the temperature today hit 87 degrees, just a few degrees shy of heatwave weather. it tied for the hottest day on record for this day. normally this time of the year the daytime average is supposed to be a pleasant 66 degrees. not only was it hot, but it was also humid, which made me yearn for winter already and it's only mid-may. at least the hot weather is good for plants.

i did some at-home gardening this morning. i tended to my seedlings, watering them and spacing them out so they weren't crowded next to each other. i separated out some cherry tomato seedlings, making out with 3 additional tomatoes. i'm still keeping a single shelf active in my grow closet, for delicate seedlings (like emerging tomatoes) and emerging seedlings (bitter melons). i planted 12 planter cells with thai basil. i should've started them earlier, but they'll have all summer to grow, and thai basil is one of those plants that i grow every season but i almost never use it. finally, i staked my tomato plants, as i noticed they were drooping. i didn't have any skewers but i had plenty of disposable bamboo chopsticks that i used along with rubber coated garden wires.

in the afternoon i was starting to head out to my parents' place to do some gardening there. but before i left, i went to market basket to get some ingredients for making pasta salad. i came back and made the dressing first (so i didn't have to bring my food processor), storing it in a leak-proof mason jar. for some reason it overflowed the processor even though i was using the same amount i always use.

it was so hot i changed into a pair of shorts before leaving for belmont, first time wearing shorts this year. it definitely felt more summer than spring. on linnaean street i caught a glimpse of an old 3-speed bicycle somebody had thrown out. i was tempted to check it out, but the logistics of getting it home was too complicated so i didn't bother. by the time i made it to my parents' place, i was a sweaty mess. i noticed that neighbor's house we saw last week (listing for over $1 million) already had a sign on the front lawn saying "sales pending." that was quick! i wonder if there was any kind of bidding war, and if the buyer will tear down the old house or just do some light renovation?

while doing a cursory inspection of the backyard and garden, i saw a dead bunny on the lawn. this is the second bunny to have died. there didn't seem to be any foul play (body was still intact, no wounds), and i can't imagine it'd be for a lack of food, since there's plenty to eat in the yard. i'm going with my father's theory, that the bunny most likely ate some foxgloves, which is poisonous. it was too young to learn the difference between safe and deadly plants. i'm also wondering if the fertilizer and crabgrass preventer i applied early this month has some toxicity as well; maybe not so bad for an adult rabbit but not good for a bunny.

most of the seedlings were wilting from the heat. i had to do a quick emergency watering to restore their turgor pressure. if it gets this hot again, i'll need to move them so they're not sitting out in the sun all day. full grown plants can tolerate this heat, but up until a few days ago these seedlings were growing in the relative calm of my grow closet.

there are a lot of seedlings in RB4. originally i thought they were weed, but now that i think about it, i believe they're ground cherry seedlings, based on the amount of unpicked ground cherries mixed up in the soil. i'm thinking about digging them up and transferring them to jiffy pots like we did last year with our free cherry tomato giveaway at the cafe. i also saw some tomato seedlings as well, forgot what kind we'd grown in that raised bed.

i flew the drone for a short 10 minute trip, go as far as cushing square before my RC connection started to break intermittently and i brought the drone back home. from the sky i spotted a very large japanese maple i'm going to check out in person one of these days.

back inside the house, i started making the pasta salad around 3:30pm. the dressing i had earlier had already settled back into layers, but all i had to do was shake the jar a few times to remix everything. i followed my tried and true recipe, it was basically just a lot of chopping. i used half a container of baby arugula (5 oz.) because my mother likes arugula, so around 3 cups. instead of chopping fresh olives, i just bought a small 2.25 oz. can of pre-sliced black olives. i mixed the salad and put it away in the fridge, pasta salad tastes better when chilled. i wonder if next time i might try adding some anchovies into the mix, for an additional layer of umami goodness.

i'm trying to figure out what type of JST connector the daly BMS uses. it looks to be a JST-PA which is an uncommon connector. i wonder if i can just a more common JST-PH, even though it doesn't have a locking tab. i'm looking for the exact connector so i can try to make my own BMS balancing cable, as the ones that came with the BMS are a bit short. another solution is to use a terminal block as a wire extender, but my father already crimped ring terminals to the balancing cables.

my parents returned from the cafe around 4:30pm. my mother plopped onto the zero gravity chair watching netflix. they had two online pickup orders and two grubhub orders today, which is the most online orders we've had since starting online ordering 2 weeks ago. the new wifi receipt printer seems to be working correctly, they heard it printing out the order tickets.

around 5:30pm i ordered some thai chicken & rice online. the order was supposed to be ready by 5:50pm, but when we went to go pick it up, once again the order wasn't ready, just like last time. the woman told me the chicken was still roasting, and it'd be 8-9 more minutes. i ended up waiting more than 15 minutes, so from the time i ordered to the time they made the food it took them 45 minutes, which is kind of ridiculous. the food's great; the service not so much.

both my mother and i got the roasted chicken with rice while my father got the combo. i only got the roasted chicken because of the sauce. i could eat anything with that sauce and it'd be delicious.

i left belmont around 7:15pm. approaching home, i noticed that bike i saw earlier this afternoon was still there. that's usually a sign that the bike isn't in very good condition, otherwise somebody would've taken it by now. i stopped to check it out anyway, it was a red "free spirit" women's bike. there was rust on the handlebars and it was missing the bike seat (but the seat post was still there) and the rear reflector, the two tires were flat (and cracked), but otherwise seems to be in an okay shape, or at least easy enough to bring back to riding condition. so i decided to take the bike. to do that, i first locked my own bike to a sign post, then wheeled the found bike back to my house. once i got the bike in the basement, i walked back to where i locked my bike and rode it back home.

i bumped into my upstairs neighbor jeff who asked if he could borrow my parking permit, as his wife drove off with their car and accidentally took the permit with her. the permit's for the cleaning people who are coming on monday.