i'm happy to report that i did not wet the bed last night. i did however have to wake up in the middle of the night and have an emergency poop. what's that about? when i finally did wake up (again), i had a sore throat. we all know what that means: covid-19! so i took a home test. once again the result was negative.

my bike chain is so rusty it's been making grinding noises when i ride the past few days. i finally got around to oiling it this morning. what it really needs is a deep cleaning with the chain scrubbing device i bought a few weeks ago, but there's also a good chance the chain needs to be replaced. i think my whole drive drain is so shot though, it may be better just to replace everything (derailleurs, freewheel, bottom bracket, gear shifters, all the wires) - basically a total overhaul of the bike to bring it back to good riding shape. in the meantime, i'm okay with just riding it in the one only gear that still engages.

i told my parents i'd make clam chowder for lunch today. i was reviewing chowder recipe videos online, trying to figure out the best one. i packed up all the ingredients in a box and rode to belmont. i even brought along a jar of jiuniang, now about an inch worth of liquid at the bottom and the rice with the consistency of pudding floating on top. i also switched my phone case again with the one that i got from temu. this one just cost me $2 and it's the best of the 3 cases i've had so far. i like that it provides maximum coverage for the camera lenses; the TPU case i had before just had a large window cutout for the lenses.

once i arrived at my parents' place i started making the chowder immediately. it's a quick recipe, less than 30 minutes, and most of the time was spent cutting up the ingredients: bacon, onion, celery, potatoes. i used up a whole quart container of half & half. the chowder was okay, my parents seemed to like it, but there was a lot of chowder, and i barely finished my bowl, with both my parents leaving leftovers.

we also tried the jiuniang i'd bought. opening the jar, there was the faint odor of fermented sweet rice, but it wasn't strong. tasting it, it was only mildly sweet. my father doesn't think it'll get any sweeter as the yeast has already consumed most of the rice (by the fact that the grains were "hollow" now and floating). he suggested putting the jar in the fridge to stop it from fermenting any further. but we decided to lave it outside for one more day, to see if the flavor will improve.

afterwards my father and i were outside to do some work. despite an overcast, today's temperature actually hit the 50's, which is unusual for late january. we tipped over the last two remaining rain barrels by the living room window. we collapsed the plastic-metal picnic table and put it away in the garage (we should've done that back in the fall). we stacked all the black storage rain barrels by the corner of the backyard. and finally, we put away the motorcycle for the season. at least we tried to. we decluttered the garage a bit to fit the motorcycle, but when we went to jack it up, we found out it was busted, something wrong with the hydraulics. so there it sits in the garage again for the time being, until we can repair the jack. we also took a measurement of the length of our roof using a laser measure, to find out how long an extension pole to get. the laser measure didn't work so well in the daylight, i was only able to get a good reading around sunset, with a distance of about 28ft.

our outside work last just an hour. i came back inside to watch the football game while my father went to go take a nap. late we ordered a new extension pole, one that's 7-24ft long, which is longer than the 5m (15ft) pole we currently use.

eagles beat the 49ers, 31-7. the score was only so lopsided because san francisco's backup backup quarterback got injured early in the game. his backup ended up playing, until he himself was injured (concussion) so the original backup backup came back to the game even though he couldn't throw and had to resort to running plays. i say it again, i really don't think philadelphia is that good. sure they have the best record in the NFC, but i think a lot of it had to do with luck. today's game shouldn't give any false confidence that they can go into the superbowl and win it all.

after dinner i biked home. i was prepared for it to be cold, but the temperature was still 48 degrees.

i tested one of the jarred jiuniang at home: it tastes about the same as the jar i brought to my parents place. a faint sweetness, hardly any hint of alcohol. if i recall, the jiuniang fermentation cycle is first convert the rice into sugars, then convert the sugars into alcohol.

second game of the day was between the bengals and chiefs. the two teams have met 3 times, and all three times joe burrow has beaten patrick mahomes. cincinnati seems to be kansas city's kryptonite. even this game was close, with a tie heading into the final minutes. but an unnecessary roughness penalty by bengals defense in pushing mahomes when he'd already stepped out of bounds gave the chiefs a short field for a 3-point kick to win the game. i'm normally not a chiefs fan, but mahomes put on a gutsy performance, and like them or not, i think they're going to win their second superbowl in 2 weeks.

i watched the 3rd episode of the last of us after the football game. already people are saying it's the best episode of television this year. i thought it was okay, but it didn't touch me in the heartstring like it did for some reviewers. i've never played the game but i do know how the story ends (got spoiled), but i have a question: is ellie a little psycho? she killed that zombie without telling joel and now she has a gun. i get the feeling it's not going to end well.