i knew from last night's news broadcast that the forecasted snow would only graze us. original amount was as high as 3" (which meant i'd have to do some shoveling), but turns out the only place that did have some precipitation was on the cape. nevertheless, i was surprised to see a thin dusting of fresh powder on cars this morning, but that was the extent of it.
paul and his progenies went out around 10:30am. likewise karen did the same at 11am, invited by her coworker friend paula to take a field trip to the stoughton ikea, karen's first ikea experience. that left me the house all to myself. i went to go use the bathroom in peace, followed by a hot shower, then made chicken sausage oatmeal for lunch.
i got in touch with my parents in the late morning, updated them on my lack of success trying to check-in their cathay pacific return flight and reserve seats. last night i gave them a taiwanese number to call but it was for membership service, not for flight reservations. i quickly went online and found the right number (24/7), hopefully they got in touch with an agent to get everything sorted out.
i finished watching rogue one, which came out on the torrent sites last night. i'd seen the movie already, but it was a muddy camera bootleg (long story, i'd planned on seeing it in the theatres, but when i got my hands on the bootleg, i couldn't resist watching the whole thing), so it was nice to see the film with some clarity. i like rogue one better than force awakens; the latter seems more immature, like it was written for small children, with cartoonish characters like BB-8 and maz kanata, this generation's jar jar binks in my opinion.
not that rogue one didn't have some problems with it as well. that galen erso would design a weakness in the death star and in order to relay that critical message to the rebel alliance, he enlists the help of a morally-conflicted cargo pilot to deliver the secret message to saw gerrera, a resistance leader with psychological problems (paranoia for one). in the film it doesn't seem like he's in any hurry to tell the alliance about the death star bug, and the only other person who ends up finding about it is jyn erso, who galen (or gerrera) doesn't even know if she's alive, but spends most of the time in his holographic message talking and apologizing directly to her. and then the plan to break into the empire data storage facility to steal the death star plans, that's a little convoluted and far-fetched, only in a movie would that plan ever work.
but my favorite thing about rogue one is K-2SO, the sassy reprogrammed imperial security droid. i could watch a whole movie about him making catty comments about everything in the star wars universe. or like a mysteru science theater 3000 with K-2SO making comments about the movies.
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i did some maintenance on my grow closet. the plastic trays were missing a layer of gravel, which when combined with a layer of water, gives the plants some much-needed moisture in an otherwise dry environment. i should've done the gravel bed from the start, saved myself the trouble of having to pull all the trays back out and redistribute the cups.
i found another dried up zebrina, i transplanted an extra seedling to take its place. the thai basil and the tomato seedlings (all 3 varieties) have emerged, it took 7 days to germinate. now all that's left are the peppers and the eggplants. 2 of the lupines have also germinated, still waiting for the rest (8 more). i planted 4 more japanese eggplants (2 seeds each cup) with the remaining extra 4 empty cups, giving me a total of 12 eggplants.
i sealed up the grow closet, so now there is reflective mylar material on all sides. as for the lights, there's still a bank of fluorescents that are currently off. i really need some sort of fan system because i'm afraid the closet will get too hot once all the lights (all 240+ watts of illumination) are on.
i went out in the late afternoon to pick up some groceries from star market. there was a sale on cabbage (because of st.patrick's day) for something like 17¢/lbs. at that price, i could've bought a few heads and just store them in the fridge for future sauerkraut use. unfortunately they didn't have any, which was strange (not a big deal, cabbage typically are very cheap anyway). i got some green grapes which turned out to be a little sour. finally, i found they sold that yogi brand tahitian vanilla hazelnut tea ($3.50/box) i love so much. i ended up buying two boxes because they're hard to find, and typically star market doesn't have this flavor (i know, because i look every time, and they never carry it).
i chiseled out another parking spot. by that point paul and the gang had already returned home. it was my turn to make noises, and to show them what an altruistic neighbor i was, to be outside clearing out a parking spot when i don't even own a car. but really, i just love breaking up that ice. we got some warm days coming, hopefully the frozen snow and ice will continue to melt.
for dinner i reheated some leftover risotto (never as good as fresh risotto) and roasted half a bundle of asparagus. i was doing the math and expected karen to be home by 4-5pm. she didn't come back until around 7:30pm, busting through the draft curtain with bags of household items she bought from ikea. by then i was halfway done with dinner, semi-watching some bob's burger on FOX.
karen told me that her canadian friend wouldn't be coming this weekend yet again, but postponing her visit until the first weekend of april. i get the feeling that her friend is kind of indecisive, but her reasoning is she wants to wait until better weather. but waiting for good weather in new england is a lost cause. the forecast for this weekend is actually 60+ degrees on saturday. who's to say the following weekend won't be rain and snow and cold? at this rate, cancelling every week, by the time she actually visits, karen's boyfriend will be here.