as an experiment, i filled both aroma electric kettles with the same amount of water (0.6L) and started them at the same time to see which one would finish boiling first. i was feeding the fish right when the boil was about to be done when i noticed the light in the aquarium shut off. it took me several seconds to piece together the clues before realizing the circuit breaker for the kitchen had popped because of the overload due to running both kettles simultaneously. i quickly ran down into the basement to flip back the breaker and continue the experiment (it didn't fail the second time). my kettle finished first, followed by the "new" kettle a few seconds later.

i also raised some of the fluorescent grow lights in order to accomodate the fast growing tomatoes. at this rate they're already big enough to be transplanted outdoors but the temperature still isn't warm enough. i might not have a choice since they're beginning to outgrow the grow closet. i should've never started them so early! all that unusually warm weather ruined my growing schedule!

i went to belmont to do some gardening. temperature was barely in the 60's today but i only wore a t-shirt figuring the bicycling would warm me up. i talked with mel again, she told me the plants she ordered online were tinier than she realized. since her family will be returning to switzerland in 1-1/2 years, she probably won't see her wisteria flowering before they leave.

when my father returned home in the afternoon, i helped him prune the backyard maple tree. since we last gave it a major trim in order to get more sun exposure in the garden, the tree has grown many more new branches (mostly vertical suckers) which now threaten to eclipse the garden once again.

it'd only been 4 days since we planted seeds in the raised beds and many of them have already sprouted. the radishes weren't a surprise, since they were supposed to germinate in only 5 days and reach maturity in under a month. what was surprising were the arugula seeds my father dumped into half of raised bed 1. they weren't even the best seeds, more like end of the season leftovers, but they had no problems germinating.

i returned home around 5:00. i finished the rest of my chicken raviolis for dinner.

my roommate likes to wash his clothes late at night but the weird thing is he doesn't use the dryer afterwards so i'm assuming he hang dries his clothes in his room. i could hear him turning the washing machine knob for a long time before he came to me with something in his hand. "the washing machine broke," he told me. apparently he managed to pry off the knob somehow. i asked him what direction he was turning the dial (it only turns clockwise) but he couldn't remember. standing next to me while i was trying to figure out how to repair the knob, i could smell my roommate. i can't imagine he's very popular at work either and i don't think his friends can overcome the social awkwardness to let him know that he stinks. what kind of childhood drama did he have that made him so afraid of getting clean? i did manage to fix the knob eventually (using a helpful diagram i found online), enough so that he could use the machine.

later still my mother called me, freaking out over discovering a bunch of insect wings on one of the the windowsills of the computer room. "it's termites!" she said. i didn't believe it at first until they sent me a photo: it definitely looked like the aftermath of a termite swarm. my father actually noticed something suspicious more than a year ago when he was washing the windows from the outside, but never bothered to investigate it further. now they have a full blown case of termite infestation they have to deal with. my father still didn't think it was anything to be worried about while my mother and sister were flipping out.