temperature this morning was 41 degrees when i left my house for a tuesday run. it was cold enough that i wore jogging pants and a pair of gloves. when i got down to the river out in the sunshine it was warm enough that i put my gloves away and was tempted to take off my long-sleeved turtleneck as well. there was only a few other runners, most of the traffic along the charles river looked like people biking into work, all bundled up in their winter riding gear. i stopped a few times to take photos for WWY and sent it to her via wechat.

i got back around 11am. i picked up a fancy brass and glass 2-tier cake stand. i bumped into neil and carrie. carrie said she saw me running the other day and that i had "good form." i told her was probably running so fast because i needed to rush home and use the bathroom, otherwise i'd be walking.

after a shower i heated up a jamaican spicy beef patty for lunch. i went out again around 1:30pm to get some groceries from market basket. my mother asked me to get some whole chicken legs. when i got back home i spent an hour raking the leaves in the front and back of the house. i also pulled up some weeds from the perennial bed. there's still enough leaves on the backyard oak tree that i'll need to rake at least two more times.

in the late afternoon i did a load of laundry, including the guest bedroom bedsheets. that means i can relocate to the guest bedroom whenever i want to. however i've grown used to sleeping in the master bedroom, and the morning sunlight coming in from the south-southwest facing windows makes waking up easier. i still need to do another load of bath towels using vinegar and baking soda.

there was some other things i wanted to do today, like refill my CO2 generator because it's down to 0 psi, make a japanese cheesecake, clean the aquarium, and clean up my community garden plot. maybe i'll do those things on thursday.

so i decided to make lasagna for dinner this week. i haven't made lasagna since august 2022, even though i've eaten lasagna plenty of times since then. i've just gotten used to buying ready made frozen lasagna that i can simply heat up in the oven. also store bought lasagna always seems to taste better than the ones i make.

i started preparing at 5:30pm, the same time when i made lasagna more than a year ago, because it takes a while to make. i set up my softbox lights so i could take some photos. i used a ground beef and italian sausage combination. instead of using canned tomatoes and reducing them into a sauce, i took a shortcut and used a 24 oz. jar of pasta sauce. i also had some leftover sauce in the fridge that i dumped into the mix as well. because of that i only simmered the meat sauce for just half an hour.

as for the cheese, besides the whole mozzarella and container ricotta, i also had some leftover shredded mozzarella i added to the lasagna, as well as some shredded parmesan.

after layering the lasagna i baked it on the oven for 45 minutes. midway through i smelled burning from the kitchen. the lasagna was bubbling and dripping sauce to the bottom of the oven, which was scorching. there was nothing i could do about it besides turning on my air purifier to get ride of the charred smell.

the lasagna finished baking by close to 9pm. one piece was already enough but i went a second piece which was a mistake. the first piece was a gooey melting mess; the second time had some time to cool so came out more squarish. it was okay, but like i said, nothing like the store bought lasagnas. maybe i don't add enough salt? next time i'm going to skip the sausages. it adds a sweetness that i don't like, just simple ground beef is good enough. i'm pretty lasagna'ed out but i still have 4 servings left. i'll probably freeze and save them for some rainy day.