i ran my bread machine again before i went out running. i matched the same ingredients from yesterday, the only difference was i wasn't going to tamper with it while it baked for the next 3 hours. with that all set, i went for my run. compared with yesterday, i immediately felt drained of energy. my body felt heavy as i walked to the charles, then made my circuit. surprisingly, despite feeling so sapped, i still had the endurance, and made it around without much trouble even with some cramping on my left side. i managed to do a bit of surreptitious naturing, spotting the following: monarch butterfly, pair of downy woodpeckers, chipping sparrow, and a goldfinch. returning home, i stopped by the garden to water my vegetables.
with just an hour left to go i checked the bread machine: like yesterday, the dough didn't rise again, just a dense ball sitting at the bottom of the baking pan. thinking maybe the yeast was bad (even though when i used it on sunday it was fine), i proofed it with some sugar and warm water. what was supposed to be a little bit of froth to indicate the yeast was good turned out 10 minutes later to be a volcanic overflow of yeast bubbles. so the problem wasn't with the yeast.
when the bread was done, i wrapped it up and delivered it to the cafe. through the collective minds of my parents and grandmother, we figured that maybe the problem was the dough was too dry, and i should either add more water or use less flour. the weird thing is i've followed the same recipe in the past, and never had this problem. the jalapeno bread i made on sunday was good, but the same one i made a few weeks ago was bad, so there might be something else going on (although the bad jalapeno bread was made using all-purpose flour, not special baking flour). looks like the bread detective is back on a case!
before i left i helped my father take some insurance photos for my great uncle then gave my father a ride to a car mechanic in belmont so he can pick up the toyota that was getting serviced (engine check light was on). back at home i noticed the male guppies were behaving weirdly, most of them huddled together on the surface near one of the corners, like they were gasping for air. even though i did a water change a few days ago (so it couldn't be the quality of water), i did another anyway. i think the problem had something to do with the water temperature which was at 82 degrees. after i added cooler water to lower the temperature, the male guppies were back to normal. i didn't see this in the female guppy tank however, so i'm still not 100% sure what's going on.
in the evening i ate the rest of the leftover pasta from last night. my book order from amazon.com arrived, which gave me something to do besides watching the red sox lose another game.