for once i didn't need to wake up early, so i slept in the guest bedroom. nevertheless, i could barely sleep to 9am. today was a relatively free day. the only thing i had to was go to belmont to bring in the garden refuse bins and to babysit esmei. i also needed to clean the house, but i had until friday so it wasn't urgent. i had to make a grocery run as well, but that could wait until tomorrow.

the serrano pepper seeds have germinated. peppers usually take a bit longer to sprout compared to tomatoes. none of my other peppers have germinated yet. i moved the serrano down to the only shelf with two lights. i'll need to build out the grow closet tomorrow.

here was my plan: head to belmont around noontime, but get on the cambridge-watertown bike path from fresh pond and make a stop at what the chick to get some lunch before heading to my parents' place.

first i had to fix my ebike, which had a loose rear fender bolt. i had a feeling it was an M5 screw, but i didn't have any spares. instead i was hoping to remove one of the bottle cage screws. but in a stroke of luck, my aliexpress package arrived this morning with an assortment of M5 screws. the original part is a black M5 socket head cap screw, but the closest i had was a stainless steel M5 button head screw. that would do for the time being, unless i can source some black cap screws. it worked, no more tire rubbing the fender underside. i also fixed the LCD display bracket with one of the M4 screws.

temperature today was in the upper 60's to lower 70's. wasn't as warm as yesterday but still warm enough for me to just wear a t-shirt. i've yet to bust out the shorts. i almost go to fresh pond when i realized i needed the cordless glue gun (for the dent puller) and a bottle of homemade rice wine. so i turned around and stopped at the cafe before continuing.

to get onto the cambridge-watertown bike path, i had to make a circuitous loop through fresh pond. once i was on the path, it was smooth sailing, especially on an ebike, where i managed to pass everyone. what da chick is situation at a 5-way intersection of nichols avenue, arlington street, coolidge hill road, and crawford street.

i ordered the roasted chicken ($13.99) and a side of fried chicken bones ($5.99). there was a 10 minute wait, i just sat there and spaced, looking out the window. after i got my order, i cut through watertown, over the hill to get to belmont.

it was 1pm by the time i had lunch. the best thing about the thai chicken and rice is the tamarind hot sauce. it only comes with the roast chicken option, but that sauce would anything delicious. the fried chicken bones were also very good with the thai sweet chili sauce.

my sister said she was coming soon so i quickly finished eating because i didn't want esmei to see me with food otherwise she'll sit nearby and watch me eat. when they arrived i let esmei out into the backyard. there was plenty of smells for her to explore, from the new fence to signs of rabbits. she seemed particularly interested in the bamboo groove. i thought maybe there were rabbits living inside, but when i looked closer, there was a squirrel nest.

it rained last night. from an empty barrel i could gauge about a centimeter of precipitation fell. all the crabgrass preventer and fertilizer i applied on the lawn yesterday had completely dissolved. even though the catch barrels were only half full, every single connected barrels were half full as well. it's supposed to rain even more tonight, i heard as much as half an inch. we're going to be at full rain barrel capacity by tomorrow. i did notice the catch barrel by my parents' bedroom was completely full. turns out it was connecting to the nearby barrel. i had to jiggle the hose before i heard the gurgling of water passing through the connection.

funny what a little rain can do. the potted finger radishes had sprouted, as well as the normal radish seeds i cast into RB0. i filled the watering can with rain barrel water and watered some more plants.

i replaced the plastic spray head of my 2 gallon pump sprayer with the plastic/metal one i bought from amazon recently. it was pretty easy to swap out, but it uses a hose clamp to secure the hose, which is a clunky solution. i pumped the container to test, there was som leaking on the brass barb but stopped after i tightened it. the metal wand works pretty well, and can be taken apart to clean or to replace. the lowest adjustment is for misting, but it seems to be designed for more of a tighter spray pattern. it's kind of funny: the replacement wand itself costs $13, but a brand new 2 gallon pump spray is only $16. esmei was interested in the sprayer because it was making weird noises but got scared when i tried to show it to her.

esmei would roaming around the backyard a bit before going back inside the house. i let her out a total of 4 times.

my sister left for her 2:30pm appointment. she came back soon afterwards. instead of going home, she worked on her computer. i was still waiting for the trash people to come and take away the garden refuse. i ended up falling asleep on the zero gravity chair.

i waited until 5pm before i left. my sister already left with esmei earlier. it wasn't just the garden refuse, i don't think they collected any trash on our street. i'll have to call belmont department of public works tomorrow morning to let them know. some of the garden refuse has been sitting around since november, almost half a year ago. i need them to empty the bins so i can use them to throw out all the pruned branches currently sitting in the backyard.

the temperature had dropped to the 50's by the time i went home. it was cold, more so speding on the ebike.

i finished the rest of the fried chicken bones when i got back. i ate so much for lunch i didn't think i'd need dinner, but got hungry in the evening and heated up some pizza rolls.

my aliexpess package also included a pair of replacement eyepiece for my canon 80D DSLR. unfortunately the quality isn't very good and it has a loose fit. they're only a dollar a piece, not worth the effort to try and return.

i watched the warriors-clippers game in the late evening. i was rooting for golden state because it has both kristaps porzingis and al horford on the team - felt like i was rooting for the celtics! both players contributed majorly to the win. clippers led for much of the game. but when it actually counted, with just minutes left in the game, the warriors mounted a comeback to regain the lead and never gave it up. final score 126-121. warriors can only celebrate so much, as they're still in the play-in tournament. they face the phoenix suns next, the winner will get to play in the playoff.

the strangest thing happened last night. like most nights, i heard the humming of renee's heat pump compressor running right outside my bedroom window. the sound was driving me crazy so i opened the window to see just how loud it was. but here's the thing: it wasn't even running! the compressor was dead silent. so why was i still hearing the humming sound? maybe i'm so used to it by now, i hear it even when it's not there, phantom noise. could it be something inside the house that's humming? maybe the refrigerator?

knowing elias arrived at 8am yesterday to paint, i woke up early to take my ebike out of the basement before he can set up. before i could even set foot outside though, i got a phone call at 7:30am. if you call me that emergency, it better be a damn emergency. elias told me he benjamin moore doesn't make slate grey in arborcoat anymore, but he can still match the color. i said fine, he said he'd be right over. i barely had time to use the bathroom before he showed up on the doorstep. he walked me through what he did yesterday. that's when i saw another guy in the backyard. so it wasn't just him, i was kind of curious, since normally the person i speak with initially isn't the actually person doing the work. it wasn't just one other guy, but there was a total of three people in his crew. he made a point to show me the primer he used, mad dog brand. i don't know very much about the different brands, but apparently it's the best, and it goes on clear. while i was out there, i quickly went down to the basement and grabbed my ebike.

i took a quick shower before leaving around 8:30am to belmont. there was still plenty of yard work i needed to do, including applying some crabgrass preventer before a forecast of rain later this evening, bringing out all the garden refuse trash, and watering the plants in the grow room.

with the lack of rain and relatively dry weather, flowering trees can keep their blossoms longer. it'd be nice to ride around and grab some photos. i saw okame and yoshino cherries, plus a few i didn't recognize. it's still too early for callery pears. i stopped briefly at a belmont neighbor's house to admire the flowering tree on their lawn. google lens tells me it's a nanking cherry, but those are supposed to bushes, not trees. i'd love to ask the neighbor what tree it is.

it was only yesterday that the new fence was installed, but it already feels like a long time ago. looking from a distance, i could see some gaps underneath the fence where the sunlight was shining through. as a rule when they install fences, they don't bury the fence, but try to keep it as close to the ground as possible. all i had to do was move some dirt around to patch up the gaps. these are small gaps anyway, not big enough for rabbits to go underneath, but better to not have any gaps, don't want to give them any ideas, have them dig underneath the fence.

i spent a good deal of time raking the lawn to remove any dead grass. it'd rake a little bit, and then go do something else. what the lawn really needs is some aeration. i'm hoping to rent an aerator machine from home depot in the fall (classen). it's $81 for 4-hours, or $115 for the day. a lot of the heavily trafficked areas in the backyard have very compact soil that's bad for grass growing.

i opened all our rain barrel valves, so all the rain water is shared between the barrels. that requires making sure each connection is watertight and not leaking. a few connectors were missing rubber washers (fell out during storage) which i replaced. if we get some rain tonight, the catch barrels will collect the rain from the gutter downspouts then divert the water to the barrels. the only thing missing now is a 12v on-demand pump. i'll need to wait for my father to come back to hook up the pump to one of his 12v solar-rechargeable batteries.

i did some weeding, spotted a few dandelions, but mostly i pulled up any creeping bellflowers. i'll never get rid of them completely, but if i can pull them up while they're small, and prevent them from ever flowering, hopefully each season there are less and less.

i planted some sweet basil seeds in two 2ft long plastic planters. the seed instruction said 3 plants in a 1ft planter, so i should be able to have 6 plants in each. sprinkled a bunch of seeds in a grow, i'll thin them out to 6 per planter once they sprout. i covered them up with some chickenwire to prevent squirrels from digging in the dirt.

i took a break around noontime to have an instant cup of shin black beef bone broth noodles while watching the news.

i finished raking around 2pm. today was a hot day, temperature in the upper 70's. i went inside a few times to drink some water and cool off. i filled a plastic barrel with branches to throw out, particularly any willow branches infested with oyster shell scales. i then climbed the platform ladder with the EGO pruning saw and cut down a few sucker branches. i finally stopped when it got a little dangerous, a large branch falling behind me, almost pinning me to the tree. i figured that was my cue to stop.

at 3pm i started applying the crabgrass preventer plus fertilizer. i started with the front lawn then worked my way back. it comes in the form of tiny yellow-orange granules. it took half an hour to finish. i ran out of preventer by the time i reached the western strip of grass.

finally i went down to the basement to water the plants. i applied 3 tsp of gnatrol to 5 gallons of water. i don't see anymore new catches on the yellow sticky traps, nor any flying gnats. but i learned my lesson from last week, don't just stop applying gnatrol if i don't see any gnats, continue for a few more weeks to make sure they're 100% eliminated.

it took me 45 minutes to water all the plants. i left belmont around 4:15pm. it was warm enough that i only wore a t-shirt.

i was worried the cafe would get a lot of phone calls on this week that we're closed for vacation. but we only got one call today, around 5pm. naturally i didn't answer, the voicemail answering machine message has an update telling customers we're closed this week.

elias was still at the home when i arrived. he showed me the work that they did today. besides painting the back of the house, he also painted the two sides, as well as replace any rotten or missing shingles (he did that yesterday). this morning he said he'd paint the front of the house as well (the bottom part), but i saw he didn't do that. i could probably do it myself. he probably discovered it was more difficult than he realized, since there are leftover ivy roots stuck on a bunch of shingles.

i noticed a strange sound on my ebike earlier. after an inspection, i found out that the rear fender was rubbing against the tire. one of the screws was missing, probably fell out from the vibration. that's the third part that's gone missing (kickstand foot, lcd screen bracket screw). whoever assembled this bike didn't do a very good job.

i started a load of laundry before taking a shower. once that was finished, i started a second load. around 6pm i ate some leftover cafe dumplings, which essentially became my dinner. i had some defrosted cream puffs for dessert, then had diarrhea a few hours later (that always happens when i eat cream puffs).

tomorrow should be a free day - the first day this week where i don't have any obligations - but i still need to return to belmont to bring in all the garden refuse bins. my sister also asked me to babysit esmei around 2pm (she'll get dropped off in belmont). maybe i can get some takeout from what da chick before arriving in belmont.

i woke up at 7am and headed to belmont. the reliable fence crew was scheduled to arrive between 8-10am. when i got there there was already an enclosed cargo trailer parked outside the house. apparently they arrived early. i quickly i got ready. i went into the garage to take out a spool of garden hose, and pulled out the extension cable from the sunroom. i tried setting up my gopro camera to take a time lapse, but it started to rain a little bit so i thought better of it. besides, there was already a webcam indoor facing out into the backyard, i could always pull footage from that. i went back outside to meet the crew, but i soon realized they were actually landscapers working for the house across the street. so why did they park in from of our house? but i could relax for the time being.

at 9am reliable fence called me. the person on the other end - who was here to install the new fence - told me they had to finish up another project first, and wouldn't arrive at my place until 11-11:30am. had i known earlier, i wouldn't need to get up at 7am. at least it gave me time to do more yard work and run one important errand: mail off my state tax returns.

i rode the ebike to the concord avenue belmont post office. i must've forgotten what vehicle i was using because i suddenly realized i was on a main road with no bike lanes. fortunately there was hardly any cars. just to show you how unfriendly belmont is to cyclists, there was no bike parking outside. i ended up locking the bike to a sign post on a planted island on a patch of mulch. it was either that or to handicapped parking sign. i thought there'd be a line of people mailing their taxes but the place was pretty much empty. i mailed off my state taxes for $2.72. across the street was the new belmont public library. i'd never been inside, but i'll save that visit for some other time.

back at the house, i moved the phlox from the western perennial bed to the formerly hardy chrysanthemum bed outside the fence. this location has a wire fence collar but the gaps are still big enough for rabbits to get through so they ate all the chrysanthemums. in its place, i dug up all the monkshood and replanted them here. this area gets more sun, which is good for monkshood, because their previous location was too shady (because of the bitter melon trellis) so we never got never got flowers. i don't have to worry about rabbits eating the monkshood, it's deadly poisonous.

reliable fence arrived at 11am. just two guys. i was actually kind of disappointed they weren't hispanic, but brazilians instead. there was an older man whom i assumed was the foreman but he didn't speak much english. instead it was the younger twentysomething guy with frosted hair and arms and neck tattoos. they drove a flatbed truck ladened with stockade panels smelling of fragrant cedar, the good stuff. they started hauling the materials into the backyard, dropping the panels on top of each other with a clatter, the pressure treated posts with a thud. they also took advantage of the extension cord, charging up 4 battery packs.

i told the young guy i wanted to keep two of the posts and an old panel so i can use them for fence repair. he asked if we had a dog. i thought they were worried about getting bit, but it was actually to see if we wanted a gap underneath the fence, which helps to preserve the wood longer. i told him we wanted the fence flush to the ground. it wasn't so much to prevent any dogs from escaping, but rather to keep rabbits from entering.

they started working. the older guy started cutting loose the old panels with a reciprocating saw. he mustn't have heard what i told the young guy, because he ended up cutting the panel i wanted to save. the young guy saw what happened and said they usually bring a spare panel and could give it to me free of charge to make up for the mistake.

once the panels were cut, they started taking them out one by one. after that they pulled out the old posts. it was weird seeing the backyard without any fencing. there are actually some houses in the neighborhood that still have this old school setup of no fences between properties.

while that was going on, i was busy doing yard work. dressing plant perimeters with compost, watering plants. my biggest project was connecting all the rain barrels together. i managed to link them, but i haven't opened up the connections yet. i'll do that tomorrow, when it's supposed to rain around 3pm and 5pm, and maybe some more rain on wednesday.

they started installing the new fence. after the first two panels went up, i noticed they weren't straight. as they continued, the rest were straight, but that one tall post really started to bother me. how could they fix it now?

around 2pm the two guys took a lunch break. i myself went inside and had an instant cup of spicy korean ramen. when the young guy returned to the backyard, i went out and asked him about the uneven fence post. he said they could fix it, either lower the post, or raise the next one over. when their break was over (i noticed a small microwave attached to the extension cord), i saw the young guy sitting on the fence pounding the post with a heavy mallet while the older guy was pulling back some tree branches. so that's how they do it! it actually worked, it even out the post.

the two guys kept on working, installing the fence behind the bamboo grove, which is a real challenge because there isn't all that much dirt. the originally contract said they'd install a square post which is stronger and longer. the young guy asked me if i wanted a standard round post instead. he said there's enough soil and it'd look better than doing the square post. i agreed and they went ahead with the work.

for the final piece of fence panel, it was shorter than 8ft wide, so they cut a large panel down to size. i'd never seen this before, but after the older guy cut the right width of fencing, he then shaved the horizontal wood beams with a special tool that formed them into the proper shapes to fit inside the post.

they finished close to 5pm. i noticed there was a gap in final segment of fencing, due to some weird property line issue. it's big enough that maybe a rabbit might sneak through so i filled it temporarily with some chicken wire. it's behind the bamboo so it's something we'd never see. they were packing up their equipment, strapping down the old fence material to the back of their flatbed truck. true to his promise, they left me a new extra fence panel. i noticed they left behind two hooded sweatshirts and i grabbed them to give to them. "which one is whose?" i asked. the young guy - his name was wagner i learned - said it didn't matter. the reason: because they were father-and-son! i would've never guessed that, they look nothing alike, but it does sort of make sense, how they seem to work together so harmoniously. the father's name was vendy. wagner filled out a form for me to sign before i wrote him a check for the remaining amount.

i went outside to take one last look before i gathered up my things and returned to cambridge. i wanted to water the basement plants but didn't have time. i'll be back tomorrow to apply crabgrass preventer and prune some more branches before taking out the garden refuse, i'll do some watering then.

elsewhere, back in cambridge, prince painting came this morning at 8am to start work. the guy kept on contacting me, until i told him to speak with my upstairs neighbors. when i came back and saw the work that he did, it wasn't that great. for one thing, he used the wrong kind of nails, which i know is going to drive my upstairs neighbors crazy. but they have much to stand on because i'm basically paying for half of the work to beautify their upper section of the house. anyway, i hope the work gets done within the next few days so andrew and i can have our lunch barbecue on friday.

i relaxed with some potato chips while watching some youtube videos. did you know derrick white has a podcast now? i watched the one with baylor scheierman and luke kornet. i was hungry, was going to heat up a frozen brick of lasagna until i remembered i still had some black soy noodles left.

since i'd be working all day and not sure when i'll be able to eat, i warmed up some leftover cafe dumplings for breakfast.

i went to the cafe around 11:30am to put away the leftover rice. i also did a cursory check to make sure everything was okay. i didn't bother taking the bananas, there were just a few in the sandwich refrigerator, they might survive into next week. i checked out the dents on my sister's passenger side door. my dent removal kit arrives tomorrow, i might come back on tuesday to try it out on her car. another thing i use the kit for is the dent on my stainless steel refrigerator. it came from a fall fridge magnet that i tried to catch unsuccessfully with my knee. it's currently hidden behind another fridge magnet.

i went to belmont soon afterwards. i had to clear all the remaining debris up against the backyard fence that will be replaced starting tomorrow morning. i ended up staying there for almost 5 hours. i also did some other yardwork while i was there, like side dressing a bunch of plants with homemade compost (hostas, rhubarb, cherry trees, hops, asters, raspberries). temperature was only in the 50's, but i got warm enough that i ended up working in just a t-shirt.

a long time ago we installed metal fencing below the fences to prevent woodchucks from getting into the backyard. i had to pull all that out, sometimes with difficulty because roots had grown through the wires and i had to use wire cutters to remove them. we also laid down some bricks along the fence bottom which i dug up.

we have two large stumps from two diseased plum trees we cut ourselves. i never really bothered to inspect them, just assumed they'd be there forever. but while do fence work, i decided to take a look. one of the stumps had crumbled to the point where i could probably hit it with a spade to completely remove it. the other stump was much more solid, not much had changed - except i noticed some termites. this is one of those cases of, "should i just let the termites eat the wood?" my only fear is such a large stump might support a big colony which at some point will migrate and might go for the house next. so as much as i like the idea of using termites to get rid of the stump, i rather get rid of them.

speaking of termites, i inspected that large chunk of wood i saw some termites last time, and they were still there. that's the only wood chunk that has them. it'd be easier just to throw it out, but it's so large, i'll have to cut it into smaller pieces with the chainsaw. i also got to use my bait station access tool to open up a few termite bait stations around the house. i started with the one behind the garage. there should be wood at the bottom but it's since rotted or the installer just filled the bottom with dirt. on top was a cartridge. i pulled it out and saw it was just an inspection cartridge. it didn't seem to be eaten, which is a good sign. i checked the stations by either side of the basement entrance. once again, there was no wood base, just dirt. on top were live bait cartridges. both were empty, i don't think they were eaten, just dissolved over time.

flipping over some bricks, i saw a swarm of winged ants. i had to double check and make sure they weren't termites. ants are minor nuisance. there are a million ways to kill them. but they also do good, they act as pollinators. i'll probably get rid of them anyway, because they protect the aphids and scales and prevent natural predators like ladybugs from easily getting to their prey. with these ants i'll try some DIY boric acid sugar spray.

rabbits chewed a large hole in the fence next to the garage. i've been blocking the hole with spare wood planks, but rabbits can't easily push through them. so i cut a larger piece of wood of the right size and screwed it in place. it's a hack job, i didn't even use the right length of screws so they stick out on the other side. hopefully that fixes one of the ways rabbits are getting into the backyard. when i got there this morning there were two large rabbits just hopping around. i had to chase them out. so far this season i've found evidence of three rabbit nests. no bunnies inside, but i don't like the idea that rabbits are using our backyard as a sanctuary/nursery.

i put tomato cages and fencing around plants i don't want the contractors to trample. will they respect these boundaries? who knows.

using my father's laptop, i was able to see his google photos account. i was surprised to see photos of my mother in the underground caves, something she said she wasn't going to do because of claustrophobia concerns. scrolling further down, i saw they rode the hot air balloon after all! i thought it was just a few balloons, but there looked to be hundreds. besides the beauty of the natural landscape, seeing all those balloons but be something special as well. i called them a little later. my mother was saying the hot air balloon ride was the best part of the trip, and totally worth the money. not everyone can do it too, it depends on the weather.

my sister was supposed to meet me in belmont to finish her tax returns which i did for her. but it was almost 4pm and she was still a no-show so i had to call her. i figured she would take esmei out and could swing by the house, but they didn't do that today. i told her to come to belmont.

while i was waiting for my sister to show up, a home depot delivery of garden soil arrived. a 0.75 cu.ft of miracle-gro garden soil for $2. i wanted to buy 10 bags but it tacked on a $35 shipping charge when it said free shipping. only when i reduced that amount to 9 bags did i finally get free shipping. i ordered it last night, it was delivered for free today. i slowly moved the bags one by one into the backyard.

my sister finally showed up. we let esmei run in the backyard. the rabbits were gone but their smell still lingered as esmei hunted the backyard in search of them. normally she's very laid back, but was totally serious in trying to find rabbits.

my sister added some charitable contributions and car registration fee but it didn't change her tax payment numbers. the only thing that did was rent, which got a small deduction on her state taxes. finally it was time to pay. i normally don't like e-file if it costs money, but i didn't have the time to fight with her on it. she paid an extra $25 to e-file her state taxes (federal tax e-file is free).

with taxes out of way, my sister took esmei for a walk, while i rode the ebike home. i didn't get back until 5:30pm.

i brought home a nongshim instant ramen cup for a late lunch. i played some cyberpunk. o more missions, no more gigs, nothing left to do but wander night city and explore the different areas. i'm also always on the lookout for interesting NPC's, even now, after so many gameplay hours, i can still find NPC's i've never seen before.

tonight was the final night of the NBA regular season. all teams were playing tonight, for final playoff positioning or how low they can tank for higher draft lottery chances. boston played with a roster of bench players, sitting all their starters. the opponent was the magic, still jostling for final position. orlando had the lead for much of the game, but midway in the 3rd quarter the celtics buckled down, regained the lead and never gave it up. final score was 108-113. celtics in the first round will either play the magic or the sixers.

for dinner i reheated some black soy noodles.

i finally did my own taxes, e-filed my federal, printed out my state. my federal return was actually rejected because i put in the wrong AGI. i fixed it, resubmitted, and was finally accepted. i'll need to go to the post office tomorrow to mail my state taxes. i wonder what kind of lines i'm going to see.

the harvard-hired landscapers have started respraying the campus lawn with green-painted fertilizer and seed. that's typically my cue to begin my own lawn care regimen.

today was 10 degrees colder than yesterday, but felt like a warmer day because of the bright sun against a clear blue sky. this was the last day of cafe work before my own staycation. i got there early, after first returning a set of amazon-purchased socket wrench extensions at whole foods (purchased for the starter motor repair but unused). after a relatively easy day yesterday, i was hoping today would be a calm repeat.

it was not an auspicious start. we got busy right away, when two family groups came in with food orders. the wheels were starting to fall off the proverbial wagon. the cafe is a three-person job, with one person out front taking orders and making the drinks and two in the kitchen preparing all the food. i called the cavalry - my sister - but she was still 10 minutes away out walking esmei. more customers were coming in, but because nobody was taking their orders, they left. "who cares if they leave," my 2nd aunt said. she also didn't prepare the boba and had me doing it, while at the same time i was making all the food in the kitchen. my sister finally got back during the tail end of the busy stretch, but yelled at me for not walking esmei while i was still busy making the food. it brought back all that old trauma, all that PTSD i suffered working with her.

maybe that's why when my sister made a full course of korean leftovers, i wanted nothing to do with any food she made. she offered, i refused, even though i was super hungry.

my sister went out again with esmei, and once more, as soon as she left, it got busy again. she came back for good this time, stuck around until we closed at 4pm. we made above our daily average, second busiest day this week next to yesterday.

i called my parents 8pm turkey time but they were about to eat dinner. they called me back an hour later, now in their cappadocia cave hotel. this time they were impressed with the accommodation. the room was probably just as big as my condo, with a marbled bathroom and a walk-in shower large enough for two people at least. luckily for them they're staying there for 2 nights.

we spent nearly an hour after we closed cleaning up. everything perishable had to be removed otherwise it'd spoil in the coming week. milk, bananas, vegetables, pickled cucumbers, edamame beans, black soy noodles, dumplings, tea eggs, all had to be taken home. i was loading up my rear bike basket when it got too heavy and toppled over next to my sister's car, creating several dents. this couldn't all been avoided, i even thought to myself, "i hope my bike doesn't topple over," and it did. my sister seemed fine with the damage, but this was not the ending i was looking for to start my staycation. i felt awful, and spent the rest of the evening researching "how to remove car dent" online and purchasing a dent repair kit.

i couldn't get back home because the gutter guys paul hired were still working on the house. i parked outside, put my stuff in the house, and walked a block away where i saw two bikes out on the curb. there was a reason why nobody took them, they were in pretty rough shape. i was tempted to take the single speed just for the northroad style handlebars alone, but the chrome was pitted, no better than the rusty handlebar i was thinking about replacing. the wheels were also in rough shape, old tires, old rims. i passed and walked back home.

i caught renee outside her house and finally had a chat with her about her noisy heat pump. even though she was understanding of my concern, she basically told me to get used to it. at least i said my peace, told her my displeasure that her contractors installed the compressor right outside my bedroom windows.

the most important thing i had to do tonight was finish my taxes and my sister's. i put in our home office numbers and managed to get a small reduction. i also added more money into my roth IRA account, even though it made no difference in my taxes.

for dinner i had some black soy noodles mixed with some cucumber slices and hot sauce. i made it all the time but i've only eaten it just a handful of times. i'm a firm believer of "don't get high on your own supply." the foods i make are for customers.

i noticed it last night but my tomato seeds have sprouted, both the independence day variety and the cherry tomatoes. before i left for work this morning, i quickly set up a pair of led grow lights in my closet so the seedlings can have some illumination along with a small fan to provide some air circulation. i'll set up the rest of the grow closet some other time.

i checked google maps to see where my parents were at. i could see my mother already in istanbul, but my father was nowhere to be found. that could only mean one thing: his esim didn't work. out of curiosity, i went online and did a search for, "are esims banned in turkey?" i wasn't expecting a reply, but was shocked to learn that esims are in fact banned in turkey. the official reason is to support local telecom companies, but the real reason seems to be so the government can spy on its citizens (as is the case in china). it worked fine for my mother because she has a samsung phone and esim integration seemed simpler compared to my father's google pixel, which i ran into complications while installing. later after they checked into their flight to ankara and was waiting at the airport, my father video called me using my mother's phone. i was kind of at a loss for solutions, but i asked him to click on the esim setting to see if there were any options. he noticed roaming was turned off, so as soon as he turned it on, his esim started working. even though esims are banned, so long as you activate it before entering turkey, they should work. you can't however access the esim app if you need to top off, so that's something i would do on my end.

today was the first day where my 2nd aunt and i were working the cafe from start to finish. my sister was at home and would come help if needed. i felt pressure to get there early, as i was the sole person responsibility for opening up the cafe, since my 2nd aunt wouldn't arrive until 9:30am when we open.

the key to the day was just to survive. if we can get over today and tomorrow, we'll be fine. we started getting orders before 10am, which is always a sign that it'll get busier later on. it wasn't too bad though, just bentos and noodles, mostly because i edited the menu so all the hard-to-make stuff was temporarily sold out. we started noticing a weird pattern though: all our bento sales were for salt & pepper chicken. it didn't matter if it was online, or walk-in, or delivery, it was always chicken bento. what was happening in the zeitgeist? was today a chicken only holiday i didn't know about? it was interesting at first before it started getting annoying and a bit scary. this happens from time to time, for some weird reason there will be one item that's super popular and sells more than anything else defying logic. my father deep fried a batch yesterday, figuring it would be more than enough. but i started going through the frozen reserves, until by the end of the day we only had 6 servings left.

we ended up selling 11 salt & pepper chicken today. there was just one bento that wasn't chicken, someone ordered a minced pork...and a salt & pepper chicken. it wasn't just chicken that was nearly gone, we're also low on tea eggs. i started with 25 this morning, by the end of the day i only had 10 left. i was concerned enough to make a small batch of tea eggs - just a dozen - so we wouldn't run out tomorrow. i had to do the math in my head since whatever tea eggs we don't sell i have to take home and eat so they don't go bad the entire week the cafe is closed.

my aunt showed up around 1pm, to see what we were up to, and to ask if my parents made it safely to turkey. she told me the starter motor on her old honda civic died one time and she paid $800 to get it replaced. we were able to fix our toyota on our own for less tan 10% of that cost. it started to get a little busy she so left.

my parents are terrible at reaching out when they're on vacation, to let us know they arrived safely. i only assumed everything went well because i could track them in google maps. but they still didn't call us once they reached their final destination in ankara so i had to call them instead. they were unimpressed with their 5-star hotel room, said it was much smaller than they imagined. they were also unimpressed with dinner, said the chicken was overcooked. their original plan once they settled at the hotel was to go out and explore a nearby turkish supermarket. but they were either too lazy or too cowardly or both, and decided to stay in their hotel instead.

around 2pm my 2nd aunt and i had some instant korean jjajang noodles she bought on weee. i've had instant korean jjajang noodles one other time before, it was awful, tasted like bitter ash mixed with some ramen noodles. this time around it was better, but the noodles were a little bland, i ended up having to add salt just to bring out some flavor. i also couldn't really tell what flavor it was.

my sister repeatedly texted asking if we were busy. other than earlier this morning, it was pretty quiet. customers came in, but nothing too crazy. in the late afternoon things started to get a little hectic, so i quickly texted my sister, as we had 3-4 different groups of customers come in. when we finally fulfilled everyone's orders, things went back to being quiet again. we had one last group of customers - a taiwanese family - who came in 30 minutes before we closed to have some food.

i was relieved when we finally closed, having survived day 1. tomorrow is just half a day, we're almost to the finish line. reliable fence called me this morning, said they'd come on monday between 8-10am. so i have all sunday to clean up the backup before the contractors arrive.

i was numb when i got back home. even though it wasn't too busy today, i was anxious all day, afraid of a potential meltdown if we got swamped with orders. and my 2nd aunt isn't as fast as my parents, so i had to do a lot of things on my own that my parents would normally do. little things, like peel the tea egg or scoop some rice while i'm assembling the bento, or grab the order ticket and get the takeout bag ready. i could finally switch off.

i ate the last of my meat sauce pasta for dinner. i forgot there was a pelicans-celtics game. however when i turned on the television, i tuned in to the artemis II splashdown. when i finally turned to the game, boston was already up by 40 something points.

my father was already deep frying some salt & pepper chicken when i arrived at the cafe. just a small batch, enough to last us until the end of the week. after he finished, i biked down to trader joe's to get a few things. once again, not too much, since we're closing next week, just enough for the next few days. i saw peruvian alpine muscat grapes on sale, but $8.99 for a small box was too rich for my budget.

there was some drama with my parents' flight ticket. a few days ago i helped my mother select their seats, which they paid $160 for the "privilege". this morning turkish airline informed my mother they changed her seat, despite the fact that she paid for it already. i called the airline but the agent was pretty much clueless, since his computer still showed up the old seating assignment. he also didn't offer any advice on how to get a refund for the seat selection. he said they could reselect new seats but would have to pay again. i thanked him for his help even though i was swearing at him in my mind. the situation would need to resolved at the ticket counter.

a photographer from the city came to take our photo. we won some sort of cambridge small business award. there's even supposed to be a ceremony, but i have no interest in attending. my mother said she'll go after learning there would be free food.

we were busy around lunchtime, but no business anytime else. my parents were working until the late afternoon, before going home to change and leaving for the airport. their flight to istanbul is at 9:50pm but they plan on getting to logan around 6pm. my sister offered to give them a ride, saving me the trouble, as i hate driving to the airport. but i'm always the one to do it, both to drop off my parents and then to pick them up. my 2nd aunt showed up around 1pm to man the cafe with me for the final few hours.

my parents finally left around 3:30pm. for the next 3 hours i was terrified it might get busy and my 2nd aunt and i alone wouldn't be able to fulfill an onslaught of orders. but it was mostly quiet, as we each surfed on our phones, and we both nearly fell asleep. a few people came in for drinks, and then in our final our we had a handful of bento sales. it wasn't enough to put us over the daily average, but combined with some cash sales and deliveries, we did surpass that number.

now we just have friday and saturday. i'm hoping both days will not be busy, which is the opposite goal of most businesses. yes we can be busy, but not crazy busy. i'd already removed some of the more complicated items off the menu (pad thai, fried rice), just bentos and noodles. but i have a weird feeling it's going to be busy tomorrow friday, and then saturday is always a crap shoot. it's not that my 2nd aunt and i haven't work together before in the past; but that experience combined with my sister was so traumatic, i still have nightmares about it to this day.

once we survive the next 2 days, the following week will be a breeze since we're closed. i need to supervise the fence install at my parents' place, finish my taxes this weekend, and visit chinatown next weekend to get some ingredients for making a new batch of taiwanese paocai.

riding home, i was admiring the spring signs. clumps of daffodils emerging from the ground, forsythia bushes yellowing, okame cherry trees turning their telltale dark pink.

for dinner i had some leftover pasta with meat sauce. i watched the celtics-knicks game. this was a back and forth game. celtics played amazingly, despite not having jaylen brown. knicks had a 13 point lead midway in the 3rd quarter, but the celtics mounted a comeback and got a 7 point lead. it looked like maybe boston would win it, but new york had some great offensive plays in the final minutes to win the game. despite the loss, it was a good showing for the celtics, to still be competitive despite missing one of their stars. the game felt like a playoff preview. knicks can still get the 2nd seed if they win out and celtics lose out, but i doubt that'll happen. boston will need to beat the 26-54 pelicans at the garden tomorrow, or the 44-36 magic on sunday. knicks need to watch out, since the cavs are just a game behind them. new york is currently the 3rd seed but could fall to the 4th. they play the 45-35 raptors and 43-37 hornets, both home games.

i played 1-1/2 hours of cyberpunk. managed to find a quest i hadn't played yet, helping a robot find a bunch of missing code around the dog town stadium. the ending was bleak, the robot couldn't be restored to its original sentient form, but i had the option to reprogram it so i did and made it into a guitar-playing android.

i woke up at 8am to get ready to go to belmont for the solar audit at 9am. temperature was 30 degrees this morning - cold but not crazy cold. it is after all april, despite it snowing yesterday. at least it was sunny with temperature supposedly reaching the 40's later today.

i arrived right when my parents were leaving for the cafe. the video call required microsoft teams, the skype replacement after microsoft killed off skype. i've been meaning to install it (to regain my skype contacts) so finally had a legit reason to do so. i entered the call early, and was surprised that my agent ciara joined a minute later. with a name like that i was expecting a black lady but it was a white woman. she was calling from florida and was horrified to hear how cold it was here today.

the audit was for our SREC payments, which we have just 2 more years before it expires. since the time we got solar panels back in december 2017, we've sold 63 SREC's for nearly $16k. the solar panels basically paid for itself over time. anyway, we were randomly selected for an audit to verify we do in fact have the number of solar panels we say we do. it required me to go outside and point my phone to the roof so ciara could take a photo and count the number of panels. she also had me go to the side of the house so she could capture the roof angle. finally i went to the basement so show her the inverter, including the serial number and display readout. she also had me point to the electricity meter so she could take a snapshot. and that was it.

since it was freezing temperature last night, i thought the ground might be frozen solid and too cold to do any gardening work. but when i tested the soil with a spade, it was only the very top that was frozen - a crust of frozen soil - while the dirt underneath was still soft.

so i ended up sticking around in belmont for a good 4 hours doing yardwork. i had my jacket on at first, but took it off when i started getting hot. later i took off my pullover and worked in only a t-shirt despite it being in the 40's. it's amazing how warm it can feel working out in the sun.

i worked the soil in the raised beds so i can plant some early spring seeds. i pulled out all our bean frames/trellises, which we left outside during the winter. all the hemp strings were broken, they'll need to be restrung. hungry rabbits had also gnawed at the wood of one of the frames. another frame sustained a crack in the middle of the top bar and that will need to be replaced. i loaded 4 bean trellises into RB0. beans really want to climb, so the taller the trellis the better. we made one trellis 8ft tall, and that might actually be our template for future trellises. taller the frame, the more beans we can grow.

suburban robins are smart. they come when they see people digging, because it means they might be able to score a worm meal. unfortunately the raised bed soil was too cold for worms. there was also a large rabbit in the backyard. i kept chasing it away, it kept coming back, until i ended up putting some wire fencing against the large gaps in our soon-to-be-replaced fence to sort of make it harder for the rabbit to come into our backyard. i think it was here feeding on the pussy willow catkins. later i also noticed rabbit chew marks on some pruned hawthorn branches. while turning over some old logs, i found some termites underneath. we'll need to keep any eye on that, might have to refill the termite bait stations around the house.

since we won't actually plant beans until may, i can still plant some early spring crops in RB0. so in the spaces beneath the bean trellises, i planted some 'cherry bell' radishes, after first dosing the soil with some osmocote slow release fertilizer pellets. in the small space in front of the trellis i sprinkled some cilantro seeds.

on the left side of RB2 i made a bed for some swiss chards. i've never grown chards before, i've seen in other garden plots and they look so pretty. to make the soil richer, i dug up some homemade grass-leaf compost along with some osmocote pellets before sprinkling the chard seeds. these are biennial, so they'll overwinter and continue to produce for next season. i also planted some french finger radishes in a pot. afraid that squirrels might dig up the soil (that's just something squirrels do), i covered the pot with some chicken wire.

i moved out all the osmanthus and the lemon verbena. another cold night but they should be able to survive 30 degrees. only reason why i brought them in on monday was the temperature was supposed to dip into the 20's.

i finally left belmont around 12:45pm. i still had a 2:30pm appointment with the painter. after i got home, i made a grocery list and took the ebike to market basket. i consider MB a low theft area so i only locked the bike with my abus chain lock. i decided i was going to make spaghetti for dinner.

i came home with a plate of spicy grilled tuna roll for lunch. i had about 20 minutes to eat before my appointment. i noticed the replacement starter motor for the toyota camry had already arrived and asked my father to pick it up from my sister's place. after the painter meeting i'd go to the cafe and install the new starter motor.

i waited and waited but elias didn't show up until 3pm. in his defense, he was driving out from lynn. with a name like that, i was kind of expecting him to be greek, so was surprised to see a hispanic man. i showed him where we needed shingle repairs/replacement and where we needed painting. i soon realized it was all mostly related to the upstairs unit, all this work to beautify my neighbor's place, i'd end up paying 40%.

after elias left, i raced to the cafe via ebike around 3:30pm. my father and i then spent the next 2 hours replacing the starter motor. the youtube video i watched yesterday that inspired me to do the fix ourselves was less than 3 minutes long. it seemed so easy, it'd be crazy not to try it ourselves. however when we opened the hood and started taking things apart, things didn't look the same. for one thing, the engine air filter assembly was way more complicated. that's because the video i watched was for a 4 cyclinder camry, and ours was a 6 cylinder. so i went back onto youtube to search for a more relevant video. i finally found one, i just needed to know how to remove the air filter housing, everything else was the same.

once the air filter housing was removed, we took off the filter housing bracket and the two parts of the air intake duct. with that we could finally access the starter motor. up to this point everything could be removed with just a 10mm socket. i bought a 3/8" drive socket extension kit that also arrived with the starter motor, but we ended up not needing it so i'll return it. the socket set itself came with a 6" extension which was long enough for our need. the starter motor required a 12mm socket to remove the solenoid wiring and a 14mm socket to remove the two screws attaching the starter to the engine. i wasn't sure if we'd be able to do it by hand, since another video i saw a woman had to use a breaker bar to release the screws. but hand force was enough to loosen the screws, as the old starter motor came out. the old unit was a toyota brand denso starter manufactured in japan. they actually sell denso starter repair kits for around $13, maybe that can be a future project, since the denso starter is used in many vehicles.

we put in the new starter motor then started putting all the pieces back together. once that was done, my father went inside to get the car key but i realized i had it in my pocket the whole time. i went behind the wheel and turned on the ignition. car started! tha's a relief, because if we spent all this time and effort to replace the starter and the car still won't start, then we have no idea what's wrong and the car will definitely need to be serviced at a mechanic. it only cost us $70 for the new starter motor, versus if we had the car serviced which would've cost $600-800.

i didn't leave the cafe until 6pm, didn't realize it was so late already.

i waited until 7:30pm before i started making dinner. pasta with meat sauce is one of the simplest recipes. sauté some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, cook the ground beef, added the readymade tomato sauce, simmer for however long you want (or don't), cook your pasta of choice, enjoy! barilla cellentani is my poison, i usually cook 150g, about 1/3 the box. i let the meat sauce simmer for half an hour, but it probably didn't need it, since the bottom of the sauce was slightly dried and scorched. i typically don't add salt to my sauce, all the sodium comes from the tomato sauce and the parmesan cheese i sprinkle afterwards.

i had my pasta with some makgeolli rice wine i brought home from the cafe. earlier i'd already taken a few sips of meszcal, and now combined with the rice wine i was in no shape to drive. the makgeolli doesn't taste too bad, but i don't like the strong alcohol content. makes it so i can't drink too much of it.

i managed to go to bed early last night - midnight - but for some reason i woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. instead i surfed the internet on my phone until it was finally time to get up at 8am. it was so dark outside. when i took a peek out the window, i was surprised to see it snowing. not just any snow, but big flakes, like falling ash.

we were busy this morning, which usually portends a busy day throughout. that included a large grubhub order, as a long receipt rolled out of the thermal printer. an 80+ year old man came to pick up the delivery order. we watched him return to his car in the parking lot, worried he might fall on the slippery asphalt or unable to open his car door while holding two bags. so yes it was busy throughout the day, but it wasn't too bad. a lot of online orders today.

i made a new batch of tea eggs this morning. i was careful, but 4 of them cracked during steaming. i wonder if it's a equipment issue, because they all cracked in the same area. maybe that part was hotter than the rest of the steamer? maybe i didn't boil enough water and the metal got too hot? maybe new eggs had something to do with it? the broken eggs didn't go to waste though: my mother ate one, and she fed another to esmei (who only ate the egg whites, yolk are too nutrient dense for her).

my mother red roasted some string beans with pork, i ate some around 3pm.

my father and i finally filtered the 2 gallon jar of makgeolli. so this is supposed to be the good stuff, using steamed glutinous rice with h-mart purchased nuruk. we decided to let it ferment a bit longer to see what kind of flavor might develop. instead of the typical 7 days, we left it to ferment for 12 days. there was no longer 3 separate layers in the jar, it was just a single layer of dissolved rice, the bacteria having consumed most of the solids.

when we opened the jar, it didn't smell of jiuniang, but more of alcohol. after the first strain, we tasted the wine. very alcoholic, not sour, not sweet. once again we made something more similar to sake than makgeolli. so 12 days was simply too long. next time we'll know to stop after a week. the perfect makgeolli is a combination of three flavors: sweet, sour, and alcohol. this one we made was mostly alcohol, very similar to the improperly cooked sona masoori rice with makgeolli lees. in order to make it palatable, my father added about a cup of sugar. properly made makgeolli you don't need to add any sugar because it's sweet as is.

i signed my parents up for turkish esims via airalo. it's kind of a leap of faith whether they'll work or not, but they used it on their last few trips (to eastern europe, to japan) and it never failed. 10GB of data for 15 days was $15 each.

the day went by fast, neither of my parents realized it was time to go home. as i was about to leave, i saw my mother wave to me from inside the car. i went up to her to see what they wanted. it looked like the car wouldn't start. fortunately we have a jump starter just for this occasion, but it didn't seem to do anything. my father immediately said there was something wrong with the starter. we even tried turning on the headlight while cranking the AC and that worked fine. with just 2 more days before they leave, my father doesn't have time to tow the car to the mechanic. instead they decided to abandon the car in the parking lot, come back and deal with it after they return from vacation. my mother called my sister (who was at fresh pond with esmei) to come and give them a ride back home.

due to that little bit of drama, i didn't get back home until 7pm. i didn't bring home any food tonight. instead i reheated some frozen fish sticks for dinner, made my own tartar sauce with mayonnaise, relish, and lemon juice. not the most elegant of meals, but it should tide me over until tomorrow.

i went onto youtube and looked up how to replace the starter in a car. earlier i did some research and google told me the average price to replace the starter is $600-800. the part itself isn't too expensive, it's mostly labor cost. anyway, the video i found showed not only was it very easy to access the starter on a 20 year old toyota camry, but it also easy to replace. i sent my father the video. after he saw it, we decided to try replacing the starter ourselves, save some money, no need to tow the car. especially after i found out a new starter motor is only $70 on amazon, and we can get it delivered by tomorrow. i also got some drive socket extension bars while i was at it ($10). hopefully the parts arrive in the afternoon, so i'll have time to do the fix. it will be an epic DIY achievement if we can repair the car, plus it's my first time actually working on any cars. heck, maybe i'll be replacing brake pads next time.

trump said "whole civilization will die tonight" if iran doesn't open the straight of hormuz and surrender to the US. this being tuesday, of course that meant TACO so it wasn't a total surprise when right before the 8pm deadline he said he'd suspend bombing for two weeks. and when that time comes, he'll make some other excuse.

a good hornets-celtics game tonight. hornets led for most of the first 3 quarters, though only by single digits. in the fourth quarter boston flipped a switch and then suddenly they were in the lead while charlotte seems to have lost all its mojo and couldn't score again. celtics win 102-113. using my own math, there are 3 more games left in the regular season, and the knicks are 3 games back. for new york to overtake us, we'd have to lose all of the next three games (against the knicks, pelicans, and magic) while the knicks need to win all three (celtics, raptors, hornets). so basically the celtics need to win one more game to lock in the no.2 seed.