it was also an opportunity to get some bike riding in, since once we get snow on the ground, it takes a while for it to melt, and it's hard to ride in the snow and ice (although to its credit, cambridge and somerville have gotten better at clearing the snow off of the bike paths). before i left, my father came by and dropped off the broken extension pole for return. he'd been at the cafe since this morning, supervising the electricians. by coincidence, my neighbor renee was getting some electrical work done on her place as well; contractors were replacing her electricity meters.
it was crowded at market basket, but there were still a few parking spots to be had. i got mostly cafe supplies, only a few things for myself. i decided to make pork tonkatsu this week since there was a sale on boneless pork cutlets. i also bought a head of cabbage and a container of rice crackers.
i left most of the groceries in the bike baskets when i got home. i grabbed the extension pole and walked down to the UPS store to return it. it must've been a weird sight, seeing me walking around with a 7ft pole. when i got to the store, the clerk asked me if i still had the original box. because the item was oversized, they could put a return label on it, but there might be a chance it'd get damage during transit, in which case amazon wouldn't honor the return. my best bet would be to return it in its original box. so i walked back home carrying the pole. i stopped briefly at star market to get some clear gelatin packets ($2.99, i use them to strain my frying oil).
i left for belmont around 12:30pm, arriving about 12:50pm. my father had been home briefly for lunch, my mother made some fried wontons which he didn't finish. for me she made soup wontons.
i wanted to go to the watertown mall and check out microwaves at target and best buy. i was going to take the other car but my mother warned me that the tires might be flat since it hadn't been driven in a month. sure enough, both front tires were visibly bulging out. i was going to wait until my father came home with the other car (that he had inspected earlier), but decided i would fix the car on my own. i fired up the compressor and pumped all the tires up to 35psi. the front tires were around 20psi, the right rear about 25psi. for some reason the left rear was near 40psi, most likely because it's a brand new tire. after i did that i set out to the mall.
even though i parked outside of target, i went to best buy first, running across the parking lot. although i haven't been doing a lot of running in the new year, i still had a lot of stamina from maybe just bike riding, and ran across the lot effortlessly, not even winded. they only had a few countertop models. the most promising one was a 1.1 cu.ft. GE for $156. they didn't have any to sell on the shelves, but the website said the store had them available. they also had the breville smooth wave microwave, which is one of the most high end microwaves, much like breville's countertop oven. i tested out the silent closing door, it reminded me of those silent closing sliding drawers. i was surprised it was 1.2 cu.ft, i thought it was smaller from the online reviews i saw. at $400 it's way too pricey for an appliance i don't use all that often, besides reluctantly heating leftovers when i'm in a hurry.
it took me a while to find the microwaves at target. i thought they didn't have any, as they weren't located with the other kitchen appliances, but rather a few aisles down. they had more than best buy, but even here the selection was much to be desired. they had a bunch of proctor silex models in boxes, but none on display. there was a panasonic with inverter technology; i think inverters are cool, but panasonic doesn't have one-touch express cook like on many other models. there was a black+decker model that seemed like a reasonable size. i couldn't tell how big it was as it missing its label and there weren't any boxed models either. i figured maybe it was 1 cu.ft. or larger. the thing i liked most is the handle. it's a lot easier to use compared to an open button. there was a smaller black+decker model - 0.7 cu.ft. at $80, it too featured a handle, but too small for what i was looking for. there was a calphalon model - also with a handle - along with stainless steel interior. at 1.3 cu.ft. it can only only microwave, but air fry and convection cook as well. it's too big for what i need, and i don't trust microwaves that also air fry (which seems to be a thing now), something taboo about putting metal objects inside of a microwave oven. those were basically the available floor models. i bought some aussie miracle curls shampoo and conditioner before leaving.
i made it back to belmont by 2:30pm. my mother and i walked up to sophia's greek pantry to get a few more things. my mother got another bottle of salted yogurt drink, but we also tried a container of their fresh grek yogurt, in honey flavor. we picked up a container of taramasalata dip ($5.99), some pita bread, and tried some of their hot pies - spinach feta ($4) and sweet cinnamon custard ($5).
we tried out the greek foods as soon as we walked back home. the honey yogurt was sweet and dense, reminded me of eating a cheesecake. i noticed they also had yogurt drinks, next time we'll try their mango yogurt beverage. i love the spinach pie, and the custard pie reminded me of a danish, but tasted good too.
my father came back home soon afterwards. even after almost a whole day's of worth, the electricians weren't finished. they replaced the breaker panel today, but needed to come back to install some new outlets and to possibly replace a main breaker outside. my father said some of the wires coming into the building were dripping with water. the electricians didn't seem to be too bothered by it, and still continued working. now all the outlets work - including the two new ones that had been done last time but only ever worked intermittently to the point where we never used them. the electrician said they would've come earlier to replace the panel, but apparently there's a supply chain issue, and only recently managed to get the properly sized panel they needed.
not just me, but my father has also noticed that the aeroponic plants don't seem to be growing very fast. i pulled out the net cups to check the roots, most of them have dangling roots now. one mustard green in particular - the one that seemed to be the healthiest - had numerous roots. i'm still waiting for the exponential growth to happen. my father thinks maybe the temperature is too cold in the sunroom. i think they just need more light. when i did my hydroponics experiment, i was using a 120W led light. the lights we're using now is only 40W combined.
in the late afternoon early evening, my father and i went down to the basement to water the plants. we didn't water last week, and in the two week time that the plants had been neglected, that was enough time for a mealybug explosion. a bunch of jasmines all seem to have new infestations, as well as most of the orchids. none of the pileas that i noticed, nor any of the prayer plants. it's kind of discouraging because i'd just applied more systemic insecticide to the big potted jasmines, but that didn't seem to have any effect. some of the infestations were so bad, i had no choice but to prune off the branches and throw them outside to kill the mealybugs. the only recourse is to take the plants out into the backyard on a warm day and spray them with whatever insecticide i have available: neem oil, insecticidal soap, and i've yet to use my pyrethrins.
after watching some early evening news, my father decided to roll the snowblower out of the garage. we may not need it (snowfall total seems to range anywhere from 2-5 inches), but better to have it ready just in case.
we had noodles for dinner, along with more ham.
before i left, i got a call on my phone from the tour agency my parents booked for their greek trip. for some strange reason they gave them my number, and luckily i happened to be home, otherwise i wouldn't have answered. turns out there's something wrong with their plane ticket from boston to greece. turkish airline bumped up the price $400 per person and the travel agent was trying to find some alternative options, like maybe flying out of new york, which has more flights to greece. i left before the situation could be resolved, as my father told the agent to call him on his phone.
i went home with the box for the extension pole. folded in half, it was still 4ft tall, but i was able to fit it into one of my rear bike baskets. it must've looked weird, like a bike with a chimney. at one point the box even fell out, and i rode the rest of the way home with one hand on the handlebar, and one hand holding onto the box.
a big pile of snow greeted me when i got back home. once again, some neighbor had cleared their car and decided to dump all the snow onto our sidewalk. i cleaned up the snow before finally heading inside the house.
my tripod head from aliexpress also arrived today. i was excited to try it out, but i could see right away it wasn't going to fit onto the center column. the hole on the tripod head was a bit too smaller. i should've asked them for the diameter before ordering. i could probably try returning it, but it's not work it, the shipping would most likely be more than the item ($5).
i only watched the second half of the celtics-knicks game, but i knew it didn't look good. boston was down early on, but managed to get to single digits. it wasn't enough though, and the celtics lost. now they're in second place behind the bucks, we are on a 14-game win streak.
i continued researching microwave ovens. i found the description for the black+decker microwave i saw at target. it's actually 0.9 cu.ft. and costs $90. other than that there really wasn't much additional info, not even the dimensions. black+decker's own website doesn't even list microwaves as something they sell. makes me wonder if it's a target-exclusive model, like the case with the crockpot.
one thing i've noticed is the controls for many of these microwaves all seem to be the same, like they're standardized across various manufacturers. instead of searching some more, i decided to go ahead and buy the black+decker. what made me change my mind was i looked up the microwave i had before this most recent black GE model broke down: it was a white samsung microwave. surprisingly, it was just 0.8 cu.ft. but i don't remember ever thinking it was too small. i only got the 1.2 cu.ft. GE microwave ($25) because my roommate at the time blew up my samsung oven (which i managed to fix eventually). if i was fine with an 0.8 cu.ft. microwave, i'll be fine with an 0.9 cu.ft. microwave. plus, if i really don't like it, i can always return it at target.
what also sold me on the black+decker microwave was a feature on the target website to see the oven in augmented reality. using the phone camera, it then mapped your environment before placing a 3D model of the microwave into the image, at which point you can rotate and move it around. it's not an exact science and sometimes it placed the item in the wrong position, or there was some ghosting effects, but at least i sort of got an idea the size and how it'd look in my cluttered kitchen.
later in the evening i discovered a startling fact: many of the microwaves being sold in the US market under various brands are actually made by the same chinese manufacturer: midea. that would totally explain why the controls are all the same. and here i thought it was because the companies had standardized the microwave controls, when in reality, they're basically the same models - same internal components, just different exteriors.
what may be the last snowstorm of this very snow-free winter is scheduled to start snowing overnight. i set up my gopro to take a 4K time lapse, set to 10 second intervals. i'm prepared to find a snow landscape outside when i wake up tomorrow morning. it's supposed to snow all of tomorrow until around 7pm.