i got an agent right away (missy). she checked the order and said the reason for the delay was they were out of stock, but a new shipment was coming in tomorrow so we can expect to receive the thermostat soon. what i'm most excited about isn't the thermostat, but rather that it comes with a free google home mini speaker. though i'm not thrilled with the speaker's ability to spy on your private conversations, i do like the idea of pairing the speaker with my smart plugs and controlling light switches via voice.
trying to finish up my ham before it spoils, i made after grilled sandwich for lunch. my palate seems to be healing, eating wasn't as painful today.
i did some more cleaning today, moved the small wire shelving to the kitchen. now i have more space for kitchen equipment. but where the shelving used to live in the living room now seems so empty. all i know is i could always use more shelving and cabinet space.
i cleaned the aquarium. it's almost been a month since the last cleaning, and that was just a quick water change. this time, i disassembled the filter and replaced the activated carbon. i was going to remove all the plants to clean them in the sink, but turns out none of them had any algae. the only algae was on the glass, which i scrubbed off with a sponge; it actually took some effort to remove it, this type of algae bonds to the glass very tightly (even then i still missed a few spots). i don't quite understand what happened - maybe the tank finally reached the proper balance - but i'm happy that i no longer have to worry about algae outbreaks. this could all change of course come summer, when the room temperature is higher. but i think enough java fern is growing now that hopefully they will use up all the nutrients first, leaving none for the algae.
afterwards i took the bucket of dirty water i siphoned out of the tank and used it to fertilize my houseplants and seedlings growing outside on my backyard deck. nothing goes to waste! and i think dirty aquarium water probably has some nutritional content for the plants.
my upstairs neighbors finally left around 4pm. if i had to guess, i'd say they're going to the cape for the weekend. once they were gone, i rode my bike down to the post office to mail the american girl doll t-shirt to frances' daughter. it's weird to send something to norway that isn't in a big box, just a normal envelope this time. afterwards i went to michael's to buy a set of clover brand pom pom makers for my mother (i had a 50% off coupon).
when did they begin construction on the beacon street cycle track? seems like years. so it's ironic that the city road crew continues to work on it, such that they park equipment on the cycle track, or leave supplies like a stack of trees. it's almost like they actually don't want people to use the bike trail. if you ask me, it's a waste of money. i do like the new trees though, but i already noticed some neighbors don't water them, so some trees might be dead in a few months.
i spoke with my father who told me that the baby bluejay had died. he found it torn in half in the backyard. he guessed it was the work of the neighborhood cat, who we occasionally see. in fact, that might explain the carcass of a small rat i found a few years ago. only a cat would kill something then leave it behind after playing with it. i am definitely not a cat person. on a more positive note, he did see some other younger bluejays along with the adults. all the fledglings were able to fly, so hopefully the rest of them will survive into adulthood.
i didn't realize how cloudy it'd get today. this morning up until 10am we were on pace for a recording setting production day. but then everything crashed, and it was a rollercoaster of ups and downs. final production number for today was 30.06kWh; at least we broke 30kWh+.
i heated up bruce's meat sauce and finished it with some rotini and penne. when it comes to pasta, i like the classic italian spaghetti noodles, but i also come to really like the rotini. their spiral shape traps more hearty sauce than penne pasta. i ate while watching the first episode of DS9 off of amazon prime. DS9 is my least favorite of the star trek series, but many people with better scifi tastes than mine have said DS9 is the best. the series premiered back when i was still in college. rewatching it now nearly 2 decades later, i can appreciate the nuisances of the storyline much better. avery brooks' performance is still terrible; he emotes everything like he's doing a play instead of playing it naturally for tv. only after he grows a goatee does he get better. the later seasons of DS9 were much better, the jem'hadars are one of the best scifi alien races.