after a quick breakfast of cereal, i got dressed and biked to belmont. my father was still in new york visiting a friend so my mother was at the cafe. only my sister and the dog were home, but they left for the woods soon afterwards.

for whatever reason, i seem to do a lot of cleaning when i'm over at my parents' place. i ended up spending 2 hours vacuuming the house, mostly getting rid of the dog hairs that seem to accumulate everywhere. for a dog with such a short coat, hailey seems to shed a lot of it.

i also did some rosemary maintenance. besides watering, i noticed some powdery mildew on a few of the lower branches. i snipped those off with a pair of scissors. it seems like every year around this time my indoor rosemaries succumb to the mildew. i was hoping this year would be different. one year i didn't give it enough light (rosemaries need a lot of it) and the plant shriveled up and died. another year i kept it under a bank of artificial light, but it was too tightly packed with some other plants and the poor circulation caused the mildew to set in. this year i had plenty of sunlight and good circulation, but i think the mildew in this case happened to leaves that aren't getting enough sunlight. i moved the potted plants higher up so they can get more sun exposure.

when my sister came back home, we watched the hoarders marathon on A&E. i wanted her to see it because i think she has a bit of the compulsive hoarding herself (when it comes to clothes and shoes). we watched an episode where this old lady wouldn't throw anything away, and even when her plumbing was turned off, she'd go to the bathroom in adult diapers and keep those in her house as well (the human waste was so awful that it ate a hole in her bathroom floor). some scenes were so gruesome i couldn't even watch. it was probably even more horrifying since i was seeing it in HDTV clarity. after they cleaned up her house, it was in such terrible shape that she ended up selling the place for just $5000.

when my mother finally came home, we had dinner. my father was stuck in new york and was only getting on the fung wah bus at 7:00.

tonight was also the superbowl. i was rooting for the saints because 1) being a patriots fan i'd never root for the colts and 2) the saints seemed to be the more-deserving underdog. it was a great game made greater when the colts lost and the saints won. it seemed like a pretty clean contest, not a lot of suspicious interference calls that'd sway the outcome (of course colts fans might disagree, for instance the 2-point conversion challenge that was overruled in the saints favor). the saints made it fun with that on-side kick at the start of the 2nd half and capped it off with an interception of peyton manning that essentially sealed the new orleans victory. during a few commercial breaks and at halftime we'd turn to the puppy bowl on animal planet.

were my eyes deceiving me but was there a late show commercial featuring dave letterman, oprah, and jay leno(!)? i thought letterman and leno were feuding? does this mean things are cool between the two late night talk show hosts? at first i couldn't believe it, and was sure they were using a fake CGI stunt leno. i think this publicity stunt helps leno more than it does letterman. if dave is okay with jay, then jay can't be all bad, can he? where is conan in all this? i thought letterman was on team coco, but now i'm not so sure.

besides the late show spot, i can't really remember the other commercials. a lot of budweiser, godaddy, and etrade. at one point there was a pair of consecutive commercials featuring men wearing underwear, which was followed later by another consecutive pair of ads showcasing midgets. coincidence or conspiracy?

i wasn't looking forward to biking home. there was the issue of the cold (24°F), but i was feeling too tired to spend the next 15-20 minutes pedaling back to cambridge. it wouldn't be so bad if the terrain was flat, but there'd be some hills. my love affair with bicycles is starting to wane. i still love bikes, but now only like 80%. bicycling can be hard work. it's okay when it's a nice day and you have tons of energy, but it sucks when the weather isn't so great and you're tired. times like these, i sort of yearn for the automated acceleration of a motorcycle. but as much as i complain, i know in the end bicycling is a good thing. besides being free, it doesn't pollute, and i'm getting the most exercise i've gotten compared to any other winters.