my hair loss drugs arrived at my sister's place this morning at 5am. i went to pick them up on my way to the cafe. the pill bottle caps had the amazon pharmacy logo. i'm still kind of confused how amazon is in the prescription drugs business now. i'm not complaining, these prices are cheap for something out-of-pocket. i decided to wait until the evening to take these drugs, along with my regular before bed pharmaceutical cocktail.

i helped my father set up the new xiaomi fitness band i got him. this is version 10, same as mine. one feature he really liked is lift to turn on.

4 passion flowers bloomed today. i noticed more signs of rabbits eating our chrysanthemums, so i sprinkled the area with ground korean pepper flakes, hoping to keep them away.

today felt like a summer day, hot and humid. nevertheless, a customer actually insisted on sitting outside so we quickly set up the deck for him. we had a lot of customers today but didn't make much profit as there were a lot of drink orders.

my father made another luffa gourd soup, this time with fried tofu and imitation crab. both my parents were eating it, it looked so delicious i ate the leftover in the pot.

my sister was in belmont, called to let us know my father forgot to close the car door. i asked her to bring the packages delivered to the house. that included the other half of my aliexpress order and the used rechargeable resound hearing aid case i bought for $80 (brand new $200). there's absolutely no reason why it should be so expensive, hearing aids are such a racket.

one of the things in the aliexpress package was an egg piercer. i tested it on a used eggshell, it seemed to work, before i accidentally crushed the eggshell. i'm going to put it to use tomorrow when i make a new batch of tea eggs. there was also a package of ready-to-assemble pinwheels, enough to make 50. the material is pretty flimsy, you get what you pay. for a stand it just uses plastic straws.

i went to the community garden after work to water my plants. there was another flush of butterfly pea flowers which i harvested. a young blonde girl came into the garden. she saw and waved but i didn't recognize her. turns out it was my neighbor helen, i didn't recognize her without her glasses. she was watering molly's garden and i asked about molly. apparently she's still up in maine taking care of her father.

i came home and tried out the new rechargeable hearing aid case. i put in my hearing aids but none of the led's turned out. i tried reseting the case but it still didn't work. i suddenly had a terrible thought: what if this charger case isn't compatible with my resound vivia? so i did a search on google, and sure enough, the GN resound model C-1 charger case only works with older hearing aids (nexia, omnia, one, linx quattro, key). the vivia only works with the resound premium charger. i immediately went onto ebay to see what the return policies are. to my horror, the seller doesn't accept returns. so i basically paid $80 for nothing. it wasn't like the seller was lying, i just didn't do enough research and figured all the chargers were the same. my only recourse now is somehow try to sell it back on ebay at a lower price. i never sold anything on ebay before, so it'll be a good learning experience.

for dinner i had some leftover beef noodle soup i brought home. i took my mother's advice and only ate half (it's actually two portions). it was a lot more reasonable and i didn't feel like exploding afterwards. i tried to find the 49ers-rams game broadcasting from australia but didn't see it on any of the channels. turns out it was an amazon exclusive, so i had to stream it from a sports pirate site. it was a boring game anyway, san francisco won 27-7. rams lost because they just arrived in australia less than 24 hours ago, while the 49ers spend a week there.

there's a 9/11 tribute on mount washington where they beam two streams of light into the sky. supposedly on a clear night the light can even be seen from boston. so around 10pm i went out to the deck and launched my drone into the air, pointing north, to see if i could spot anything. i was up 400ft, but there was too much clouds. tomorrow will be a better night, totally clear. flying a drone in the dark can be dangerous, especially when i have such a small landing spot, and the wind pushed the drone so that when i brought it back down, it was off course.

i took the minoxidil and finasteride along with my regular bunch of pills. i don't know what to expect. minoxidil can cause shedding in the first month, as it get rid of old hairs to make room for new growth. i don't think it can be worse than the bathtub-clogging shedding that's going on now. it may take a few months before i see results. i'm not looking for a pompadour, just keep what i currently have, and maybe fix the small bald spot that gets normally covered up anyway from my longish hair.

i waited until the children were in their classrooms (8:45am) before riding down to the community garden to water my plants. there was a new flush of blue butterfly pea flowers i wasn't expecting, i harvested them all. i also collected a few long asian eggplants and tomatoes. i dropped them off at home before continuing my errand run.

i went to walgreens to pick up the passport photos i printed out last night. there was only one clerk working and the woman he was helping was taking over. so i went to go get my prescription instead. when i came back, the woman was still holding up the line. so i did some browsing, made a note of all the halloween candy on sale, might be good as presents when i go back to taiwan and chongqing. finding the woman was done and i picked up my photos for 41¢.

next stop was market basket, where i picked up a few things for the cafe, like non-diary creamer and ground beef. coming back, i checked out a fence on properzi way that was entirely covered in bitter melon vines. i noticed it last week but didn't bother stopping to confirm. i wonder if an asian person lives there? the weird thing is it's mostly leaves, i didn't see any bitter melons except for two hidden ones that had already turned orange and burst open.

i left again around 10:30am, this time to run some errands in boston. first stop was the northeast AAA branch to get my international driver license. this was their new office on congress street. google maps gave me a circuitous route that goes through downtown crossing. i couldn't remember the directions and ended up going my own way, which was straight down merrimac to congress street, the most direct and easiest way, not sure why google didn't recommend going this direction. i filled out a form and gave the clerk my driver license and two passport photos i picked up earlier. i paid the $20 fee and waited for the clerk to write my info in a little booklet that's the international driver license. i had one before, 20 years ago. it only lasts for a year before it expires.

next i went to the taipei economic & cultural office in boston AKA the taiwan consulate. i got a little lost and had to stop to consult google maps. eventually i found it. i parked outside on an actual bike stand, using both my seatylock mason u-lock and my heavy duty kryptonite chain lock.

the taiwanese consulate was almost closed, they take a 2 hour lunch break around noontime. there was a taiwanese man ahead of me in line, with only one clerk working today. he kept telling the woman, "no rush, no rush," like i wasn't waiting there for him to finish. i finally got to speak with the clerk. i had two questions: my taiwanese passport requires a stamp letting taiwanese immigration know that i'm exempt from military service because i also hold a foreign passport. i didn't get the stamp when i renewed my taiwanese passport because my US passport was expired at the time. the clerk asked if me i was over 36 years old. it took me a second to reply. "yes, i'm very much over 36 years old." she said those older than 36 are exempt from military service. my 2nd question was for my sister: could i submit paperwork if she wanted to renew her taiwanese passport or does she need to do it in person? the clerk told me i could do it for her. it costs $45 and take 5-7 days. i showed her the passport photos my sister took. i didn't think it would qualify because she's making a face (eyes purposely wide open, furrowed forehead, lips pursed). the clerk said it was okay, but the fact that her ears weren't showing would disqualify the photo.

my errands done, all i had to do was figure out what i wanted for lunch. i ended up going to nearby chacarero. it wasn't busy yet. the woman taking the orders seemed like she was the owner, because she was excited to tell me since labor day they've extended their business hours to 4pm. i ordered the spicy beef sandwich for $16.

i headed back to cambridge, getting home around noontime. i took a quick shower before settling down to eat my chacarero beef sandwich.

i went outside to install the new suspension seatpost on my ebike. took me forever to figure it out, i even had to come back inside and watch a few youtube videos. i realized i didn't need to disassemble the seatpost clamps to install the post into the bike saddle. once i made that realization the seatpost was easy to put together. the saddle sat a little too far back, with barely enough clearance between the seat and the rear basket. but after an hour, the suspension seatpost was finally installed.

i gathered up some of the supplies i got from market basket this morning and headed down to the cafe. i also had a large watermelon in my backpack. i couldn't tell if the suspension seatpost made for a smoother ride, but it was definitely bouncing the seat, as i could feel it hitting the rear basket.

my mother said it wasn't too busy today. my sister was there, i told her they wouldn't accept her passport photo. not because it was ugly (it was), but because her ears weren't showing. my mother made a big pot of lamb rice in the enamel dutch oven. she gave me soem for dinner. part of my aliexpress order arrived yesterday and my father brought them to the cafe. i stuffed everything into my backpack and left for belmont.

i got there by 2pm. i came to do some yardwork, pull up weeds from the front lawn before mowing both front and back (it's supposed to rain overnight so that's the best time to mow). but i spent the first 30 minutes redoing the placement of my rear bike basket so the saddle wouldn't hit it anymore. only then did i finally do some weeding before mowing. i lowered the deck on the mower from 4 to 3. i heard you're supposed to mow at a lower height before aerating. i still have to figure out where to rent an aerator from and whether or not it'll even fit inside the honda element.

i finally left by 3:30pm. i was excited to test my newly adjusted ebike, but i couldn't get the velotric to turn on anymore. when i removed the battery and clicked on the status button, it showed my 5 flashing green lights. battery failure, replace battery. so that E9E error finally killed the battery. i ended up riding home in manual mode.

i got back home by 3:45pm. i explained the new handlebar. it seemed kind of small - like for a kid's bike - but it's actually similar in style to my ebike handlebar. i wish it was swept back more. i'll swap out the handlebar on the trek FX this weekend when i have time.

i got some hot peppers and garlic from market basket this morning, to make another batch of my homemade hot sauce. i didn't have enough canola oil so went down to star market to get some. they only had vegetable oil ($3.99) so that's what i got. i ended up not making hot sauce today, too labor intensive.

my doctor finally responded to my hair loss treatment drugs request. he sent the prescriptions to amazon pharmacy, which then showed up almost immediately. it's $17.60 for a 90 day supply of finasteride 1mg ($195.30 retail), and $15.80 for a 90 day supply of 2.5mg minoxidil ($56.70 retail). amazon tells me i'm getting these low prices because i'm a prime member. they're due to arrive tomorrow.

i ate the lamb rice pilaf around 8pm, during the start of the NFL season with patriots seahawks being the first game. new england got a gift when seahawk QB sam darnold went down in the first few minutes after an injury. i was actually thinking that earlier today, "how can the patriots win?" and that was exactly the scenario i envisioned. patriots were up 10-0 in the 3rd quarter, but seahawks came back to not only tie but to take the win. new england had a chance to either tie or win the game with just seconds left but drake maye threw an interception, his third of the game. this after he lost two of his receivers, AJ brown (sprained ankle?) and hunter henry (concussion?). i don't know who romeo doubs is, but he dropped 3 critical passes from maye. maybe it's just nerves, but he failed us. at least it wasn't a blow out? but close games are the hardest to swallow.

i only had time to water my own yard this morning, didn't go down to the community garden. i actually don't like going there in the mornings these days, ever since school started, because it's a mess with parents dropping off their kids and school buses delivering students. to make matters worse, the way i ride in, i'm actually going down the wrong way on a one way street. it's only a matter of time before i get into an accident. it's september anyway, i'm thinking about winding down my community garden.

today was going to be a busy day at the cafe. my father left to go get some salmon and baby cucumbers, and went to the mechanic to tell them what's wrong with the car (when he went yesterday they were closed, so he just left the car there with the key). while he was gone i started a new batch of tea eggs. my mother roasted a batch of chinese sausages in the oven. when my father came back my parents cut up the salmon, descaled them, before putting them in a teriyaki marinade. after that we fried two boxes of marinated salt & pepper chicken. we started a little late because we were waiting for the chicken to fully thaw, so we weren't done with frying before customers started showing up.

we also needed to make new batches of chicken curry and beef noodle soup, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. it usually takes two days to make beef noodle soup. my father made the soup stock today, but will combine it with the shank chunks tomorrow before portioning.

we were busy today between 11-1pm. a lot of bento sales, not so much noodles, i only needed to make one more batch. we used up all our rice, didn't have to cook more, but had some frozen rice ready as backup, which we ended up not using.

i made a new batch of pickled red onion slices. i now have several empty jars of magenta pickle juice which i heard can be used to make a vinegar-based salad dressing. in the afternoon my mother made rice noodle soup for lunch using the beef soup stock.

two passion flowers today. despite the cooler weather, the passion vine continues to make flowers daily. it's put up a non-stop show all summer long. i spotted a daring jumping spider on one of the old closed flower buds.

we got a boost in the evening. my mother sold a knitted garment while we got a big online order.

i took home some leftover charred wings, grilled pineapple slices, and two thawed kielbasa sausages for dinner, as well as some ing'er soup. i didn't have the energy to visit my community garden, i'll go water tomorrow morning. i went down to the basement and got my ebike battery so i could charge it up fully for tomorrow (brought back the charger from my parents' place). a bit of good news: i checked velotric site today, they said they shipped out the new replacement battery and it's supposed to arrive on friday.

while taking a shower, i accidentally poked the inside of my nose with a fingertip. i thought nothing of it until i looked down and saw i was bleeding. didn't realize it was so easy to give myself a bloody nose.

i ate dinner while watching the red sox game against the angels. i got the angels confused with the dodgers, kept waiting for shohei to show up. red sox lost 6-1, while both the rays and yankees won their games.

i keep on getting access denied errors in chrome when i visit some popular store sites like lowes and michael's. it throws up an error followed by an edgesuite.net address. the access denied URL will still work in firefox, and it'll also work in chrome incognito mode. i thought maybe it was an extensions conflict but when i turned off everything it still didn't work. i also cleared all my data cache. i've always thought it was because i'm using an outdated version of chrome on mojave, and i think that's still the most likely issue. more the reason to finally switch to my new macbook pro which i still haven't really used since getting it a year ago.

i had two things to do this morning: get some supplies from market basket and thaw out a bunch of frozen foods at the cafe. i went to market basket around 10am via ebike. it was unusually busy, until i realized it was because of labor day. all checkout lanes were opened, i paid by the one closest to the entrance (which is normally closed).

coming back, i grabbed a milwaukee convertible fold-up hand truck that was lying out on the curb. it was too heavy to throw in the rear basket, so i slung it awkwardly over a shoulder and rode gingerly home. i ended up stopping and pushing the bike, no way i was going to ride and carry at the same time.

when i got home, i grabbed my drone and set it up in the air from the second floor deck to take some photos of the backyard construction light. i was curious why they weren't working today, until once more i realized it was because of labor day. the second floor is a great launching pad. it's a little close to the house and landing can be a little tricky, but still better than doing it in the alleyway, where have to fly up 3 stories because i can get sky clearance. the deck is also great because i can fly sitting down.

i was about to leave when i decided i'd take one more short trip, this time across the street to star market to get a pair of watermelons on sale for $3.99/each (labor day weekend special).

i finally went to the cafe around 11:30am. besides the usual things that need defrosting, i also had to defrost two boxes of raw salt & pepper chicken (for frying), two boxes of raw chicken (for curry), two bags of cut beef shank (for the beef noodle soup), and a box of chinese sausages. it's going to be insanely busy tomorrow. afterwards i watered the outdoor plants. it looks like rabbits ate some of the orange chrysanthemums. i noticed some cut stems and some flower buds on the ground. today we had 4 passion flowers.

i had some leftover wings for lunch when i got to belmont. i didn't realize how charred a lot of them were, had an unappetizing bitter taste.

after lunch my father and i did some repair work on the honda element. he cleaned up a lot of corrosion on one of the battery leads. we left the battery disconnected while we worked to reattach the passenger side airbag sensor, which was chewed by some critter during the winter. originally i thought it was just one wire, but after unwrapping the plastic protective wire loom shroud, i discovered it was actually two wires. the one exposed was frayed while the hidden wire was completely severed. it gave us a chance to use some solder seal connectors, which requires some heating to melt some low temperature solder and the shrink wrap for a waterproof seal. we also used the wire stripper tool to expose enough bare metal to splice the wires together.

we first had to remove the wire loom clip. my father ended up using a pair of pliers to pull it out, and scissors to cut it open. it used some kind of zip tie lock that in hindsight we could've opened without having to destroy it.

next came the splicing. we spliced the severed wire with a solder seal connector. my father reconnected the battery just to see if it worked. sure enough, the airbag light turned off. my father was satisfied with the fix, and said the other frayed wire can just be tied up with some electric tape. i didn't like the idea that the frayed wires could break at some point, and i wanted to cut the wire and splice it together. so we ended up doing that. all was going well, until i pushed the spliced wires into the plastic loom and discovered the critter had chewed more of the wiring. in mucking around with the cables, i managed to sever it again, and when my father turned on the car, the airbag light warning turned back on. if that's all there is, we know how to fix it. we might end up replacing that section of wire instead of having multiple splices.

unfortunately we were out of time. my aunt invited us to her place so matthew could teach us how to repair an expandable garden hose. my father took the toyota to get the disc pads replaced, while i followed him a short time later with the other car. after that we went to my aunt's place. i thought it was weird they were cooking, and she kept asking where my mother was. she actually invited us over for a barbecue. she only told my father, who thought it was just a quick visit. it was a mess. when we called my mother asking her if she wanted to come, she said no, even after my aunt spoke with her. so my father and i ended up staying - even though i had some things to do back in belmont. we ate around 3:30pm, even though i just ate at my parents' place, and wasn't sure if i was going to eat again when i return to belmont. my mother was going to make lamb pilaf, and i even bought a bunch of stuff for her (long grain rice, onion).

as for the plants, there was a bunch of white windflowers i don't remember seeing. there was a small pumpkin growing on a long vine. his hops were doing exceptionally well, with nearly half inch diameter bine stalks, and plenty of hops.

matthew made a rotisserie style chicken in their grill using an attachment to suspend the turkey above a cast iron pan to catch the drippings. there was also salsa and chips, potatoes, swiss chard, and grilled onions.

after we finished eating, matthew showed us how to repair our broken expanding garden hose. it involves replacing the inner tube then clamping the hose ends using a wire clamping tool. removing the inner tube involves carefully pulling it out while at the same time rolling off the outer fabric layer. reinserting the new inner tube was a lot harder. but we figured out a way using a venetian blind curtain rod that was just big enough for the inner tube to fit tightly on one end while we pushed it through the whole length of the outer layer.

with new inner tube in place, we attached the hose ends. matthew demonstrated the clamptite tool. it looked like a fancy pen with metal rods sticking out and a wingnut on the other end. he used it with stainless steel safety wires to clamp the hose onto the hose end barbs.

once that was done, it was the moment of truth. we attached it to the faucet, the hose worked fine watering. once we turned off the water though, pressure started building up in the hose, and it quickly expanded. all seemed fine until the hose burst open near where my father was standing.

we ended up cutting off that end (only about a quarter of the hose) and reattaching the hose end. we tested the hose again, it seemed to work, but it was building up a lot of pressure inside. if we were to use this newly repaired hose, it would be under low pressure situation. i think the problem is the fabric outer layer is in bad condition, and there are multiple small rips that maybe one day become big rips.

my aunt packed some food for my mother as we left around 6pm. when i got back to belmont, i stuffed two jars of long beans for fermenting. i also cut up the haymarket-purchased passion fruit to get to the seeds. we're going to leave them outside for about a week to let the seeds separate from the gooey pulp before planting. my suspension seatpost also came. it was so tight i couldn't get it to budge. i won't know if it works until i install it on my ebike.

i got back home by 7:30pm. earlier i showed my mother the topo designs mountain cross bag. she thought it was a waste of money, until i showed her my old mountainsmith lumbar pack and how much it costs now ($110). i also showed her a video someone did on the bag and she was sold. so i ended up ordering a mountain cross bag from evo.com for $104 (labor day weekend sale). i like the black but it looks a little plain. i ended up getting the woodland terracotta version.

i heard it might rain overnight but i wasn't expecting so much of it: 0.39 inches fell while i slept, raining for a good 238 minutes. i didn't believe it until i looked outside and saw puddles in the roads. overnight rains are the best. we get beneficial rain, means i don't have to water my plants, and it's dry afterwards that i can still enjoy the day.

the one thing i had to do this morning was go buy that popcorn maker. the seller told me has address, jacques street in somerville, which i wasn't familiar with. turns out it close to mystic avenue, almost a stone throw from the river. to get there involves climbing the hills of somerville. normally it wouldn't be a big deal if i had my ebike. but with its battery depleted, i had no choice but to ride a manual bike.

i had about half an hour to kill before i needed to leave, so i decided to visit market basket first to grab some drinks for belmont. i took the marin, figured i'd better get used to it since it's the bike i'll be taking to get my popcorn maker. i grabbed half a dozen 1L polar seltzers on the sale before returning home. i passed by the peach tree on properzi way. there were some fruits on the ground but they were all damaged from falling to the hard ground. and they're not actually peaches, they're nectarines. up in the tree there's still two dozen perfectly good looking fruits, but too high to reach, and also on private property.

i sent the seller a note around 9:45am letting him know i was leaving and proceded to winter hill. i basically went up central until i hit broadway, then took a left onto fenwick street to get to jacques. i was sweaty and out of breath by the time i arrived. th seller came out of the house when i got there, shook my hand in his big meaty paw. he actually had the popcorn maker in his which he took out as i gave him the $10.

i returned home much the same way. the popcorn maker was actually rattling in its box, so i pulled over to adjust it. in the marketplace posting it said the zippy popcorn maker was red, but the one i got was black. how did that happen? i don't know, but i actually prefer black. i basically went straight down central square, back to somerville avenue, even though the final stretch was going downhill on a one way street. sunday morning there wasn't too much traffic, and if i car did come up the opposite way, i could always dodge it by riding on the sidewalk.

i got a chance to examine the zippy popcorn maker when i got home. i was surprised the pan had a non-stick coating on the inside. unlike other stovetop popcorn makers, the zippy had a patented design that uses two fins: one stationary while the other one spins. it makes for better fixing compared to ones that one has a single spinning paddle. the lid is glass, with vents to release the steam. it also has a large hole with a rubber lid, used for adding ingredients while the popcorn pops. the model that i got is only 4qt.

it was still early so i relaxed for about an hour, using the bathroom and taking a shower. i finally left around 11:30am. because of the rain, i didn't have to stop at the cafe to water the plants. i went straight to my parents' place. i took the ebike so i could charge up the battery when i arrived. riding the ebike in manual mode felt weird. it takes a few seconds to get going, but once the ebike is rolling, it moves pretty well (as long as you're in the right gear). it felt like stealth mode, since by not turning on the ebike, the odometer doesn't record the miles i've traveled.

my mother made fried eggs with hunter sausages for lunch. because she gave away our keurig coffee system to my 2nd aunt (since my mother inherited a nespresso machine from liting's family but makes better coffee), she can no longer make any keurig spiced chai drinks. instead she made a mug of instant caramel coffee drink.

i was outside with my father as my mother called us in to eat. he was proudly showing me where all the new luffa gourds are growing. he thinks they can all reach maturity for yet another batch of luffas. the secret is weekly feeding with a balanced water soluble miracle-gro fertilizer and making sure the grow bags get watered from our drip irrigation system.

i didn't take my battery off of the ebike because i saw a patch of rain approaching the boston area from the north. it rained for a little bit, increasing the total rainfall today to 0.43 inches. once the rain was gone, only then did i take the battery off so i could recharge it.

the two baseus 20000mAh compact portable chargers arrived yesterday, one for my father, one for me. it's a little heavy, i don't know if i'd like to carry this all day in my bag. the strap is a cool design, actually two hidden USB-C cables.

my sister brought esmei to belmont. sometimes esmei seem really smart, but most of the time she's pretty dumb. maybe dumb is not the right word. more like aloof, like a cat. does her own thing, doesn't listen to commands, only comes if she thinks you have food, or occasionally if she might want to play, but loses interests very quickly. i let her outside a few times, she spent most of her time around the backyard perimeter, picking up the scent of rabbits. when she comes back inside i have to wipe off the mud from her paws.

there was an early afternoon red sox game against the orioles. boston won 3-1, both teams did all their scoring in the first two innings, so it was a pretty boring game if you stuck around all the way to the end. a good day for the red sox, as both the rays and yankees lose their games. boston is now 2-1/2 games behind new york, and 6-1/2 games behind the rays.

i've been slowly reaching out to my chongqing contacts, letting them know i'll be back in china for 2 weeks between october and november. people like WWY, SM, and LH. i haven't seen them for over a decade, though i've followed their exploits on wechat.

i ordered a no-name-brand (BBSHD) suspension seatpost ($55) for my ebike a while back. it's been nearly a month and it still hasn't been delivered. it seems to b stuck in norwood, at the carrier facility. for some reason it kept getting sent out and then sent back three times on wednesday. so i ended up ordering a new one. it costs a little more ($60) but this one is due to arrive tomorrow.

around 5pm another patch of rain suddenly manifested up north, slowly drifting south, with a direct hit on boston. this was a quick but intense passing shower, increased today's total rainfall to 0.49 inches. we actually didn't need the rain nor could we capture any more as all the barrels were at maximum capacity. not a bad problem to have.

my battery finished charging by then and i quickly installed it back onto the ebike before the rain, so the internal components on the ebike doesn't get wet.

soon after the rain had passed, my father took out the two trays of chicken wings that'd been thawing and dry brining with salt. we grilled at 350 degrees, 6 minutes per sides, a coating of thai sweet chili sauce after each 6 minutes. some of the smaller wings managed to get scorched, there was some grease at the bottom of the grill that might've flared up and made the grill super smokey. we also grilled the pineapple i got. we cut them into discs this time, but i think it would've caramelized more if we cut them into rings, but we don't have a pineapple corer. the pineapple slices were juicy, sweet, and tart. i think they'd taste better cold instead of warm. i ate a bunch of wings, picking out the bitter charred ones since nobody wanted them.

it was already dark by the time i left around 7:30pm. i forgot to bring my rear tail light, but the ebike had built-in rear brake lights on the rear stays, as well as a headlight. plus i have color-changing wheel lights as well. since i was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts, it was cold as the temperature dropped into the 60's. i quickly raced home with a full charge of battery.

after a shower, i continued watching enterprise reruns.

i'm very to close to a travel bag decision. i came across the topo designs mountain cross bag. it checks off a lot of boxes, and looks very similar to my old mountainsmith lumbar bag, just bigger. it comes in an all black version with beige highlights, but also a woodland/terracotta color combination. evo.com currently has a labor day weekend sale for $104 (usually they're $139). i'm going to sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow.

i closed the window before bed, as it was getting cold. temperature outside tonight was 57 degrees. fall will soon be upon us.

went to haymarket again this morning. my haul: 12 mandarin oranges ($4), case of mangoes ($2), yellow canary melon ($1), pineapple ($1), large passion fruit ($2). i was hoping to score some leeks but no vendors had them. the oranges were from a different vendor, that's why they're more expensive. i was happy to score a passion fruit; not to eat, but to harvest the seeds so we can try growing some edible passion fruit flowers. i only ended up spending $10.

i was done by 9:15am and got back home by 9:45am. it look a little longer than usual because i decided to take a more scenic route, down tremont street, through the public garden, over the footbridge, on the esplanade, then across the longfellow to return to cambridge. the 16th annual asian-american day festival was happening at the public garden. my ebike battery was also almost depleted, so i was running in ECO mode setting 3 to conserve power. i was prepared to do some manual riding if necessary, but i made it back home with 6% battery remaining.

i switched to my marin bicycle and went to the community garden to do some watering, harvesting, and fertilizing. this will probably be my last feeding for the season. my cherry tomato is all but dead and my regular tomato only produced golfball sized fruits, with no new flowers. my kabocha squash has miraculously stayed alive despite some sun-scorched leaves and has a small fruit growing, but i doubt it'll get any bigger. i picked a box of cherry tomatoes and a few more butterfly pea flowers.

back at home i watered my back and front yard before feeding some plants as well, including the plants on my deck. my cayenne pepper is very happy with the full sun but it hasn't turned red yet. i heard sometimes side shoots need to be pruned off to force the plant's energy into ripening the peppers.

i headed to the cafe with my haymarket haul. my mother was already there, having walked to work this morning. my father came a short time later, after going to belmont public library to pick up our latest 3D print, a pair of inserts for the anker power adapter plug.

my mother tasted one of the mandarin oranges immediately, said they were good. not sure where these came from, not from south africa like the ones i bought last saturday. the mangoes looked ripe but still felt hard. my father didn't think they'd be good but when he cut into one, the flesh was pretty fragrant with a tart sweetness. if we don't end up eating all those mangoes, we might just cut them up and freeze them to make mango smoothies for the cafe.

when my 2nd aunt arrived at the cafe, she brought another variety of liquor-filled russian chocolates. these ones - stolichnye candies krasnyi octyabr - in orange wrappers featuring yellow skyscrapers - are expensive at $16/lbs. they have a better chocolate taste with a very small amount of alcohol.

thinking today would be a slow day, my mother only cooked 4 cups of rice. however when i checked the profit for labor day weekend saturday last year 2025, it was very pretty busy. and so it was again this year. we started getting customers as soon as we opened. we were already in the thick of it before it was even noontime. that first hour was crazy busy. it tapered off after that, but we continued to get a steady stream of customers all day long until we finally closed at 4pm. we used up all our leftover rice from yesterday and we ended up cooking 3 more cups of rice. we used a lot of food this week, next week is going to be busy renewing all our stock. salt & pepper chicken, beef noodle soup, chicken curry, tea eggs, all that will need to replenished on tuesday.

i helped my 2nd aunt buy her taipei tickets. she originally wanted to fly with taiwanese starlux airlines - a luxury boutique carrier that started in 2020 - but ended up flying hainan airline as well, just like my parents and me. as a matter of fact, she's taking the same flight as my parents to taipei (but coming back on a later date). like yesterday, chase refused the purchase on my credit card. it sent me a text to confirm, and then i had to wait a few minutes for them to authorize the purchase before the order could go through.

i barely had any charge left on my ebike when i went home yet i was still able to make it back on battery power alone. by the time i got back i just had 2% left on the battery. i saw somebody had tossed out a really nice baby crib. i told my sister about it, thought maybe esmei could use it as an elevated dog bed. i looked up the item online: a mika micky bassinet. it looked pretty cool, but only designed for a maximum of 30 lbs, so esmei would be too heavy.

first thing i did when i got home was climb the deck to the second floor to survey the backyard construction. the mini excavator is gone, along with the dumpster. does this mean we're in the building phase next week? a good time to set up my gopro for a time lapse video.

my mother packed me a leftover bento that i ate for dinner while watching the red sox orioles game. red sox won 5-0. it's the second game where the oriole didn't score any runs. later i watched more first season enterprise reruns on pluto.tv. i must've seen all these episodes when they first aired on UPN back in 2001-2002, but i don't remember any of them. earlier seasons were tame compared to later seasons when the show got sexier (mirror universe t'pol) and more violent (collaborating with trained soldiers).

my backyard was still damp from yesterday morning's rainstorm so i didn't bother watering it. instead i went down to my community garden, passing through the gauntlet of parents dropping their children off at the nearby elementary school. there were tons of blue butterfly pea flowers which i harvested after i watered the plants. i also picked off a few golfball-sized tomatoes.

we didn't realize we were nearly out of salt & pepper chicken so my father had to do a quick emergency defrost of one small box of frozen marinated chicken and deep fry them in the late morning after they thawed. chicken continued to be one of the more popular choices, but we look like we might have enough left over for tomorrow saturday, hedging our bet that maybe it'll be a slow day because of the labor day long weekend.

i spent some time pruning the potted honeysuckle so i could take it out of circulation. in its place i put another flowering chrysanthemum. the parking lot patio only has a month left. we need to take it down before my parents and i leave for vacation. actually, the patio can stay, but we'll have to remove all the plants before then, particularly the passion vine. it'll need to be pruned then moved to our basement grow room.

my aunt showed up in the late morning with some banana cake muffins. she left with more marinated bitter melon slices.

i started a new batch of tea eggs after my father finished frying. i didn't want the oily smoke to potentially contaminate the eggs while they simmer for 2 hours.

big news today was the mistrial of the lindsay clancy triple murder case. it sounds like the jury was ready to pass a not guilty verdict with the exception of one juror who was dead set that clancy was guilty. no amount of persuasion could make him change his mind. i think a guilty verdict is the right call. yes we should all sympathize with the family in this terrible no-win scenario, but to say otherwise - that she's innocent - opens up a whole can of worms. the "hormones made me do it" defense (a gross simplification i know) could be use as future precedent to argue women aren't qualified for certain positions on the account they might not be fit for duty. if indeed men and women are equal, you can't play the hormone card. especially not after you murder your three children. someone like that doesn't get a free pass, as tragic as the situation may be.

velotric contacted me again today. i was expecting to jump through some more hoops, but my agent told me my case authorized for a free warranty battery replacement, no further questions asked. that was a lot easier than i expected. all i had to do was recheck the shipping address and agree to the purchase order, which in my case was free. the battery itself - in white no less, to match the color of my bike - costs $400 on its own. i didn't even have to return the current battery. i'll keep it as a unreliable backup since it still works. there was no mention of supply issues like i read in some online forums where it takes months for the replacement battery to arrive. i went to velotric's website to see their replacement batteries and it said all the breeze 1 batteries were out of stock, so take that what you will. when i check my online order status though, it says its preparing the battery for shipping. maybe i'm one of the lucky ones.

i got in touch with frances today, told her i was going to taiwan in late october. she said she and june went to shanghai back in june, it was just as much fun as staying in taiwan. she gave me a few tips. install alipay on your phone to pay for things, since very few people in china use cash anymore. she also said to use didi rideshare to get around, that it's super cheap. another thing i have to do when i go to chongqing is to get a local sim card so i can have a china phone number. without one, it's hard to do anything online, since they need a phone number for ID confirmation.

we got slammed around lunchtime, when a bunch of astrophysicists showed up and they all ordered the same thing: dan dan noodles with a custom topping of fried tofu. a guy who was with them got his order to go, but ended up eating here (we hate this, if you're going to eat here tell us, so we don't waste takeout containers, the cost of which we bear ourselves). later i went out to deliver some bentos to two different customers, and i saw a guy wearing a PIL t-shirt. of course that stands for public image limited, lead by john lydon. i wanted to ask the guy what's his favorite PIL song but i went back to the kitchen. that also reminds me on monday when we went to costco, i saw another guy wearing a fangoria t-shirt. 80's nostalgia is a real thing.

we didn't surpass yesterday's profit but we did have more sales today.

i went home after work. after a shower, i cooked my last two remaining frozen salmon burger on the smokeless grill for another pair of sandwiches. this time i drizzles some sriracha over the tartar sauce for some extra kick. i ate while watching the 2nd red sox orioles game. it kind of weird because both teams are represented by the letter B but in different font styles. it was a tense game as the score was 1-0 in boston's favor since the 1st inning. the score stayed that way until the game ended, neither team could score any additional runs.

i'm shopping for a new messenger bag for walking around when i'm on vacation. i've looked at a bunch tonight but nothing to my criteria. earlier today i spoke with my father about china-compatible battery banks. last year china passed a new law that says all battery banks must be CCC certified, otherwise they get confiscated at the airport and i heard on some trains as well. so we got new battery packs with CCC certification.

i woke up this morning with the news that gloria steinem passed away at the age of 92. a major voice in the women's liberation movement of the 70's, she was also a style icon. she will be remembered.

it rained in the early morning. by the time i woke up it had long since stopped. it did however drop 0.26 inches of rain in 70 minutes. that meant i didn't have to water the yard or the community garden. all i had to do was get ready for work.

i brought the russian chocolates and leftover bonchon chicken wings to the cafe. my parents had some wings but they weren't very good. once they get cold, they lose their crispiness. next time i'll bring fresh wings from the harvard square bonchon.

i helped my parents buy their taiwanese air tickets using booking.com. they went with hainan airline, one of the few airlines that fly from boston to taipei. none of them are direct, they all have layovers. hainan stops in beijing before continuing to taiwan.

after my parents finalized their flight schedule with ticket purchases, i started searching for my own ticket. i was also flying to taipei, using it as a staging area for any additional asia jaunts. i wanted to buy the ticket today, as prices keep on increasing while availability decrease. my parents' own roundtrip tickets was just $840 on tuesday per person but the prices jumped up to $940 today. i like i mentioned earlier, there are only a few carriers that will fly from boston to taipei, all with layovers: hainan in beijing, united in san francisco, japan airline in tokyo, delta in seattle, korean airline in seoul, turkish airlines in istanbul, and cathay pacific in hong kong. i thought about turkish airline, but the direction it flies to asia (west to east) means two whole days will have passed before i arrive. korean airline was intriguing, with a 17 hour layover at incheon airport. that's long enough to take a quick trip to seoul to grab dinner and do some sightseeing before sleeping at the airport for my 10am flight to taipei the next day. it was also cheap. i almost bought a flight from them but when i checked the return flight, there was another layover - 10 hours this time. that was one too many lengthy layovers. in the end i went with hainan as well - roundtrip $970. i leave a week earlier than my parents - october 21st - and come back november 20th, a few days after they return to boston. so i'll be gone nearly a whole month. right now i'm planning a two weeks trip to chongqing midway in my taiwan stay, maybe a train trip to chengdu if i have time. i could also fly to japan (flights from taipei are cheap and many), but my friend alex in tokyo so far hasn't really replied when i asked him if i could crash at his apartment, so we'll see. i've got a month and a half to research, figure out where i want to go, figure out some logistics.

we were busy today, not so much a crunch, but rather just a slow and steady stream of customers. we didn't have a lull until 4pm. between that time i took a quick trip to trader joe's for supplies: baby cucumbers, spinach, edamame, bananas. there was a chance for a pop-up shower in the afternoon but we weren't that lucky. the day was just overcast, temperature in the 70's but felt warmer because of the humidity. when i came back i finished the rest of my bonchon wings. 3 passion flowers bloomed today.

velotric contacted me, asked me to send photos of the E9E error on my LCD screen as well as my address. how many of their ebikes succumb to a faulty battery and need a replacement? thankfully i'm under warranty, so it should be a simply matter of a free replacement. i thought maybe i might have to go pick it up from where i bought my ebike, but since they asked for my home address, i'm not so sure.

i surveyed the backyard construction when i got back home. they tore up a section of the cement foundation. the things they can tear down with a mini bobcat excavator! i really ought to set up a time lapse video so i see what's going on when i'm away at work.

for dinner i made a pair of salmon burgers on toasted brioche buns with onion, lettuce, and homemade tartar sauce (mayonnaise, relish, lemon juice). i used my foreman smokeless grill to cook the raw frozen salmon burgers, 6 minutes at 400 degrees, flipping at the midway mark. they didn't taste too bad, but i think a salmon patty made with fresh chopped salmon might taste even better on an outdoor barbecue grill. i ate while watching the end of the red sox orioles game. it was another exciting game, as red sox needed every single one of its runs as the orioles nearly tied up the game in the 9th inning. red sox win 6-5. yankees didn't play today and the rays lost their game against the rangers.

on my one day off i get to do all the things i've been putting off. like researching hair loss treatment options. the two most common drugs are minoxidil (rogaine) and finasteride (propecia). minoxidil regrows hair while finasteride prevents thinning. both can be taken orally. amazon pharmacy seems to have the best prices: 90 days supply of 2.5mg minoxidil is only $15.80 without insurance (insurance usually won't pay for hair loss treatment), while 90 days supply of 1mg finasteride is $17.60. for some strange reason it's actually cheaper to buy it out-of-pocket than go through insurance. the caveat is both drugs require a doctor's prescription. i messaged my doctor and asked him to send the prescriptions to amazon pharmacy. unfortunately he's on vacation until next week, so the nurse replied to my message, told me to write back again next week so my doctor will see it.

getting ready to run some morning errands, i decided to move that found bike repair stand into the basement. however i ended up setting it up in the backyard and putting the trek FX bike on it so i could work on it later (repair the front brakes, reinstall the kickstand with a shorter bolt). i took the ebike out of the basement, plan on riding it later to test the battery.

i took the marin and went to whole foods to return a dress my mother bought. i then went to market basket to get a few things. i have all the necessary ingredients for making salmon burgers, i just needed some lettuce (garnish) and relish (tartar sauce). i also got some grated parmesan cheese for the next time my mother wants to make pasta at home. outside in the parking lot i saw a german riese & muller cargo bike. it sells for $8000 at least. a sticker showed it was purchased from the former bicycle belle store. disc brakes, belt drive, suspension seatpost, and an integrated wheel lock that also features a chain lock.

after bringing home the groceries, i switched to my velotric to run more errands. i turned on the bike in the backyard. it gave me the E9E error and showed battery at 76%. i pushed it to the front of the house. when i checked the LCD again, the battery had dropped down to 62%, definitely something wrong.

i decided to visit the russian supermarket in allston. today was the 2nd of the month, i wanted to know if this store has the same once a month 15% discount like the store in newton-needham. before i did that though, i went to the bank to get some cash. looking at my LCD screen, the battery was only down to 57%.

i went to bazaar. it took a while to find a suitable sign to park the bike. i was looking fo liquor-filled chocolates. i got some CF krupskaya likernye chocolates, which are pretty good as far as alcohol-infused chocolates, but i wanted to try a different flavor. unable to read cyrillic, i could only try to guess what was inside from the pretty packaging. i gave up eventually. i also thought about getting some hunter sausages or smoked sprats, but chocolate will have to suffice. while waiting at the checkout line, i saw a babushka buying a bunch of chocolates with a squirrel logo. figuring those might be good, i went back and got a box myself.

while unlocking my bike, i used the bonchon app to order some korean wings. i was about to pay when i noticed they were charging me a 99¢ service fee. the allston bonchon was just 3 blocks away so i went and ordered in person. even though a waitress greeted me, she didn't take my order but instead pointed to a pair of kiosk machines. it was basically like the app except there was no service fee. i got the 20 pieces wings for $30, half soy garlic, half spicy, with a side of daikon radish. i didn't have to wait long, sat on the couch, admire the decor, listened to the kpop music. a young man came in to order, but this time the cashier took his order directly. an asian chef actually came out with my order. he spoke fluent english, so i wasn't able to figure out his ethnicity.

cutting through harvard square, i got back home close to 2pm. i took a quicker shower before digging into some korean wings. these wings are so much bigger than i remember, as well as they should considering how much they cost. i managed to eat half before i hit my wall. afterwards i tried one of the russian squirrel chocolate. i looked carefully at the packaging and saw the squirrel was holding a hazelnut. this was a hazelnut chocolate, no alcohol.

i wrote to velotric regarding my malfunctioning bike battery. i submitted photos of the bike's serial number as well as the serial number of the battery. i don't know if anything will come of it because i never got a confirmation e-mail, just a warning that sometimes it might take a few days before they reply. i noticed there was a separate contact form that used zendesk. that was the form i used when i asked for a replacement kickstand feet. if i don't hear from velotric i'll use tha form instead.

around 3:30pm i went outside to do some long-awaited bike repair. i started with the trek hybrid FX. the front brake was wonky. i was going to replace the entire brake assembly, but i figured i could just clamp together the loose cable bridge /noodle holder, which seemed to fix it. these are treak bontrager brakes anyway, much better quality than anything i'd replace them with.

i moved on to replacing the very long 65mm bolt holding the kickstand in place. i'd gotten some replacement bolts before - M8 - but they were too small. i went online and searched and the consensus seems to be M10 bolts are the correct size. so i got some M10 hex bolts as well as hex socket bolts, both in 35mm length. to remove the 65mm took some working. a socket wrench wouldn't fit unless you removed the front derailleur as well as the back wheel. only then did i have access to the bolt. once removed, i replaced it with a shorter M10 bolt. NOT THE RIGHT SIZE. so strike 2. i wish bontrager would just tell me what size of bolt they use for their center-mounted kickstand so i wouldn't have to do a scavenger hunt. i measured the 65mm bolt with digital calipers. it gave me numbers i didn't understand. later after some research i think the bolt is actually 3/8"-16, not metric at all. i'll reorder some from aliexpress. i reassembled the bike - minus kickstand - and stashed it in the basement.

finally i went to work on my trek utility bike. i haven't ridden it since mid-june. the problem was a corroded bottom bracket which needed replacing. i already have the part, just never got around to replacing it. that's because removing the old bottom bracket is a pain in the ass. it involves using a breaker bar to create enough force to unseat the old hardware. fortunately i've done it before, but i kind of forgot how i did it. at one point it involves a bolt and some washers to hold the bottom bracket removal socket in place. also it has opposite threading, so you have to keep that in mind otherwise you're tightening when you should be loosening.

i used the crank puller to remove the crankset and the left pedal. i used the breaker bar to remove the threaded cup on the left side. that removed fine. the right side was a different story. first it was opposite threaded, so clockwise to remove. it wouldn't come off and the bracket removal tool slipped out a few times, stripping the splines. that's when i remembered the bolt and washers i got. i used them to secure the removal bottom bracket socket to the spindle. i then used a larger socket wrench to grab ahold of the removal socket and applied downward pressure with my foot. after a few tries, i could feel it budging. once it budges, it's coming off. this bottom bracket has been removed before, and hadn't been replaced that long ago, which made it easier to remove.

the old bottom bracket was not only rusted and falling apart, but rusty ball bearings were falling out of the bracket. it's a miracle i could still ride it and not have the pedal and crankset just completely fall off. the wobbly bottom bracket and therefore wobbly crankset could also explain some inconsistent shifting issues (chain misalignment). the bottom bracket was just replaced back in july 2024. should it have deteriorated so badly after just 2 years? my old original bottom bracket, it last for decades. makes me wonder if these are genuine shimano bottom brackets or knockoffs. if this new bottom bracket fails again in just 2 years, it might be worth it to search for a better quality one.

the empty bottom bracket shell was full of rust and old grease. i sprayed it with degreasing lubricant and wiped it clean the best i could. i then regreased the shell before threading in the new bottom bracket. before putting on the crankset, i sprayed it with degreasing lubricant and swabbed it clean with a rag. it was so clean and shiny it looked like new. rust on the rear freewheel is a different story. in the past i've removed it from the rear wheel and dipped it in rust remover, but nowadays i just live with the rust, gives the bike character, makes it ugly enough that nobody would ever want to steal it. i also lubed the chain. the crankset was perfectly solid now, no more wobble. i took the trek utility out on a short test ride. despite its faults, i still love this bike. sure it's got smaller 26" wheels, but the bike is the perfect height that i stay seated and still put my feet down. i've tweaked it so that it fits me perfectly, from seat height to handlebar angle. it's no beauty but it's a workhorse.

that concludes my bike repair work for the day, after 3 hours. next wednesday i might take a look at some disassembled bike projects in the basement, either fix them or strip them for parts, as i currently once again have too many bikes in storage.

as for this found bike repair stand, i really like it, very durable, i never once thought it might tip over. i had it on the lowest setting but it can be raised even higher.

after i finished and cleaned up, i grabbed the container of thai-style chicken feet from the fridge. this would be my dinner. i ate while watching the news. i then spent the rest of the night watching star trek: enterprise reruns on pluto.tv. i even saw the episode where padma lakshmi plays an alien ambassador who gets kidnapped but saved by tripp. this was when she was flirting with acting, before she became a food hostess celebrity.

i got ready quickly this morning, trying to beat the rainstorm heading our way. it was already ominously dark outside. i left by 8:20am, no weather protection, just the hope that might be able to outrace the rain. midway through it started to shower. just a light drizzle, but enough to slowly dampen my clothes. so i pedaled faster, arriving in less than 10 minutes. a huge semi truck was parked in the lot, taking up all the available spaces. there was nobody inside so i opened the truck door and honked the horn. the owner came out of the restaurant across the street. i told him he had to move his vehicle. he tried, but if parked on the street it'd block traffic. he asked if he could park for just 20 minutes, i took pity on him and said yes. he was emptying the grease trap at the restaurant.

i started my cafe day early. i cooked 7 cups of rice. earlier this morning i already turned on the ice machine. i started vacuuming and cleaning. when my parents finally showed up around 9am, they saw the semi truck. i told them i already spoke to the driver, who left shortly afterwards.

the rain stopped by 10:30am, leaving us with just 0.11 inches of precipitation (data courtesy of our belmont neighbor's weather station and its online open data source on the tempest weather map). it was another disappointing rainstorm. boston just can't get a break when it comes to ending our summerlong drought. fortunately a second round of rainstorm started around 1pm. that one last a bit longer, until 4:30pm. the total rainfall for our area by the end of the day was 0.31 inches. not great, but not bad either. we're supposed to get a bit more rain thursday morning.

i ended up getting several cuts on my right hand during the course of the morning. i patched up my wounds with waterproof bandaids. one was a papercut from a cardboard beverage container. another was when i pulled out my hand from underneath the shelving unit and scraped a jagged corner. a third was a mysterious cut that started to hurt when i dipped my hand in some pickling juice.

my father was testing out the kitchen appliances we got from liting's parents. there was a zojirushi hot water heater. it hadn't been used in a while so had a plasticky smell. he rinsed it a few times to get rid of the odor. there was also a zojirushi 10 cups rice cooker (NS-TGC18). the cooker looks in working condition, but the inner pot is old and some of the non-stick coating is peeling off. my father asked me to search for a replacement. the cooker is new enough that zojirushi still carries replacement pots for it at $65 a piece (model B258). you can also find compatible non-coated stainless steel inner pots on amazon, but those cost even more, up to $90 for a pot with inner markings. rice cookers are always on sale on facebook marketplace. if we can find a similar good condition zojirushi 10-cups cooker for less than $65 (especially with fancy features like fuzzy logic), it'd make more sense to buy that instead. these electronic rice cookers can cook rice perfectly, but often times they're slower than the simple rice cookers we use at the cafe.

because of the overcast weather, there was no passion flowers today. i noticed the large original passion fruit facing the street was now missing. did it fall off the vine and roll into the street? or did somebody steal it? they're in for a surprise, because these fruits are not edible, hollow and flavorless.

my aunt showed up unexpectedly in the late morning. she brought some kind of peach cobbler she made. after my mother warmed it up in the air fryer, i had a piece. it was falling apart, but still tasted pretty good. i couldn't tell it was peach, just that it was sweet.

my parents are closer to finally their end of october vacation plan. it looks like they're going to fly to taipei and use it as staging area, buying a separate roundtrip flight to shanghai. flights to asia from taiwan are a lot cheaper and more abundant than flying from the US. i checked myself, the cheapest flight from taipei to chongqing was only $250 roundtrip. because of their scheduling, they might also be able to go with my california aunt and uncle to vietnam.

because of the rain, it didn't seem like it'd be a busy day today. yes we had a lunchtime spike, but business sot of petered out after that, no evening uptick. we made our daily average though, but didn't beat last tuesday's profit, which was already on the low end. we had 3 containers of leftover rice by day's end.

i biked home after work, the rain had already stopped. i was worried that the sun shade in the backyard would prevent rain from getting to the plants underneath, but they were plenty wet. the sun shade was slightly drooping from the water drops, i hit it to allow all the water to drop down into the garden.

i then walked to the voting station, wondering to myself why i didn't just bike there instead. but i've always walked to go vote, it's kind of my ritual. there were political candidate supporters outside with their picket signs. a guy even came up to me and asked, "have you voted yet? would you like some guidance?" i think he was an evan mackay supporter. i wasn't going to vote for mackay anyway, but that only further solidified by decision.

there was actually a line to vote. i've always voted in the early morning when there's never a line. the space seems smaller this time, i think they closed off half of the gym. instead of paper lookup charts, they used a tablet this time, which didn't make it faster, but a step up in the technology department. i voted for markey and i voted for decker. i don't know her position very well, but she's been around and never did anything too bad to register on my radar. i know i've been getting a lot of mail from decker supporters, which makes me wonder how she has so much money to spend.

i walked home after i finished voting. i found two large black plastic plates on the ground that i can use as plant stands. so there was a silver lining from walking after all. i took a quick shower and ate dinner so i could watch the end of the red sox mariners game. i was curious about paul's chicken sandwich that he left me. turns out it was a chicken caesar salad, and it seems like he barely touched it. had i known, i might've taken out the croutons, which had already turned soggy in the fridge. it was already pretty good and came with some pita bread as well. i ate so fast i started getting the hiccups.

red sox pretty much lost by the 3rd inning, when seattle had scored 7 runs. sox were trying to make up the difference and made a valiant effort to get 6 runs of their own, but it wasn't enough to win. final score was 9-6 mariners victory. looks like the yankees will win their game against the angels, so boston will be back to 3.5 games behind new york again.

i called my father soon after he got home, asked home how much water did we collect in the rain barrels. he said barely half. yes it rained for almost 5 hours total today, and at times it was steady rain, but we also had light drizzle that was more like misting that didn't contribute much to our barrels. hopefully we get some good rain thursday morning to fill up more of our barrels.

i got some more stuff from aliexpress. nothing exciting, another handlebar, some grips, a set of bike brakes, an egg piercer, a cheap bike bell, a bunch of pinwheels to scare the birds away from the lawn, and a rear bike reflector.

trying to score a popcorn maker off of facebook marketplace. the listing was from 2 weeks ago, surprised it hadn't been sold yet (or sold already and just the seller too lazy to remove the listing). $10 for a whirligig style popcorn maker in somerville is a pretty sweet deal. it features a glass lid so you can see what's happening inside. it looks aluminum, so wouldn't work on an induction cooktop (stainless steel models like those cost significantly more).

i applied some nu-skin liquid bandage on the cuts on my hand before bed. i use it for very small wounds, like paper cuts, things normally tiny for bandaids. when the glue solution gets into the cuts though it's super painful, so i had to brace myself. for tiny cuts though, i think it actually worked better. once dried, the liquid bandage is completely waterproof and won't come off. i've had that bottle of years now, i'll probably last a lifetime.