i decided to dump my 2nd attempt at germinating mustard seeds after they started to smell rotten. i've since learned that some seeds are mucilagionous - meaning they form a gel-like substance around the seeds when wet. examples are quinoa, basil, and chia, and as well as brown mustard. that means they can only be successfully germinated in soil, and will rot when grown in water.

i left for my parents place around 11:15am. it seemed to have rained earlier, though the bulk of the rainstorm will arrive later in the afternoon. the sky was grey and the temperature was still warmish, hovering around the 50's.

when i arrived in belmont, i stashed my bike in the backyard, knowing that i wouldn't be able to ride it back home because of the impending rain. i found a plastic bag and covered the seat to keep it dry at least. in the backyard i noticed the red mustards and the chinese celery were all dead. just last weekend they were still alive. if only they held out longer! they'd be thriving in this warm december weather.

our latest purchases from temu arrived this week. i went outside and tried the rubber brake lever covers on my motorcycle (98¢ a pair). i should've checked the motorcycle before ordering because they don't fit at all: too short, and my motorcycle brake levers end in barbells that the rubber grips can't even fit over. the covers however will fit my bicycle brake levers (which they're designed to do), but my bicycle brake levers already have rubberized grips. i'll try these covers on my other bicycles.

a lot of the other temu items were bicycle related: new bike bell (98¢), chain cleaner ($3.98), and missing link connectors ($1.48 for 4), cable ends ($1.48 for 200pcs). i also got an 80mm 12V computer cooling fan ($1.98) for my indoor grow closet. finally, i ordered a pack of del toro tarot cards ($3.98), totally on a whim. they sell for $20+ on amazon. they're super cool looking, the artwork looks like old woodblock. unfortunately there's a bit of false advertising, as most of the minor arcana cards (suit cards) are no illustrated, and are just numbered with their suit items. still, it was only $4.

i didn't really have lunch, just some old smoked salmon and capers on butter crackers.

after lunch my mother and i went to the belmont post office to ship out the allbirds shoes and vitamin assortments to my california aunt (her birthday is 1-1/2 weeks away). she used the flat rate box, which was just $17.05, super simple transaction. not only that, the clerk said it'd get there in just 2 days. their was actually a lot of customers going to the post office, and the parking situation outside was a little weird, as they moved the curbside parking spots further out into the main road in order to accomodate a bike lane. but that made it so it felt like you were parking in the middle of the street, plus the ongoing traffic was just inches from the driver side door so getting out of the car was super dangerous.

rest of the day my father spent researching his greek cruise destinations while my mother was in the bedroom watching her asian dramas. there was nothing good on tv, no basketball games, and no NFL until tomorrow. i needed to assemble my aeroponic growing tub this weekend, but felt too lazy to do it today, hopefully tomorrow (especially if it's sunny, it'll be warmer in the sunroom).

for dinner we had rice & mung bean porridge, along with a mustard green stirfry my mother cooked up. i left early - around 6:15pm - taking one of the cars (figured there'd be parking tonight being new year's eve). it'd already been raining since nightfall, just a drizzle, but steady enough to last throughout the night.

listening to NPR in the car, i heard the story of john scott, one of the last NHL enforcers ("goons") that was voted into the 2016 all-star game at first as a joke, but once the NHL tried to "force" him to withdraw from the game by trading and demoting him to the most remote region of the hockey realm, fans grew incensed and the NHL had to quickly backtrack and said scott was still eligible to play "if he wanted to." even then, they kept pressuring him to pull out. scott not only played, but scored 2 goals, and won the all-star MVP vote despite the NHL purposely leaving his name off the ballot. anyway, the story was so good, i was hesitant to leave the car because i wanted to hear it all, and when i got back inside the house i quickly grabbed the radio and turned it to 89.7FM.

i checked out a few more of my temu items. i got a new battery side door for my gopro. the one that i have has a cutout for a recharge cable, but there's no flap over the port so most of the time it's just exposed. the new door ($1.98) is similar to my old replacement door except there's a flap. i also got a 90° HDMI adapter. when i went to plug it behind my samsung monitor, i realized i got the wrong one, should've ordered the 270° adapter instead. it's not worth returning, just need to get another one the next time we order from temu. it's totally my fault too, i should've double checked. i ordered a bunch of stickers, a pack of food stickers and a pack of horror movie monster stickers. the stickers are pretty and there's a wide assortment, but the quality isn't the best, they feel like they're paper stickers instead of waterproof vinyl, so they're not good for outdoor use. i picked a few favorite food stickers and put them in the back of my clear phone case.

this is the last entry of 2022, but it doesn't feel any different, just like any other saturday. 2023 came around so fast, hadn't had time to reflect on 2022 yet. my optimistic goal of retroactively updating 2022's missing blog posts? that never happened. in the meantime i'll keep chipping away at the backlog.