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the house this morning smelled like kimchee, that pungent aroma of fermenting cabbage, garlic, and chives. it's a good smell if you like kimchee but an awful smell if you hate it. i wonder how long the place will still smell after i'm done fermenting?

with the start of the new year, i took down the christmas lights from my living room windows. now that the holiday season is over, i don't know what to do with my lights other than to put them away for next year.

i did something today i've never done before: ride my motorcycle in january. to further spotlight how unusually warm it's been this winter, the temperature was in the 50's. the forecast for the rest of the week looks to be calm as well (cold but calm) so it seems i'll be able to further extend the riding season for at least a few more days.

my father got his hands on a freebie bike frame a few days ago. it belonged to one of the astrophysicists living at my great uncle's place. the young man actually had 2 free bikes and cannibalized the parts to make a super bike for himself. he was going to throw away this leftover until my father asked if he could have it. it's a trek mountain track 820. it has a pretty low tube height but long lengthwise. it looked pretty stripped down but after careful examination all that's missing are the two wheels including the rear cassette. if we can get our hands on some secondhand 26" wheels, this bike should be rideable again (a good winter bike if we can also find some fenders).

i discovered today that the mortgage principal check i deposited last week actually ended up getting cashed by my mortgage company. now i just have to wait for them to update their numbers and let me know how much more i owe them.

while my mother and sister took the dog for a walk around fresh pond, i was at home eating some leftover takeout fried rice and watching the bills-patriots game. it was surprising when buffalo scored first, astonishing when they scored another touchdown, and downright shocking when they scored for the 3rd time, with the game at 21-0 just in the first quarter. apparently new england is slow to start, but once they got going, they scored uncontested 49 points to win the game.

when my father came home from the cafe after fixing lunch for my great uncle, we trimmed the 4 large rosemary plants in the sun room. we ended up with 3 large shopping bags of surplus rosemary.

my aunt and uncle came by in the afternoon to tell me parents some sad news: matthew's younger brother passed away over the weekend. they're driving up to vermont tomorrow for the funeral.

in the late afternoon my mother and sister went out to do some shopping. while backing up the honda element from the driveway, my mother crashed the car into my motorcycle parked on the curb. my sister ran into the house screaming, and when i saw what happened i was screaming as well as i scrambled to put on my shoes. a motorcycle is not designed to rest on its side: mirrors shatter, lights break, bike parts get dented and scratched. i quickly uprighted my bike to inspect the damage. it fell onto its right side into the grassy area of the curb. other than some dirt and a slight scratch on the handlebar end, the motorcycle escaped relatively unscathed. but what about all the red plastic bits on the ground? that turned out to be from the cracked covering of the rear passenger tail light of the car. it's ironic that the car suffered more damage than my motorcycle. my mother and sister went shopping anyway, but my mother was freaking out until i called her to let her know everything was alright since it'd cost just $60 to buy a replacement tail light1 (an additional $13 for shipping, scheduled to arrive next week) and it'd be something we'd be able to repair at home.

in the meantime, not sure what the legal requirement for driving is, but it didn't seem like we could just leave the rear tail light like that. at the very least it should be covered up, to prevent water from getting inside the circuitry. we thought about maybe finding a red plastic bag and cutting it down to size and then taping it over the tail light. since there wasn't a lot of broken tail light cover pieces, my father and i superglued the shards together and then taped it back onto the tail light, a temporary solution until the replacement part arrives.

my father made a lamb massaman curry for dinner, stewing the meat for hours. i could smell it outside when i let hailey into the backyard. i ended up having 2 servings before returning to cambridge.

in order to circulate the kimchee juices, i tightened the lids and then stood the jars upside down to let the juices mingle. little did i know that some of the jars actually leaked! so i ended up cleaning some smelly kimchee juice from the kitchen counter.


1 unfortunately we have to buy the entire tail light housing; they don't just sell the cover, which was really the only thing that was broken. i wonder what i can do with a used tail light? maybe strap it onto my bicycle and use it as a super bright head light...