today was the first time this season where i saw snow in the morning. it was just a dusting and most of it would melt today and definitely be gone by tomorrow. i was glad cambridge didn't even bother to salt the roads, otherwise i'd need to wash the undercarriage of my motorcycle before i put it in storage eventually.

continuing my weeklong lunch of microwavables, today it was a broccoli & cheese hot pocket. honestly, they all taste pretty terrible, but there's no denying the convenience. next week i'll go back to something less processed.

all that hard work i put into those phone calls yesterday, today i'd put into effect by returning a bunch of items. i was also compelled to do so because i checked the costco website and they'd sent out my replacement gopro camera. i went to walgreens first, where they also operate as a fedex drop station. the cashier scanned my return and said they'd text me the tracking info and a receipt. i went across the street to the UPS store to drop off the returning gopro camera.

i then biked to whole foods to return a few amazon items (pair of work pants, some garden hose caps). the girl scanning my returns was the same girl who worked at star market. did she quit her star market job? she was my favorite cashier there, always so friendly. i've never actually seen her face before though, just her eyes, since we're always masked. i didn't ask her if she left because another coworker was behind her, didn't want to embarrass her if it was a secret.

final stop was market basket. i had a craving for kale chips and grabbed a bunch of kale on sale. i also picked up a carton of passion fruit juice, a box of melba toast, and a box of table crackers.

i spent some time raking up the leaves in the alleyway. i thought the gutter cleaning people came on saturday because i saw a contractor's truck outside, but turns out i was wrong. they actually came early yesterday morning, like around 7am. it was just one guy with a ladder and a leaf blower, causing a racket. he basically just blew the leaves out of the gutters but didn't bother cleaning them afterwards. and to think, they wanted to increase the gutter cleaning price from $100 to $200! we're definitely finding someone else next year.

the last time i made kale chips was during the general election last november. i started by first pulling off the kale leaves from the stems and tearing them into smaller pieces. i then washed and dried them in the salad spinner. i had enough kale for 4 baking trays, so i baked them in 2 batches. i massaged olive oil into the kale leaves then sprinkled a few teaspoons of kosher salt. i then layered the leaves onto the tray, baking 2 trays at a time, 10 minutes at 300 degrees, switching trays, then bake for another 15 minutes. i repeated again with the remaining two trays. the kale chips were good - very crispy, almost disappearing in my mouth - but they were way too salty.

the honeywell HPA300 HEPA air purifier finally arrived today at my parents' place. my father unboxed it and set up the unit, said it was pretty quiet, he's going to bring it to the cafe tomorrow.

for dinner i reheated the last of my congee. i ate while listening to a buffalo bills podcast where they were still lamenting monday night's loss, at the same time watching thursday night football, a game between the steelers and vikings. minnesota ended up winning, although pittsburgh made a valiant effort to come back within 8 points, after nearly being shut out for what seemed to be 3 quarters. steelers loss also puts them dangerously close to missing the playoffs this season. afterwards i ate the last piece of my sister's ice cream cake.

i haven't backed up my macbook pro since september. it told me there was 30GB worth of data to be backed up. i left it on overnight to run time machine.