i watered my grow closet plants and did some rearranging. i swapped the location of the two middle shelf trays. the eggplants were sitting right in front of the fan and the constant cool breeze seemed to be stunting the eggplants, which prefer hot temperatures. the wild tomato seedlings are doing well, i just regret not starting them the same time as my other tomato seedlings, which already have a month headstart. my bag of pre-germinating seedlings seemed to have all sprouted but i don't have anymore room for them.

i turned on the television and saw the tail end of prince philip's funeral. it was big enough news that all the major networks covered it live.

just when i was about to leave the house, i noticed it was still raining. a check of the doppler radar said the rain wouldn't stop until 1:40pm. i called my parents to let them know i'd get to belmont via bus, but my father insisted on coming to pick me up.

first thing i did when i got to my parents' place was to make a beeline out to the backyard to check on the status of the solar panels. judging from the disjointed production, i had a feeling there was some snow on the sunroom panels. i was surprised to see the panels all perfectly clear, no obstructions.

all the rain barrels were full from the nearly 2" of rain we've had since thursday evening. it was a long duration event, which is perfect for slowly filling up the barrels. my father also showed me the new barrel he attached to the front of the house, using the 4-way manifold that arrived on thursday.

the rain seemed to have done the backyard some good, as plants looked lush. the garlic bed - still covered in some snow - looked to be in good shape, strong looking stalks of garlic. more lettuce seedlings have emerged under the row cover. lupines continue to develop, and the tiny seedlings i transplanted on monday all survived and seemed to be doing well. the quince bush didn't look to have lost a single petal in the storm. peonies continue to emerge from the ground. the grass seeds i sowed nearly 3 weeks ago have also finally germinated.

for lunch my mother heated up some ikea rösti potato pancakes she had in the freezer. i also had a glass of warm soy milk blended with some cooked buttercup squash. following the tradition of snacking whenever i'm over at my parent's place, i had some fried tofu skin, then later corn chips with guacamole.

my father was out in the backyard refilling the hyacinth bean pots with more soil. inspecting our orchids, he spotted some mealybugs hiding in one of the flowers. we moved the plant into the bathtub where i sprayed it with insecticidal soap. later my father watered the orchids. i didn't check our grow room plants, i'll do that tomorrow. if the weather's warm enough tomorrow, i'll move them out again for another round of neem oil treatment.

my pair of NP-F970 batteries arrived today, along with the dual battery charger. we tested it by charging our old sony NP-F batteries. two batteries registered as full even though one of them was definitely not, while another said it was 75% full when it should've been 100% full. despite using a wall outlet plug instead of being USB powered, the charger still charges very slowly. the batteries weren't even warm. i read it takes 4 hours to fully charge a NP-F970 battery. when i put in one of the new batteries in the cradle, it said it was only 50% charged. even after 3 hours it was still flashing 50%.

my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. when i got back, i handed him the pre-germinated bag of wild tomato seedlings, so he can sprout some in belmont. i thought about transplanting some flower seedlings but then decided it'd be easier if i planted them directly into the garden. i did however plant some chinese aster seeds in a used muffin container. most of my flower seedlings are frost hardy, so i should be able to plant them now without any problems. after that i'll start a fresh batch of seeds.

after a shower i watched an exciting game on ABC between the celtics and the warriors. i thought golden state was a good team but injuries, departures, and trades have decimated their lineup, and only steph curry remains from their original unbeatable line-up. they're currently 9th place in the western conference. boston is currently in 5th place, so ranking wise, the celtics should've beaten the warriors, especially since they were playing at home. but it was the steph curry show tonight, the man could not miss, putting up 47 points. celtics managed to match with jayson tatum, who had 44 points. jaylen brown was out do to illness. celtics played poorly in the beginning, down by something like 16 points. but it was still early, and jayson seemed to be feeling it tonight, and slowly the team crawled back to tie then take the lead. not sure how many lead changes there were late in the game, but it was a close one. celtics activated jabari parker, whom the celtics signed less than 24-hours ago. he was the no.2 pick in the 2014 draft, but hasn't played to expectations due to injuries, and boston is his 6th team in his 7 year career. if he can regain some of his high draft pick magic, i like boston's chances going into the playoffs. anyway, boston won, final score 119-114.