i couldn't bike to work, and walking would be just as treacherous with the many unshoveled sidewalks. so my father came to pick me up after dropping my mother off at the cafe. it snowed a bit more overnight - just a few inches - not even enough to bother shoveling. our original plan was to make a stop a market basket to get some supplies, but my father said we didn't have time, so instead we went to get my mother's prescriptions instead before heading to the cafe. the roads looked like a dirt path of salty powdery snow. there's no relief in sight since we're stuck in a freeze for at least this week.

at least the parking lot was cleared, but we pay to have people plow it for us. it must've been the envy of the neighborhood as various cars throughout the day parked there - cars that didn't belong to customers. honestly, there was nowhere else they could park. i checked the outdoor stairwell leading to the basement and realized the snow crew failed to clean that section. so i spent a hour digging it out, more shoveling work.

as for my upset stomach, it continued for much of the day. luckily we have a bidet in the bathroom which made for a more cleansing and hygienic bathroom experience. if it wasn't for that, i would've probably stayed home today.

we didn't know what to expect for today. i figured it'd be a slow day, as it was hard for customers to get to our place. but it actually turned out to be a fairly busy day, with a big spike during the lunch period. i guess the snow and frigid temperature couldn't keep people away from eating.

my father made sweet red adzuki bean rice porridge for me to eat. that was as much as i could consume since i barely had any appetite. in the late afternoon i made a batch of tea eggs with the limited eggs we had left, after going over to my sister's place to grab some of her eggs. my 2nd aunt showed up a bit later, back from a trip to quincy, to the ranch 99 asian supermarket. she bought some bokchoi and scallions, saving us the trouble of going to market basket after work. she also brought some leftover KFC spicy wings and fries which i ate. finally, she got a japanese cheesecake which we sampled. we noticed it had two layers, which meant the cream cheese didn't completely mix with the cake portion. it tasted okay though, with a beautiful dark brown crust.

after work my parents drove my 2nd aunt home before dropping me off.

still with no appetite and not particularly hungry despite a grumbling stomach, i had some instant tonkotsu ramen for dinner. unfortunately i have my annual physical tomorrow morning, i hope i will have recovered enough from my stomach bug to actually make the appointment.

i couldn't bike to work, and walking would be just as treacherous with the many unshoveled sidewalks. so my father came to pick me up after dropping my mother off at the cafe. it snowed a bit more overnight - just a few inches - not even enough to bother shoveling. our original plan was to make a stop a market basket to get some supplies, but my father said we didn't have time, so instead we went to get my mother's prescriptions instead before heading to the cafe. the roads looked like a dirt path of salty powdery snow. there's no relief in sight since we're stuck in a freeze for at least this week.

at least the parking lot was cleared, but we pay to have people plow it for us. it must've been the envy of the neighborhood as various cars throughout the day parked there - cars that didn't belong to customers. honestly, there was nowhere else they could park. i checked the outdoor stairwell leading to the basement and realized the snow crew failed to clean that section. so i spent a hour digging it out, more shoveling work.

as for my upset stomach, it continued for much of the day. luckily we have a bidet in the bathroom which made for a more cleansing and hygienic bathroom experience. if it wasn't for that, i would've probably stayed home today. also i made sure i washed my hands thoroughly, pandemic-level washing.

we didn't know what to expect for today. i figured it'd be a slow day, as it was hard for customers to get to our place. but it actually turned out to be a fairly busy day, with a big spike during the lunch period. i guess the snow and frigid temperature couldn't keep people away from eating.

my father made sweet red adzuki bean rice porridge for me to eat. that was as much as i could consume since i barely had any appetite. in the late afternoon i made a batch of tea eggs with the limited eggs we had left, after going over to my sister's place to grab some of her eggs. my 2nd aunt showed up a bit later, back from a trip to quincy, to the ranch 99 asian supermarket. she bought some bokchoi and scallions, saving us the trouble of going to market basket after work. she also brought some leftover KFC spicy wings and fries which i ate. finally, she got a japanese cheesecake which we sampled. we noticed it had two layers, which meant the cream cheese didn't completely mix with the cake portion. it tasted okay though, with a beautiful dark brown crust.

after work my parents drove my 2nd aunt home before dropping me off.

still with no appetite and not particularly hungry despite a grumbling stomach, i had some instant tonkotsu ramen for dinner. unfortunately i have my annual physical tomorrow morning, i hope i will have recovered enough from my stomach bug to actually make the appointment.

with nothing to do today but stay home and watch football, i didn't wake up this morning until 10:30am. i remember the forecast was for some flurries in the morning before more steady snow falling after noontime. when i looked out the window, i wasn't expecting everything to be already coated in white. the snow seemed to have arrived early.

channel 5 was having all day coverage of the snowstorm. i watched the crawler at the bottom of the screen announcing school closing. do schools still do that? nowadays i figured they'd just announce the news on their website or maybe an official school twitter account. i was relieved to learn that market basket was closing early today, letting all their employees go home by 4pm. for lunch i finished some leftover pizza from last night.

i played a little bit of cyberpunk before heading into the kitchen to make a pumpkin-sweet potato pie with the canned leftover thanksgiving pumpkin and sweet potato. we were going to throw them out (or donate them), but i decided to rescue them. this was an american test kitchen recipe:

the pie itself is fairly basic. for some reason i seemed to have double the liquid pie filling. maybe my crust was too shallow. i was going to pour out the leftover pumpkin sweet potato filling, but decided to keep it in case the pie turns out delicious and i want to create a mini-pie. when it came out of the oven, the center still looked liquidy, but i left it to solidify on the kitchen counter.

i made a batch of popcorn before the patriots-broncos game started a 3pm. i had a popcorn mishap, some liquid must've been in my kernel dish as i poured everything into the pot. it exploded in a splash of hot scalding oil, i got it all over my hands, my face, and my clothes. i thought i was going to be burned, but nothing happened except for an oily mess.

it feels a little weird watching football, when in minnesota ICE agents are murdering american citizens and getting away with it. it made me feel a little guilty.

the broncos was helmed by their backup quarterback who hasn't played meaningful minutes since 2023. he had a week to prepare for the AFC championship. but there was so much talk about him being a secret weapon, how he was going to surprise people with his abilities, that i was starting to believe that maybe a backup QB might have a shot at defeating the patriots. in the first quarter stidham threw a 50+ yard pass that eventually led to a touchdown in that drive. new england was down a 0-7, and seemingly unable to make an offensive gains against bronco's vaunted defense. the second quarter was looking the same for the patriots, but a stidham fumble turnover gave new england great field advantage for a walk-in touchdown by drake maye.

i went out to do some shoveling because i noticed both my neighbors renee and don had already shoveled their sidewalk. i dressed in my winter gear with my rain gear over that because i didn't want to get soaked. temperature - according to my weather station anyway - was still just 15 degrees, but it didn't feel that cold. maybe i was just distracted by all that snow. it was about 4:30pm and there was already 5-6" of snow on the ground. the snow was super powdery, like you could clear it with a leaf blower. i was surprised when my upstairs neighbor paul came down to shovel as well. they rarely help out, so this was a special occasion. paul shoveled a path into the backyard. i went back inside to watch the game.

in the second half, the weather in denver - which was just simply cold - was now snowy and windy as well. visibility was poor, the snow making the field slippery, the ball hard to throw and catch. both teams attempted field goals that failed. patriots did get one successful field goal at the end of the third quarter. little did anyone realize that was the final score of the game. weather conditions was such that you could hardly play. new england's strategy was just to eat the clock for the fourth quarter, with the belief that the broncos couldn't score on the patriots' defense. the gamble turned out to be true. final score was 10-7. patriots are going to the superbowl in 2 weeks.

the patriots' cinderella season continues. yes they had an easy regular season schedule, which they took care of by beating most of their opponents - which is what good teams do. going into the playoffs, naysayers were saying the patriots would be exposed. but new england kept on winning. they beat the chargers, who purposely tanked their final regular season game so they could get the patriots, thinking they'd be an easier opponent. they were wrong, only scored a field goal in a 3-16 loss. when the patriots faced the texans, people were saying new england would lose when facing a tough defense. new england ended up winning, 16-28. the broncos were just the latest challenge. another solid defense, held the patriots to only 10 points. you told me that and i would've assumed the patriots lost that game, not knowing the patriots held the broncos to just 7 points. so all season new england has been overlooked. people expect them to lose, but they continue to win. and now they're just one final win away from being super bowl champions.

i went back to cyberpunk. i had the rams-seahawks game on in the background, but i didn't have a favorite. i heard rams would be the easier opponent for new england, but i just wanted stafford to get knocked out, hopefully put drake maye in a better position to get the MVP. facing either team in the super bowl, i didn't care one way or another. patriots have history with both franchises in the superbowl. stafford was really good in the second half, but they overcome their deficit and time ran out. final score was 27-31. patriots will face the seahawks in san francisco in 2 weeks.

my father called me sometime around 7pm, said he just cleared the sidewalk and driveway with our two-stage snowblower. even just that little bit was enough to use up all the gasoline. fortunately he got some more a few days earlier. he said he'll run the snowblower again tomorrow morning.

i heated up a frozen chicken alfredo dinner in the oven. after the second game was over (9:30pm), i went back outside to shovel. 5 hours had passed and it didn't look like i did any shoveling earlier, because snow had refilled the sidewalk. because this was powdery snow, the wind would cause it to drift. in some places the snow was only as high as my calves, while in others it was over my knees. even though the snow was light, shoveling was hard work. i started to sweat underneath my layers, as i started peeling to cool off, but not too much because i didn't want to get soaked. i first dug a trench into the backyard. i had to clear the area surrounding my furnace vents, otherwise it'll shut off if it doesn't get enough fresh intake of air. the snow was already pretty high, i was surprised the furnace was still running. i kept digging until i made my way to the basement. that's when i saw paul had left the basement door open. i had to dig out the snow pile that went into the basement before i could close the door. i looked up to see if paul was still up but looked like he went to sleep. after i finished with the back, i started shoveling the sidewalk. there was so much snow and no where to put it. i ended up only shoveling a sidewalk trench, leaving a sidewalk snow barrier so i could dump the snow. earlier i was carrying the snow and dumping it in the backyard but that was too labor intensive and took too much time. i also dug a trench out into the street so i could get out. it's going to a nightmare tomorrow for all those car owners to dig themselves out. glad i don't have a car.

i finally came back inside after a little more than an hour. i was sweat-soaked, wet hair plastered to my forehead. but it felt good being back inside. i knew my sister kept texting me, i thought maybe she was sending me esmei snow photos, but she texted me because esmei ran away. but my sister found her 5 minutes later by tracking her paw prints in the fresh snow. esmei ran to the cafe, maybe hoping my parents were there to give her a treat. when my sister called, she came running back.

eliza told me late last night that theo got into mcgill. he's also applying to colleges in france and the netherlands, but mcgill was his number one choice. good for him! but still kind of scary that the children of friends are now college age.

i woke up early, before 9am. last night while looking through facebook market place, i saw a somerville seller peddling a whirligig stovetop popcorn maker for $25. i've seen the post before, back when it was $40. i wanted to message the seller immediately but didn't want to seem like a psycho who spends late nights just surfing the web for cheap deals, so i waited until the morning. i texted him first thing but got no response. i'm fine either way, i've made popcorn enough times now with just simple pots that i'm starting to get the hang of it. yes, there's always a few unpopped kernels, but that's not a big deal. i get the feeling that a popcorn maker is a novelty gadget, i'll use it for a while, then it'll just gather dust in the kitchen. like the bread machine. like the smokeless foreman grill. like the electric popcorn popper. and more and more like the dehydrator.

my nest thermostat said 2 degrees this morning, while my weather station said it was 25 degrees. i think the remote sensor need new batteries. my fitness band said 5 degrees while the google weather app told me 4 degrees. whatever the case, it's cold outside! i was expecting the roads to be frozen white, but everything outside looks pretty normal.

this snowstorm comes at the perfect time, the two days that the cafe is closed. the only inconvenience is that we can't do a supply run this weekend, but we still have enough stock to get by another week, with a quick trip to the nearby market basket or trader joe's to pick up a few more perishable supplies.

because it was so cold, my father came to pick me after dropping my mother off at the cafe. my aliexpress mini tear-off chinese calendar arrived, my mother hung it from her desk. business-wise, we didn't know what to expect. because of the bitterly cold weather, you'd expect not a lot of customers, but for the first 2 hours we were pretty busy. after 1pm though, business dried up completely.

i was waiting for my popcorn machine seller to answer my message. i even turned on facebook notification, which i normally have off, since i only use facebook for market place. looking into the facebook app setting, i was shocked just how many types of notifications they send you. i turned them all off (took a while), but left market place on. i kept checking facebook and discovered in the afternoon that the posting had been updated as sold. maybe i should've contacted the seller right away instead of waiting overnight. would've been nice to know that there was already a buyer, as a courtesy.

i had korean street toast again. i thought i had enough bread to make 3 servings, but i only had enough for 2. this time i didn't add any salt to the egg-vegetables mixture. i thought it'd be bland, but the ham was plenty salty enough.

my sister came by with esmei. because of the impending snow emergency, she was going to park her car at alewife. the plan was to give me a ride home first, park her car, then call my father for a pickup before they closed. so i ended up going home about an hour early, a bit after 3pm.

first thing i did when i got home was to replace the batteries in my outdoor weather station sensor. it took a while to update, and at first i thought the sensor itself needed to be replaced. but i watched as the outdoor temperature slowly dropped on the indoor LCD display.

i spent the rest of the day immersed in cyberpunk, stopping around 8pm to heat up a frozen pizza (spinach & mushroom) for dinner. i played all the way until 1am before stopping.

temperature this morning was in the upper 20's. in the gradient of coldness, upper 20's is cold but not that cold. it warranted thermal underwear, but just a thin layer, not my heavy duty merino wool underwear. biking to the cafe was okay, just try not to brake, at least not stop with the front brakes since it'll stutter the bike. i really need to replace the front wheel, but can't bear to spend $70 for a wheel i know i used to get for just $25. i placed an amazon order for an avenir brand 26 x 1.5" front wheel for $40 ($40 i can do), but it's temporarily back-ordered with no availability timeframe. in the meantime i'm lurking on facebook market place (the only time i'm ever on facebook), hoping to find a replacement wheel for cheap or score an inexpensive mountain bike i can pilfer the wheel from. i also haven't checked my basement yet, there might be a spare wheel, but if there is, it's most likely in bad shape as well (otherwise i would've used it by now).

when my parents arrived at the cafe, my father said he tried again this morning our two-stroke craftsman snowblower and it still wouldn't start. at this point he's given up and will just shovel the impending snowstorm by hand. he couldn't figure out what was wrong, said he didn't even smell gasoline. i suspected maybe it was the old fuel he used, which we might be able to fix with some stabilizer. it did work at one point, when i replaced the carburetor last spring, we ran the snowblower to test and it worked fine.

after i made a new batch of black soy noodles and dumplings, i drove the car to belmont to check on the snowblower. i couldn't remember if i installed a shutoff switch, but if i did, that would explain the problem. sure enough, taking a peek underneath the snowblower in the garage revealed the newly installed switch underneath the plastic gas tank. i called my father to let him know the good news but he didn't answer his phone. i added a little bit of iso-heet to the fuel to help remove any water. i then tried to start the snowblower after priming it a few times with the pump. it didn't start. i tried using the draw cord but that didn't work either. i primed it one more time (5 pumps), then hit the start button. didn't work the first time, but the second time the engine sputtered to life. loud, smelly, just like a motorcycle. i pulled the power cord to see if it could run on its own. i could hear the engine slowing down, so i turned on the choke a little bit, as the engine roared back to life.

i noticed the one-stroke toro snowblower we had propped up on a table had leaked fuel onto the garage floor. my father noticed as well and tipped the machine back upright. i grabbed some paper towel and DIY power wash and started cleaning up the mess. it wasn't gasoline because it didn't have any noticeable smell, most likely it was engine oil. the toro is still non-functional, but this weekend snowstorm is more suited to the larger craftsman snowblower, which does a better job with high volume dry powdery snow. the toro is better suited for wet slushy snow.

i returned to the cafe with the good news. i even recorded a video of me starting the snowblower to show my father.

despite the cold, it wasn't a bad day profit-wise. we were busy during lunchtime and a little bit around the evening. once again, chicken curry was the most popular item (we didn't sell any yesterday). there was four orders of pad thai, but each time we had to tell the customers we were all out (we ran out of sauce and don't have the necessary ingredients to make more). normally beef noodle soup is one of our most popular items, especially when the weather's cold. but we had no sales until the early evening, and suddenly we got four beef noodle soup orders, three of which were sit-down customers.

my mother called my 2nd aunt and told her she didn't need to come to work tomorrow because it's going to be super cold (single digits) and we probably won't get too much business anyway. everyone will be hunkering down at home, waiting for the snow to come. i went over to the upstairs apartment to check and make sure the pipe heater was working (we don't want the pipe to freeze). i also turned up the heat - from 53 degrees to 60 degrees (normally it's set low since nobody is currently living upstairs, all the chinese astrophysicists having gone back home).

the temperature had only dropped into the lower 20's by the time i returned home. i have to ride carefully, especially downhill, because my bike doesn't stop very well anymore. the rear brakes are starting to fail too, i need to replace the brake pads. but there's no hurry because i probably won't be biking for a while because of all the snow that's supposed to fall by sunday-monday. i put away my trek utility bike in the basement, don't want it to get buried in the snow.

i made some luxury korean ramen for dinner, added some leftover tofu that i needed to use up. i'm kind of sick of korean ramen, just too bad i bought a case of it last year, which will last me for a very long time.

after dinner i went to star market to get some snacks. i was expectedly a madhouse, but it was surprisingly calm, with just a handful of customers. i read online that market basket was totally crazy today, that there was a traffic jam from porter square to union square of customers trying to get their pre-snowstorm groceries.

back at the house, settled in for a night of cyberpunk. not too many gigs tonight, i spent most of my time playing around with the camera. i much rather wander around night city looking for photo opps then spending 20-30 minutes adjusting the camera and the lights to get the perfect photo. i'm using the standard three-point lighting setup for NPC's: key light 45 degrees above eye level to one side of the subject, a softer fill light on the other side, and a back light pointing to the back of the head. cyperpunk defaults with a turquoise colored light which gives everything a futuristic glow but i normally like to turn it down. for the fill light i like going with a magenta hue for contrast. now that i'm actively searching for NPC's to photograph, i'm noticing more repeats. i also just discovered today that the same body tattoo patterns get reused for different NPC's.

temperature today was in the 40's. probably the last "warm" day we'll see in a while. the weekend snow was melting, but i made notes of where all the wet patches were, in case everything freeze up overnight to form black ice.

i mopped up the floors with vinegar and warm water before we opened, there were salt stains everywhere. i also cooked a new batch of tea eggs using the steam method. i believe this is the third steamed batch? i'm curious how steaming will affect older eggs, which are already easy to peel. would it make the shells even more brittle?

storm watch continues: the latest forecast says 1-2ft of snow might fall in the boston area. my father said he tried to start the 2-stage snowblower this morning but couldn't get it to work. hopefully he'll figure it out on saturday before the snow arrives on sunday. supermarkets must be crazy now, i don't think i need to go, i have enough food and drinks in my house. the last time we got more than a foot of snow was back in january 2022. i stayed home for much of it, only going out in the evening to take photos.

today was the busiest day this week so far. we made above our daily average. we got slammed during lunch, and another spike around 5pm. my father didn't get back until almost noontime, went to go visit the accountant in arlington center. the accountant wasn't there, but showed up right when my father was about to leave. our daily regular allen told us today he's going to work remotely from florida for the next 2 months, be back at the end of march. he's not leaving soon enough because he's going to get hit with a big snowstorm this weekend.

i helped my father order an ATORCH wifi DT20W 100A power meter ($30). it'll allow him to remotely monitor a battery's voltage/amperage/power. he can currently do that with our anker power station, but he wants to install this device on the aolithium lifepo4 battery.

for lunch i made korean street toast. it seemed delicious in theory, but not so much in practice. it was okay, but seems like something a poor person would make using leftover ingredients. it wasn't what you'd typically ascribe as korean food.

the kohler bidet worked well for 2 days but today it started acting up. the seat was warm, but the water spray from the bidet was ice cold. my mother immediately clamored to have us send it back, but i'd already assumed we'd be keeping it and tossed out some packaging material. i still should be able to return it via amazon, i have a little over 2-weeks before the return deadline. maybe it's a faulty unit? and we just need a replacement? we'll monitor it a few more days, if it still doesn't improve, we'll have no choice but to return it.

when i returned home i finished the rest of my tuna fish sandwich for dinner. i only had two slices of bread but too much tuna sandwich spread, so i made tuna melt, heating everything up in the toaster oven. i think it would've been better if i warmed it up on the stove, as the cheese was barely melted while the tuna spread was still cold.

no cyberpunk tonight. just finished writing up a few blog posts, going to go to bed early to make up for not geting any sleep last night.

temperature today was in the 20's. slightly warmer than yesterday, but still pretty cold. i was about to make a market basket run when i noticed just how rusty my bike chain and gears were. i went back inside and grabbed my can of finish line 1-step cleaner and lubricant and sprayed my drive train. just a little lube brought the bike back to life, as it rode smoothly and silently.

i got some ingredients for making korean street toast, including canadian white bread and a head of cabbage. i got some yogurt to go with the unopened bag of granola i have in the house. i also decided to make tuna fish sandwich and picked up some onion and celery.

i went directly to the cafe to drop off some supplies. my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt in the morning. she brought some weee purchases, including some sea salt sunflower seeds for me.

riding back, i noticed the head tube was a little loose. could that be causing the stuttering on my front bike brake? so when i got back home, i found a large-size allen wrench and tightened the stem. i figured it was all rusted shut, but surprised that i managed to turn it a little bit. however that didn't seem to fix the looseness. i then decided to readjusted the front wheel. i pushed the bike into the backyard and flipped it upside down. i loosened the quick release and re-aligned the front wheel. i readjusted the brake pads. while gently spinning the wheel, i noticed it'd get stuck at one particular spot. a close inspection revealed a slight crack on the rim which had formed a bulge. it was this bulge that was causing the brake stuttering issue.

i went back inside to find the price on a new front 26" wheel. i replaced the front wheel back in may 2019 (the back wheel replaced in march 2021). i've had wheels fail on me before and it's always the same issue: cracked sidewalls on the rim. this time isn't as severe as in years past, but worth replacing, especially if i want to fix the brake stuttering problem. i bought my last wheel for just $25. so imagine my surprise when the cheapest replacement was now $60-70. i have to think this is tariff related. at that price, i could probably buy a used mountain bike for the same amount and simply swap out the front wheel. i may have a spare front tire in the basement, but i also remember i'd already used the spare and worn it down, that's why i replaced the front wheel back in 2019. i wonder if it's even worth replacing, or perhaps this is a perfect opportunity to upgrade by utility bike, retire the trek 800.

for lunch i fished out the leftover sausages i baked on saturday. 4 sausages, i ate them all, didn't bother reheating them. i washed it all down with a tall glass of black tea. on the news they were talking about the impending snowstorm arriving on sunday, expected to dump more than a foot of snow.

around 2pm i decided to play some cyberpunk. not too much, since there were some recipes i wanted to tackle (pumpkin sweet potato pie, jiuniang), but maybe for an hour or so. i ended up playing until almost 1am, stopping only to make some tuna fish sandwich for dinner, washed down with some more black tea. my upstairs neighbor told me that jeff was coming by tonight to pick up his bicycle in the basement. he picked a pretty awful night, with icy riding conditions. i thought i heard him because i heard the basement door slam, but when i looked he was already gone.

i took a quick shower before going to bed.

wasn't sure if i'd be able to bike to the cafe this morning with all the icy patches but i saw someone biking yesterday so if they can do it so can i. it was mostly bits and pieces of frozen snow in the bike lanes, remnants of people cleaning their car or leftovers from plow trucks. thankfully the roads themselves were clear for the most part, which i took advantage of when there wasn't any cars behind me. the other challenge this morning was the bitter cold, with temperature in the teens and single digit wind chill. but i had on my thick winter jacket with double-layered knit hat and wool gloves.

i didn't think my parents had arrived yet since the car wasn't in the parking lot, but found the cafe door open and my mother already inside. turns out my father went to trader joe's to get a few supplies, saving me the trouble of having to do it.

the big project this morning was installing the kohler smart bidet which arrived last week. it's a mint condition open box model that we bought for less than $200. in years past my father would've got on his hands and knees and done the installation, but he gave me that honor. installation was fairly straight forward, but after i connected all the plumbing and turned on the water, it leaked everywhere. i turned it by hand a few more times but it kept on leaking. i read the instructions which said to tighten all the connections a quarter turn with a wrench after they were finger tight. that was the secret, after i did that, there were no more leaks.

we've been meaning to install a smart bidet at the cafe bathroom for many years now. my parents have gotten used to the bidet lifestyle. more importantly, the heat seat would making going to the bathroom in the winter more bearable, as the bathroom gets refrigerator cold. so finally today that dream was realized. i like this kohler model better than the smartbidet my parents have in belmont. the backrest that contains all the bidet electronics is sloped, which makes for a more comfortable seating. i'm not a fan of the remote though, which is this foot long rectangular solid crowded with buttons on two sides.

i was the first person to try the new bidet. the seat was slightly warm at first but got progressively warmer the longer i sat. when i used the bidet, the water was initially cold before it turned warm. i checked the seat with an infrared thermometer: while the bathroom itself can get as cold as 50-55 degrees, the seat kept a temperature near 70 degrees. we have the bidet plugged into a smart plug so we can monitor how much electricity it uses. by day's end, it seemed to have consumed 250Wh. the plug also has a timer feature, so we can turn off the bidet when the cafe is closed.

the fact that we had zero customers this morning allowed us to install the bidet without interruptions. our first customer didn't show up until 11:30, allen our daily regular. then it slowly got busier, culminating into a busy stretch between 1-2pm. it seems today was simply too cold for people to come out and get food. only the brave or the super hungry ventured forth.

in the afternoon i cut up some yellow dragonfruits. i also made a large batch (close to 6 oz.) of popcorn using a long-handled pot. like last time, i used some old peanut oil, which works pretty well.

in the late afternoon the temperature continued to drop. it had got up into the 20's, but dropped a degree every hour until it was 18 degrees by the time we closed. my mother packed me a bento with some leftover stew beef from this past weekend and some chicken stirfry she whipped up.

i was so annoyed with my bike riding home. the front brake is still stuttering, and now the chain is making an awful grinding noise. i'd love to have a regular bike i can ride that doesn't have all these issues. later in the evening i went online searching for a replacement bike. my dream bike is the priority turi, with disc brakes and a gate belt drive. super low maintenance, a bike i could ride year round. costco sells it for $760. in the basement i have my trek allant. maybe i should enlist it as my everyday ride, put on the rear bike baskets.

after a shower, i had dinner. i watched some videos on youtube on my tv, mostly patriots related. i then played a few hours of cyberpunk.

first thing i did this morning after using the bathroom was to go outside and shovel the sidewalk. a few inches fell overnight, that sort of wet snow. after finishing the front walk, i cleared a path into the backyard and to the basement.

coming back inside, i found out the buffalo bills fired head coach sean mcdermott after 9 seasons. sure they never made it to the superbowl, but under mcdermott they were perennial playoff contenders. kind of a surprise, yes it's true this season there's a lot of unemployed coaches looking for work (a third of all NFL coaches were fired this year), but i'm not sure if the bills can find someone better. i watched colin cowherd's podcast yesterday, and john middlekauff said something very interesting. he said buffalo's problem is their general manager is too conservative, doesn't go all out to get their top rank QB josh allen the weapons he needs to get to that next level. he said it'd be a mistake for the bills to fire their coach (mcdermott) without getting rid of the GM as well. fast forward to today: they fire the coach, but they promote the GM, essentially doubling down on the reason why they never get any better.

on another show, i heard rex ryan mention that bill belichick might be a potential HC candidate for buffalo. that's a very intriguing prospect. it'd be totally within belichick's passive aggressiveness to return to the AL east for a different team, and stick it to the patriots every season. especially with a talented QB in his prime like josh allen. i wouldn't mind seeing that, even though it'd be totally weird to face off against a HC that was responsible for new england's 2 decade football dynasty.

after a shower, i sat down with a box of thai-flavored marinated chicken feet that i got last wednesday. i totally forgot about them and needed to eat them before they spoiled.

i left the house by 11:30am, opting to take the bus to belmont. this would give me an opportunity to take some snow photos. wet snow is great for clumping onto trees, and all the trees outside were stark white, snow coated. the sun was starting to come out, and so much precipitation was now falling off the trees, it felt it was snowing again. it was actually very beautiful, ephemeral, and i saw many people taking photos as i made my way to harvard square.

while waiting for the bus, i noticed a new bus line - 109 - that goes from harvard square to linden square in malden, passing through union square, sullivan square, encore casino, and route 99 everett-malden (even passing by the 99 supermarket). might be worth taking one time, just to see some sights. the trip itself would take about an hour. with that timeframe, i could ebike to chinatown and back about the same amount of time.

i was worried there wouldn't be a lot of buses because of the martin luther king jr. holiday, but i got lucky, and my bus showed up after just a few minutes. it was just me and an old lady on the bus: she went to go sit in the back while i sat in the front so i could see the oncoming snowy scenery.

i was greeted with a missing dog sign when i got off the bus. an old indian lady came up to my father and i when we were working in the garage yesterday. she asked if we saw her dog. she told us not to approach it, but give her a call instead. given the cold weather and the subsequent snowstorm, i'm afraid if the dog was outside it might've froze to death. if the weather didn't get it, roaming coyotes get it instead.

i got to my parents' place by 12:30pm. my mother was going to fry me an egg for lunch but i told her not to bother since i already ate all those chicken feet. besides, i was saving my appetite for the buffet dinner we were having at spring shabu shabu.

instead i went outside to clear the snow off the solar panels. there was more snow in belmont - about 5-6 inches worth. earlier my father had already cleared the sidewalk by hand since it was too much hassle to start the snowblower (we might not have gasoline anyway). because it was wet snow - even though it was heavy - it slid off the panels much easier. it took me a little over half an hour to clear off everything.

back inside i helped my father crimp some 6AWG battery cables to pure copper ring terminals. we bought a heavy duty large gauge crimper a few years back when my father was making his own LiFePO4 batteries. it's one of those tools that you use a few times then never use again.

next i went down to the basement to water the plants. i don't know if my insect growth regulator had any effect, because i replaced all the yellow sticky traps with fresh ones, and already a few traps had a lot of fungus gnats. maybe it takes a full growth cycle to permanently kill the fungus gnats? or maybe the IGR doesn't really do anything. the small potted pileas, the pennyworts, the gardenia, and the lantana had the most gnat activity. i gave all the plants a Bti-infused soil drench. my new package of yellow sticky traps arrived last week; i cut them up into smaller squares, set up some new traps, and replaced a few old ones with fresh ones. these new 8x11" traps are a little flimsy, the yellow plastic is of inferior thinner stock, but i think they'll still work. i didn't water the pepper plants because the soil still seem moist.

i finished with the plants by 4pm. it was starting to get close to departure time. spring shabu shabu doesn't open until 5pm, but we planned on leaving around 4:30pm since it'd take 15 minutes to drive there and maybe wait in line. my sister was picking up my 2nd aunt who was treating. when we got there we saw no lines. that's when we realized that they were actually opened all day today on MLK jr. day. we could've came during lunch, avoided the crowd! but the website made no mention of the extended hours. most people were caught unawares, and more and more customers started to stream in around 5pm. they won't see you until all party members arrive so we waited for my sister and 2nd aunt to show up before we got a table.

my mother noticed that few customers were actually chinese, and that most of them were westerners. i myself noticed a lot of hispanic customers. so where are all the chinese going for their hot pot buffet fix i wonder?

my mother has been to spring shabu shabu a handful of times within the past year. i myself haven't been back since december 2023, a little over 2 years ago. i believe it's $25/person, all-you-can-eat, but the meats cost extra. i had the mala spicy broth with a serving of lamb and tripe. buffets are like a racket. a lot of the selection are either carb loaded (like noodles) or protein-rich (like tofu), foods that fill you up quick. if you avoid all that, the rest of the selection are just vegetables, which don't cost all that time and impossible to eat your fill in vegetables alone. i was already full after my first plate. i made two sauces but both we failures. after i filled up my second plate, i went back to mix up two new sauces. one of the standard cilantro-scallion-garlic-shacha-soy while the other was a combination of 3 spicy ingredients. i went to add some minced garlic but knocked the sauce bowl over with the ladle and spilled all my sauce into the garlic. i basically single-handed ruined hot pot for all the other customers. i wanted to say something, but slowly went back to the table, pretended nothing happened, minus one sauce. later i went back and redid my spicy sauce, which turned out to be exactly what i wanted, but by then i was already pretty full and could barely eaten anymore. the best thing about spring shabu shabu is their vanilla green tea soft serve ice cream which i had 2 servings but i could've just eaten that all day.

while my parents went home, my sister gave my 2nd aunt and me a ride back to cambridge.

i tossed a load of laundry into the washer before i hopped in the shower. i got some oil stains on my clothes from the hot pot, so decided to do a wash.

there was a celtics-pistons primetime game. boston ended up losing by a single point. jaylen brown could've won the game if his final shot went in. even with the loss, the celtics are still in second place in the eastern conference.

i spent the rest of the night hammering away at cyberpunk. purely out of boredom, but i engaged with the police a few times tonight. i didn't realize you can't shoot trauma team units. i saw they had the yellow enemy marker, so using a smart pistol while hiding in the bushes, i mowed down a team of three while they were extracting a patient on their flying ambulance. suddenly i was swarmed by police. apparently that's a class-3 offensive (3-stars), while the police chased me down. even when i was hiding they still found me, before i found a spot the police couldn't get to. i also wandered to the arasaka retreat on top of a hill. seems like the location of some future mission that i haven't activated yet, i mowed down some security guards (including one ninja) before running away. nearby was a shinto shrine, which i explored a bit before leaving.

heighten solar flare activities tonight meant the possibility of seeing the northern lights. people in ireland, germany, and denmark were already seeing it. but predicting auroras is not so cut and dry. so around 1am i went outside and snap a few photos with my camera. no auroras.

i slept until 9am, waking up to finally finish making my portuguese egg tarts. the shells i made a few days ago, drying up in the fridge, taking up space. that was probably the hardest part, the rest was easy. whipping up the egg tart filling, which is very similar to flan: eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla. this recipe also included heavy cream and several tablespoons of corn starch for thickening. for eggs it only needed the yolk, i had half a dozen leftover in my fridge from my japanese cheesecake adventures 2 weeks ago. heated over a double boiler, i was afraid i didn't have enough, but i ended up with enough leftover that i drank as a warm eggnog.

the original recipe called for baking until the shells puffed up, then lowering the temperature and cooking at variable levels until the surface had burnt marks. i just set the oven to 500 degrees and left it baking for 30 minutes, checking on it at after the 20 minute mark. the filling was actually bubbling, but the crust - which i used pie crust instead of pastry dough crust - was burnt. instead of baking until the end, i shut off the oven and took out the egg tarts.

my father was coming to pick me up at 11:30am because of the snow (it snowed this morning, stopped, but would continue snowing by the afternoon, with a forecast of 3-5 inches). i called him at 11am to let him know i was ready to leave and he could come now. i packed up a dozen egg tarts into a pan. we stopped by the cafe briefly so i could put away the tea eggs.

my original plan was to ride the ebike to belmont, have lunch, fix up the single stage snowblower, then ride back home by 3pm, which was when the snow was supposed to restart and when the patriots game would begin. but i decided to stick around in belmont, watch the game then have dinner before going home.

my mother made wonton soup for lunch. my father had already tried an egg tart in the car, i tried one myself. the filling was cooked but had two different layers: i think maybe because the crust was cold. it tasted okay, but the burnt flakey butter crust was the primary flavor. next time, try to find actual pastry dough.

my father and i went out into the garage to replace the rubber paddles on the single-stage toro snowblower. we put it up on a table to make it easier to work with. unfortunately we faced the same problem when we originally replaced the paddles many years ago: the rubber was too stiff and we couldn't mount it onto the auger. especially since the paddles were left in the garage. they need serious softening, and in hindsight, we should've replaced them back during the summer, when the temperature was hotter. also the screw holes on the new paddles were too small, but that was an easy fix, my father used a 3/8" drill bit to slightly widen the holes. so in the end we just gave up. either find some way to soften the rubber paddles (whether that's soaking in hot water, using a heat gun, or leaving out in the sun) or wait until the summer. in the meantime we still have our two-stage gas snowblower, which we didn't bother test running. who knows how much it'd snow anyway?

at 3pm i watched the texans-patriots game. i was nervous, a lot of pundits were saying houston would win because of their elite defense. i was certainly nervous for all the brady games i watched during the 2 decade dynasty run. this time was different in that i didn't want this cinderella story to end. the patriots was not supposed to be this good this year, first season with vrabel as head coach. how far could they go? at first it was just, "win a playoff game", but with the possibility of going to the super bowl within reach, why not hope they can go all the way?

it was snowing throughout the game. that probably affected the passing game, but so did the defense - on both sides - not allowing the quarterback any time to survey the field and make good throws. new england scored first with a touchdown. houston followed with a field goal. texans scored a touchdown in the 2nd quarter, while the patriots scored two more touchdowns, one a pick-six. going into halftime new england was up 10-21. being up by 2 possessions was a good feeling, but it didn't seem enough. houston's defense was no joke, the patriots get going 3-and-out. but luckily houston quarterback stroud kind of stunk. maybe it was the wet conditions, but his throws had too much zip, and often times ricocheted when it wasn't caught, which becomes a free-for-all to see who could catch it. a few times already he had near misses, so it wasn't a surprise that patriots managed to pick him off. stroud ended up giving up 4 interceptions, but could've easily been more. texans scored two more field goals in the second half, kept getting stopped in the red zone. patriots were held scoreless in the 3rd but a touchdown in the 4th (a one-handed catch by boutte) pretty much sealed the game, given how lackluster houston's offensive was. the final score was 16-28. pats now advance to the AFC championship, visiting the broncos in denver. without bo nix, and utilizing a backup quarterback who hasn't played in any regular season games since 2023, the broncos are in serious jeopardy. it'll be an interesting game next sunday. should the patriots win, their next stop would be the super bowl, which is just crazy.

my sister showed up briefly with esmei, like bringing over an autistic but cute child. everyone kept feeding her treats but me. i played toss with a new toy, but esmei's short attention span stopped playing the moment she sensed somebody might offer her food.

when it was snowing in foxborough, it was also snowing here in belmont. not much, but enough to start coating everything outside in white. how many inches would we actually get?

for dinner we had some beef stew my father made using the 7-bone steak he bought on thursday. it was so tender, the chunks of beef were practically falling apart. there was also an eggplant dish.

my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. the belmont roads still hadn't been plowed yet, but all the roads in cambridge were cleared. when i stepped inside the house, it smelled of burnt crust and sweet egg-milk.

there was a rams-bears game. i didn't care who won, but was secretly hoping the rams would lose, maybe to knock stafford out of the MVP race. i was so not interested in the game i didn't even bother watching, went to go use the bathroom and take a shower. out of curiosity i checked the score, and was surprised the game was tied and going into overtime. i did watch it then, only to have the bears get intercepted and for the rams to win with a field goal, 20-17. so the final four is set: patriots-broncos, and rams-seahawks. if i had a choice, i'd prefer new england to face off against los angeles. but they have to beat the broncos first next sunday.