it was still dark when i got out of bed even though it was late morning. earlier i heard the rumbling of thunder and the rain was still pouring outside when i looked out the living room window. there was a brief lull and i thought maybe i could sneak in a run, but the sky went dark again and the rain began anew. by the end of the day, the official rainfall amount for boston was 0.75".

i made an omelette for lunch, using mostly leftover ingredients: frozen diced ham, old refrigerated garden tomatoes, onions, parmesan cheese, hot pepper rings, and of course eggs. i like to add a dash of half & half into my eggs to make them puffier, and a healthy drizzle of sriracha sauce.

i didn't go out today, the weather was such that it was a good day to stay inside. besides doing some retroactive blog updating, the only other constructive thing i day today was to book my new york city hotel after frances was asking me when and where i'd be staying. my default was always flushing, but the hotel i stayed at the last few times was kind of gross. besides, even though flushing is closer to all the foods i like to eat, it's far away from the bus station, like a 45 minute subway ride far. from a logistical vantage point, it'd make more sense if i stayed around midtown, provided i could find a cheap enough hotel.

booking.com showed me the cheapest hotel in that area was the manhattan at time square, with a price of $120/night. i ended up finding a different place through hotwire.com for $112/night, so i thought i scored a bargain. hotwire wouldn't tell me the name of the hotel until i paid, but it was around midtown and 3-stars. i was all ready to check out until i saw the final price: $330. first there was taxes ($78), then a hotel fee ($30), then another hotel fee ($30). so on top of the price for the 2-night stay, i ended up paying an additional $140 in fees and taxes. it seemed like a ripoff, but most hotels in that area were even more expensive (a few hundred a night), so i ate the cost.

after i paid, the name of the hotel was finally revealed: casamia 36 hotel on 449 W 36th street. one good thing about the hotel - besides being close to my bus stop - is that it's also within walking distance to koreatown. i'm definitely going to go there for korean fried chicken one of these nights. much later, when i searched for the hotel itself, i found out i could've gotten the room for even less, $83/night, with a final total of just $230 after fees and taxes. unfortunately hotwire doesn't allow cancellations and all bookings are final. mark this as a valuable life lesson: there are so many hotels in NYC, you can find one for any price point, do some more comparison shopping.

my mother called to let me know the thermos bottle i switched with them was broken as well, didn't retain any heat, all of it leaked out and the outside was just as hot as the inside. i told her i could buy them a new one but she said not to bother, that they'd use a used thermal carafe from the cafe, which works just as well. i'm wondering if i didn't accidentally take the wrong thermos, and that the one i took might not be their old thermos that broke?

the rain finally stopped around 4-5pm. the sun actually came out, setting the landscape aglow.

for dinner i ate the last of my leftover rice porridge. even though it was the third day and usually i'd be sick of it, because it was kind of a cold night, that hot congee really hit the spot. i watched while watching thursday night football on amazon prime. browns beat the steelers, 29-17. originally i was going to root for pittsburgh (cleveland is such a dumpster fire), but when i found out former patriots jacoby brissett was the QB, i immediately started rooting for the browns.

temperature tonight was going to drop into the 50's, maybe lower. fearing for my plants, i brought them all inside. i need to do the same tomorrow at my parents' place, where it's going to be even colder tomorrow night, temperature in the 40's.