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because i didn't turn on the heat last night (i spent most of the evening in the warm kitchen baking kale chips with the hot oven and i had the dryer running), it was freezing in the guest bedroom, compounded by the high humidity due to the overnight rainstorm. i felt like i was sleeping outside, my face icy cold. in order to stay warm, i covered my face between 2 pillows. it was a weird sensation, like sleeping in a coffin.

i had a tea egg for breakfast. after 3 days of soaking, i think it's reached the maximum flavor threshold, and i don't think any further soaking is required. i also tried out a new smoothie recipe: 1 cup vanilla almond milk, 1 cup frozen kale, 1 banana. it tasted pretty good, but i think fresh kale would've been better, but the frozen kale pretty much shattered into crunchy shards and there was no way to further pulverize them.

my father just happened to be at the cafe around noontime and swung by to give me a ride to belmont since it was still raining outside. a while back i treated the windshield with some rain-x, and even now my father really seems to be impressed by the results, how the water sort of just bead off. there's a part in the center of the windshield where i couldn't reach it so it wasn't treated, and the we can see difference, as the raindrops have a tendency to clump up. one thing i noticed is when the wipers sweep the windshield, there are these intricate spiderweb patterns created from tiny water droplets.

my parents were having lunch but i wasn't the least bit hungry after my tea egg and kale almond milk smoothie. i brought the kale chips i made last night. the first batch was still crispy, but the second and third batches (just 20 minutes of baking) were soggy because they weren't baked enough. so we put them back into a toaster oven. the problem with a toaster oven is uneven heating, and sure enough, chips near the bottom and top were scorched. the next batch fared better because i baked them at a lower temperature for a shorter amount of time. future reference: bake them for 25 minutes or more! when they're still green they're not crispy yet, but don't also bake them until they turn black. settle for a dark green.

after it stopped raining in the early afternoon, that's when all the animals returned to the backyard. downies and chickadees on the suet feeder, juncos pecking on the lawn, a pair of cardinals, and a hungry squirrel that didn't even bother trying to jump on the slinky pole but was still peeking at the feeder from time to time. no nuthatches though, haven't seen any since we changed the suet cake. maybe they just don't like that particular variety.

we watched beast of no nation on netflix. though captivating, it's still a tough movie to watch. afterwards my father helped me change the motorcycle engine oil.

the trick was to get on the bike and tilt it to the right side so my father could have better access to the drain bolt. with a simple crank of the wrench he was able to loosen the bolt that it took me all of yesterday and i still wasn't able to do it. after the engine emptied of oil, i put back the drain bolt. next i got down below and took off the oil filter with the filter removal cap. some more oil poured out from the engine.

once that was drained, i installed a new filter, before we began pouring new oil into the engine, 2.5 quarts. then i put the fuel petcock to the lock position and ran the engine to burn off all the fuel from the carburetor. when the motorcycle finally stuttered to off, we positioned it to the corner of the garage before pushing it into place with the rolling jack.

normally we store the bike on the jacket to alleviate pressure on the tires, but my father wanted to lower the bike this year so he could put away the jack and have enough room for the car and the snowblower as well. the last thing i did was to remove the battery (taking it inside to trickle charge) before putting the used cover on the bike. winter storage complete! the only thing we didn't do was to lube the chains, but i'll do that come springtime.

the chiefs-patriots playoff game began at 4:30pm. i was actually anxious this morning, worried about the outcome. new england hasn't performed well in its final few games, and there also seemed to be a lot of drama this past week, with chandler jones' drug freakout, gronkowski injuries, and the looming question mark that whether edellman will be back to his old pre-broken-foot form. but these are the patriots after all, a team that epitomizes winning. the first drive seemed like old times, with the offense operating at near peak efficiency, ending in a touchdown. new england had the lead throughout, and kansas city never got closer than a touchdown. with more receivers available to throw, brady also got rid of the ball much faster, and was barely touched the entire time. towards the end of the game, kansas city seemed strangely unconcerned about the time, despite being down two scores. patriots eventually won, 27-20, waiting to see who they'll face come next week (either the steelers or the broncos).

we had beef broth noodles for dinner along with spicy tendons. my father left to go make dinner for my grand uncle afterwards while i stayed and continued watching the game. i was ready to take the bus back to harvard square but my father came home before the game was over and gave me a ride back to cambridge afterwards.