i found sandy working on her laptop on the living room sofa when i woke up this morning. i was able to gather that they weren't planning on going out to explore today, maybe at most a trip to market basket to get some groceries. i left for belmont around noontime, in anticipation of the chargers-patriots game at 1pm. it was another cold crystal clear blue sky day, good for solar production. across the street the neighbors had posted a sign on the tree announcing a public hearing in 2 weeks to consider the removal of said tree. judging from the layout of their new house, the neighbors must've wanted the tree gone from the start in order to make way for a drive way. no other neighbors will contest it but my family plan on voicing objections. my mother made korean pancakes and a hot ginger drink for lunch.

i was nervous before the game started. though chargers have the 5th seed, they actually have a better record (12-4) than the patriots (11-5), and at one point were themselves looking at the 1st seed over the chiefs (their division rival). but all that worrying quickly disappeared when the patriots scored 3 touchdowns in the first quarter, putting the score to 21-7. they did it on a running game, but as they build up a sizable lead, that opened up the throwing game as well. in the 2nd quarter new england added two more touchdowns while holding los angeles to zero point, with the score at 35-7 going into halftime. the chargers mounted a comeback scoring 3 touchdowns in the 2nd half, but the deficit was too much to overcome, and the charger's defense wasn't able to prevent patriots from kicking two insurance field goals.

the second game of the day was between the eagles and saints. i was rooting against philadelphia as i didn't want to see them again in the super bowl, with or without new england. eagles pulled ahead early, but couldn't score after their 2 initial touchdowns in the first quarter. new orleans chipped away, until they finally gained the lead in the 3rd quarter. both teams had great defense, but the saints was just the better team, holding the eagles to zero points in 3 quarters, but just having enough offense to put them over the top.

my father pan-fried the trouts i bought yesterday outside on the barbecue grill. i brought my 300 lumens black diamond headlamp so he could see what he was doing. i took some photos using a tripod and the 60mm lens. after dinner i rode home before 8pm.

i found sandy and kelvin in the living room, with the shades open, having already ate dinner. they obviously made something at home, but i didn't ask them what they had, and it didn't smell as bad as their seafood stew last night, so i wasn't very curious. they watched streaming episodes of sharp objects on the chromecast, ever since kelvin discovered on thursday that he could stream videos from pirated websites.