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went to market basket this morning to get some supplies for the cafe before heading off to belmont. since i had to carry so much i rode the trek. today for the very first time i noticed all the flowers, from the bulbs on the ground to the blossoms in the trees.

i do a lot of cleaning when i'm in belmont. today i vacuumed the living room, including behind the sofa. later i washed some dishes. the goal is to get the house clean before my parents come back on friday. this should really be a job for my sister who created most of the mess in the first place, but asking her to clean means it'll never get done.

this long stretch of unusually warm weather makes me think that i should get some more gardening done, but i think it's all too good to be true and the cold will return again. i noticed in RB4 some wild cucumbers. also in RB4 is an overwintering parsley. in my experience, parsley seems to behave like a perennial; later i learned that parsley is actually a biennial. the snapdragons in RB3 are still alive. in warm climates they're perennials, but with our mild winter this year, they managed to survive.

still no signs of pea sprouts in RB1. i still have a few days on the official germination timeline. if by this weekend they still haven't emerged i may try reseeding (the ones i planted might've been an old seed packet).

for breakfast (11:00) i had some coffee cake and for an early dinner (5:00) i heated up some leftover chicken stew my sister had made along with some corn bread. after feeding hailey, i quickly raced home. why? so afraid am i of my roommate's cooking that i wanted to be there in case he tries something awful. the coast was clear when i saw him making his noodles again. here is a young man who seems happy eating the same thing every night. he asked me tonight if there was any place where he could buy plants. i asked him jokingly if it was because of the poor air quality in his office and that was actually the reason, which is ironic since the last person who would be concerned about air quality would be someone who only showers once a week.

i've put my grow lights on a timer now (10:00 morning to 12:00 midnight), so everything is automated except for the watering. all of the big boy tomatoes have germinated (100% germination rate); i was worried because i only planted one seed per container, but these burpee hybrid tomato seeds have a high success rate. yesterday i saw some snapdragons and today i removed the syran wrap; these seedlings are tiny, like little green hairs, i'll be amazed if i can raise them to full size. they do germinate rather quickly, so maybe they're fast growers.

the basils are out but i might've accidentally drowned 2 of them that looked dry when i over-watered. basils are quick to germinate and i have plenty more seeds so i'm not too concerned. these are the first crop anyway, i plan on growing a few more waves after these. finally, i was happy to see an emerging milkweed seedling; turns out maybe 2+ weeks of stratification is enough time after all. still waiting for the others to emerge though. now all that's left are the hot peppers (they might take 2 weeks before they emerge) and the delphiniums (21-28 days until germination).

the only bike news for today was i tried to release the pinch clamp on my trek. just as i feared, the bolt is rusted shut. i squirted some triflow oil to loosen things up and will wait until tomorrow to try again.

while recharging my electric shavers i was giving myself a little trim. i wanted to try the thin vertical strip goatee but unfortunately my facial hair doesn't grow like that. i ended up shaving it all off, going with the slightly grizzled don johnson look.

i stayed up late last night finishing the hunger games. now i'm really curious how the movie will play out. not sure if i'll go see it on opening day; don't think i can stand being in an audience of teenagers.