i was going to go running this morning, but maybe i was procrastinating, and spend the first hour after waking up setting up fans in my grow closet. id already put one fan on the top shelf - a plug-in fan. the two others fans in the remaining shelves would be powered by a power supply unit pilfered from a computer. it's an unwieldy way to supply powers to some 12v computer fans, but those were the spare parts i had on hand, and it seemed to work okay.
after i set up the fans, i went to inspect the germinating seeds on the heat mat in the guest bedroom. some of the kabocha seeds in my wet napkin bowl setup have sprouted. the seeds from the haymarket squash germinate, but don't seem to have enough energy to sustain growth after that and the little root sprouts all seem to shrivel back up. the squash seeds harvested from one of our late season kabocha seem to be doing better, with very healthy sprouts. none of the wet napkin ziploc luffa seeds have sprouted (besides the ones i already harvested a few days ago), but there seemed to be action in the wet napkin ziploc bitter melon seeds from 5 days ago. sprout they did, but every one of them also had mold growing, and i ended up just tossing them. i got more bitter melon seeds from my father, those are much healthier and aren't coated in mold. it's funny, i briefly soaked these moldy bitter melon seeds in diluted hydrogen peroxide with the hopes of killing off the spores. that only seemed to make it worse. i turned off my heating mat and placed the ziploc luffa seeds on top of the grow lights to keep them warm.
i did a lot bit of work with the hyacinth bean seedlings. even though i planted 2 seeds per pot, only one of them double sprouted. 3 other pots never had any seeds germinate. into those pots i planted some new seeds.
i finally left for my run by 10:40am. it was warm enough (upper 50's, sunny) that i could wear just running shorts and a t-shirt. paul was outside cleaning up our front garden. it's been well over a month since my last run back in march. i blame the fact that i caught a cold followed by cold and wet weather which kept me from running. i stopped occasionally to take photos of flowering trees and bulbs. right now all the white callery pears are in bloom (if you can get over the awful smell), pink weeping flowering cherries, and white service berries. by eliot bridge there are some lovely flowering cherries. one of them is a pink that reminds me of okame cherries but it isn't (okame cherries have all finished blooming weeks ago). there's also another pink cherry, i think it might be an akebono variety. on the top of ash street is a cherry with tiny delicate pink and white flowers, i don't know what variety. magnolias are also blooming, in various shades of pink and white and yellow.
i got back home by 11:50am, paul was still working outside. i took the time to replace the bulbs in our alley motion sensing lights. my upstairs neighbors replaced them over the weekend because the lights wasn't working, not realizing i actually control the light from my kitchen with a switch. they replaced them with high powered cool white (5000K) lights. i put back my old bulbs which are warm and not as bright.
i planted the wet-napkin-in-bowl germinated haymarket kabocha seeds. yes they sprouted, but not fully. maybe the seeds weren't fully mature, that's why they can't germinate properly. i ended up reusing 7 pots that had haymarket kabocha seeds that never sprouted. i dug out the old seeds (all dead) and planted these newly sprouted seeds. whether they'll take i can't be sure, give it a few more days to see if there's any activity. i planted all the wet-napkin-in-bowl germinated seeds from last summer's homegrown kabocha squash, those sprouted just fine. i planted 10 new pots.
i managed to download all 3 episodes of andor last night. i watched the first few minutes and they looked good. after reheating some frozen pastry i found in the fridge for lunch, i sat down to watch the first episode. disney is releasing 3 episodes every week. i'm going to watch them slow, savor and enjoy each one like some delicious morsel.
originally i wanted to go to my parents' place today and do some backyard gardening, especially since my father had the day off today and was home. in the end i decided against it, figured i could always garden over the weekend. instead i fell upon my usual wednesday activity which is to visit market basket for groceries. i thought about making a cheese-broccoli-pasta dish, but changed my mind when i saw all the frozen pizza in the freezer taking up valuable space. pizza for dinner it is! it was warm enough that i only wore a t-shirt and long pants as i biked to the supermarket. i got a few things, including barilla pasta on sale and a gallon of whole milk.
after i came home i made banana milk with the milk i got and the old black bananas sitting on the kitchen counter. the banana was still good though a bit gooey on the inside. i added about 2/3 glass of milk, a drop of vanilla extract, and some honey. the final result didn't taste like korean banana milk. it wasn't sweet enough, and more thin than thick. i could add more sugar, but bananas are already pretty sweet. i'll try some fresh banana next time, maybe that might make a difference.
i'd forgotten i had a few amazon things to return. i got back on my bike and went to the nearby whole foods. i returned a box of charbroil crossover tubes and two charbroil compatible thermometers, now that our old charbroil grill no longer works.
later i had some trader joe's kimbap as a late snack. kimbap is like korean sushi. my mother told me that the frozen package doesn't need to be heated and can be eaten cold as-is once it's properly thawed. it's actually pretty good, and if i get some soy sauce with wasabi and ginger slices, it'll feel just like a sushi experience.
i finally finished watching dandadan after 12 episodes. season 2 comes out in july, and a movie bridging the two seasons will be out in june (the equivalent of 3 episodes).
i also finished the 3 episodes of andor. andor stealing an experimental x-wing, the beginning of the ghorman massacre, a chandrillian wedding, and imperial immigration sweep to find those working with proper visas. can't wait until next tuesday when another 3 new episodes will air.
for dinner i had some cold pasta salad i got from market basket earlier. combined with the kimbap i had earlier, that was enough food to tide me over. i ate while watching game 2 between the magic-celtics. jayson tatum wasn't playing due to a wrist injury he suffered in the last game. the most the magic ever led was by 1 point, and that was in the first quarter. all other times the celtics dominated, winning it 100-109. porzingis sustained an elbow to the forehead in the 3rd quarter which produced a gushing gash wound. he came out with a large bandaid on his forehead to continue playing.