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I was imprecise. The hose isn't the one inside the spray head. It's the hose underneath the sink, and that's why the water had to be shut off (according to the plumber, who may be wrong, who knows). The hose inside the spray head has never broken; until now, we'd only had to replace the spray head, 'cause the spray/stream switcher kept falling off. And according to Kohler, the faucet and hose are one unit and the whole shebang needs to be replaced.

We had our kitchen remodeled in 2007, and since then, the Kohler faucet has had to be replaced four times. It's lucky it's so pretty. This last was the worst - the hose sprung a leak on 6/28, which necessitated a 10pm visit from the plumber and turning off the water in the kitchen. The thing's got a lifetime guarantee (hence the multiple replacements), and I was initially told 7-10 days 'til the new one comes. Doable! Especially since we'd be upstate for part of it. The time elapsed, I called customer service, and learned that oh, gosh, the first customer service person didn't tell you? That's a VERY SPECIAL order, which has to be made special, so it's actually 3-4 weeks. Ya know, what with the holiday and all. I'm trying really hard to unlearn my habit of blithely dirtying every damn dish in the house, because I have (had) a dishwasher. I don't mind handwashing so much, but I'm sick of trudging back and forth to do dishes in the bathtub, with everything balanced on the cutting board.

Next time, on The Cold and the Flightless, Oreo discovers that Orca has been trysting with Fishface - when she was supposed to be egg-sitting!

Dunno about cheerful, exactly, but since there isn't a thread called "reasons to be mildly optimistic"... https://www.boweryboogie.com/2020/07/vendors-return-to-the-market-line-on-the-lower-east-side/

I would watch that soap opera.

Pepper-crusted monkfish in mustard dill sauce (thanks, Jamie Oliver), tomato with olive oil and basil.

Jack O'Lantern is similar, but it grows in clumps, and chanterelles grow separately. The gills also look different. I've gone on a couple of mushroom walks, and I'm comfortable id'ing black trumpets and puffballs (both of which I've foraged and eaten). I took a picture of what thought were chanterelles and had a forest ranger check it out - he said I'd found Jack O'Lanterns, so I'm glad I asked.

We are cooking for ourselves* at our Ulster County cabin, and my garden is doing pretty well up there this summer, for a change. So! Butter lettuce (cultivated) and daylily flowers (foraged) for salad. I grilled some daylily bulbs along with shrimp, mushroom, poblano pepper and broccoli rabe. Which I also grew, and which bolted immediately and was just a gross, stringy mat. And my fiber intake for the month. *mostly! we had two outdoor dinners out, at Peekamoose Restaurant and J Roccos Steakhouse, and we were VERY EXCITED about it.

Guess who came to dinner?

I doubt it, but my mother was fine with it, since she's convinced that using a public bathroom - unlike hanging out with her friends - is unsafe. (She usually arrives at Reality Station eventually. I handled no-cell-phone-while-driving-no-not-even-on-speaker-no, so I'm letting my sister take this one.)

Defending Jacob on Apple. Very suspenseful and compelling, if you ignore the contrived stuff (like a dad searching his sleeping son's room without waking him - I do not believe this is possible). And I would watch Cherry Jones in anything.

My parents, who live in Monmouth County, have had a couple of restaurant meals outside - one was at Pier Village in Long Branch. They report that there was no access to the restaurant's (or anyone else's) bathroom. Which is also a dealbreaker for me. Although it would certainly be a good way to set a time limit.

Slug trap is definitely an option.

Chili is an interesting idea, thanks. I'd need to make A LOT of it though. I'll scope around for a vegetarian chili recipe that involves beer. I wonder if beer can fish is a thing. Google does not seem to think so, at least not how I'm defining the term.

I've seen ikura at Essex Market - the olive guy and Nordic Preserves sometimes carry it, and Essex Pearl did, too. I can't remember what it cost, there. I'll have to pay more attention.