first thing i did when i arrived in belmont was to check on the aeroponics plants. i had a chance last night, but only briefly as it was getting dark. from photos i took yesterday it looked like some of the plants were yellowing maybe due to the lack of water. when i checked again today, they seemed to be fine. the last net cup to germinate finally sprouted today. not only that, two mustard green seeds i accidentally washed away into the LECA pellets had also sprouted. i pulled them up and was going to toss them when i realized i could salvage and grow them in hydroponic jars instead, as a side experiment. i wetted 2 rock wool cubes, inserted the tiny seedlings, and placed them into net cups filled with LECA pellets. i mixed a nutrient solution and filled 2 quart-size jars, before hanging the net cups from the top.
as a birthday tradition, my father made me two eggs mixed in with some sweet fermented jiuniang and soft glutinous rice balls. i noticed he'd also started making the chicken feet: first by declawing them, then boiling them briefly with some sauces before setting them out to dry.
i went back to my aeroponics tub. yes, the seedlings are still quite small, but i think they'll grow exponentially. pulling the net cups out of the tub, i can see they're getting plenty of moisture. however, the two net cups closets to the middle of the tub were the driest judging from the dry LECA pellets. but underneath the lid they're still getting sprayed with nutrients, maybe just not enough to soak the LECA pellets, but i'm not worried. in fact, one of those "dry" cups had a root poking out from the bottom of the net cup. plants are more resilient than they look, and find ways to survive. the middle cups are probably not getting as much water compared to the other cups, so they compensate by growing fast roots.
one thing that still worries me are some of the seedlings have long stems. this is due to the fact that i didn't give them enough light when they first germinated, so they started growing leggy. some of the newer seedlings that emerged after i set them into the aeroponic tub with additional LED lighting, those don't grow tall but instead stay compact and leaf out soon afterwards. but like i said, plants are resilient, and they find ways to survive. maybe they'll compensate by growing thicker stems to support the rest of the plants.
the last thing i added to my aeroponic system was setting up a webcam so i can check their progress remotely. just so happens we had a spare webcam in the house (wyze), all i had to do was plug it in and point it.
today was also super bowl sunday, and the whole day seemed to be geared for the kickoff at 6pm. there was a celtics game on in the early afternoon between memphis; i watched on my computer as my mother was watching some australian show (glitch) on netflix. the main actor was someone who looked familiar to me (patrick brammall) but i couldn't remember from where. after a search online, i realized he also plays the husband on CBS' evil.
my mother was washing some blankets and later asked me to put them in the dryer. they're thick enough that they won't dry properly when added all together in the dry, so they had to be done in batches. i took the risk and put everything together. after about an hour, i received an alert on my phone saying the dryer had finished. when i went down to the basement to check, the center parts of the blankets - the parts that was all bundled up - were still wet. so i ended up drying them in parts. but some reason the dry would run for a few minutes and then stop. that's when i learned to use the manual setting on the dryer, set the sensor to extra dry setting. even then, the one last blanket that needed to be dried, i had to do it completely on manual, with a high temperature and a fixed dry time of 20 minutes.
my mother said i should bring my own blankets to wash one of these days, especially since none of the blankets i've own have ever been washed in the 20+ years i've lived in cambridge. so i'm long overdue. besides, the experience i gained today in figuring out how to properly use the smart dryer will benefit me when that day comes.
my father continued his chicken feet recipe by cooking them in the air fryer. 
normally we'd fry them in oil to make them crispy but my father found a way to achieve the same result by using an air fryer. we could hear them popping inside the fryer. after they finished cooking, we took them out and drenched them in ice water. left to soak for at least an hour, the water bath rehydrates the chicken feet. all they needed was to be simmered in some sauce.
i refilled the birdfeeder after taking it apart and giving it a good wash in the sink. after seeing a house finch with bad avian conjunctivitis last season, i don't want the same thing to happen again. a few hours later birds started showing up. today we had quite a mix: pair of red cardinals, some house finches, a female goldfinch (didn't think they could eat sunflowers), several well-fed fat chickadees, a mourning dove, a few juncos, and a hungry squirrel looking for scraps in the pile of sunflower shells underneath the feeder. i haven't seen nuthatches in a while, they're one of my favorites. and no native sparrows this season either. what i'd really like to see are some tufted titmice, supposedly they're a common birdfeeder bird but i've only seen them out in a wild just a few times.
when my mother came back from her walk, she asked my father and me to start grilling the buffalo wings. the 2.5 lbs. frozen tyson wings we got were purchased by mistake: we didn't realize they were raw wings. maybe that's why they were less expensive than the other wings we saw. but that turned out to be a good thing, because it forced us to cook them outside on the barbecue grill, which made for much flavorful wings. last time i was the one who cooked them; this time my father manned the grill. the key is to cook them at 350° anywhere from 18-25 minutes.
we made the mistake of keeping the grill at 350° exactly - two middle burners set to low, two outer burners set to high - but the wings remained uncooked. that's because whenever we opened the lid, the temperature would drop down to 250°, so it was never enough to properly grill them. instead, the secret is to just keep an eye on the temperature, as we set the burners to high again. whenever it got to 400°, we'd open the lid and inspect the wings, flipping them over to cook the other side. the temperature would drop down to 300-350°, but gradually come back up to 400° again. this method properly darkened and cooked the wings and made them extra crispy.
i saw my mother eating the wings but she didn't say anything. when i asked, she said they were good, cooked perfectly, unlike last time, when i sort of charred the wings.
my sister stopped by briefly. we told her i didn't want anything for my birthday, but she still brought something - a birthday dip she said - even though we had no chips in the house. she seemed to be angry that i didn't appreciate her gift and left abruptly soon afterwards. the only good thing that came out of that interaction was she brought hailey out. hailey, who had fallen out of bed on thursday, and the way my sister described it, i thought maybe she had to be put down, but she seemed perfectly normal tonight.
there's a mouse in the house! my mother showed me an apple with some bit marks. i didn't believe her at first, but when she asked me to check our electronic mousetrap, i found mouse droppings and all the peanut butter eaten. i changed out the batteries (the old ones were reading 1.4v, new ones 1.6v) and put in some fresh peanut butter as bait. now we wait and see. we hadn't seen any mouse activity in a while, maybe that's why we got a little complacent.
close to dinner, my father finally finished preparing the chicken feet by simmering them in some chinese malaguo (麻辣鍋) sauce. i tried one, they were cooked to perfection, but the sauce was a little bland, needed some more salt. my father continued simmering the chicken wings in some oyster sauce plus sugar. after that they were ready to eat.
my father made a few more dishes for dinner: tripe (because we had a bunch that needed to be finished) and shrimp (cooked in a pan to simulate salt & pepper style). the tripe was a little mushy and all the sauce was at the bottom of the bowl. the shrimp was better than the ones we had during the chinese new year dinner, but i still prefer shrimp prepared in a wok outside using high heat. my mother made a stirfry of bokchoi.
the super bowl started at 6pm but the kickoff wasn't until 6:45pm. i was rooting for the eagles because i didn't want to hear any talk of a dynasty with the chiefs. it was a tight game at first, two heavyweights going at it, with the score tied 7-7 in the first quarter. then in the second quarter philadelphia gained momentum took a 10-point lead going into halftime, score 24-14. i felt good about the game, even though there was still a second half to play.
the halftime show featuring rihanna was a bit lackluster. she was wearing an all red outfit that clashed with the all red background, so at times i couldn't even see her as she blended with her surroundings. it was obvious she was lip-syncing, and she made no effort to hide the fact. for an artist that was on the super bowl wish list, i was kind of disappointed.
i left immediately after the halftime show, quickly pedalling back to cambridge so i could catch the second half of the game. when i got back, the score was 24-21, kansas city managed to score a touchdown. eagles finished the quarter with a field goal kick to bring the score to 27-21.
the 4th quarter was crazy. as much as i don't like the chiefs, i still have to admit they're a good team. kansas city managed to score two touchdowns, giving them a 35-27 lead. but to their credit, the eagles came back, scored a touchdown of their own plus the 2-point conversion, to tie the game 35-35, with 5 minutes to go. unfortunately philadelphia would never get the ball back until just 8 seconds left in the game. mahomes and friends marched the ball down field. then a very controversial holding call on the eagles when it looked like nothing burger gave the chiefs a new set of downs, and more importantly, the ability to use up the clock. and that's basically how they won, by getting a suspicious call, chewing up the clock, and kicking a field goal. with just 8 seconds left, the eagles couldn't drive the ball to the other side of the field (even for a hail mary play), as the clock ticked to zero.
the kansas city chiefs - their 3rd super bowl in 4 years - have won it again. i changed the channel after that. i'm total team eagles when i say philly was robbed. would they have won even if the ref didn't make that shady call? who knows. but if i was an eagles fan, i would not be very happy tonight.