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i had nothing planned for today, so i could've slept in, but i still woke up around 8am, even though i went to bed last night around 3am (rewatching episodes of jett). i surfed the web sideways in bed with one eye opened and the other eye buried in the pillow, then tried to go back to sleep around 9am. i finally got out of bed by 10am.

after a shower i did a load of laundry, with the added benefit of slightly warming up the house. currently the room temperature is in the mid-60's.

for lunch i had some wild-caught breaded haddock bites which i had in my freezer for a while. they're essentially gloried fish sticks. i heated them up in the toaster oven and that ate them with a generous serving of tartar sauce.

i had some sunday afternoon football turned on in the background but wasn't really watching. there was also a celtics game - i thought it was the regular season but just a pre-season game - but i was too nervous to watch (boston ended up scorching charlotte, 134-93).

during halftime gave me the perfect excuse to get out of the house. i took the motorcycle to belmont. even though my parents weren't home, there was still gardening work to be done. it was extremely windy for some reason, i'm guessing remnants of hurricane ian still slowly passing through the area. today was rain-free but grey and cold.

i went to the basement to check on my hydroponic mustards. they're at a stage where they've grown to just about as large as they can get, their size restricted by the glass jars i'm using. one of the mustards in the smaller mason jar was drooping again, i pulled the paper bag to check, it had used up all the nutrient solution again. fortunately i still had half left over from last time, so i topped off both mason jars and poured the remaining few drops into the larger jar. once again this weekend i wasn't able to assemble my aeroponics setup.

i set up the wifi trond sprinkler timer ($39). the timer itself is controlled via bluetooth, but it can interface with a small wifi hub, which then can be controlled from anywhere. it also uses the smart life app (the same one used by all our smart plugs and our recent wifi security light). it's kind of cool to be able to control the timer with my phone; no more having to crawl behind the bushes to get to the timer attached to the faucet. i set the timer to water at 6am, 12pm, and 6pm, with a duration of 5 minutes.

finally i watered the backyard lawn, which doesn't have timer sprinklers like the front lawn. now that we've seemed to have recovered from the drought (where it's at least raining a little bit every week), there's no need to conserve the rain barrel water.

i left belmont by 4pm. when i got home, i finished the rest of my haddock bites while watching the patriots-packers game which started at 4:30pm. mac jones was hurt, so backup quarterback brian hoyer "the destroyer" stepped in. hoyer went out of the game after suffering a head injury, so the backup backup QB bailey zappe stepped up. suprisingly, pats kept it competitive, and pushed the game into overtime. even in OT the end result wasn't certain, but with time nearly expired, the packers kicked a field goal to win.

i checked on the wifi sprinkler timer. it has an "irrigation history" that shows you when and how much it watered. it was supposed to water at 6pm, but for some reason the sprinkler didn't turn on. i had to manually turn it on, and even then it took a few seconds before the "signal" went through. maybe it was a fluke, but i have a feeling that maybe this wifi sprinkler timer isn't that reliable; at least our old manual-style timer never failed, even though i couldn't control it remotely. let's so how it does over the week, i can always turn it on manually (and check that it works via street-facing webcam).

i spent the rest of the day getting ready for my NYC trip tomorrow. earlier i checked that i had my codes for the buses and hotel, and also made some printouts just in case. i'm only gone for 3-days, so i don't need to pack too much: two changes of clothes (including a wool sweater, packed in 1 gallon ziploc bags, which can double as dirty clothes bags), some toiletries. the packpack is mostly empty because i'm hoping to bring back some NY chinatown goodies. i'm also bringing my dSLR camera and three lenses: 28mm f/1.8 (night lens), 18-200mm (walking lens), and 10-22mm (wide angle). i don't know how much i'm going to use it, but as a self-professed "camera guy," i'm obligated to bring it, even if it does feel like extra weight. i'm also bringing my fuji 3D and the gopro will be a game time decision.

i replaced the cracked glass screen protector on my pixel 3XL. it just wasn't very safe, little pieces of tempered glass finding its way into my fingertips as i used the phone. i should've replaced it a while ago, but the impetus of meeting up with frances and not carrying around a trashy-looking phone was the final push that i needed to replace it.

for dinner i had some simple chinese-brand ramen with an egg, nothing too special. i didn't want to eat too much before my bus ride.

so the last time i met up with frances and her family was back in april 2018, 4 years ago. it was only a 2-day trip, and i was only in NYC for a little more than 24 hours, even though it felt longer. i just remember it was rainy, and i think this trip will also be a little wet (at least the days that i'm there, courtesy of hurricane ian, which is slowly drifting out to sea). i was doing some research earlier, and frances sent me some youtube videos about brooklyn chinatown, which i definitely want to visit, having never been there before. naturally i'm also going to the flushing chinatown as well. i found there there's also a queens koreatown east of the flushing chinatown, i'd like to see it if time allows.

i have to get to bed soon (currently 11:30pm), waking up at 5:30am to get ready. i downloaded the latest episode of house of the dragon but i won't be able to watch it, so i'll have to watch it from one of my illicit android streaming apps.