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it snowed a bit last night, not enough to be concerned, but enough to dust the local landscape. of course by the time i woke up part of it had already melted and part of it was trampled by foot and car traffic. it was still 14°F when i rode out to belmont. i knew it was cold so i had my layers, but my face was exposed, and the cold wind pummeling my brow eventually gave me an ice cream headache. passing by st. peter's on concord avenue, i noticed a young woman walking into the church with a tote bag that read, "GOD HATES BAGS". not sure how i feel about that.

i brought 3 jars of homemade kimchee, which we had with noodles for lunch. the salting i did yesterday still wasn't enough, could've used another tablespoon or two. some bigger cabbage pieces (stalks) weren't completely fermented so they tasted raw, which had a chlorinated flavor it. the leafy portions and the radishes were okay. my mother said the kimchee should be left outside for another day or two, to give it some more tang in lieu of additional saltiness.

everyone was doing their own thing: my sister went out in the afternoon, my mother was busy with her knitting, and my father - who will reach retirement age next month - was buried in paperwork, trying to figure out his benefits (medicare, property tax reduction, etc). as for me, my day was spent watching television and surfing the web. i wondered if i should've stayed home and worked, get a head start on next week, hard to really relax with a pair of impending deadlines.

after dinner my parents were worried that it might be too cold to bike back and told me to take one of the cars instead. never one to give up on a challenge, i elected to ride the bicycle. in fact, it was actually warmer than this morning with temperature at 24°F. distracted by my assortment of bike lights, i forgot to put on my reflective safety vest. there was hardly any snow left on the roads, but what little there were, i purposely rode through just to leave my tire tracks.

packages were waiting on my doorstep. a pair of black dress pants, and a pair of red jeans. longtime weblog readers will know that i used to be obsessed with red pants. these were a nice pair of jeans, in a slim style, which they tell me is between straight and skinny. i don't think any man in his late 30's should wear skinny jeans, but slim? they fit okay, a little tight if i wear them with thermal underwear, but otherwise comfortable. also arrived: my pedegg. i've got some serious callous on my heels, to the point where i'm seriously considering going to one of those foot salons to get my feet done. in the meantime, i can work on my feet with the pedegg.

i took a bath, which is just an excuse to light some incense and read the leftover new yorker magazines drew left behind more than a month ago. maybe the increased moisture could also help with my sinuses, which due to this extremely dry weather, feels like i'm about to have a bloody nose.

i've been researching heating vent extenders and i want to get one. the cheapest one i can find online is $15 through amazon, which according to the reviewers seems like a lot of money for a simple length of clear plastic. it doesn't seem like a hard thing to make, but when i searched online i couldn't find any DIY examples (maybe nobody's that ghetto to make their own vent extender). nevertheless, i found a suitable sized cardboard box (20x15x6) and carefully cut it in half across the middle with an x-acto knife so i ended up with 2 cardboard trays. i still need to trim them down - they're currently too tall (3.5" when i only need 1") and long (40" end-to-end but i only need 36" which is the depth of my couch) - before taping them together. if this works, it'll be a revolution in interior decorating because my living room won't need to be laid out diagonally anymore. i can reclaim the space behind the previously kitty-cornered couch and i can move my television to the center of my bay window instead of sitting on the side. and in the space cleared up by the relocated television, i might put a coat rack, class up this joint.