Honestly that "blix lasts forever" line is what got me too, and I lost a batch of beach pics from last summer the same way. What finally worked for me was buying a cheap leader puller and testing every single time before I run anything real, just snip a few inches off an old roll and see if it clears in the right time. Once your blix starts going you can watch the leader come out looking milky or the pink stain shows up even on the test strip. I swap my blix way sooner now, around 12 to 15 rolls for a liter kit, and I keep a little tally taped to the bottle so I stop lying to myself about how many it's seen. The other thing that saved me was doing the test on the actual film stock I'm about to run, since some stocks seem to eat the blix faster. 32 rolls on one liter with zero checks is just asking for it, sorry about your buddy's wedding.

Ran into the same thing on a place in Barberton last year, block wall was bowed about 2 inches in the middle. What worked for me was using adjustable steel push piers on the inside and cranking them a quarter turn every few hours, not all at once. I also left wood shoring posts up against the wall for a full week after I thought it was done, just to take the pressure off while the mortar set up. The wall did creep back a little the first night, maybe an eighth of an inch, so I snugged the piers up again and it held after that. Checking the sill plate first is smart too, I skipped that once and wasted half a day chasing a twist that was coming from up top the whole time.