it was 38 degrees this morning, warm (or cold) enough that i could go for a run, but i decided against it. i had a bunch of excuses, from it was still too cold for comfort, to i was feeling a bit diarrhea-ous and didn't want to be strand outside again when i needed to go. instead i futzed around until about 11:30am when i went over to my 2nd aunt's place to help her with a few things.

my 2nd uncle was mumbling loudly to himself about religion, i think my 2nd aunt is used to it by now that she doesn't even notice. first thing i noticed was they were using the stove to boil water for cooking. one of things i came to check was why their electricity bill is so high, and that's probably the main reason.

but first i swapped out their xfinity internet gateway, a new version arriving a few weeks ago but i only had time to come and make the switch. it took a long time. apparently it needs to be done through the phone app, but i couldn't see where to do it. when i called xfinity, the automated phone system sent me a link to activate the new equipment, which was just a link to install the phone app. i was so frustrated i was ready to give up, go back to the old equipment which was still working. but i finally found the option to activate the equipment buried below several page clicks. once the gateway was activated, i updated all the wifi-enabled devices in the house (HDTV, tablet, phone) to the new network.

next thing i worked on was the annoying clattering noises coming from the ceiling heat registers. my 2nd aunt contacted the apartment maintenance about it but hadn't had time to come and take a look yet. i unscrewed the grill cover and saw a metal flap inside rocking back and forth from the forced air heating. to fix it i gently put two pieces of tape on the flap. i did this to both the register in the living room and the bedroom.

then my 2nd aunt asked if she could stream videos from a recently popular chinese-language streaming site. the site wasn't chromecast compatible, but i downloaded a browser app onto her TCL google tv and navigated to the website. it's sort of hackish but it works, my 2nd aunt was just happy to see it was possible (normally she watches these streaming shows on her ipad).

finally i got to work removing the panel from the circuit breaker box. i wanted to check how it was wired and if it was possible to install an energy monitor. the thing that caught my eye was how neatly it was laid out. compared that to the rat's nest of old wiring at my parents' house, the guts of this electrical box was downright futuristic. i could see it was 240v (2 cables) coming into the apartment (controlled by a 100A circuit breaker). all the outlets were on 20A breakers, with the exception of the range which used 240V and a 50A circuit breaker. my 2nd uncle was yelling because he was eating lunch in the living room and watching tv when suddenly the power went out. after i took some photos, i screwed the panel back together again and turned on the power main.

so it looks like my 2nd aunt's circuit breaker box can install an energy monitor. but i have to ask what's the point when it's obvious they're heavy electricity users, especially the stove, which they use every day to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner. no one is stealing their electricity.

i finally left around 1:30pm, about 2 hours later. i went home briefly before heading out again, first to walgreens to pick up some prescriptions before heading to market basket for some groceries. at the pharmacy i saw a woman with a small dog that looks like esmei. it was a little smaller, longer, with shorter legs. mostly black, with tan sideburns. the face looked identical, except with slightly smaller ears. i asked what type of dog it was, she said it was a dachshund mix but she couldn't be sure. i asked how old and was surprised when she told me it was actually 5 years old. "a lot of people think she's a puppy," she said. i should've gotten a photo but i didn't, felt a little creepy asking to take photos of a stranger's dog. maybe i'll run into them again, they obviously live in the neighborhood. i didn't have much to get at market basket, already knew what i was making for dinner this week, just got a few supplemental items, like a bag of milano cookies and a carton of jasmine green tea.

it was nearly 3pm when i returned home. i finally made some lunch, pan-fried kielbasa sausages and scrambled eggs using that one broken egg plus some liquid egg whites and a dash of half and half. i've often heard egg white omelettes but never had it before. not sure what i made is the same since it was scrambled eggs. i also made a fruit smoothie.

i started inputting transaction data for the cafe into our shared google sheets. the first hurdle to actually getting access into these banks and credit card accounts. especially banks, they often forfeit convenience for security, but what's the point of having online account access when you can't get into it and have to call customer support every time? next hurdle is collecting the data. fortunately most institutions will allow csv downloads, but i remember last year i had to extract tranaction data from a bunch of pdf's. finally, the data has to be pruned and polished to fit into the existing formulas in our sheets. by the end of the day i'd imported most of the data. now we just need to go through and double check to make sure all the numnbers are correct.

i started making dinner at 7pm, to coincide with the start of the cavaliers-celtics game starting at 7:30pm. i was making gyudon again tonight, bought some shaved steak a week ago that i kept in the freezer. this time i had some beni shoga (pickled ginger). i cooked everything in a pan at first, but when i added the meat it was starting to overfill so i moved everything in a 4-quart pot. the shaved steak was too thick, so it there were some tough thick pieces of beef. next time i'll be on the lookout for shaved steak that's more shredded than shaved. flavorwise it was still very good, such an easy yet delicious recipe, it might become one of my go-to recipes. the hardest part if finding shaved steak on sale, and getting some beni shoga (i have enough to last me for a while).

i wish i could say i ate dinner while watching the basketball game, but i finished the gyudon in just a matter of minutes. celtics were ineffective in the first quarter, seems like the only person scoring was jaylen brown. boston was down by 15 minutes. but it was still early in the game, and the celtics still had time to mount a comeback, which they did. cleveland was playing lights out with the shooting, that's the kind of effort it takes to beat boston. celtics couldn't match them in terms of offense, so relied on defense to get some stops and slowly built up a small lead. celtics ended up winning, 120-113. their home winning streak is intact!

i have a xiaomi mi box S which is a streaming android tv. earlier i noticed the chinese streaming website my 2nd aunt was using have apps that support a bunch of different platforms, from windows to macos, to android to iphone/ipad. they even have an android tv app. so i spent some time tonight trying to install the app onto my mi box. at first i tried downloading it directly, but i think android tv security doesn't allow downloading through a 3rd party browser app. i ended up sideloading the app by copying the apk to a thumb drive and running the installer through a file manager app i downloaded on android tv. i was surprised when it worked. this means i might be able to install the app on my 2nd aunt's TCL google tv, saving her the trouble of trying to watch her shows from the tv browser app.