before it got too hot, i decided to ride to the watertown home depot and check out their fridge selection. i tried to tighten my gear shift pedal but it was on pretty tight, couldn't get it to budge. i may take it down to greater boston motorsports in arlington to get a professional tuneup, but it costs $460 for labor alone. it still might be worth it, ever since i got the bike, the most i've ever done to it is get the tires replaced and change the oil.
most of the models were fancy stainless steel split door fridges that cost between $1500-2000, but they had a good amount of classic top freezer fridges. one of my reasons for seeing the fridge in person was to try out some handleless doors, which seem to be popular with some modern fridge designs. i kept imagining i had to use two hands to open the fridge, but they were quite easy to open with just one hand, so my fears were unfounded.
the fridge i was most likely going to get is the frigidaire 13.9 cu.ft. top-freezer fridge in white ($584). nothing really special about it, it's main selling point is that it's only 29-3/8in deep (w/handle), so it'd fit in my kitchen space. however, i knew home depot had the frigidaire 18.3 cu.ft. model ($674) on the showroom floor, so i was eager to see it in person and take some measurements. the 13.9 cu.ft. and 18.3 cu.ft. are practically the same in interior layout, but the 18.3 cu.ft. has two crisper drawers while the 13.9 cu.ft. has a single wide drawer.
the 18.3 cu.ft. is advertised having a cabinet depth with handles at 30-3/8"; this is strange because these are handleless doors, but maybe that measurement means with doors added. 
just to give you some perspective, my current fridge including handle has a depth of 29". 
would 30-3/8" be too deep? however when i took my own depth measurement, i was happily surprised that it was actually 28" deep. that means i can upgrade to a 18.3 cu.ft. from my current 14 cu.ft. fridge. granted, there's nothing really exciting about the frigidaire 18.3 cu.ft fridge besides a compatible depth and large interior space. what i didn't like was how the door bins were very basic. with my current fridge, i'm using to a multiple of door bins, from a place to put my eggs, to cabinets for my butter. this had none of that. the bins were also much larger than i'm used to, big enough to fit gallon containers.
i also saw some other models - GE, whirlpool - but they all seemed too deep. while browsing the selection, 
i saw a small stainless steel fridge standing next to the larger french door models. it was an LG model, with the freezer on the bottom. i read the specs. the price ($1168) didn't surprise me - something stainless steel with a fancy bottom freezer would probably sell for at least $1000 - it was the dimensions. only 27.37in deep! shallower than my current fridge. it had a capacity of 14.7 cu.ft. which doesn't seem like a lot, but the fridge interior looks roomier than the actual volume. 14.7 cu.ft. was still more than space than my current fridge. it also had all sorts of fancy technology i didn't understand, like door cooling. there was a built-in manual icemaker and the door bins were adjustable. it just felt like a more luxurious fridge, and the price reflects that.
i decided to go across the street and see what fridges they had at best buy. they were focused mostly on high-end fridges, displayed as part of their numerous showrooms. they had a few smaller fridges i was able to check out. they didn't have the frigidaire, but they did have a whirlpool model i saw at home depot. i left watertown around noontime.
i stopped by the cafe to show my father some of the fridge photos i took but he was at a market basket supply run. so i returned home. i had cereal for lunch, then in the afternoon baked some soft pretzels as a snack.
i stopped playing pokemon go today. it was starting to become repetitive, and i thought i could make better use of my time. it feels good to be no longer a slave of the pokemon. i got up to level 38, high enough to recommend poke stops. i only started playing it again during the pandemic, so it's been more than a year. i also wanted to prove to myself i wasn't addicted, and could just quite cold turkey. i didn't erase the app, but i removed it from the home screen, replacing it with the wechat app, which i use pretty often to read chinese friends' discover entries.
i keep on trying to find a good spot for my pileas. i had them in the living room yesterday, but i moved them to my bathroom next to the window. i'm tempted to move them outside, but one bite from a squirrel would kill the pilea, and they're too precious to leave out in the elements.
i've been noticing a musty smell when i go to sleep in the guest bedroom. a few days ago i discovered the walls were sticky from never having been cleaned, so today i did a semi-thorough clean of the bedroom. i wiped the walls with a damp sponge, vacuumed underneath the bed (removed the mattress and box spring to get better access), and used some wet paper towels to clean all the accumulated dust. it could probably be a humidity thing too, funky smells seem to mysteriously appear when it gets too humid.
i've been trying to get my hands on some high quality gardening trays for a while now. what i currently use to grow my indoor seedlings are plastic cafeteria trays. i sprinkle a layer of crushed gravel on the trays so the seedling pots will have some drainage and they're not sitting flat on the trays. besides watering the pots, i also water the travels to provide some additional moisture. that's the system i've been using for years now, but the one problem is cafeteria trays are too shallow. on more than one occasional i've accidentally tipped over a pot, spilling dirt everywhere.
i've seen these 10"x20" trays - known as 1020 trays - that are designed for indoor gardening. i wanted to get some, but wanted the ones than can be reused, and won't fall apart because they're thin plastic. i've seen these greenhouse megastore trays that look very promising. their mega heavy duty trays (0.88" gauge) 
can carrying the weight of a full-grown man without breaking. a 10pak sells for $41.55, but i need to spent $99 in order to qualify for free shipping. so i was browsing ebay looking for cheaper options, and came across a listing for "GMS 1020 MEGA heavy duty (0.88 gauge) tray (10 pack)" for $28.63. GMS? do they mean greenhouse megastore? from the photo i couldn't tell if the trays had holes (i wanted holeless trays), so i sent the seller a question. he got back to me today, said they had no holes. that's all the info i needed to buy the trays ($30.42 after taxes). if these are really greenhouse megastore mega heavy duty trays, i ended up saving almost $13. they're due to arrive next tuesday.
for dinner i had a buffalo chicken salad sandwich. i also remembered i had some leftover rainier cherries which i finished.
i spent the rest of the evening doing fridge research. i'd decided i'd get the 18 cu.ft. frigidaire once tax free weekend started on saturday, but i noticed it had a weird design "flaw" where the feet would stick out from the bottom of the fridge. i could imagine myself getting something from the fridge in the middle of the night, stubbing my toe on these protruding feet. that was a deal breaker, so i kept on looking for alternatives.
one problem i had is even though i went to home depot and best buy earlier and did a bunch of measurements and took a bunch of photos, they were worthless because i wasn't being systematic, and a lot of depth measurements i didn't properly document, so i had no idea how deep actually some of these fridges were. sure, there's the online specs, but i discovered those are very inaccurate when it comes to fridge sizes. what i needed to do was to revisit home depot and take new measurements, making sure to record them this time.
i was starting to lean towards the 18 cu.ft. whirlpool with handleless doors, the one i saw at both home depot and best buy. it comes in a few versions: white ($729), black ($729), stainless steel ($791), and fingerprint resistant metallic steel ($879). what's great about the whirlpool are the adjustment door bins. i can have one to keep my eyes, and one for my butters, and the remaining for condiments. the only thing i don't like is the deli tray seems a bit small. however the most important info i'm missing: the actual depth. the online specs says 31.63in., but from photos of depth measurement this morning, it looks like it could be 28in. but i really need is to retake the measurement to make sure. if it's 28in., i'm sold, but if it's closer to 32in., that's too deep and won't fit in my kitchen.
i researched until 3am, forced myself to get ready for bed. tomorrow morning i'll go back to home depot to some new measurements.