with nothing to do today but stay home and watch football, i didn't wake up this morning until 10:30am. i remember the forecast was for some flurries in the morning before more steady snow falling after noontime. when i looked out the window, i wasn't expecting everything to be already coated in white. the snow seemed to have arrived early.

channel 5 was having all day coverage of the snowstorm. i watched the crawler at the bottom of the screen announcing school closing. do schools still do that? nowadays i figured they'd just announce the news on their website or maybe an official school twitter account. i was relieved to learn that market basket was closing early today, letting all their employees go home by 4pm. for lunch i finished some leftover pizza from last night.

i played a little bit of cyberpunk before heading into the kitchen to make a pumpkin-sweet potato pie with the canned leftover thanksgiving pumpkin and sweet potato. we were going to throw them out (or donate them), but i decided to rescue them. this was an american test kitchen recipe:

the pie itself is fairly basic. for some reason i seemed to have double the liquid pie filling. maybe my crust was too shallow. i was going to pour out the leftover pumpkin sweet potato filling, but decided to keep it in case the pie turns out delicious and i want to create a mini-pie. when it came out of the oven, the center still looked liquidy, but i left it to solidify on the kitchen counter.

i made a batch of popcorn before the patriots-broncos game started a 3pm. i had a popcorn mishap, some liquid must've been in my kernel dish as i poured everything into the pot. it exploded in a splash of hot scalding oil, i got it all over my hands, my face, and my clothes. i thought i was going to be burned, but nothing happened except for an oily mess.

it feels a little weird watching football, when in minnesota ICE agents are murdering american citizens and getting away with it. it made me feel a little guilty.

the broncos was helmed by their backup quarterback who hasn't played meaningful minutes since 2023. he had a week to prepare for the AFC championship. but there was so much talk about him being a secret weapon, how he was going to surprise people with his abilities, that i was starting to believe that maybe a backup QB might have a shot at defeating the patriots. in the first quarter stidham threw a 50+ yard pass that eventually led to a touchdown in that drive. new england was down a 0-7, and seemingly unable to make an offensive gains against bronco's vaunted defense. the second quarter was looking the same for the patriots, but a stidham fumble turnover gave new england great field advantage for a walk-in touchdown by drake maye.

i went out to do some shoveling because i noticed both my neighbors renee and don had already shoveled their sidewalk. i dressed in my winter gear with my rain gear over that because i didn't want to get soaked. temperature - according to my weather station anyway - was still just 15 degrees, but it didn't feel that cold. maybe i was just distracted by all that snow. it was about 4:30pm and there was already 5-6" of snow on the ground. the snow was super powdery, like you could clear it with a leaf blower. i was surprised when my upstairs neighbor paul came down to shovel as well. they rarely help out, so this was a special occasion. paul shoveled a path into the backyard. i went back inside to watch the game.

in the second half, the weather in denver - which was just simply cold - was now snowy and windy as well. visibility was poor, the snow making the field slippery, the ball hard to throw and catch. both teams attempted field goals that failed. patriots did get one successful field goal at the end of the third quarter. little did anyone realize that was the final score of the game. weather conditions was such that you could hardly play. new england's strategy was just to eat the clock for the fourth quarter, with the belief that the broncos couldn't score on the patriots' defense. the gamble turned out to be true. final score was 10-7. patriots are going to the superbowl in 2 weeks.

the patriots' cinderella season continues. yes they had an easy regular season schedule, which they took care of by beating most of their opponents - which is what good teams do. going into the playoffs, naysayers were saying the patriots would be exposed. but new england kept on winning. they beat the chargers, who purposely tanked their final regular season game so they could get the patriots, thinking they'd be an easier opponent. they were wrong, only scored a field goal in a 3-16 loss. when the patriots faced the texans, people were saying new england would lose when facing a tough defense. new england ended up winning, 16-28. the broncos were just the latest challenge. another solid defense, held the patriots to only 10 points. you told me that and i would've assumed the patriots lost that game, not knowing the patriots held the broncos to just 7 points. so all season new england has been overlooked. people expect them to lose, but they continue to win. and now they're just one final win away from being super bowl champions.

i went back to cyberpunk. i had the rams-seahawks game on in the background, but i didn't have a favorite. i heard rams would be the easier opponent for new england, but i just wanted stafford to get knocked out, hopefully put drake maye in a better position to get the MVP. facing either team in the super bowl, i didn't care one way or another. patriots have history with both franchises in the superbowl. stafford was really good in the second half, but they overcome their deficit and time ran out. final score was 27-31. patriots will face the seahawks in san francisco in 2 weeks.

my father called me sometime around 7pm, said he just cleared the sidewalk and driveway with our two-stage snowblower. even just that little bit was enough to use up all the gasoline. fortunately he got some more a few days earlier. he said he'll run the snowblower again tomorrow morning.

i heated up a frozen chicken alfredo dinner in the oven. after the second game was over (9:30pm), i went back outside to shovel. 5 hours had passed and it didn't look like i did any shoveling earlier, because snow had refilled the sidewalk. because this was powdery snow, the wind would cause it to drift. in some places the snow was only as high as my calves, while in others it was over my knees. even though the snow was light, shoveling was hard work. i started to sweat underneath my layers, as i started peeling to cool off, but not too much because i didn't want to get soaked. i first dug a trench into the backyard. i had to clear the area surrounding my furnace vents, otherwise it'll shut off if it doesn't get enough fresh intake of air. the snow was already pretty high, i was surprised the furnace was still running. i kept digging until i made my way to the basement. that's when i saw paul had left the basement door open. i had to dig out the snow pile that went into the basement before i could close the door. i looked up to see if paul was still up but looked like he went to sleep. after i finished with the back, i started shoveling the sidewalk. there was so much snow and no where to put it. i ended up only shoveling a sidewalk trench, leaving a sidewalk snow barrier so i could dump the snow. earlier i was carrying the snow and dumping it in the backyard but that was too labor intensive and took too much time. i also dug a trench out into the street so i could get out. it's going to a nightmare tomorrow for all those car owners to dig themselves out. glad i don't have a car.

i finally came back inside after a little more than an hour. i was sweat-soaked, wet hair plastered to my forehead. but it felt good being back inside. i knew my sister kept texting me, i thought maybe she was sending me esmei snow photos, but she texted me because esmei ran away. but my sister found her 5 minutes later by tracking her paw prints in the fresh snow. esmei ran to the cafe, maybe hoping my parents were there to give her a treat. when my sister called, she came running back.