i'm not yet ready to make my sichuan paocai but i filled my 5L fido jar with water (my normal paocai container) and poured it into the special sichaun paocai fermenting jar so i could figure out its volume. judging from the amount, the fermenting jar is probably 8L (edit: i went to the manufacturer's website and it says this "medium-sized pickle jar" is 7L; the large-sized jar at my parents' place is 10L). with the amount of vegetable ingredients i have, i can probably fit most of the vegetables in the fermenting jar and use a fido jar for the extras.

i refilled the birdfeeder when i arrived in belmont. i had some jiu niang soup for lunch then later an envy apple. even though today was a clear day, i didn't go outside to fly the drone because i felt it was too loud. by the afternoon however the sky sort of turned grey and i wasn't motivated to go out.

besides, there were 3 NFL wildcard playoffs games today starting with the colts-bills. buffalo was the favorite to win but indianapolis gave them a serious run for the money. final score was close, 27-24, but the bills ended up winning. second game was rams-seahawks. i was certain seattle would win that one but surprised to find losing 20-30. finally, later in the evening, it was the 11-5 buccaneers versus the 7-9 washington. they played in washington because washington was the NFC east division championship even though it ended the season with a losing record. probably everyone figured tampa bay would win, but i was hoping for tom brady to lose. on top of that, washington QB alex smith was injured and ruled out for the game, so they were playing with a backup QB. so imagine everyone's surprise when backup QB tyalor heinicke turned out to be good. good enough they got within 2 points of tampa bay and almost tied the game to send it into overtime. heinicke was accurate with his throws and surprisingly mobile, reminded me of russell wilson. he had an amazing play where he avoided getting sacked multiple times to run the ball into the endzone himself with a flying superman leap that ended up separating his shoulder but he still kept playing. also surprising was he was on the 2017 patriots team as a practice QB. his first day he went to the stadium extra early (5am) to set a good example, but he found tom brady already there watching film. even though washington didn't win, it exposed buccaneers' defensive weakness, something a better team could take advantage of next time to finally topple brady.

for dinner my parents made shaobing (燒餅) with their electric frying pan. my father said they came out successfully, with extra crispy skin, but i prefer the shaobing they used to make, that was more bready.

riding back home, i double-masked with a reusable cloth gap mask on the outside with a disposable surgical mask on the inside. i figured maybe the additional layer would prevent my glasses from fogging up, but i think it made it worse. it was harder to breathe, and the insulation caused my breath to be even warmer, creating more condensation.