my mother called and told me they were going on a supply run to costco then restaurant depot. i opted to skip the trip, while they'd come pick me up afterwards. later i decided to take the bike to belmont on my own, since it wasn't that cold, temperature only in the mid-20's. the secret is wool mittens, otherwise my fingers would hurt from the cold.

i stopped midway, at the recently renovated glacken field, to fly my drone which i packed in my backpack. it was a cold day so there were no children in the park, which made it an ideal time to fly. plus, it was situated on the crest of a small hill, so i had the advantage of elevation. my samsung phone was out of power so i used my google pixel phone instead, since i didn't have any other option. the pixel 3XL is notorious for crashing mid-flight, but that didn't happen at all today, maybe because i had good signal throughout, maybe they finally fixed the buggy app, or maybe it was just luck. because it was cold, i was flying with reduce battery capacity, so i was carefully monitoring my power. i flew as far east to larch road, and as far west as dalton road. i could've pushed it, my range had only dropped to 50-75%, but i didn't want to risk my luck, especially since i didn't know when the fly app might crash and freeze.

i finally got to my parents' place by 1pm. they came home around 1:30pm. seems like things are back in stock at restaurant depot, including the elusive 20 oz. clear plastic cups and lids. my parents bought a box just in case of future supply issues. they also had all the different sizes of takeout containers. my mother said neither of those places were crowded, compared to when we usually go on mondays, so maybe sundays might be a better day for future supply runs.

my mother made miangeda for lunch while she asked me to start making another batch of nachos. she bought a large bag of corn chips from costco, but i still had enough leftover from yesterday. chips wasn't the problem, it was the cheese. she fished out a wedge of gouda cheese but i thought it was too fancy for nachos, with demanded a lower class cheese, the more processed the better. my other helped me chop the ingredients after watching me yesterday and didn't want to wait forever. we only used a single serrano pepper and i didn't add any cilantro. turns out we had plenty of cheese, the colby pepper jack i shredded yesterday, i probably only used a third, so when i shredded the rest of it, we had more than enough.

we didn't finish the whole tray of nachos this time around, had about a third leftover which my mother said we could reheat in the toaster oven (she doesn't like using the regular oven).

i saw the pair of cardinals visiting the feeder, and a song sparrow pecking on the ground. the squirrel was hanging around, i thought it got over trying to get to the suet feeder, but later i saw it clinging onto the feeder, still trying to figure it out. i think it'll soon learn that the suet feeder is impossible to access, just like how it never bothers with the squirrel buster feeder these days.

there were 3 wildcard playoff games today: eagles-buccaneers, 49ers-cowboys, then steelers-chiefs. all the games were blowouts except the san franciso-dallas game, that was a close one that was decided in the final seconds when bad clock management made the cowboys run out of time to throw a hail-mary play to possibly tie win the game. next weekend, it's bengals-titans, 49ers-packers, bills-chiefs, and cardinal/rams-buccaneers depending on who wins monday night's game. with the patriots out, i don't know if i can root for the bills. i'm sort of pulling for jimmy garoppolo and san francisco. i am definitely not rooting for tom brady, for him to win another super bowl would make him insufferable, with his TB12 method, his cryptocurrency, and his recent clothing line.

in the late afternoon my father and i went down to the basement grow room to water our plants. the lemon verbana had some aphids which i treated with insecticidal soap. the gardenia had signs of mealybugs on its tips, so we treated that with alcohol-soaked q-tips before i sprayed a little bit with neem oil. while watering the jasmines, we discovered a slight mealybug infestation on the left front jasmine, the old plant in the grey pot. we'll need to keep an eye on that one, it hasn't seemed to spread to any other jasmines thus far. the mealybugs were big too, fat juicy ones, which makes me question if the systemic insecticide granules we sprinkled into the soil have any effect.

for dinner my parents cooked up some ground beef with a package of fermented long beans we had in the fridge. the long beans weren't very fresh anymore, had an off flavor, and it wasn't as crispy either, turning soft.

the temperature on my ride back home was the same as this morning, in the mid-20's. the temperature was actually increasing, as a warm front is moving up the coast. there will be snow in the interior but along the coast we'll just experience it as morning rain, with temperature in the mid-40's, a 20 degrees swing. because the ground is still frozen in many spots, the water will pool on the surface instead of seep into the ground, so that may make it interesting come tuesday.