with the dow jones peaking at 13,000 today, it was the perfect time to sell some mutual funds. not since the crash have i checked my fidelity account, where i was at a loss. when i checked this morning, not only did i make back my original investment, but now i had a slight profit. i needed the money to pay for my taxes; i haven't done them yet, but based on what i made this past year and the fact that i failed to pay my quarterly installments, i already had an idea how much i'd need come tax day.

i tried going onto the fidelity website to sell my mutual funds but i could figure out how to do it. it seemed like i could only transfer money from one mutual fund into another; or if i did sell them, i couldn't just sell all my shares but had to sell based on a dollar amount. when i called the fidelity hotline i was put on extended hold. i hung up and decided to visit the local office down in kendall square.

the kendall square fidelity office had keurig machine with free assortments of different flavors. before i had a chance to see if they had any chai latte, an agent came out and asked if she could help me. after i told her what i wanted to do, she brought me to a computer station to talk me through the process. the computer was actually linked to a floor mat: stepping away at my point closed the computer. the trick to selling mutual funds is they first need to be transferred to a money market fund before that money can be transferred into a bank account. i sold all of my blue chip growth and my communication equipment select, 2 of the least performing funds.

coming back, i stopped by the supermarket to get some groceries. earlier i'd decided i wanted to make some pulled pork. i bought a 7.34 lb. picnic roast (pork shoulder) for $10.20 ($1.39/lb.). along with some onion rolls, i also got two bottles of bull's eye barbecue sauce (2 for $4).

i saw my roommate leaving the house as soon as i got home. i rang my bell a few times before she finally turned around and saw me. she waved hello but kept on walking. later i found out she was having lunch with an astrophysicist who's the friend of her brother-in-law and who actually found my place for her to stay through my parents.

the last time i made pulled pork was back in november, where i used a picnic roast as well. i failed to check my notes, otherwise i would've known to avoid the picnic roast AKA pork shoulder. there was a lot of on the outside and a big thick bone on the inside. it took some work to render off all the edible parts and i even ended up poking myself in the finger with a knife tip. the pork went into the crockpot by 1:00, filled to the top with boiling water, along a chopped onion, some chopped garlic, a cup of chinese cooking wine, and a few pieces of ginger.

by then my roommate had already came back from her lunch appointment. the house already smelled of slowly cooked pork but she didn't make any comments.

betting that this will be an early growing season because of the unusually warm winter, i began setting up my grow closet. last year i didn't set up the grow closet until the end of march. once again i emptied some content from my hallway closet into my bedroom and brought up the trio of hanging shop lights from the basement. i could really use another shop light and if i don't care about fancy reflectors the most basic model sells just for $10 at home depot. i may need to make some new growing containers because the old ones have started to turn yellow and brittle with age. my roommate, who was leaving for an MIT lecture, saw what i was doing and seemed impressed.

my roommate didn't come back home until almost 8:00. that was also the time when i finally took out the pork and began to shred them. i told my roommate that my next tenant is scheduled to arrive the morning of the 29th (wednesday), so she'll need to move out sometime on the 28th.

my roommate was surprised that i was going to just dump out all the juices. "people in china pay for that broth!" she told me. true, it does look and smell delicious, but so much fat was rendered during the slow cooking time that the broth is an unhealthy oily mess. besides, i only put in a pinch of the salt, so it tastes pretty bland (this from past experience where i taste tested some of this soup).

into the crock pot went the shredded pork, along with 1.5+ bottles of barbecue sauce, about 1/2 cup of hot sauce, and 3/4 cup of apple vinegar. after cooking for another 30 minutes, the pulled pork was finally ready. my roommate already ate so she had no appetite for a sandwich but tried a bit of pulled pork on its own before taking a photo for her weibo post.

spent most of my skyrim time exploring alftand, a dwarven ruin. i picked up so much loot that i had to leave for the surface prematurely so i could return to town (whiterun) and dump my treasures. coming back to alftand, i was distracted by a dragon flying overhead and took a detour to find its lair. for some reason there was a wandering giant (even though there aren't any giant camps nearby) and just for kicks i attacked the giant directly. amazingly, i was able to dispatch the giant with only 2 hits. i think the giant managed to strike me but my legendary steel plated armor took the blow like a champ. i then discovered the forsaken cave and spent the rest of the night clearing it out. my follower is armed with a fireball staff while i wield a soul-stealing fire-damaging enchanted battle axe. it's gotten to the point where i haven't fought a difficult enemy in a long time. sure, i still die occasionally when i'm accidentally ganged up but that's becoming a rare event.