if it's monday then that must mean a supply run is happening. my parents came to pick me up around 9:30am. my father missed the turn on park street so instead we cut through union square to get to everett. first stop was costco. i picked up a bag of potting soil so i can start my grow closet in a few weeks. i took note of costo's price on frozen raw wings, which is $2.50/lbs. something to keep in mind for my future korean-style double-fried wings. because we managed to buy 10 dozen eggs, we decided not to get anymore from restaurant depot. and instead of the chelsea market basket, we'd simply go to the somerville one instead.

so we started heading back, making a quick pitstop at bianco and sons for chinese sausages, before going to ocean state job lot. my father stayed in the car while my mother and i went inside. while i was checking out the seed packets, my mother had already finished shopping, picking up some yarn and pecan. they had a sale o fiskars gardening tools and i bought a pair of anvil pruners to replace the one that i seemed to have mysteriously lost.

next stop was aldi's, where we picked up some mini cucumbers and scallions. we also got some chicken leg quarters from there, saving us a trip to star market where they were on sale this week (aldi's regular price was only 20¢ more expensive per pound). aldi's had a bunch of st.patrick's themed items on sale, from cheeses to ice creams to cookies.

continuing on way home, we decided to return via union square again instead of our usual way across the somerville high school. that turned out to be a mistake, it's actually longer and more traffic lights, an error we don't plan on making again. we went to the somerville market basket where it was packed judging from the lack of parking spots outside but it wasn't so bad inside the store. here we rounded up some final ingredients, things like ground pork and bean sprouts. there was also a bunch of st.patrick's foods on sale, including corned beef.

we finally left market basket around noontime and went to the cafe to drop off the supplies. we then returned to my parents' place. my mother made squid nuggets for lunch, but we also bought greek pasta salad and an italian sub, so we had way too much food.

around 2pm i started bringing all the large potted jasmines into the backyard, all 9 including the gardenia. outdoor temperature was in the 40's, sunny but very windy. i sprayed them all with neem oil and inspected each plant for mealybugs. every single one of them had some mealybugs, some a few speckles (like the gardenia), while others had terrible infestation that i couldn't salvage and had to prune off the infected branches and leaves. the gardenia also had some spider mites on the lower branches, which i could spot because the neem oil droplets would cling to the webbing. all the basement orchids had mealybugs too, and i brought them out one at a time to spray with neem oil as well.

afterwards i brought all the plants back inside and watered them with Bti-infused water. we have about 2 dozen potted pileas, and those take the longest to water. to think i just started with a single plant less than 2 years ago (july 2021), and now i have more than i know what to do with. i noticed the gardenia has started to put out new leaves. it didn't do that the entire time it's been growing in the basement, which makes me think these are no ordinary leaves, but the start of flower buds. i finally finished watering all the plants by around 3:30pm.

i took one last look at my aeroponic plants. i won't be seeing them again until the weekend (though i could always check the live webcam, which i keep on forgetting i've set up). feels like these seedlings have taken forever to get growing. all the literature saying mustard greens take just 4-6 weeks to reach maturity hasn't been the case in my experience at all. of course early on i had issues with the lack of sunlight and the cold temperatures. now that we have our led lights and temperatures getting warmer, hopefully they will grow much faster.

for dinner we had some red roasted pork ribs that my father had been slow cooking the entire day. my mother had removed the melted fat from the liquid so the remaining sauce went well with rice. after i finished eating, my father gave me a ride back to cambridge, along with my bag of potting soil.

i watched the celtics-cavaliers game tonight. the nightmare continues: celtics had a commanding lead, lost it, game went into overtime, celtics lost. what's going on? i don't think i can watch another celtics game, they've broken my heart three times within the past 3 games. no longer are they the well-oiled winning machine seemingly destined to reach the finals again. now everything is in question.