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i was expecting torrential downpours and howling winds but it was disappointedly quiet this morning. the sky was overcast and it was wet outside (probably from a bit of overnight precipitation), it just wasn't raining.

my sister called to let me know that the cafe guest wifi wasn't working. it was something i noticed since yesterday, that the guest wifi wasn't serving up any IP numbers. i thought maybe because there was just nobody using it so i thought nothing of it, though it was a little unusual. my 2nd aunt said yesterday that 2 customers told her the wifi was down. they could connect to the guest wifi but it asked for a password. my aunt told them to try our private network, which worked. but here's the weird thing: it worked without a password, as if the guest and private wifi had switched security settings. i wasn't sure what was going on and i wanted to do a remote reboot, but asked my sister instead to unplug and plug the router, which seemed to fix the problem. i'm just going to leave the settings as is for the time being, not worth it crashing the router again.

times like these, our wifi-pilfering neighbors are actually useful because through them i can see the status of the guest wifi. and here i thought i hadn't seen them using the guest wifi because they finally got the hint and decided to get their own. apparently that wasn't the case; they weren't online because the wifi wasn't working.

steve sent me an e-mail saying he and paul would be spending most of the summer on martha's vineyard. i took that as very good news, until i kept on reading. they'd be gone so much they decided to rent out their place to an academic middle-aged married couple from berkeley, california for 3 months beginning mid-may. this could either be good or bad, but i can't imagine they'd be noisier than steve and paul (it all depends on whether or not they're big tv watchers). does this also mean that steve has finally retired? i've been seeing him more often these days, or at least both their cars are parked outside. he then asked me to take some photos of my front door knob because they needed to fix theirs.

by noontime it started drizzling. a short time later i saw my first snow, a brief period of big flakes that quickly transitioned back to rain. i had a chobani yogurt for lunch.

i went out in the early afternoon for some tea and chips (2 boxes of yogi tahitian vanilla hazelnut tea, $3.50/each, bags of doritos). by mid-afternoon the rain and winds picked up. i coordinated with my sister to get my aunt to close up the cafe early so my sister could give her a ride home before the storm got any worse.

i did a load of laundry and cleaned the fish tank. it takes about 2 weeks for the thread algae to get thick enough that it needed a cleaning. algae really likes to grow on the anbias nana leaves, even though they're so tough and leathery. besides the thread algae, there's also a black algae that looks like rot but can be gently scrubbed off with a sponge. i also took out the larger driftwood with the various java ferns and cleaned it in the sink before putting it back into the tank, switching the direction.

feeling hungry, i warmed up a can of clam chowder for an early dinner around 4pm. later in the evening i had some instant korean ramen. basically i didn't eat anything today that didn't either come in a cup or a can. around 9pm i finally took a peek outside and saw a layer of wet sticky snow everywhere, with more to fall overnight. in terms of timing the brunt of the snowstorm will be overnight, while everyone is asleep. tomorrow morning will be a little challenging as people dig out their cars to go to work. as for me, i have a busy day scheduled: shovel my house, shovel the cafe, shovel my parents' place, shovel my aunt lili's place in arlington, clean the snow from the solar panels, and defrost the cafe freezer. i expect to be in a lot of pain by tomorrow night.

i finally decided on which days i'll be in new york city to see frances and her family: april 3-4th, staying overnight in flushing. i thought i could go for more days, but i forgot that i had fish to take care of (and freezer to defrost every 3 days). 2 days is enough time though, i'll get to see frances (whom i haven't seen in 20 years) and also get some good chinese food in flushing.

unlike in the last nor'easter, there wasn't any howling winds. it may be because of the snowfall which is silent. however i kept on hearing thumping against the side of the house, like things repeatedly falling from the roof. those things are most likely are clumps of wet snow.