wangyang got in touch with me late last night, right before i was about to go to sleep. first she asked when i was coming back to china, then she told me that her company was laying her off, along with maybe 30% of her logistics department. she said they were going to high some new people, younger people. apparently she had a contract and her term wasn't over yet so they have to compensate her for early termination. one of the reasons her boss gave her for letting her go actually had to do with her trip to the US last spring. her boss said she didn't report back for a week, which is entirely false, since the whole time i was with her, i saw her writing e-mails to her company day and night. they just wanted an excuse, if not that then it would've been something else. i don't think she'd have any problems finding a new job though, she's very qualified and knows many contacts.

i weighed myself this morning, 146.6 lbs., the lightest i've been in months. i then headed to the cafe to defrost the freezer, continuation of yesterday's work because there were still a few areas that were iced over. i put in a new empty collection pan with some syran wrap to guide the melting drips. that only took a few minutes before i continued on my way to belmont, where i was dogsitting hailey for the day. she seemed in better health than 2 days ago, going outside and lying in the sun. she also chased a few rabbits, there seems to be a lot of them in the backyard, big ones too. at one point we saw three, two of them running into the neighbor's yard through a crack in the corner fencing, while another one hid behind some logs. i told hailey where the rabbit was but she seemed to think it was elsewhere and didn't see it until i flushed it out. as fast as hailey is, these rabbits are just faster. it's impossible to catch them when they're on the run. i imagine owls and coyotes must sneak up on them.

there was another dead mouse in the trap. this one seemed fresher, still had a glow in the eyes. i buried it in the same place as the other dead mice, a real rodent cemetery.

it's a few days before april and there's still enough snow in the backyard to build a miniature snowman. the snow has the consistency of old-fashion slush puppy, kind of like tiny ice granules.

i thought we'd set a new production record today but some clouds swept across the sky in the late afternoon, bringing overall production down by at least one 1kW. still, it was enough to make 42.46kWh, a decent amount, the 4th time this month we've gone 40+kWh.

i brought my own food, both lunch and dinner. lunch came in the form of a blueberry muffin, followed by a banana and some hot tea. later in the afternoon i had a salad with some balsamic vinegar, i could feel myself getting healthier with every bite. then in the evening i cooked up some instant noodles.

i finally returned home after 8pm. my sister hadn't arrived yet to pick up hailey, but she'd be here sometime after 9pm.

while riding to the cafe earlier in the day, i found a bike lock on linnaean street. it's one of those combination locks which are the least deterrent locks but this one seemed more substantial. i found it in the middle of the street and a car ran over it at some point because part of the casing was shattered but miraculously the lock still usable. only now was i able to carefully examine the lock. it was an abus steel-o-flex tresorflex 6615C. usually the combination mechanism on these locks can be solved with some patience, but this one looked beefy and secure enough that it wouldn't be that easy. however, i got lucky, because the previous owner didn't scramble the combination, and i was able to unlock it and reset it to my own combination. the tresorflex is really cool, there's segmented joints inside the "cable" portion that's also covered in a rubber house. it's a really great lock. the broken housing doesn't affect the usage, but if it bothered me that much i can always shape a new housing with some sugru clay.