i made matcha muffins today. not knowing how they'd turn out, i used a dozen serving cupcake tray instead of my usual jumbo muffins tray. it's pretty much exactly my jumbo blueberry muffin recipe, except instead of 2 cups of frozen blueberries i used 1 cup of green xinjiang raisins and i added a tbsp of matcha powder. i also had some cupcake liners i found in my kitchen drawer and decided to use them up.

i heated the cupcakes at 425°F for 10 minutes to brown the tops, before lowering the temperature to 375°F for 20 minutes (less than my jumbo muffins since these are smaller). while the outside was brown, inside was matcha green. just a tablespoon of powder was enough to impart a strong matcha flavor. because i used raisins, the inside was a bit dry, compared to when i use frozen blueberries, which add some additional moisture. i also took some time to experiment with the flash and pancake light to get some photos.

after i finished baking, close to 3pm, i took a quick trip to market basket to get some gojuchang and toilet bowl cleaner. my mother also asked me to get her some garlic and cilantro. back at the house, i grabbed the frozen drumsticks and half a dozen matcha muffins and went to the cafe to drop off the supplies. my mother told me my aunt finally got her vaccine appointment with the help of matthew. the appointment is for tomorrow in chelsea. my aunt is the last of my local relatives who has yet to receive a vaccine.

i left around 4pm, stopping mid-route to take some photos of some flowering "okame" cherry trees. they're one of the earliest cherries to flower. not as early as "autumnalis" but visually more striking as the entire tree is engulfed in a puffy cloud of distinctive pink. if you're seeing a profusely pink flowering tree right now, most likely it's an "okame" cherry.

instead of returning home, since it was such a nice day out, i decided to walk around the neighborhood and find a good spot to launch my drone. i ended up going to the kent street apartments, which i was familiar with from my time working the census. there was a big empty parking lot where i could take off in peace. my destination was the new hotel being built at the intersection of somerville avenue and park street. even though i had a clear view of the sky and i was probably no more than 500ft away from the launch site, i was seeing some major RC interference. at first i thought it was the metal from the train tracks, but only later did i realize it was the massive metal roof of the skating rink. when i turned the drone around and flew it south away from the skating rink, there was hardly any signal loss. the DJI fly app didn't crash on me this time, i think it helps when i reboot the phone before i launch, clears the memory. i got as far as 2000ft before i saw the RC signal bars drop.

i finished rewatching a prophet (2009), the french film about a young french algerian man rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld from jail. i'd seen the film a while back, but wanted to see it again since tahar rahim has been in the press recently with several new projects (the serpent, the mauritanian). i remember the movie as being very violent, but upon a rewatch, it's actually quite tame, besides the initial murder scene that ingratiates rahim's character with the corsicans.

john contacted me in the evening, told me he'd already gotten his second pfizer dose 3 weeks ago, due to his medical history. he was trying to find a better school system for will and leo and thought maybe belmont and the surrounding suburbs might be an option. one thing he saw was houses for rent in belmont.

for dinner i reheated the leftover burger king chicken sandwich my mother gave me when i was at the cafe earlier today. feeling still hungry afterwards, i had some melba snacks with tabouli salad. i had law & order: organized crime playing in the background, or as i heard some have called it, law & order: daddies.