the drain pipe from the other housemate's bathtub is leaking, which, while not a disaster by any stretch of the imagination, is a dratted inconvenience. i wasn't happy with either plumber who stopped by to do an estimate today -- one of them tried to convince me that i needed to rip down the tiled walls of the room (wtf?) -- and now need to call yet another few companies tomorrow. when you run stress paradigms on rats, all you have to change are little things -- marbles in their cage, an unfamiliar odor on their straw bedding -- and cortisol levels go through the roof; i thought this was a rather unusual phenomenon till today, but now am far more sympathetic.