i woke up at 7:30am this morning, after just 5 hours of sleep. it was going to be a busy day, i was anxious to get started.

i left the house at 9am, rode the ebike to market basket. i needed a few ingredients for making my taiwanese paocai: a jug of white vinegar, some salt, some sugar. from there i went directly to belmont to borrow the car. days before i'd already loaded it up with all the necessary equipment: handtruck, shovel, buckets.

it was almost 10am when i got to the the cafe and called my sister. we were going to get free compost from the cambridge library. i needed her to come because each person is allowed 20 gallons, so together we can get a combined 40 gallons worth of compost. she insisted on bringing esmei even though there was barely any room in the car. esmei seemed unhappy riding in the back, unable to see above the dashboard.

when we got there, the compost pile already looked significantly reduced, since they started offering at 9am. but there was still plenty left for everyone. this was very good compost, unlike in past years. dark and properly reduced, with a fragrance smell reminiscent of mulch. it was so fresh, it was still smoking from active decomposition. i filled up my sister's 10 gallon bucket, follow by my own 5 gallon bucket, finally about 25 gallons of a 35 gallon bucket. a gallon of soil weighs about the same as a gallon of water, roughly 10 lbs. so you can imagine 25 gallons was super heavy and i needed my sister's help to lift it up onto the handtruck.

getting ready to leave, we bumped into my garden friend helen. she told me her midcambridge plant swap was in two weeks. i wouldn't have any seedlings to donate but i might be able to dig up a few plants from my parents' backyard, particularly lunaria, as well as some lily-of-the-valley and cascade hops. we pushed the compost back to the car. the large bucket was way to heavy to lift, so i portioned some out into smaller spare buckets.

we were about to leave when the car wouldn't start. from the sound it didn't seem like a dead starter, more likely a dead battery. it started fine early, why have an issue now? was it because i had the hazard lights on for 15 minutes? we tried to figure out a solution. we needed a jump starter, and there might be one at the cafe. it was 1-1/2 miles to the cafe - a little too far to get there by walking. it was a mile back to my house. i could run home - 10 minutes? - then bike to the cafe to grab the jump starter, then come back to the library.

my sister spotted a dog owner she knew and told him about our problem. he said he had some jumper cables then disappeared. my sister said she could try taking an uber back to the cafe to get her car, but it'd have to be an uber pets (because of esmei), and those are hard to come by.

while my sister went to DPW to ask if they had a jump starter, her dog owner friend pulled up next to the car with his jumper cables. i don't know the first thing about jump starting a car from another car, but this guy seemed to know what he was doing. after connecting the two batteries, he started his car, and a few minutes later i tried starting mine. viola! it worked. robert the dog owner was a real life saver.

we drove back to the cafe. while making a turn, one of the smaller buckets of compost toppled over in the back of the car, narrowly missing crushing esmei. my sister forced me to pull over so she could rearrange the buckets, but they were so difficult to reach, it hardly made a difference. i just had to make slow turns.

we didn't make it back to the cafe until 11:30am. after i unloaded all the compost and handtruck, i finally called my 2nd aunt. we were supposed to head down to chinatown around 10:30am, but now it was an hour later. after i picked her up we drove down to boston via storrow drive.

first stop was baifu/foodpak. not only did i need to buy some supplies, but i also needed to return a case of koon chun brand ground bean sauce (used in our beef noodle soup recipe). my father brought the wrong one last time, got the ground variety when he needed the ungrounded. i wanted to try a shortcut this time through fenway, but ended up getting lost and snaking my way through the northeastern campus before i finally got back onto mass ave. i don't think my 2nd aunt has ever been to baifu. it's not the sort of place you do normal grocery shopping anyway since everything is in bulk.

i got yellow pickled daikon, white miso soup stock, bags of rice, suancai, sesam oil, tonkatsu sauce, and a case of taiwanes noodles. i also found the bean sauce my father meant to get. it comes in 2 varieties: glass jars and tin can. glass jars are more expensive, but baifu doesn't seem to carry the canned version anymore, so we've been buying the jar type for about a year now. but just today i found cases of the canned bean sauce. it costs slightly more, but you get way more bean sauce compared to the jars. even after returning credit, i still ended up spending $450 on supplies.

nobody helped us load so i pushed the cart myself to the car. when i turned around i was surprised by one of the loading guys standing right behind me. he loaded everything into the car, i gave him a $2 tip. when i asked him his name, he didn't seem to understand.

next we went to ming's market. the parking lot was nearly full, and we had to wait for an empty shopping cart to become available before we could go inside. it was a mad house, lines so long it went into the aisles. as one of the last remaining asian supermarket in chinatown, this place can't sustain the amount of business after c-mart closed last month.

we bought a lot of vegetables, to get ready for next week when we open. my 2nd aunt used the $100 monthly grocery credit she gets through her health insurance to pay. her stuff was only $50, but she insisted on using her benefit to pay for the rest of the stuff, while i used a credit card to pay an additional $80 to cover the leftover amount.

my 2nd aunt wanted to stop by chinatown proper to get some takeout food, but i told her it was better if we went back. besides, we had frozen dumplings in the car and had to get it back to the cafe before they fully defrost.

we drove down berkeley street to get to storrow drive. barricades were already set up around the copley square area, i caught a quick glimpse of the finish line as we drove by boylston street. i dropped my 2nd aunt at her before returning to the cafe around 2:20pm.

i called my parents to ask them how to marinate the salt & pepper chicken, as we didn't have anymore left, and was hoping i could deep fry a batch before we reopen on tuesday. but they didn't want to deal with the hassle of explaining it to me, and my mother was actually annoyed that i wanted to help out, and said they'd marinate the chicken when they got back.

other than the chicken, i had plenty of other things to prepare. i made a new batch of tea eggs. i only simmered them in tea brine for an hour, since they'll steep for the next 3 days and get plenty of flavor that way. but my primary project was to make a new batch of taiwanese paocai. i bought 6 heads of taiwanese cabbage that weighed a total of 28 lbs., way too much cabbage. so i removed the large head but still had 22 lbs. worth. after coring them, i was down to 21 lbs., a more manageable amount. i didn't start making the paocai until 4pm. it'd take m 2 hours at least, so i won't finish until 6pm at the earliest.

the most tedious part was breaking apart the cabbage by hand. these cabbages were kind of expensive at $1.69/lbs, but they're pretty good quality, dense and crispy, and good color, no dead spots. after they've been broken up, i sprinkled 21 tbsp of salt and mixed the cabbage to reduce.

i had another 30 minutes to wait before i needed to mix the cabbage again, so i decided to return the car back to belmont and retrieve my ebike. i also moved all the compost except one 10 gallon bucket i'm leaving for my sister. i left at 5pm, came back half an hour later.

having not eaten anything all day, i made some geki spicy hot chicken instant noodles. i ate while watching some NBA playoff basketball (timberwolves-nuggets game).

at 6pm i started adding the vinegar and sugar after rinsing the reduced cabbage. 21 lbs. of cabbage meant 10-1/2 cups of sugar and 10-1/2 cups of vinegar. i also added the shredded carrots and some chopped thai chili peppers and a tablespoon of sichuan peppercorn. after mixing, i started scooping the paocai into quart containers. i ended up with a dozen containers, and 1 container of just leftover liquid my mother will use to pickle the cucumbers.

i didn't finish until after 7pm. i didn't get back home until 7:30pm. my day wasn't over yet. i still had to clean the weber grill which had been sitting outside since yesterday afternoon. the charcoal didn't completely burn to half, about half of it still remained. so i collected them, hoping i could reuse them for next time. i then dumped out the ash. i didn't bother washing the inside since i couldn't leave it outside to dry as it's going to rain tomorrow. so i dry cleaned it the best i could before putting the grill away in the basement.

i guess i was still hungry but i found myself involuntarily making dinner. i finished yesterday barbecue (just a kielbasa sausage and some smoked onions) before eating a bowl of pasta salad. i added a leftover tea egg, it was still pretty good.

i didn't do much the rest of the evening. surfing the web on the couch, i got really sleepy and wanted to go to bed early tonight, especially considering i didn't get a good night's sleep last night. but writing this blog entry took longer than i thought and now it's almost 1am. so much for early sleeping!

i stayed up until 4am last night watching the three episodes of margo's got money troubles that came out a few days ago. not sure what to make of the show, a dramatic comedy but emphasis on the drama and interpersonal relationships between a dysfunctional family and its circle. but i'm a big fan of elle fanning and will watch her in anything.

i woke up at 9am with just three hours to clean the house before andrew arrived for our lunchtime barbecue. i tidied up most of the living room yesterday but the kitchen was still a cluttered mess, full of ingredients, cans, jars, and kitchen equipment. plus i needed to vacuum the house as well. my one advantage was i could use the guest bedroom as a temporary dumping space. i wasn't cleaning the house for somebody to stay (which is a more thorough cleaning), just for a visit.

i had a self-imposed deadline of 11am where i had to stop cleaning and start vacuuming. i was pretty much finished by 11:30am, just had to wait for andrew to show up. i checked the blog: apparently the last time i saw andrew was back in march 2013 for a winter barbecue at his house in west newton. 2013 was pivotal since a few months later i would travel to chongqing and work there for a year.

i kept my eye open for an audi. that was the last car andrew drove, not even sure if he still drives it. i watched as my upstairs neighbors left, leaving the house all to myself. this is auspicious since they won't complain about the barbecue smoke smell getting into their place. i also saw my neighbors jen and franz leave for what appears to be a family vacation with their daughter. where ever they're going seems snow because they also brought their skis.

noontime came and andrew was still a no show. i then got a text message from him. he said he was parked on my street, but taking a phone call. he also told me he's driving a white honda pilot. when he finally did appear, he looked much the same. his hair had turned grey, but at least he still had hair. i bought a pineapple and an onion along with some skewers.

we caught up. he told me previously he was between jobs, which is typically code for unemployed, that's why he was able to come out, but he also said it was only for 2 months. what he meant was his company did lay him off, but technically he's still on the payroll and has all his benefits until june. in the meantime he's looking for work, but seems to be a good spot, as there seems to be a lot of demand for his accounting services, so he can pick and choose. or be audacious and start his own company. he told me he has enough savings to last a year, so their not hurting financially for the time being. he also surprised me with the news that maura no longer teaches but is now the principal of a newton elementary school.

we moved outside to start the grill. earlier andrew had cut up the pineapple and onion and put them on skewers after drizzling with olive oil. i took out the burger mixture and formed them into balls. we also ate some of the pasta salad. andrew told me they took a family trip to morocco this past december, where he learned to love olives, which he didn't before. my parents interrupted our conversation when they video called me from istanbul. they saw andrew, who said hello. i asked about his own mother, still living in cambridge, age 85 (i thought she was much younger than that). we also drank some hard cider, and andrew tried some over-fermented makgeolli. he told me about toaka gasy, a similarly fermented high alcohol madagascar drink made with sugar cane.

the weather was not conducive for a good barbecue. this week has been a rollercoaster, with near 80's at the start of the week, bouts of rain everyday, and now overcast with temperature in the 60's and a bit of light sprinkle. at least it wasn't pouring rain. i had trouble starting the fire in the bricket chimney, until i removed some of the newspaper packing. after that the fire started strong, billowing white plumes of smoke which i was afraid might cause my neighbors to call the fire department. once the charcoal was properly heated (turned white), the smoke subsided.

andrew had the honor of dumping the brickets into the grill. it's not as dramatic during the daytime; at nights the glowing embers make for cool photos. we started with the blue cheese burgers first. i moved them to one side so andrew could grill his skewered pineapple and onion. once those were done, i grilled the chinese sausage and kielbasa. once the sausages finished, we took everything inside, ate around the kitchen counter.

for burger toppings, i only had onion and tomato. i put ketchup on my burger; andrew puts mayonnaise. the chinese sausages were good despite the charring. likewise the skewered onion and pineapple. the pineapple was a little raw, but grilling them somehow made them sweeter. same with the onion, they had a nice smoky flavor you probably wouldn't get using a gas grill.

we only had about half an hour to eat before andrew had to leave at 2:30pm to pick up maura from work. they have two cars, but their daughter took the other car to school. i packed some leftover for andrew, including burgers, sausages, and pasta salad. fortunately i had some leftover takeout containers.

after andrew left, i did some cleanup before finishing the rest of my food (pasta salad, hard cider, had a kielbasa sausage). there was still time to maybe ride down to haymarket but i already had enough excitement for one day. besides, the weather looked unsettled, even though the sun did finally come out.

lounging on the couch, i fell asleep around 5pm. i woke up at 7:30pm to close the blinds. i took a shower and ate some leftover barbecue. there were two NBA games on: hornets-magic and warriors-suns. magic demolished the hornets 90-121. i didn't watch the second game but found out later the suns beat the warriors 96-111. i'm a little sad, was hoping to see mor porzingis-horford post-season action.

the first thing on my mind this morning was: did the belmont department of public works come by and pick up the garden refuse? i called last night, left a voicemail message, not sure if that made any difference. watching the street facing webcam, i saw a garbage truck come by around 8:30am and take the neighbor's garden refuse but didn't take ours. what gives? but 30 minutes later the truck came back from the other direction and finally emptied the bins. they carelessly tossed the empty bins back onto the sidewalk, no wonder they're in rough shape (missing handles, wheels). i still had to go to belmont and bring in the bins.

i spray lubricated the rusty chain of my trek utility bike and wiped off the rust stains on the frame. that's when i saw one of the p-clamps securing the rear baskets had split apart and needed to be replaced. i wanted to replace the hardware as well, but i didn't have anymore stainless steel #10-32 screws of the right length (3/4") so i just used the old one. i did replace the washer though with a cheap zinc washer. i was going to order some more #10-32 3/4" stainless steel cap screws from aliexpress, but they only carried philips head, while the ones i get from home depot are combo head. price isn't that much different, so i'll just get them locally. combo head actually saved me, because the screw was stuck due to rust and i was afraid using a philip screwdriver would strip it so i finally removed the screw with a flat head.

i stopped by the cafe to grab an onion and take out two containrs of chicken thighs from the freezer to defrost in the fridge. even though technically i'm on staycation, ever since my parents left i think i've gone to the cafe every single day for on reason or another.

next i went to fresh pond to the trek bicycle store. it's been opened for a few years but i've never gone inside until today. i ordered a kickstand from the trek website and had it shipped to the store for free. it arrived a week ago, i'm only just remembering and getting the part now. outside was parked a beautiful looking bike with belt drive and disc brakes. it seems to be a brilliant brand bike which i've never heard before. later i did some research and that particular model - the L train - is actually made by priority bicycles ($700). what's even more interesting are the multiple accessories on the bike. it had thousand traveler magnetic bike lights ($70) and reelight induction powered front and rear lights (SL200) ($60-78). it must belong to one of the employees, though you think working at the trek store they'd ride a trek bike.

i finally made it to belmont by noontime. i arrived via the concord avenue bike path. approaching the house, i noticed the neighbor's nanking cherry tree i was admiring on tuesday had all its blossoms washed off from two consecutive nights of rain.

i brought in all the empty bins, will fill them up soon with more tree branches. once again it rained another centimeter of precipitation last night, which was enough to fill all the rain barrels. unfortunately i can't easily use the captured rain water just yet as i don't have the on-demand pump hooked up yet. a look a quick inspection of the backyard. the hop vines seem to be spreading. later i learned they can be invasive; like bamboos, they can spread by underground rhizomes. i'll need to dig up the spreading rhizomes and either throw them away or give to others.

back at home, i installed the new kickstand on the trek FX hybrid bike. the bike frame had a bracket on the frame specifically for installing a center-mounted kickstand. unfortunately the bolt that came with the kickstand was incredibly long, and on an area of the frame that was hard to reach with a socket wrench. i ended up having to remove the front derailleur, release the front shifter cable, and remove the chain from the front sprockets, just to have enough clearance to work. i really ought to replace that bolt with a shorter M8 socket screw that would be easier to remove in the future. but chances are i'll never take off the kickstand. the kickstand itself is well-built, has an adjustable stem. not bad for $5. i'm tempted to get another one.

while i was at it, i also fixed the loose headset. i tried to tighten it before, but i didn't know you had to release the two pinch bolts holding the handlebar in place. once those screws were loose, i could tighten the preload bolt.

i took the trek hybrid fx around the block for a test ride. i can ride it, but the frame is just a little too tall for me. my crotch is right on the top tube, makes for awkward stops. there's a used trek FX1 i've been following on facebook marketplace for 9 weeks now, so far still unsold, that's the perfect size for me. but i don't know if it's worth investing in an old used bike or use that money to upgrade to something better, like a priority turi.

the two other things i had to do today was clean up the house and get some groceries. cleaning i would do throughout the day. groceries i left around 3pm for market basket. my sister originally said she was going to bring by esmei, but then she decided to get some stuff from the food truck. i told her i couldn't wait. at market basket i returned about $1 worth of empty cans. i got ingredients for making blue cheese burgers and i also decided to make some pasta salad. i'm probably going to have a lot of leftover pasta salad but i can give it to my mother when my parents come back on monday.

heading to market basket, i cut through the star market parking lot. that's when i noticed two large flowering cherries trees. it's a variety i don't recognize, the flowers look more like peach blossoms, but the bark definitely shows they're cherries. i also stopped by to admire the flowering peaches in the loading dock parking area of peter forg manufacturing (on properzi way).

back at home, i mixed the ground beef with blue cheese and some other ingredients (chopped garlic, scallions, mustard, worcestershire sauce, frank's red hot, ground pepper). this has to set overnight before i can turn them into patties. i finally made lunch around 4:30pm, a bagel ham egg cheese sandwich. the ham was a piece of ham steak i had in the freezer for almost a year. it'd lost some of its pink color which had now turned grey. that's probably a sign it's not very good meat. but i still ate it anyway, didn't want it to go to waste.

old habits die hard, as i once again dabbled in some cyberpunk. i played until 8pm, when it got dark enough to close the blinds and turn on the lights. that was my cue to start the second part of tomorrow's dishes.

the last time i made pasta salad was back in october. i wonder what else i can add to spice up the salad? maybe some sweet corn for some additional crunch and sweetness. or sweet peppers. there's a lot of room for improvisation. i could go to haymarket and pick up some fresh ingredients and make another pasta salad.

that bagel sandwich was filling enough that i didn't need dinner. i had some cara cara oranges instead. no NBA tonight, but tomorrow there's hornets-magic and warriors-sun. saturday round 1 of the playoffs officially starts. unfortunately the celtics don't play until sunday, facing off against the 76rs. philly is the underdog, with embiid once again sidelined after an emergency appendectomy surgery. not sure if he'll back for round 1.

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.