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partly my own laziness, partly because of daylight saving time, i woke up late. i used the bathroom, showered, got dressed, fed myself a tea egg, then biked down to the cafe a bit after 12:00. i was there to help my father clear the large snow bank on their parking lot which was taking up at least 2 parking spots. today was a good day to do it for 2 reasons: it was warm at 46°F; they share the parking lot with a few other businesses, and on mondays the restaurant is closed so the parking lot was empty for much of the day.

the strategy was basically to shovel snow from the snow pile and throw it onto the parking lot to be evaporated by the sunshine. my father had already taken a pass at it this morning, that's why i saw some slush on the asphalt. while i shoveled the snow, he used a small snowblower to grind the snow into slush and spray it across the parking lot. i worked until a bit after 2:00 before returning home.

i was supposed to go with my parents on a supply run at 2:30 but they didn't come by until 3:30. earlier this morning i crumbled some snow piles outside my house. the only problem was the front of my house faces north and doesn't get any direct sunlight, so the snow didn't really melt. while waiting for them to arrive, i was outside breaking apart large clumps of snow with my boots.

we were to hit 5 stores: michael's so my mother could get some yarn and i could buy some fake fur to make a wind screen for my microphone; old navy to return a hoodie i bought online (forgot i used a gift card, so the money was returned back to the card; had to dig it out of the recycle bin when i got back home); home depot to buy some potting soil but i decided to check elsewhere first; costco where i did buy 55 quart of potting soil for just $10 (much cheaper than home depot); and finally ocean state job lot for plant seeds. they were having a 40% off sale, but the seeds were more expensive than at home depot even though they were same burpee seeds, so the final was the same (home depot has way better selection, i'll go again this week to see what other seeds they have).

we didn't get back to belmont until well after 6:30 but it was still light outside. hailey was at home waiting, i let her into the backyard to use the bathroom before giving her some dinner.

we not much of a ham-eating family. wait, let me rephrase that. we eat ham, but in the forms of deli meats. we're not the sort of family that purchases one of those large carving hams, even though we have no objections about it one way or another. but tonight we got a costco-brand applewood-smoked ham ($25) and it was pretty good. my parents sliced it into pieces and we ate it cold as-is. it came with a delicious sweet and sour sauce that would've worked just as nice as a glaze if we'd heated the ham in the oven.

i got a ride back to cambridge after we stopped off at the cafe to dropped off some supplies. there were cars in the parking lot (not sure why, since all the businesses were closed; maybe neighbors taking advantage of our lax towing policy) - a parking lot remarkably free of snow (other than the large snow pile). everything had melted! my father said we'd need to work on it again tomorrow. looks like it'll day 3 of biking-then-shoveling, my new workout regimen for march. i carried in the large bag of potting soil into the house on my own before my father sped off.

the hot shoe mount with the pivot head arrived in the mail today. it came from china and took just 12 days, faster than i expected. this is better than the 2 mounts i already have: the one i bought in china which is much larger, designed for a flash, has an umbrella mount, and doesn't really mount on the hot shoe of my camera; or the stiff mount i got last week which is okay but i can't angle the microphone. now i just need to make my wind screen!