i left the house at 9:45am for a tuesday morning run. it's only my 2nd run this month, but i'm now sticking to a tuesday & thursday run schedule. it'd be great if i can work in a 3rd run every week (like i did during my glory days), but let's see if i can stick to a two run per week plan before thinking about adding more runs. also depending on the weather, on fridays i ride into boston to visit haymarket and chinatown before heading off to work. the run itself was uneventful, wasn't too hot with morning temperatures in the 70's. today was a dry day, so the air was comfortable. it may be our only nice day of the week, as temperature looks to skyrocket by tomorrow as well as humidity.

i paid a stop at the community garden. no need to water, i was there just to check on my plants. wayne was there too, he seemed to recognize me at least, though i'm pretty sure he doesn't know my name. he was picking rhubarbs and doing some weeding, the spots along the edges where his landscape fabric wasn't able to cover. not much happening in my plot, none of my peppers have fruits yet, nor my eggplants. striped mallows are coming in nicely though, adding some colors in an otherwise green garden plot. the hyacinth beans had already flowered, and those flowers have turned into purple beans; now i'm just waiting for the next flush of flowers.

i got back home by 11am. i ran a load of laundry (long overdue, it's been weeks since i last washed) before using the bathroom and taking a shower. for lunch i finished some leftover macaroni pasta salad. around 2pm i biked to market basket to get a few things, including a big pack of paper towels and a bottle of dish detergent for the cafe. i came back home, took another shower to cool off, then ate some baby carrots with garlic humus while watching luke mcfadden - young first generation chesapeake crabber - on youtube. i also completed a few retroactive blog postings.

all of us research program contacted to let me know my medicine and DNA results were ready for viewing. this is the final culmination of the food study i did back in early 2020 (during the start of the pandemic). they had my DNA from blood and stool samples, and after years of crunching the numbers along with hundreds of thousands of other participants, they're finally releasing the DNA report. i was both excited and a little scared. what if the study shows i have a genetic predilection to certain diseases? i logged into my account, and after a final page of legalese, i saw the report. the results were a bit underwhelming. instead of checking from a catalog of known diseases with genetic markers, they basically check 7 metabolizer genes: CYP2C19, DPYD, G6PD, NUDT15, SLCO1B1, TPMT, and UGT1A1. these genes control enzymes that metabolize drugs. whether you have more or less of them can show you how susceptible you are to drug dosages. after that they had a list of 6 drugs that i should be aware of (only one i recognized was plavix). and that was it. maybe this is just the first of many future reports, but i didn't see any message say it was. nevertheless, i would've still done the study even without the DNA report. it was actually kind of fun despite the scariness of doing a medical study during the early pandemic days. i got to eat dyed food to see how long it takes for me to digest something completely. i wore a fancy blood sugar monitor that took my readings via bluetooth. i got a free food scale. i think they even gave me an amazon gift card.

today and tomorrow are amazon prime days. in years past i felt an irresistible urge to shop for bargains, but i felt no urgency this year, since there wasn't anything i needed. my mother's shopping for a new kitchen knife for the cafe, but i'll discuss it with her tomorrow at the cafe. my mother did call me, said she wanted to get an air purifier, and already put one in our shared shopping cart. but the one she picked was only for a small space about 200 sq.ft. we are a levoit family, and i have a levoit core 300S air purifier while my parents have one of the same. we bought ours for $105, but the 300S currently sells for $150, no discount. however the 200S - a smaller version - has a prime day deal of $77. on top of that mass save offers a $40 rebate for energy star air purifiers (which the levoit qualifies). so i ended up ordering a 200S for my mother. i didn't need anything myself, but just for kicks i looked through my long wishlist and found a few items that were on sale on amazon prime day. i ended up buying a shimano crankset and rear derailleur ($42 total), 4-set of rain barrel solid brass bulkhead fittings ($12), and a 1.25L stainless steel fry oil strainer container ($10).

lauryn came back by 6pm, like clockwork. she didn't cooked tonight (office pizza party) but did eat a yogurt. i didn't make dinner until after 9pm, where i pan-fried some old frozen cooked meatballs then simmered them in half a jar of pasta sauce while i cooked a single serving portion of spaghetti noodles. i ended up using all of my leftover meatballs and leftover pasta noodles. i ate while watching the MLB all-stars game - didn't even know that was happening. the homerun derby was yesterday and i had no idea. because NESN made it too expensive to be included with youtube tv, i haven't really followed baseball (NESN is the exclusive carrier of most red sox games, home and away). not that there's much to follow, the red sox is a terrible team this season, stacked with no name players after trading or letting all their star players go to other teams.