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i had a few hours to kill before leaving for copley square to watch the return of the annual greek parade. so after a shower, i decided to start more seeds in seed starter trays. i started 12 more nigellas, 12 more chinese asters, 36 snapdragons, 18 zinnias, and 18 calendulas. i also planted 12 delphiniums in the new seed starting boxes with covers. it ended up taking longer than i expected, and i wasn't able to have any lunch before i hurriedly left for boston.

i took the fuji bike, as the rear baskets on my utility bike is so rickety, it could seriously fall off. temperature was in the mid-60's and sunny, warm enough that i wore a short-sleeved polo shirt. it took 25 minutes to arrive.

i believe this is the first greek parade since the start of the pandemic. as far as boston parades go, i don't think it's very well known, but surprisingly has the clout to take place in the center of boston, which only happens to just a few parades. usually i like to get there early, scope out the crowd, get some people shots, but i got there by 1pm, and the parade started shortly afterwards.

they really lucked out with the weather, couldn't have been better. a girl with an accent wearing big jackie onassis sunglasses asked me what was going on. i told her it was the greek parade. later we struck up a conversation. her name was andrea, she's from mexico, lives in franklin, but commutes into boston regularly to visit friends. she was having brunch with two pakistani friends of hers (from somerville), and arrived in the city early so she could explore. though she's from mexico, one of her grandparents is lebanese while another is italian (she showed me her thick eyebrows, which she says comes from her middle eastern genes). she said i was the second taiwanese person she's spoken with recently, the other was an adopted taiwanese guy she met at a chinatown bakery. we were debating what greek people look like, since we saw some blonde greeks as well. after the parade we exchanged info so i could send her some parade photos.

i left copley square by 2pm and hurriedly cycled back to cambridge. i went down berkeley street and rode the wrong way down one-way marlborough street to get onto the fiedler footbridge. the esplanade was crowded with people, all out enjoying the nice spring weather.

i got back home by 2:30pm. the first thing i did was to ask my google home mini what was the celtics score. boston was trailing milwaukee by something like 15 points in the third quarter. i packed up my things and left for belmont, continuing with the fuji bike.

my sister was at my parents' place along with hailey. even though today was a warm day, my father had wheeled out his tent stove and had it burning in the backyard.

i showed her the rabbit's nest. she was insistant that i dig out the baby rabbits, until she saw them and had a change of mind and said we should cover them back up. i still didn't get a good look, but they were hairless, but still not old enough to leave the nest yet. when i moved some of the rabbit fur covering the nest, the baby rabbits inside started squeaking (i didn't know rabbits could make sounds) until i covered them back up again.

i finished watching the celtics game, boston ended up losing. the bucks victory was so decisive, in the final minutes both teams subbed in their bench players.

afterwards i went back to home depot - my third time in 4 days - i pick up 5 more bags of mulch. i also got 2 bags of composted manure for my own community garden.

while i was busy mulching around the backyard, my father was working on making lithium battery busbars from leftover copper piping.

around 5pm i took my drone out for a flight. i would argue that there's just as much foliage color during the springtime as there is in the fall. in the spring, the trees are various shades of yellow and green, and it's easier to identify trees than it is during the summer when everything seems to be a uniform green. there's also a lot of pinks and some reds.

around 6pm my father started frying the deboned chicken drumsticks he'd prepared ahead of time. they were given a marinade then coated in potato flour for extra crispiness. he fried it outside on the barbecue side burner, and used the unused barbecue grill to dry off the fried chicken. he used a double fry technique, and while he was doing that, i was inside making a korean fried chicken hot sauce: fried garlics, 1/3 cup ketchup, 1/3 cup corn syrup, 1 tbsp vinegar, and 1/4 cup of gochujang.

we only put the sauce on half of the chicken. the sauce wasn't very good - reminded me of chinese general tso's chicken but much thicker - and it also made the fried chicken soggy, losing all of it's crispiness. the regular chicken was better - what it lacked in flavor it made up for in unbelievable crispiness. i also didn't think the drumsticks was a good choice, because some of the larger pieces tasted bland, like breast meat. my father said he could slice them even thinner in the future, and the leftover chicken bones he can use to make chicken stock.

i ate 6 pieces - 3 regular, 3 korean-style - which equaled to 3 drumsticks. i returned home by 8pm.