i ate some more leftover roasted potatoes for lunch. i still have enough in the fridge for two more servings. it's like snacking on big home fries. the question i want to ask is: are potatoes good for you? my potatoes are simply roasted (bake) but they have been dipped in bacon fat and i didn't sprinkle salt on them. i still need to work in some fresh vegetables into my diet.
i walked down to the somerville walgreens to get some toothache relief for my mother, who told me 2 days ago that she suddenly developed a toothache that was preventing her from falling asleep. nobody seemed to be doing anything about it so i took it upon myself to find a solution. granted, it's only temporary, until she can get a root canal, but better than having to suffer needlessly through nerve pain if something can be done about it. i ended up getting the red cross brand oral pain (the one that has eugenol oil, $10) which i read some very good reviews about online. it comes with some cotton pellets and a tweezer for applying the anesthetic.
i returned home to grab my blueberry muffins and went to the cafe to deliver the pain relief. it started snowing a little bit, i wasn't expecting that. just flurries, but it dusted the sidewalks and the cars. my sister soaked a little cotton pellet with the anesthetic and my mother pressed it to her tooth. at first she didn't think it worked, but it ended up dumbing the whole side of her face as well as the nerve pain. eventually her face went back to normal and she thought the effects had worn off, but when she tried eating something it didn't hurt anymore (it hurts when she eats and drinks anything hot). she maybe this will her with her toothache until she can see a dentist.
i tried getting a covid-19 test today. not that i think i have the coronavirus - i don't think i do - but i just wanted to make sure. cambridge does free testing for anyone who wants one. its a PCR test which is more accurate (it looks for antigens) and they use the short swabs not the "brain ticklers" of old. their website also said they have plenty of test kits and that anyone who gets tested - even if they have no symptoms - would not be taking away tests from someone else who may need it more. i know they do testing on church street in harvard square a few times a week. it's done by appointment, so when i went online to book a time, i saw the harvard square location was all booked up until the end of february. if i wanted an appointment, the next available slot was in another week, on a saturday afternoon, with an unknown location. i'll check the site again in a few times, sometimes more slots become available when they have additional staff working, or people cancel appointments.
i ordered another pair of eufy 2k indoor cameras a few days ago ($60), they arrived today (a day ahead of schedule). i like the way they work, that they're not constantly uploading content to the clouds, so they're not affecting the bandwidth. when i check the streams there's never any delay, even when i check the backlogs. resolution is also better compared to the wyze, and there's no 5 minute delay between motion detection alerts. i'm going to set one up at the cafe and then have a spare. the only thing i don't like is it doesn't have extras like time lapse videos on the wyze. i also don't like that the videos are encrypted and can only be viewed through the app with a login. it's for security purposes but it makes downloading videos kind of a pain, i can't just simply pop out the memory card since it won't be recognized on anything else.
for dinner i reheated the last of my century egg and pork congee. i finally remembered to eat some of my sichuan paocai. the rice porridge tasted better tonight compared to yesterday, not sure why. but having a big bowl of it is simply too much congee, it's like having 2 servings. this is a recipe i'm sure i'll try again but i'm currently all rice porridged out.
i spoke with WWY, asked her if it's true that every sichuan person has a container of paocai in their kitchen. she said she didn't know how to make it which i thought was strange, because it's very easy. she then told me she made a mistake, thought i was talking about korean kimchi, not sichuan paocai. of course she knows how to make paocai! she got confused because she saw cabbage in my paocai photo: she said in chongqing they don't put cabbage, just daikon radish, carrot, ginger, hot peppers, garlic, and long beans. i think every family does it differently, because when XL (who is from chongqing) taught me her recipe, she definitely used cabbage.