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too many days i've spent idle, today i was going to make up for it by being ambitious and try to get as many things done as possible. first thing i did in the morning was to check the vote count. as predicted, pennsylvania turned blue for biden. likewise so did georgia. nevertheless, the margins are so narrow, even if these states were to finish their counts, there'd be a recount, so it'd take a while more before the winner will be officially announced. but it feels good seeing PA and GA in the blue column, to have confirmation that biden will eventually be the next president of the united states once all the votes been counted.

at 10am i went to my community garden to dig up the chives and redistribute them. i also got rid of the lemon balms: i have no use for them and they spread something fierce, taking up valuable growing real estate. i worked for my than an hour, covered in dirt, salty sweat running down my face and into my mask. i was the only person in the garden, though a group of construction guys working on the house next door noisily kept me company. i dug up some daylilies and reburied them in the back of my plot. i also uncovered a batch of crocus bulbs, separated out the smaller corms.

11:15am i left for belmont to wash the motorcycle and bring out the jasmines as we'd be having 6 days of unseasonably warm weather. i hooked back up the on-demand pump and connected the hose in front of the house. i also washed the honda element while i was at it. after i waxed the motorcycle and left it to dry, i started moving out the houseplants. i then buffed off the wax and returned to cambridge.

i was running behind schedule: i was hoping to be done before 12pm, but didn't get home until 1:30pm. part of the reason was my parents' neighbor came out to talk to me about their really noisy high efficiency heat pump. no time to shower, i quickly made some lunch: scrambled eggs, kielbasa sausages, and a half sour pickle. in order to make the scrambled eggs fluffier, i added some half & half, but probably added too much. i sprinkled some parmesan cheese as well some shichimi togarashi spices. i headed out at 2pm for chinatown.

it was such a nice day, i changed into a pair of shorts before i left, that's how warm it was. i arrived at ming's market at 2:30pm. i didn't really need anything, figured i'd stock up on some snacks. they were completely out of the sea salt sunflower seeds, it's for the best, my mother and i have been eating them for months, it probably single-handedly spiked my sodium level. i searched for some flavored ginger but they didn't have that either. they also seemed to be out of candied tamarinds until i found some by the southeast asian spice shelves of all places. another thing i wanted to find was indomie instant noodles, after hearing good things about it from maureen. i don't remember ever seeing it before so i wasn't hopeful i'd find it, but sure enough they had it. they only carried one flavor, mi goreng, but apparently that's the classic. these are dry noodles and aren't supposed to be eaten in a broth. they're also spicy, as many indonesian foods are according to maureen. at just 49¢ a package, i could afford to stock up (i got half a dozen). later when i sent maureen a photo of what i found, she said it was much cheaper in boston. finally, i was trying to find some kikkoman tonkatsu sauce but they didn't seem to have any.

i left ming's market by 3pm. it took me 45 minutes to ride home because i stopped a few times to take photos. a window had broken on one of the new tall buildings on stuart street and a section of the street had to be closed off to traffic because of potential crashing debris. i saw a pretty scene at the boston public garden and had to stop to take a snapshot. riding all the charles river i stopped again to capture the lagoon with the river but the nice autumn scenery.

i didn't get home until almost 4pm. by then it was 30 more minutes of daylight before sunset so i didn't bother going out. i also totally forgot i had prescriptions to pick up at walgreens, hopefully i remember to do it tomorrow morning.

i was prepared for a nice quiet evening of meat sauce pasta for dinner, but my mother called me in the early evening, said their friend (suming-ayi) stopped by the cafe and brought along some sushi. my parents were doing to drop it off at my place after giving my 2nd aunt a ride back to her apartment. so i ended up having sushi for dinner instead. there was a lot of sushi, i would've been fine with the spicy avocado salmon roll, but i also got a box of nigiri as well (raw fish on top of rice).

my left middle finger has healed for the most part after getting crushed in the garage door a few weeks ago. i can press on it now and it doesn't hurt anymore. but something i noticed today is the fingernail on my left ring finger (which also got crushed) has split. i only noticed it because the fingernail has grown since the accident, and the new part at the base of the fingernail doesn't have the split.