i woke up this morning printing out shipping labels and taping up boxes. i first biked to the post office to drop off my damaged sandisk ultra fit 128GB flash drive for warranty replacement service. i didn't think it'd be busy just a few days after christmas, but there was a line half a dozen customers deep, and only one clerk working the front desk. i then went to walgreens to pick up my statin prescription, followed by a stop at the UPS store to return two unwanted kipling bags my mother had ordered. finally i went to market basket to get some groceries, decided i'd be making my classic mexican chicken soup for dinner this week. i finally returned home a bit after 12pm.

i made another bagel sandwich for lunch, using up the last of my readymade bacon (but i still have a package of raw bacon, which i'd normally cook outside in my "smokeless" electric grill).

i wasn't home for very long before i went out again in the afternoon, back to the post office to pick up some priority flat rate boxes. my mother wanted to send a pair of allbirds shoes to my california aunt, and she heard the fastest and cheapest way was to go USPS flat rate. i didn't know at the time, but the boxes are actually free (otherwise i would've taken some earlier this morning). i then biked to the cafe to drop off the boxes. i also help my father set up the remote control plugs, one for the open sign (which really needs a smart timer), a couple for the holiday lights, and one last one for the ventilation window fan.

i returned home by 2pm. i did some raking, cleaning up all the dead leaves the gutter guys dumped in our alleyway from a few weekends ago. there was also a glass christmas tree ornament that must've blown off of my neighbor's upstairs deck. whenever i burped, i could taste the bagel sandwich i had earlier, particularly the garlic and avocado guacamole spread i made.

when evening came i started making my spicy mexican chicken soup. i can't believe the last time i made it was almost three years ago, right before the pandemic started. this used to be my goto recipe, since it's very easy to make, hardly any measuring, just throw a bunch of ingredients into a large pot and cook. the original recipe called for hominy, which i don't readily have. actually, i had some in my freezer, but it was from 5+ years ago, so i threw it out. instead i substitute israeli couscous, which is actually a kind of pearlized pasta, and not at all mexican, but somehow it works.

i added a cup of frozen chopped kale to make the soup healthier. i always forget that with leafy ingredients you can't add it so soon, otherwise it will overcook and turn into dark mush. i also had some quinoa that i was ready to add if i didn't have enough couscous, but i didn't need it after all. i only had a pound of chicken breast which was fine, thin sliced made it faster to cook and easier to shred. i didn't have any white wine to add, but i don't think it mattered, it's not a risotto, their are so many other flavors, it'd mask any wine taste.

i noticed the flame on my gas burner was a little off. the flames seemed to be bigger and instead of blue they were orange. that usually means impurities in the burner, nothing that a little cleaning can fix, and sometimes it'll cook clean given enough time. but later out of curiosity i turned on the other burners and they all had that orange color. one dirty burner i can understand, but all of them? i also didn't notice any hissing sound which i normally hear with blue flames.

i went online and searched for "orange gas flame". what i found wasn't good. yes, sometimes the problem is impurities, but it also means more carbon monoxide is released. that made the alarm bell in my head start ringing. it could explain my recent light-headedness? or how about that one time a few weeks back when i used the oven and there was a strong smell of gas? since i don't have a CO detector upstairs, i wouldn't know if it was carbon monoxide poisoning until i passed out. just to be safe, i opened the kitchen window. but for the rest of the time waiting for the soup to finish simmering, i was worried and sort of lost my appetite. i became paranoid, afraid that my gas stove was broken and was now slowly poisoning me.

one thing i kept on reading was the connection between humidifiers and orange gas flames. something about impurities in the tap water, when they get nebulized, leaving calcium deposits all over the house, getting into the gas burners. and yes it's true i've been turning on my humidifier over the past few days, but it was in the living room, far away from the kitchen, and it barely changed the humidity in the house. just to make sure though, i turned off the humidifier. the gas flame on my stove was still orange. it wasn't anything i could solve tonight, as i started stressing over how much an appliance repairman would cost to fix the problem.

when the soup was ready i scooped out a large portion and ate while watching the rockets-celtics game. houston is the worst team in the western conference, with a record of 10-23, so the celtics would make easy work out of them. the game was close at first, but each quarter boston pulled away, until the final score of 126-102.

i kept the humidifier closed, in the off chance that it was causing the orange flame on my stove. i kept doing some research, and one guy said he had his humidifier running upstairs far away from the kitchen, and even that was enough to cause the orange flame issue. later in the evening when i went to clean the dishes, i tested the gas stove one more time. hissing blue flames! so it's true, a humidifier in the house - even far away from the kitchen - will cause orange flames on gas burners. i think it's harmless, but if it bothered me, i can always use distilled water in the humidifier, which don't leave any deposits.

my second attempt at sprouting mustard seeds in my mason jar germination lid seems to be working better. many seeds have new germinated. i think the secret was not using too many seeds, so they don't end up all clumping together and rotting. also frequent water changes, at least twice a day if not more. the germinated seeds have gotten big enough that they don't slip through the gaps in the sprouting lid anymore.