diff --git a/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md b/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
index e3300ac..70522b6 100644
--- a/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
+++ b/cc-ci-plan/JOURNAL.md
@@ -201,3 +201,11 @@ finishing phase 6/7 and recording the bridge-enrollment mismatch against the ful
 `launch.py status` showed builder, adversary, and watchdog running; `ssh cc-ci hostname` succeeded (`nixos`).
 Assistant session was present and already idle after its completed phase 6/7 pass (`phase6-phase7.done` exists).
 Builder was still blocked on a model usage-limit retry and adversary was parked past `WAITING-UNTIL 2026-06-01T14:24:51Z`, so both received tmux nudges to re-read the live phase-5 status and continue from current evidence.
+
+### Event 19:04 — progress monitor rechecked phase-5 workers
+`launch.py status` still shows phase 5 [11/11] in progress with builder, adversary, and watchdog running; `ssh cc-ci hostname` still succeeds (`nixos`).
+`STATUS-5.md` still lacks `## DONE`, so phase 5 remains open, while `cc-ci-plan/phase6-phase7.done` confirms the assistant-owned phase 6/7 work is finished and the assistant remains idle.
+Builder is active on the current V5 frontier; adversary's declared `WAITING-UNTIL 2026-06-01T19:03:38Z` had just expired, so it was nudged to re-read the live phase-5 status and continue from current evidence.
+
+### Event 19:08 — operator directed simulated stale-test path
+Operator clarified that V5/V6 should not depend on discovering a naturally occurring stale-test recipe. Builder and adversary were both nudged to switch to a simulated/seeded stale-test case on an enrolled sandbox candidate, then verify the two intended behaviors: DEFAULT comment-only and `--with-tests` opening/verifying the paired cc-ci test PR.