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temperature outside today was in the 50's; i busted out my fall jacket (hoodie with a wind blocking water repellent outer layer). in the pockets were a pair of gloves and a hat. we're not there yet but soon.

when i arrived in belmont in the late morning i found my mother finishing episode 9 of the alienist; i myself was only on episode 7. she stopped as a courtesy so i wouldn't get spoiled. i had a cup of korean noodles for lunch. i'd forgotten to make ice cubes yesterday so did so today, along with putting a bottle of merlot in the fridge for the sangria.

my father's 750W potek inverter arrived. it works but the built-in cooling fan is super loud, not sure if this unit is defective or are all high-powered inverters like this. the old 600W inverter - though broken - isn't nearly as loud as the potek. i suggested we get a different brand inverter and test it against the this one to make sure we didn't get a noisy dud.

in the early afternoon my father were i were outside trimming the diseases grapes off of the vines (black rot). my mother took the opportunity to finish watching the last 2 episodes of the alienist while i was outside working. we got a little bit more ripe purple concord grapes compared to last season, but the bulk of the grapes were diseased, shriveled up moldy mummies. we also pulled up all of the vines (korean melons and cucumbers, but not the butternuts) along with some wild tomatoes. when my mother finished watching her show, she came out and did some yard work herself, cutting back all the dead garlic chive flower stalks by the foot of the stairs. later my father sifted through the collection of grapes, picking out the good ones (green and purple) and mashing everything up into a grape wine ferment.

in the late afternoon i made sangria by pouring a whole bottle of merlot into the glass pitcher of chopped fruits that've been marinating overnight in triple sec. it was okay, but i had too much fruit per serving which kind of made it a big mess, less like something you'd drink, more like something you eat with a spoon. all the apple bits floated to the top, while the citrus slices sunk to the bottom. next time i'm going to make sangria with some brandy. the sangria also wasn't that sweet, which was surprising given how much triple sec and sugar i added.

dinner was an umami medley of white fish steak, sweet & sour cabbage, and a beef stew that'd been slow cooking all day until it was breakaway tender. i went home soon afterwards so i could prepare for the sunday night game between the patriots and the lions.

riding into observatory hill, i spotted a white tube chair (ikea?) that somebody had left on the curb. it looked brand new, just like the chairs i have at home. i stopped to call my sister, to see if she was home, and if she could come back with the car so i could pick up the chair. i waited less than 10 minutes for her to show up, afraid that somebody else might come around and grab the chair. it took a little configuring to get the chair into her car but we finally managed to do it.

new england ended up losing to detroit, going into the season with a 1-2 record. this was the lions' first win this year, behind new coach matt patricia, formerly the defensive coach for the patriots. new england was awful both on defense and offense. not to make excuses, but a lot of defensive players were hurt. as for offensive, brady didn't have too many effective targets. josh gordon did play tonight after just joining the team a few days ago. a lot of pats fans are hoping he can be the spark to re-ignite the offense. next week (4) will be a crucial game against 3-0 miami dolphins, with new dolphin receiver amendola. edelman won't be back until week 5.