Thursday, April 30, 2026
Breakfast at home with Patrick: plain yogurt with sliced strawberries and mexican vanilla. Mine also included cacao nibs. Hot water to drink. Cleaned the bathroom, cut my hair, showered, cleaned the bathroom. Walked and rode Muni and back to a physical therapy appointment. Lunch with a subset of The Syndicate: Emery and Scot B. Emery had a burger with mac salad and Diet Coke. Scot had a greek omelette with english muffin and Coke Zero. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and water. Our server was Zavier (aka Z). We accidentally received the wrong check. It wasn't a big deal. Home. I washed dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Patrick arrived home from grocery shopping with Sam and unpacked groceries. Later I continued the undercabinet light replacement project. We had to re-affix the two lights we had installed so that they were flush against the back wall so that no wires were exposed. The one over the sink needed only to be moved back. The one between the sink and the range needed a new half-inch hole drilled into the fixture case, which I accomplished using a step drill bit (NEIKO 10194A Titanium Step Drill Bit, High-Speed Alloy-Steel Bit, Hole Expander for Wood and Metal, 10 Step Sizes from 1/4 Inch to 1 3/8 Inches) which worked well. After creating a starting point for the drill tip using a hammer and a small, skinny phillips head screwdriver, I needed to put a significant amount of pressure on the drill for it to work. It was slow to provide results at the start, but it got easier after the first quarter inch. The hole it created was perfectly 0.5 inches. A bit off-center from where I had thought it would turn out, but it was okay in my case. After the two lights were installed—properly this time—I patched holes in the undersides of the cabinets and resolved the other mistakes I made earlier with the screws that were too long by opening the cabinets, removing our items, sanding the humps that the too-long screws had created, and filled or coated them with wood putty. Tomorrow I will sand them and give them a light coat of Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover matte clear. Later, dinner at home with Patrick: spring lettuce salad with roasted cauliflower and sliced strawberries, hot water. I processed dirty dishes and cleaned the kitchen. Patrick and I walked to Full Proof where we chatted with Brad and tasted some limoncello before buying it. We watched YouTube. Patrick went to bed. I processed more dirty dishes and again cleaned the kitchen. Instead of waiting until tomorrow, I decided that four hours was long enough for my wood filler to dry, so I sanded with 400 grit, cleaned with sponge, dried, and sprayed on the matte clear. After 20 minutes it was dry to the touch, looked fine, and the smell had dissipated enough for me to consider it done. I restored items to the cabinets. I taped then grouted the line where the countertop meets the backsplash from the left edge past the sink and to the range. It's not the best bead of caulk I have done, but it should keep water out. The long run was challenging to complete while the dishwasher was running (which generated heat and therefore reduced the tooling time). I also had to work past the three sink fixtures: air gap, faucet, and soap dispenser. At the very least the previous moldy grout is gone. Prepared another old fluorescent light fixture for sale or donation or disposal. Updates for websites. Successfully worked through some website update issues from the content management systems I use after a new post on Github provided more details. Late snack: TJ's kettle-cooked potato chips, one sumo orange. To bed very late.