sandy didn't wake up until after 11am this morning. i think she would've slept even later were it not for the fact that there was a manchester city vs. chelsea premier league football game happening. supposedly it was on the local NBC broadcast but only meet the press was on. turns out it was only airing via telemundo, which i can't receive with my living room antenna. she was resigned to watching it streaming from her ipad, until i figured out i could receive the game via the nbc sports channel on roku, which saved the day. but by the time we saw the game, with just 20 minutes into the match, man city had already scored 3 goals, and we watched as a 4th goal was added.

i asked sandy if she was going to be home the entire day, she answered yes, i said i would turn up the heat, she said it wasn't necessary (but i did it anyway, to 68°F). i oiled my bike chain before finally leaving by 11:30am.

today's weather was sunny with a smattering of high wispy clouds. it wouldn't match yesterday's production but it might come close. temperature was in the lower 30's, not too bad, and also i was dressed for the weather.

i had a bowl of cold millet porridge for lunch when i arrived at my parents' place. i played the documentary maineland (2017) for my mother to watch, followed by the suspiria remake. i actually liked the film which surprised me, because i wasn't originally planning on watching it. the movie is long, but the length builds up the mood, and it's punctuated by some memorable scenes.

i snacked on some corn chips with various leftover super bowl dips, including some guacamole and salsa. the top layer of guacamole had already turned dark since a week ago, but i ate it anyway, a little oxidation never stopped me before. the tostitos medium chunky salsa wasn't all that great, a watery mixture of salt and vinegar.

i found out today that massachusetts changed their driving laws as of july 2018 allowing people with a valid driver license from other countries - even those countries not a party to the international driver permit (IDP) convention - to drive in the state as long as they have an officially translated version of their license if it's not in english. this is important because for the first time, citizens of china (not a member of the IDP) can finally drive in MA, something they couldn't legally do before. this is great news for our relative ZY, who always griped about not being able to drive when he visits boston every year. it was actually ZY who broke the news to us last year after they'd already returned to china, but i didn't believe it because i looked it up online and couldn't find any mention of the law changes.

in the afternoon i noticed that the nest in my house had been turned up to 73°F. so much for, "don't bother turning up the heat." i'm pretty sure sandy doesn't realize i can monitor and control the wifi thermostat setting in my house even if i'm not home. i turned it back down to 68°F, figuring she wouldn't bother checking the thermostat again, and that the placebo effect would convince her it was still very hot in the house even after i've turned it down a 5 degrees.

i wish she'd been honest with me from the beginning, "yes, i think the house is too cold," instead of telling me stories of how they never turn on the heat back home in england so they're used to the cold. and then to secretly turn up the thermostat while i'm gone. last month when kelvin was there still, i found the thermostat was turned on to 84°F. luckily i caught it in time when i noticed the house was getting uncomfortably hot. not being familiar with american fahrenheit scale, they're more liable to set it on the wrong temperature.

the final production number by day's end was 35.47kWh, about 1.5kWh short of yesterday's record production for this year. it's not bad, considering that we're supposed to get a snowstorm on tuesday which could last into wednesday or beyond if the snow accumulation covers the panels and doesn't melt off on its own, so we could use all the electric generation we can get. i did notice a characteristic production bump by the end of the day, which wasn't there yesterday.

for dinner it was some leftover meigancai pork with a stir-fried plate of sweet and sour cabbage. i left after 7pm, slowly making my way home. no breathing difficulties today, i think it's just a matter of endurance, and the more i ride, the less tired i get. when i made it home my cheeks felt a little cold but i was otherwise alright. earlier this morning i found an oxo kitchenaid salad spinner which i stashed by my trash can and brought it in after stowing my bike. it's the kind that uses a pumping handle instead of a cranking handle. it will replace the ikea salad spinner, which was also a found kitchen gadget.

i found sandy noisily videochatting with kelvin while at the same time working on her laptop. it was annoying but i reminded myself that i'm the gracious host and she's only here for 8 more weeks. however, she kept chatting until 9pm, and who knows when she started the call, maybe hours before i even came home. if i had a girlfriend who chatted with me for this long every day, i would be worried that she may be too needy. what about just texting? just watching them go about their business is exhausting, made more so by the fact that i can't understand their cantonese.

we watched the grammy awards, which i normally skip. i didn't know most of the young artists, and the ceremony seemed to go on for far too long, with numerous tribute performances, everything from dolly parton, to diana ross, to smoky robinson (who's taken up michael jackson's mantle of physically transforming himself into a completely different person), to aretha franklin.