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stirring awake this morning, i would've gone back to sleep except i remember there was the women's ice skating finals, happening now. i turned on youtube tv on my phone and watched as the final skaters competed. 17-year old russian alexandra trusova skated and got first place with a combined score of 251.73 after completing 5 quadruple jumps. next was kaori sakamoto, who placed 2nd behind trusova with a distant score of 233.13 (her routine was technically as advanced). then 17-year old russian anna shcherbakova performed her routine. although not as technical, her run was more artistic, and the judges rewarded her with a score of 255.95, beating out her compatriot trusova for first place.

finally it was kamila valieva's turn, the last skater. it was announced days earlier by the court of arbitration that she'd be allowed to skate despite testing positive for PED's back in december, with the caveat that if she placed, there would be no podium ceremony and medals would be given out at some later date, once the IOC finished their investigation. the pressure must've gotten to her, because the 15-year old was uncharacteristically tentative with her program, falling on nearly all her jumps. she broke into tears once she stepped off the ice, her coach chastising her giving up on her jumps. there seemed no way she'd get first place now, but what was more shocking was she fell all the way to 4th place, no medal at all, despite being the heavily favorite to win gold just a week earlier before the doping news came out.

what followed next was pure pandemonium. valieva completely broke down, as her coach tried to console her. at one point the camera caught her sobbing in the corner like a caged animal. at the same time, trusova became very angry and emotional, as the other russian coach chased after her. it seemed maybe she was mad that her fellow compatriot valieva was being vilified, but commentator johnny weir - who surprisingly speaks russian - was able to translate and he said she was actually incensed because she didn't receive gold despite performing 5 quads, a first in olympics women's figure skating. trusova was so indignant she threatened to not even go to the podium to accept her 2nd place silver. elsewhere, japanese skater kaori sakamoto was crying, tears of joy, because she figured - like most people - that the russians were just going to sweep and the best she could hope for was 4th place. finally, sitting by herself in the hue & cry, looking confused when she should be happy, was the gold medal winner shcherbakova.

the podium happened after all, the two russians seemed like they didn't want to be there at all, the only skater who was happy was sakamoto. thus ended a sad chapter in olympics figure skating.

we hit the 60's today, so naturally i took advantage of the nice weather by going outside in just a long-sleeved pullover. in the late morning i went to whole foods to return a few things (epever wifi dongle and dji mini 2 props) then going across the street to walgreens to buy a few things.

i then returned home and had some yogurt and granola for lunch before i went out again, first to porter square to charge up my father's and godmother's senior MBTA card ($20 each).

then to the cafe to update my parents' on their latest pandemic business grant application (due at the end of the month). i also checked out the broken bunn coffee maker, doesn't seem like a valve issue, most likely the tank sprung a leak. my father wanted to order a new bunn coffee maker, but it'd take a few weeks before it arrived. after some discussion, my mother decided it'd be better to get a pourover instead of an automatic machine (which is what we have now). pourover doesn't need to be connected to a water inlet (although we already have the connection), takes 120V, uses less electricity, and the best part is we can buy it from amazon ($300) and it'd get here over the weekend (instead of waiting weeks). the only downsides are it only has one warmer, requires manual adding of water, and it doesn't have a hot water faucet (though we can always use an electric kettle for that). worse case scenario, if we don't like it, we can always return it for free back to amazon.

finally i went to the fresh pond mall to return the xfinity flex box. i briefly went to marshalls to check out their kitchen equipment. i returned home via concord avenue.

the yogurt granola lunch wasn't enough, and the first thing i did when i got home was to make some indomie mi goreng.

dinner came in the form of an everything bagel with cranberry walnut chicken salad spread. i ate while watching the women's freeski halfpipe. eileen gu easily won gold with a top score of 95.25, with two canadian skiers filling in silver and bronze. eileen won so astoundingly that she didn't even need to do 3rd run since she'd already locked first place, but took a simple victory lap instead.

i read today that modern homebrew emporium on mass ave is closing its doors after 30 years. i've bought stuff from there a few times, from alcohol density thermometers to rubber stoppers to airlocks. sad to see them gone, seems like all my favorite stores and restaurants will all disappear eventually, replaced with different stores i don't care much about.

later in the evening i bought something else off of amazon: they call it a dryer adapter cord, but i got it because i needed an adapter that would convert the 240v NEMA 10-30 plug to a standard 120V plug. this way we can still use the 240v wall outlet (used by the old bunn coffee maker) with the new 120v bunn coffee maker, and not have to do any rewiring. for some reason this was the only one of its kind (NEMA 10-30 plugs are obsolete anyway) and it cost nearly $40, but we have no choice but to get one, unless i can find something similar for cheaper.