i replaced the broken motion detection light bulb in my back porch with a new one. it's been broken for over 2 years. i'd checked it to make sure it wasn't a light socket issue (it wasn't). i also emptied all the pots on the porch, putting most of them in the basement along with the metal shelving i found during the summer.

my sister was supposed to come and give me a ride to belmont at 11:30am today but she said she was eating breakfast and pushed it to 11:45am. when 12pm rolled around and she still wasn't here, i called to see what was happening. she angrily said she spilled coffee all over the place and was cleaning up. she finally showed up around 12:10pm. esmei was sitting in the back seat crying. my sister pulled over to walk esmei in case she needed to use the bathroom but she just wanted to be outside. we drove the rest of the way with the windows open so esmei could look outside.

as soon as we arrived in belmont, we let esmei out in the backyard in case she wanted to use the bathroom. she did in fact both pee and poop, but also spent some time playing fetch and chase. i tried out the new rubber dog frisbee, esmei chased it a few times but had a hard time picking up the disc when it fell right side up.

back inside my sister fed esmei her lunch. afterwards esmei roamed around the house looking for things to chew. the only thing that managed to distract her was when we opened the front door so she could look out the storm window. she could spent all day looking outside, never barking, and then eventually falling asleep. while esmei was preoccupied, i managed to finish the wonton soup my mother made for lunch. my sister took her dog home around 2pm right when it started to rain.

the rain got so intense that it turned daytime into night. did i mention it was unusually warm today as well, temperature almost in the 70's? i didn't even bother wearing a jacket. this was just a sneak preview: the heaviest rain would fall overnight, 6 hours of intense yellow-orange-red doppler radar downpours. my biggest worry is my motorcycle: i parked it outside my house, on a street that's prone to flooding when it rains too much. hopefully that won't be the case otherwise the bike will be underwater by morning.

my father showed me the aolithium BMS app and the JBD xiaoxiang BMS app in action. the xiaoxiang app has way more features, and once we "binded" the battery to the app, it opened up all the settings for adjustments. the aolithium app is mostly read only, the only thing that can be changed is the name of the battery. my father said he'll be using the xiaoxiang app exclusively. one of our ground solar panels stopped working. we reeled in the wires and discovered one of the MC4 connection was loose. once i pushed it back into place, it had continuity again.

for dinner my parents cooked up the lion's mane mushrooms my sister's godmother gave us earlier this week. we'd never seen fresh lion's mane before, the rare times we've ever encountered them were always in their dried form. my parents were originally just going to boil it with some pork bone soup, but i looked it up online and discovered the best way to prepare them was to slice into pieces and sautée them with butter, garlic, and some white wine (the same way we prepare mussels). the final result was this tiny amount after cooking (mushroom shrinkage). some people say lion's mane mushrooms resemble crab meat, but i think only in terms of texture because the flesh comes off in thin strands. however, it tastes nothing like crabmeat, but rather just mushrooms.

we also had the aforementioned pork soup with meatballs and yellow bean sprouts; tonkatsu pork cutlet (with ketchup since we didn't have any tonkatsu sauce); cooked pork dipped in garlic soy paste; ume plums; and guava slices. it was a great meal but i had to run to the bathroom midway, ate something today that gave me diarrhea, don't know what.

after dinner my father gave me a ride home around 7pm. it was still unusually warm outside, more like a wet and humid summer's day than a typical december day. i took home my free walmart glass ramekins, add it to my collection.

i thought they'd be some NBA games tonight but the schedule was empty after the IST final yesterday. games will return tomorrow. instead i had the eagles-cowboys sunday night football game on in the background. earlier the bills beat the chiefs 20-17. new england face off against kansas city next sunday, the game that was flexed out of monday night football because everyone thinks it'll be a lopsided victory in favor of the chiefs. kansas city looks very vulnerable this season, especially after their loss tonight. patriots are playing with nothing to lose, so this might be a trap game for the chiefs, and new england might end up surprising the pundits. oh, cowboys won, 33-13. they're tied with the eagles in their division.

i went out around 2am to move my motorcycle. i was afraid the street might flood (like it did back in august). i wasn't the only one because my neighbor margot had moved her car as well, leaving me the only one parked in the flood plain. it was already raining outside, but i put on a vinyl rain jacket and wore a pair of pants i didn't mind getting wet. i also put on my rubber boots. i moved the motorcycle a few cars down, in a conveniently open spot, safe from flooding.