t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i biked down to the allston KFC in the early afternoon to get some fried chicken and waffle for sandy to try, so she could complete her list of trying all the fried chicken franchises. it took me just 21 minutes to ride down there, arriving by 1pm. i got the chicken and waffles big basket meal for $7.99. i put it in the insulating bag, strapped it to the back of my bike, then returned to cambridge. it was only after i got back did i realize they gave me one less chicken piece, should've been 2 drumsticks and 1 thigh, but there was only 1 drumstick and 1 thigh.

the chicken was okay, but similar to the fried chicken i could get from the porter square star market (which less expensive). the waffle was awful, like eating a piece of hard foam, no flavor, and the provided syrup was just an artificial mess of watery sweetness.

the cafe basement webcam revealed that the plumbers were still working today, moving the chest freezer and jackhammering the concrete floor to get access to the sewer drainage pipe. when i called my father later in the afternoon he told me to replace the pipe underneath the floor would cost $4000 but then to replace the segment leading from the building to the actual sewage drain outside would be an additional $12,000.

victory installers wrote back to me with an estimate of $239 to properly install the nest thermostat. this was a bit more than his original price of $89 for a straightforward nest wiring. he said he could have one of their HVAC guys come out by late tuesday morning but i asked him to hold off until next week until i could confer with my father first.

finally project manager kevin from united solar sent me an e-mail. he apologized for the mix up and the slow response, and said he was working to find a replacement inverter but they don't make those anymore so they might have to replace it with a newer version of the solaredge 7600. that's actually what i was hoping for. the new inverters are actually smaller but work just as well if not better. he said he would speak with their engineer to make sure the newer version would still work with our string sizes before getting back to me.

in the evening there was a lot of noises coming from upstairs. paul was also carelessly slamming both the front and basement door. at one point it got so annoying i was getting ready to go and talk to him about it, until i saw franz standing in our backyard. apparently steve and paul invited his family to their house for dinner. i've known for a while now that they have a better relationship with franz and jen, even inviting them to their summer house on the island for the summer. i decided to chew out paul some other time regarding the door slamming.

it's sandy's last full day here in cambridge; she returns to england tomorrow night at 9:40pm, but leaving for the airport by 6pm. despite some annoyances (like chatting with kelvin all the time and occasionally working from home), i will miss her when she's gone. she's a good conversationalist and i learned a lot about the UK as well as guangdong/hong kong from her. i especially have a better understanding of british premier league football and the various rivalries between the teams.