i had beef shank broth and a pan-fried pancake for lunch today in belmont before my father and i went out into the backyard to prune our maple tree. since belmont doesn't start their garden refuse pickup until april, it won't be until next week before they take away all the tree branches from our previous pruning. in the meantime we'll need to stack the branches on the pickup table, keep them off the lawn and killing the emerging grass.

there wasn't that much to prune, but they were all in difficult to reach and high areas and involved ladders. we also couldn't vouch for the integrity of the main trunks, and i was afraid they'd split on their own from too much weight or repeated vibrations. we used all the tools: electric pole saw, electric chain saw, bypass lopper, pruning shears, and pruning saw.

even though i still had my broken rib pains (left torso) and right arm muscle pull, i was able to work. i think keeping active makes the body heal faster, or at least a form of physical therapy. i was cold at first - temperature in the 40's with some winds - so i wore my winter jacket and a hat - but eventually i took off the jacket, then the hat, and finally the light jacket i was wearing underneath so i was just in a t-shirt.

we started around 1pm and finished by 4pm. we cut so much, there might not be a lot of maple leaves this year, or it will induce the tree to produce a lot of sucker branches. we went back inside the house to rest, only to come back out again at 5pm to grill the drumsticks and asparagus.

there was a dozen drumsticks in a package. my father marinated the chicken overnight in some 鹽酥雞 powder. once the drumsticks had finished grilling on high heat we lowered the temperature to barbecue. i put sweet chili sauce on half, and sweet baby ray's garlic parmesan sauce on the other. not sure which one, but both smelled really good. the garlic parmesan sauce doesn't have sugar like the sweet chili sauce, but it's a thick sauce (so it coats well) and gives the drumsticks a nice salty complex flavor. i can't decide which i like better, the sweet chili or the garlic parmesan. i ended up eating 2 garlic parmesan drumsticks and 1 sweet chili. my father ate 3 drumsticks as well.

i left by 7pm. i quickly used the bathroom and took a shower so i could catch the oscars. i didn't see most of the movies, but i can't resist ogling some celebrities. there was also a timberwolves-celtics game happening at the same time. i watched the game on my laptop while the award ceremony on the HDTV. boston dominated minnesota, and their win tonight plus a few key loses from other teams placed them in first place in the eastern conference with just 7 games left in the regular season.

jessica chastain finally won an oscar for the eyes of tammy faye after 3 nominations. it'd been 9 years since her last nomination for zero dark thirty. CODA won best picture so now i'm curious to see it, especially since it was filmed in the boston area (gloucester). but probably the 2022 oscars will be remembered for this: will smith walking on stage to slap chris rock in the face after he told a joke about jada pinkett smith, then calming walking back to his seat while continuing to swear at rock. at first i thought it was a comedic bit, but when they showed how angry will smith was and cut his audio (though it was easy to read his lips), it was definitely something more. what made it even more awkward was will smith ended up winning best actor, as he went on stage to make a weird weepy speech about protecting his family. the oscar producers must've loved it because it means people will be talking about it come monday morning. i wonder if this will have any repercussions on will smith or chris rock.