, words of radiance. it too is 1000+ pages long. the third book will come out this november. the book is also very cinematic, but i can't imagine how they could ever film it as the special effects budget would be staggering: spren floating around everywhere, gravity-defying lashing battles, the stunt coordination to depict a bridge battle. maybe the story would be more feasible as a game instead.

a second malva zebrina flower had blossomed in the community garden. while i was there joel showed up. i realized i really enjoy talking gardening, i could chat about it all day. joel was impressed with all the lush growth in my plot, half of which were already there when i moved in. it was a sharp contrast to his own plot, where it was mostly a bare patch of dirt. not that he didn't try growing anything there, but all the seeds he planted were eaten once they emerged. he thought it was rabbits and showed me some of the damage on his bokchoi leaves, but to me they looked like slug damage, rabbits would've completely eaten the entire plant.

joel wasn't have a great year gardening wise and told me he might give up his plot next year. why? i asked. his landlord is renovating his building in may and kicking everyone out. that seems to be happening a lot these days. i personally don't believe it's real, and landlords usually do this because they want to get rid of their tenants so they can either sell the property or get new tenants who pay higher rent. he didn't know if he'd stay in cambridge, and was looking into the possibility of moving to somerville, where the landlord had another property. i was surprised joel rented, and surprised that he wa being priced out of cambridge. wasn't he a doctor? but knowing that he might leave the garden, all i could think of is, maybe i could get his plot. i'm fine with my current plot (i could do a lot worse, at least it's sunny), but joel's plot is even better: larger size, more sun, and located on the edge of the garden so a bit more seclusion.

i went to belmont in the afternoon to do some pruning of the tree branches we pulled down on monday. it wasn't simple, as many of the branches have black knot growth on them which makes it hard to cut through the wood. also everything was wrapped in coils of thorny wisteria vine. i did the best that i could, filled the garden refuse bins that were already full of dense dried packets of bamboo roots.

i noticed the zucchini plant in RB1 already has some small immature zucchini fruits. growing zucchini is a race against time, as eventually they succumb to squash vine borers which will then kill the entire plant. but thankfully zucchinis grow amazingly fast, so we can expect to get a few good zucchinis before that happens. also i'm pretty good at spotting borer eggs, but they're also easy to miss because they're super tiny.

my parents returned home late, chatting with my sister's godmother who finally returned to cambridge after spending 2 months working as a nanny in new york city then went to taiwan for a few weeks.

my father called the solar company he found to cancel the project, as he's decided he's going with direct energy solar. i never thought his company was very good, as i'd never heard of them. but the one giveaway that they were a small outfit was they didn't have company e-mails, instead the agent just used her gmail account. but my father already had a bunch of home consultation with them, including a weekend, and they even had a technician come by and measure the roof. he originally wanted me to write them an e-mail saying he wanted to cancel, but i said he should call them directly, given how much time they're already invested on the project. so he did call, but just the finance guy, not his agent, came up with some excuse of not having enough money and maybe postponing the project until next year.

when i returned home after dinner, i found my roommate taking a shower, having already had his dinner. he then camped out in the living room the rest of the night, watching breaking bad on netflix. it would've annoyed me expect i love breaking bad as well. i tried working but found walter white and jesse pinkman to be too distracting. 51 days until GC leaves. that can't come soon enough. he is by far the clingiest roommate i've ever had.