i woke up at 8am this morning to go pick up 2 watermelons on sale at star market before taking the ebike to belmont. i dropped off one watermelon and collected a box of seedlings to take back with me and plant in my own community garden. my mother was still asleep but my father was outside watering the plants. i didn't get back home until 9:30am, with just half an hour left to use the bathroom and take a shower before heading into boston for the annual pride parade.

today was my first time wearing shorts, with the temperature expected to peak in the 90's. i made sure to apply sunblock on my arms, legs, and my head. i left around 10am. this was my first time traveling with the ebike to the pride parade. i parked at my usual spot, on the corner of clarendon and columbus avenue.

i brought all my cameras - canon 80D dSLR, fuji 3D, gopro, insta360 - but the only one i used was my canon and occasionally some snapshots with the google pixel phone if i needed something wide angle. having had a lot of experience photographing parades, i only came with the 55-250mm lens. i also brought a container of ice water in my contigo travel tumbler.

the weather was perfect. because it was going to rain later (late afternoon to early evening), the sky was bright but overcast. that made for perfect exposure, and i could shoot on manual 1/1600 sec shutter with f/8 aperture. that setting offers maximum clarity with very fast shutter speed, the best for action. it only works when it's bright outside, like today.

i stood at my usual spot with half an hour to spare, on top of clarendon hill next to the mail box. it's a prime location and other photographers were crowding around me. across the street was the NBC boston broadcast truck with a camera live streaming the parade. i probably got on camera a few times, i'll be sure to check when i get the chance.

i didn't bother going down to the procession line by copley square to get a sneak peek of what to expect. i figured i'd be surprised today. pride is the one parade that always start on time (i blame the lesbians). motorcycle cops, followed by the lesbian bikers, then the gay bikers. right away i knew the chinese man standing next to me was going to be a problem. from his size and his thick accent, he was probably from northeast china. it was probably his first pride parade, because he photographed everything. he had an annoying habit of jumping out to the middle of the street then retreating back, blocking my shot multiple times, until he was basically just standing in front of me. i almost yelled at him a few times, and decided if he was going to speak with me i'd pretend i couldn't speak chinese. it looked like he had a canon RF 14-35mm L lens on a beefy mirrorless body. that's actually the wrong lens to use, since it's wide angle and you can't pick people out of the crowd and capture details like a telephoto lens. fortunately after about 30 minutes, he moved elsewhere. he was with his chinese wife (who was snapping away on her phone) and what appeared to be his caucasian son-in-law who spoke chinese to him.

the pride parade features all the usual groups: politicians, churches, schools, corporations, LGBT organizations, you name it. with so many gay couples getting married and having families, pride has become more family-friendly in recent years. maybe that's why this year some of the more risque elements - gogo boys, stripper poles - have disappeared, relegated to 21+ after parties.

there's also the free stuff. beads of course, but also sunglasses, bubble bottles, pencils, fans, flags, stickers, candy, and literature. there was a time where you could collect a year's worth of condoms and lubes but those are rare giveaways nowadays. i myself tried to collect beads of every color (i cheated when i got a rainbow colored one).

mayor michelle wu was there. i've seen her a bunch of parades over the years, and she always has the same few outfits she wears every time. i know mayors probably don't get a wardrobe budget, and seeing her in the same few outfits give her a "common man" appeal, but maybe try a few new accessories. lieutenant governor kim driscoll was there, i even shook her hand when she went into politician mode. governor healey was there too but she was in the other side of the street mobbed with people and i only caught a fleeting glimpse, not enough to photograph. senator ed markey was there. it's an election year for him so he basically had to be there, plus congressman seth moulton is challenging him in the primary. moulton's reason for challenging markey is because he's too old and should let someone else (younger) take the helm. let the voters decide then. i'm voting for markey because he has the experience. moulton showed up later in the procession, a much smaller group compared to markey. elizabeth warren was surprisingly absent. honestly, i haven't seen much of her, not even on the political news channels.

my little hilltop perch was starting to get crowded so i decided to meander downhill, see what else was coming, change the scenery. i fast walked back uphill when i saw the tj maxx procession arriving. they were handing out plastic tote bags, i managed to grab one.

the procession finished by 1:20pm, continuing down to the south end and looping back up berkeley street. in years past i'd catch the end of the procession a second time on berkeley, but i didn't think year because the ebike was too much of a hassle to lock up. i continued down columbus avenue, and swung to ming's market via arlington street. (next time i'll try a shortcut, i actually went the long way which i didn't mind).

ming's market was too busy on a saturday afternoon. i had all my beads on, nobody said anything. chinese people are notorious for keeping to themselves and minding their own business. they might gossip, but they'd never actually confront me, ask why i had all those beads. i was here to collect a few cafe supplies: pickled daikon radish, raw daikon radish, eggplants.

after ming's market i went into chinatown proper, to hong kong eatery, to pick up some thai-style chicken feet for myself ($6/box) and some duck for my mother ($20 half a duck). i could see some pride parade goers in chinatown, but nobody was crowding hong kong eatery. i picked up my order and continue to my next destination.

from chinatown to haymarket i relied on my past experience of working in boston. i skirted by downtown crossing, then cut through post office square to get to faneuil hall and haymarket. i was thinking coming on saturday afternoon would showcase some last minute deals, but the prices and selection were mostly the same compared to my early friday morning visits. my haul: 2 lbs. ginger ($3), 2 lbs. of cherry ($5), 2 pineapples ($5), 3 bags of cherries ($3), 4 packages of baby cucumbers ($6), 2 bunches of cilantro ($1), 10 clementines oranges ($2). fitting everything into the back of my ebike and my messenger bag took a while. i put the cucumbers, cherries, and eggplants into my bag because those were most delicate. everything else i crammed into the rear basket, securing a bungie netting to make sure nothing popped out.

i made my way back through the west end. i was almost to lechmere when i realized the neoprene cover for my dSLR camera that i was wearing (because no more room in my bag) was gone. it must've fallen off. so i traced my steps, went all the way back to haymarket, didn't find the cover. i continued home.

since it was almost 4pm, i decided to stop by the cafe. i presented my haul to my parents and 2nd aunt. looking in one of the grocery bags, i saw my missing camera pouch. i must've put it inside thinking i still might take some photos on the way home. so i backtracked for nothing! it was another busy day. my 2nd aunt ended up taking home a bag of cherries and some oranges. my mother gave me some frozen dumplings for dinner.

my mother told me esmei was home alone and asked me to go check up on her. i found her sleeping in her spot in the living room where her tent used to be. she perked up and immediately went to the back door, assuming i was there to play with her. we played fetch and tug with a rubber ball. we only played a few times before she got bored and didn't bother chasing after the ball. i coaxed her back inside and gave her some treats before leaving. my sister happened to be coming back right when i was about to leave.

first thing i did when i got home was to take a shower. not only to wash off the sweat, but the oily layer of sunscreen. i scrubbed thoroughly, but i could still feel some oily patches on my skin (will probably need a second shower).

i had some leftover ajvar with pita bread as a snack. actually more like lunch since i didn't eat anything all day. afterwards i had some thai chicken feet. the rain that was supposed to fall by late afternoon didn't show up, even though i felt a few drops riding back from boston. lounging on the couch i felt like taking a nap but didn't. i ended up downloading the photos i took today, around 2700 - all on one single brand new battery.

i saw on the webcam my father building the second set of sawhorses using the brackets i bought from the newton hardware store on wednesday. i'm starting to think brackets are the way to go because they're lighter and can be adjusted for height and width. if we don't like our I-beam sawhorses we can always take them apart and reuse them with sawhorse brackets.

i wasn't very hungry in the evening even though i still didn't really eat anything substantial all day. instead of dumplings, i ended up just having some simple instant noodle with an egg.

it did rain a little bit later in the evening, but nothing significant, just a shower to wet the landscape. it lowered the outdoor temperature by 10 degrees (68) while it remains 78 inside my house.

i finished the evening by watching to live and die in LA on pluto.tv. that's such a weird movie, i learn something new with every viewing.

i went to the harvard vanguard pharmacy this morning to pick up a few prescriptions for my parents before arriving at the cafe. every day this week has been busy and today was no different. it started slow, and by afternoon it looked average at best, but after 5pm we got really busy again.

my sister was out all day shopping. she came back with some food she bought (lychees, rambutans) but i wanted no part of it. first because i was so busy i couldn't even think about eating, but second i resented her for not working while we slave away all day. she kept talking about the renovations but i could care less and basically ignored her whenever she brought it up. i'm here to work, not to listen to her bullshit, or eat the crap she buys because she feels guilty seeing us working while she's out having fun.

it was so busy i made 4 batches of black soy noodles. the final batch was actually for tomorrow since i won't be here (i'll be at the pride parade). while my parents went home, i stayed behind for an extra 15 minutes to wait for the noodles to cool before putting them in the fridge. i also made 10 boxes of ice cubes, 2 batches of dumplings, and a new batch of tea eggs.

i found some hard cider waiting for me on my backyard porch, courtesy of my upstairs neighbor jeff. i thought he was going home (california) today because i saw him leave this morning with a suitcase, but he texted me that he's leaving tomorrow, coming back wednesday.

for dinner i cooked the last 3 of my mini burgers. still 475 degrees on the smokeless foreman grill, but only 2 minutes this time. even that was still too much, the meat thermometer read 175+ degrees when 140 degrees was the done temperature.

tonight's main event was game 2 between the knicks and spurs. first half was mostly spurs, but they started to wane by halftime, and the knicks took the lead in the second half. spurs had the perfect opportunity to win the game with just 9 seconds left and the score tied, but wembanyama carelessly through a pass to castle who wasn't looking, and brunson got the ball back. not sure if i said this the last time, but the way spurs play reminds me of the celtics, relying too much on three's (which they weren't making). in the second half the spurs started attacking the basket more, while new york went on a cold streak, which allowed them to get back into the game (only to lose yet again). that, plus inexperience, has put san antonio in a tough spot, down 0-2, and heading to new york on monday for game 3. in NBA playoff history, 5 teams have come back to win the series after being down 0-2 at home. unfortunately a 0-2 home loss team has never won the final. maybe the spurs might make some history, but these past 2 games have been so awful, i starting to doubt their chances.

it didn't look like it was going to be a busy day, despite the nice weather. nobody sat outside on the back deck. i even had time to make a trader joe's supply run in the afternoon after roasting a batch of charsiu pork (my father deep fried a small batch of chicken this morning).

starting at 4pm though things started to pick up. orders were coming in, and before we knew it, we'd used up all our rice with no frozen backup. my father cooked 2 cups in the backup rice cooker as a failsafe, not realizing we'd actually need it. there was one group of customers particularly annoying, a chinese mother looking to find a place so her young daughter can go to BB&N. a year's tuition at the private school is similar to a year's college tuition. she came with a friend, they didn't order at first, waited until 6pm. they also asked to use the bathroom, which my father allowed instead of sending them to the library. she made some off-hand remark, "we're going to come here all the time." in the years i've been working at the cafe, when a customer says they're going to be coming all the time, that's a lie because none of them have ever come back. they say that to curry favor, not realizing others have used the exact same tactic. when my father told them we were closing at 6:30pm, they ignored us. i stood to the side and watched them chat. i was on the verge of "politely" inviting them to leave so i could go home but they finally left by 6:45pm.

what was looking like a slow day ended up being rather busy. just the past 3 days combined almost equals the profit from all of last week. to think we have 2 more work days left.

it happened yesterday when i wasn't there, but my sister hired some contractors to install metal bollards in front of the service panels. she said they're necessary by code, but i don't see any other parking lot having these. they take up so much space, and make it hard for the plow guys to clear the snow. if we ever come back from a supply run, we have to park further out in order to open the back of the car. why my sister thought it was necessary i have no idea. she just likes to spend money that's not hers i guess.

i changed out of my fry-oil-saturated clothes and took a shower when i got back home. for dinner i cooked three mini hamburgers in my foreman grill. i set it for 4 minutes at 425 degrees but that was too long and the burgers ended up well-done (i didn't mind). i didn't think they'd be tasty, but combined with some vegetable ingredients and ketchup, they weren't too bad. i did have to run two fans to get rid of the smell: a window fan and another fan on a barstool to direct the smoke outwards.

it started at 7am this morning: cambridge DPW came and demolished the sidewalk. i could hear heavy machinery pounding outside, shaking the whole house. when i finally got out of bed around 8am and looked out the living room window, i saw they'd completely torn apart the sidewalk, from the new asphalt addition that my upstairs neighbor complained about, to the preexisting concrete slabs.

i went out mid-morning to move my bike outside so i wouldn't be trapped once they start pouring the new cement. one of the contractors told me they were about to leave anyway, but i didn't believe him because it didn't seem like they were done yet. sure enough, they left a few minutes later (which meant i moved the bike for nothing). so after they destroyed the sidewalk, dropped a few safety cones, they were gone. they even took the signs, which said they'd be here tomorrow as well. were they not coming back?

i went to market basket to get some groceries. DPW was gone, but eversource was still here, working on the utility pole across the street, with a police detail. another contractor asked me if i lived here, told me they'd shut down electric service for a hour while they transferred the power lines to the new pole. they had to briefly stop work while i went to get my bike parked underneath the cherry picker.

i went to dollar tree first, to get a scrubbing brush to clean the scales off of the cherry plum tree in my parents' backyard. prices were everywhere. a while back they increased everything to $1.25, but all their kitchen stuff was $1.50.

afterwards i went to market basket. i decided to make hamburgers tonight for dinner. i got a package of "sliders" which is just a fancy word for tiny hamburgers. i'd have to eat 3-4 to equal 2 regular size hamburgers. they also sold some regular size patties but with the high cost of beef, they were too rich for me. the only downside is they don't sell mini burger buns.

i came home to drop off my groceries before i left for the cafe via motorcycle. i got there by 11:30am, ended up staying and working for an hour, making a new batch of tea eggs and activating the xiaomi mi band 9 fit for my 2nd aunt.

i got to belmont around 12:30pm. i bought a market basket italian & provoline "bulky" for lunch and ate while watching the news. i've lived in the greater bostona area for most of my life and never heard of the word "bulky" to describe a sandwich.

i ordered a pair of fulton sawhorse brackets from ace hardware last night ($20). the store in porter square had a pair but when i went to order, there was only one available. another place was the ace hardware in belmont. they too were sold out. i ended up reserving the brackets from swatz ace hardware in newton (watertown street). they were supposed to contact me to let me know my order was ready but they never did. i ended up going to the website to find out my items were ready for pickup. so i went to get my brackets, riding down mt.auburn street, through watertown center, up watertown street. i parked right outside in a metered spot, kept my eye on my bike in case a cop came along to give me a ticket. after i got my order, i made a u-turn and returned to belmont.

today was a nice day, with temperature in the 80's. i was very comfortable in a t-shirt and jeans. one of things i wanted to do at my parents' place was to apply sedgehammer+ on the little piece of front lawn next to garage that's overrun with sedge grass. the instruction said to only apply it when temperature was below 85 degrees. although the ambient temperature was below that, the hot midday sun beating on the lawn made it upwards of 95 degrees, too hot to apply the herbicide. i decided to wait until later, when the sun wasn't so strong, to do the sedgehammer treatment.

instead i did some yard work. i moved all the seedlings onto the sawhorse table underneath one of our EMT conduit trellis. this way we can see how many seedlings we have and formulate a plan to where to plant them. i thinned out the potted basil which sprouted a few weeks ago but hasn't really grown too much. i didn't want toss out the extra basil seedlings so i found another planter and planted 8 additional basil plants. i potted two stevia into slightly larger pots. i heard stevia can grow pretty big, and the recommended pot size is 12" diameter. i still have plenty of stevia seedlings for future transplanting.

i filled a 10 gallon grow bag just to see how much soil i needed. i filled the bottom with a layer of coarse homemade compost, followed by some cambridge city compost. i then filled the rest of the grow bag with a single bag of miracle-grow garden soil. that just about filled it to the top. each grow bag will have one luffa plant.

i watered some plants, including the seedlings and my swiss chard. i weeded RB3, which was full of yellow wood sorrel and grass. while digging in the dirt, i found out that a bunch of rudbeckias were infested with aphids. i made a mixed a bottle of neem oil extract (1 tsp of concentrate to 300ml water) and sprayed the rudbeckias. it didn't look like it did anything, but when i checked afterwards, a lot of the aphids were dead.

i hung the solar edison bulb lights onto our EMT conduit trellis. it used to hang on our raised bed trellis but we've taken those down this season.

i had some neem oil left over so i sprayed the cherry plum, which has a serious oyster shell scales infestation. i'd spray and then scrape off the scales with a hard bristle brush. that seemed to work very well. made me think that maybe all the oyster shell scales i saw were dead? because i did treat the tree with horticultural oil in the early spring. maybe what i'm seeing is just the empty dead shells. i did see a few twice-stabbed ladybugs which i accidentally sprayed. i hope they're okay.

rabbits continue to dig a hole underneath the fence behind the platform ladder. i patched up the hole and put a brick and a large stone over it. but the rabbit managed to dig underneath the brick and stone. so this time folded up a small piece of chickenwire into the hole before filling it back up with soil. let's see how the rabbit responds to that. it just might dig a new hole to the side. in that case we'll need to reinforce all the fence bottoms with hardware cloth.

in the late afternoon i pruned the maple tree. now is not the best time to prune - with the tree already fully leafed out. but we didn't prune everything back in early spring, and there are still tall sections of branches that's eclipsing our lawn, and most importantly, our future trellis garden. armed with the EGO pole saw and pruning loppers, i climbed the platform ladder and started lowering the height of the maple tree. i'd remove some sections, then climb down to clean up all the cut branches, before repeating again. i ended up with 6-7 garden refuse bins full of maple branches. now the backyard has more sun.

while i was pruning, i heard a loud sound hitting the sunroom window, like somebody thwacking it from the inside. i wonder if it was a bird strike, and looked down to see one of the foxglove plants was moving. i went to investigate. sure enough, there was a baby robin knocked semi-conscious. it looked like it was panting, like maybe it was searching for water because it was so hot today. i picked it up and put it in the long rectangular raised bed. i got a pan of cold water and tried to dribble some into its beak but it wasn't drinking. instead it hid underneath the pan, maybe just trying to stay cool.

around 5pm the temperature of the front lawn was 85 degrees and dropping. i mixed some sedgehammer+ in a half gallon spray bottle. one 1/2 ounce packet makes a full gallon, so i decided to make just half a gallon, saving the rest for a future treatment in 6-8 weeks if the sedges come back. i then went out and sprayed that lawn area affected by sedges. i sprayed the patch of sidewalk grass as well, sedgehammer also works to kill giant ragweed.

i went home during rush hour traffic. i would've had better luck riding an ebike, where i could bypass traffic. instead i had to sit and wait on the motorcycle with all the other cars. even though the sun was starting to get low on the horizon, i could still feel its rays beating through the back of my t-shirt.

i got back by 5:30pm. there was no sign outside alerting neighbors about continuing sidewalk repair work, but i didn't dare park in front of the house. i wanted to do some gardening in my community garden plot, but it was already late and i was tired, so i decided to call it a day. i'll do community gardening over this weekend. i stripped out of my sweat-soaked clothes and took a shower.

i had some pita bread with ajvar spread as a snack. i also had some chocolate chip cookies. i checked the cafe's transaction history for the day and saw it was even busier than yesterday. a lot of bento sales, but surprisingly also a lot of beef noodle soup sales (i was there when two japanese ladies ordered 2 beef noodle soup).

when my parents returned home, i called my father to report all the things i did in the backyard today. i also asked him to check on the baby robin. he said it was gone, so hopefully it was okay and managed to fly away. my father restrung the conduit solar lights. they turned on at sunset and stayed on until 10pm. hopefully with a full day's charge tomorrow, they'll stay lit a bit longer.

i was too lazy to make the sliders (which involves using the foreman grill, easy to use, not so easy to clean), so i had a trio of hot dogs instead. i timed it so i could eat and watch game 1 of the NBA finals. most people expected the spurs to win the series. seems like somebody forgot to tell new york yet. knicks started out hot, but midway through the first quarter the spurs got the lead. knicks managed to regain the lead in the second quarter, but the spurs finished the half with the lead. spurs dominated to start the second half, but the knicks picked up their intensity and quickly chipped away at the lead so by the 4th quarter they got the lead back. spurs made one final push to lead briefly, but the knicks clamped down in the final minutes to gain a 10 point lead, winning the game 105-95. i was not expecting this. the knicks are no joke, their game 1 victory in san antonio tells the world they're legit contenders. spurs might have the youthful talent, but the knicks have the veteran experience. game 2 is friday.

i bought some more 10 gallon grow bags off of amazon. originally i just wanted a dozen, but the ones i ordered before wouldn't be able until the middle of next week. we want to plant some plants by this weekend. so i ended up ordering 2 dozen - which for some reason could arrive by friday. it's a little much (although i save $5), but we can give some away, and the grow bags also make for good yarn storage.

i didn't realize how early i got to the cafe. i started by turning on our ordering tablets then cooking some rice. my parents showed up shortly afterwards. my father brought a few more potted foxgloves as well as a potted jasmine. he spent some time unfurling the passion flower vines onto the railing of the deck. we also made a collar using chicken wire to prevent rabbits from biting at the bottom of the passion flower.

noontime we got super busy as a large group of people came to eat. they wanted to sit outside but we didn't have enough chairs so had to take some from inside. just in that hour we made the bulk of the profit for the day. fortunately i wasn't anything too hard, noodles and bentos, stuff that we had on hand that didn't really need cooking with the exception of the curry chicken. it continues to stay a little busy past 1pm, but then things went quiet by the afternoon. those noisy kids didn't show up for their bubble ice tea fix like they normally do.

weather today was pleasant, with temperature in the 70's and plenty of sunshine. it might've been too much for those foxgloves and they started to wilt before i moved them to the canopy shadow underneath the deck umbrella. for some reason my sister was hanging out on the deck for much of the day. i don't like it when she hangs around, a constant reminder that she should be the one working at the cafe while i should do out doing other things.

the new owners of the next door bakery showed up to introduce themselves, a spanish guy and an indonesian woman. the spanish guy had an accent and spoke so fast it was hard for my parents to follow what he was saying. they don't plan on opening until 2 months later, something about needing to pass a hearing for a new business, despite the fact that they've essentially just inherited the bakery from the previous owner. they also plan on opening just 4 days a week (including the weekends). they were in their store for most of the day, cleaning up and taking inventory.

we got a little busy again around evening time. we had at least 33 sales today, and already made a third of the profit compared to last week in just a single day.

i went home with a bento - some braised pork and string beans my mother had made - plus a container of watermelon. i don't work tomorrow but seem to be busier on my one day off compared to days where i'm working.

i after i returned home and took a shower. nothing good on television, i tried youtube tv, pluto.tv, and even tubi. i found some old episodes of freddy's nightmares, watched the one with a young mariska hargitay as a medical student. after dinner, i threw out the trash and went across the street to star market to get some snacks.

i woke up a 8am this morning, after going to bed before midnight last night. eversource finally showed up to work on the utility pole outside, after reserving a handful of parking spaces for the past 3 weeks.

i headed to belmont around 10:30am. my original plan was to get a few supplies from market basket, but my mother had a doctor's appointment in davis square this afternoon, so i figured we could make a supply run afterwards, be able to get more stuff with the car.

it was still early, so my father and i started cutting up the 2x4's to make i-beam sawhorses. the original plan was to cut a bunch of 30 inch pieces, but my father suggested we make the sawhorses taller at 32 inches. that left us with very little margin of error, since the 2x4's were 96 inches long. my some miracle we managed to cut them all roughly the same length, with the exception of two pieces which were slightly longer. we trimmed them down to 30 inches, to make the vertical of the i-beam.

we went back inside the house for lunch. my mother made wonton soup. we also installed a few blinds that arrived yesterday. no new hardware necessary, could use the old brackets, just removed the old blinds and pop in the new ones. they don't make blinds with the drawcord anymore - hanging hazard. instead, blinds nowadays are designed where you push them up or pull them down. i think these new styles have a higher failure rate, since we've already needed to replace a few at my parents' place.

my father and i went back outside to assemble the sawhorses. each one needed 22 3" deck screws. we formed the i-beam first, before screwing on the legs. they seem vey over-engineered, i could easily stand on them without thinking they might collapse. since we're using pressure treated 2x4's, they're also surprisingly heavy. i think each one weighs something like 40 lbs. they also have a tendency to wobble, since they're roughly built and not carefully measured. but the lawn is lumpy anyway, so depending on where they sit, they can be perfectly leveled. it doesn't matter anyway, since we're putting wooden planks on them, which will weigh them down.

at one point my father spotted a bunny in RB1. it was eating something, not sure what. we managed to chase it out of the raised bed, where it ran behind the rain barrels. i tried to capture it but it was much too fast.

we left for davis square around 2pm. we parked in the basement level and went with my mother inside the harvard vanguard building. my father and i read the supermarket circulars while my mother went to her appointment. she came out a few minutes left.

for our next stop we went to the porter square star market. there was a sale on cokes, gatorade, cantaloupes, and avocado.

we then went to market basket. here we got milk, yogurt, pork butts, frozen kale, oranges, and paper towels.

we stopped by the cafe to drop off the supplies before returning to belmont.

with the sawhorses done, my father and i worked on the EMT conduit trellises. the one we already built needed a 10ft crossbeam down the middle. instead of installing it overhead, we tipped the trellis upside down and installed the conduit that away, easier to work with. next we built the second trellis, cutting up 4 conduit pipes into 6' and 4' segments. we assembled it upside down as well, built the top layer before adding the legs and the braces.

we tried to figure out the best trellis arrangement. in the end we decided to remain parallel to the raised beds, but at a far enough distance to hopefully not shade the beds once the trellises are covered with vining leaves. my father finished by coating the 3 10x2 boards we bought yesterday with water-based polyurethane to seal them from the elements.

my mother made a ham-bone broth with daikon radish and barley. she also made two stirfries that looked identical but were actually different: tofu with chinese celery, and shredded pork with spicy green peppers. the shredded pork with the favorite, we finished it completely.

i went home after dinner. eversource still reserved the parking spaces for another day, while additional spaces were reserved for a moving truck or maybe tree work. essentially one side of the street was off limit to parking. i ended up parking on the private way. i won't be able to move back in a few days because starting on wednesday they're redoing the sidewalk because my upstairs neighbor complained about it, so no parking in front of my house.

i rode the motorcycle to the cafe in the late morning to put away the tea eggs. i also moved the passion flower back outside, but on the metal plant stand to keep it off the ground. when i got to belmont, i found out my sister and mother had a fight, and now my sister and her godmother weren't going to the barbecue later this afternoon.

after lunch (pan-fried pancake with some pork floss washed down with fresh soy milk), my father and i went to home depot to get some supplies: 5 8ft 2x4's, 3 8ft 10x2's, a box of 3" deck screws, a can of rust-oleum 2x spray paint (in glossy hunter green, for the found wheelbarrow), and a 10ft 3/4" EMT conduit. after we loaded everything in the car, i had to in the back and hold everything to make sure nothing fell out. that left me with some motion sickness.

it started to rain so we held off on any outdoor errands for the time being. instead i made some smashed cucumbers to bring to the barbecue, while my parents had earlier cut up a watermelon to bring.

even though the barbecue wasn't until 3:30-4pm, we left around 2:30pm to go pick up my 2nd aunt from home after she came back from church. from there we headed to arlington, arriving super early - 3:10pm. i was surprised to see my sister and her godmother at the barbecue. apparently they decided to come after all.

this was supposed to be a memorial day barbecue but my aunt cancelled last week fearing it'd rain. she moved it to this sunday, but it turned out to be even rainier. we decided to have the barbecue anyway instead of postponing it to yet another weekend, taking on a gamble on the weather.

matthew gave us a tour of the yard. he showed up the clematis trellises, the magenta one flourishing with great big flowers, with his hopes of getting a purple variety to do the same. he also extended his hops trellises, reaching something like 20ft up in the air. finally we saw their new solar panel, which they got through a power purchase agreement (PPA). it's a 5.75kW system with 14 korean-german qcell-brand panels. matthew didn't know the power rating for the panels but they're probably 425-450W each. it uses a solaredge inverter (installed outside the house). the system isn't live yet, has to pass inspection first. they pay $100 monthly for their electricity, with the option to buy the system in the future, as well as install battery backup storage for off-grid power. he also hired people to trim his pine and maple trees, remove a diseased cherry, and spray fungicide on the hawthorn (which had some rust disease) and the crabapple.

weather cooperated for the first half of the barbecue until it started to rain midway through. everyone moved inside except for my myself, my mother, and my sister - who had to be outside because esmei wasn't allowed inside. we sat underneath the deck umbrella, rain dripping on our backs. matthew later joined us outside once he finished grilling (some blue fish), soaking wet. when the rain finally stopped, everyone moved back outside.

esmei stayed on the deck for much of the time. she spent time watching the birds and squirrels in the yard. the few times we let her out, she ran around the backyard and into the neighbors' yards until my sister had to call her back. my father took her on a walk where she went to the bathroom before returning.

my aunt was trying to get rid of an old window air conditioner. my father wanted to take it until we convinced him otherwise, but my sister wanted it for upstairs tenants, so we took it anyway. we also grabbed a pair of large tomato cages that barely fit inside the car. once again i had to ride in an awkward position and made myself motion sick again. we were going to drop off my 2nd aunt, but my father decided to drop off my mother and me first.

i was ready to go home until i realized i didn't have my phone anymore. using google's find your phone webpage, i was able to see my phone traveling across cambridge. so apparently i dropped it in the car. when my father finally came back, i got my phone and went home. it started to rain again. there was no point in waiting as it looked to be steady rain for a while. better to go home now, get a little wet, instead of waiting indefinitely.

i don't like riding the motorcycle in the rain. roads get slippery, combined with speed, makes for dangerous riding. it least it wasn't freezing cold rain. the wettest part of my body were my legs, which soaked up all the splashes. i was hoping my waterproof hiking shoes would stay drier at least. fortunately there was a parking spot right in front of the house so i didn't have far to walk. i stripped off my wet clothes before taking a shower.

still hungry after the barbecue, i ate an instant cup of noodles while searching for something to watch on streaming. i ended up resorting to typing random letters in the search window to bring up something unexpected. i settled on the man with on red shoe (1985), tom hank's third foray into mainstream cinema after transitioning as a tv actor. i only watched about 10 minutes (didn't even see tom hank's character yet) but i got bored and went onto youtube to watch some NBA analysis.

my mother called this morning while i was in the bathroom. she told me my father could give me a ride this morning to the cafe since it was cold and rainy and windy outside. just one of those things i could handle but all three? smarter to take the ride. after dropping off my mother, my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt then finally come pick me up. there were leaves and tiny tree branches scattered all over the road, like what you'd see after a hurricane. it was just an awful day weatherwise, your job today was basically to stay dry.

i ended up putting both the passion flower and our hanging fern outside. the passion flower i brought indoors last night to protect it from hungry rabbits. the fern i put outside to give it a free shower. at one point fern tipped over from the strong winds (i had it on a wire plant stand) so i moved it to a corner of the deck and used the potted passion flower to brace it from toppling over again.

a woman came in as soon as we opened, asking to use our bathroom, despite the obvious "no public restroom" sign posted by the entrance. my mother told her we don't have a public bathroom. the woman insisted. "what if i just pee by the entrance?" she said. on occasions we might let someone use our bathroom, but with that kind of snide remark, there was just no way. "what if i was dying? would you try to save me?" this stranger continued. i was in the kitchen and came out to speak with her. i told her we don't let people use our bathroom because of health code reasons. the woman got back in her car and drove away.

would we be busy today, despite the awful weather? the answer turned out to be kind of. we didn't get our first customer until 12pm, someone called in a sizable order. everything the person ordered basically had to be cooked, so i told him 20 minutes. he showed up 10 minutes later. we then had a few customers come in to order drinks, but it wasn't until late 2pm we got busy again (when the finally stopped). each time a fairly big order, so even though we only had a few orders total, we made about as much as last saturday, which isn't bad considering the weather.

the next door baker came back one final time to hold a birthday party for her daughter in the old space. it's kind of bittersweet, since starting next week the new owner will move in and probably repaint the walls, covering up the murals the previous owner had painted. she came by to thank us one last time and to offer us some leftover birthday cake.

around closing time, i brought back inside the fern and the passion fruit. my father returned to give us rides home. he showed me one of the vines already had a flower bud, and later i found another one. the plant will do well on our very sunny outdoor deck, as long as we can protect it from roving rabbits.

my parents dropped off my 2nd aunt first before dropping me off. my father seemed to have forgotten about me and started to drive home to belmont when i told him i still had to get home.

the big news today besides the windy rainy weather was a loud boom that happened in the afternoon. apparently a large meteorite entered the atmosphere over massachusetts at 2:11pm, causing a loud sonic boom. i actually heard it, a boom followed by the building shaking. i thought maybe a car had slammed into the cafe building, but when i looked outside there was nothing. when i told my mother, she said it was just my 2nd aunt slamming the door to the bathroom. i thought it was strange but figured that was the most likely explanation. however, when i poured over our various webcams to 2:11pm, each one recorded a boom sound. too bad nobody could see it here in MA because of the cloudy weather.

somehow i managed to stay awake. a lot of times on saturdays when i get home, there's nothing to do, and i find myself lounging on the couch and falling asleep. i spent the time watching youtube videos while connected to my anker wireless speaker (the speakers on my old macbook pro are broken for the nth time and make a loud buzzing sound). i was looking for videos explaining if paul atreides is truly a fremen messiah or a false prophet piggybacking on bene gesserit's religious exploitation of the local population though false prophecies planting. the fact that he's capable of amazing feats primary comes from his bungled kwisatz haderach genetics like the ability to transmutate the poisonous water of life.

i took a shower in the evening before making a trio of hot dogs for tonight's main event, game 7 between the spurs and thunder. san antonio got off with a quick start, pushing their lead to 14 by the middle of the first quarter. but the thunder fought back and led by 4 points close to the end of the second quarter but san antonio managed to get back the lead by one point before halftime. in the second half, the spurs led the game most of the time, but only by single digits, the thunder always within striking distance. even in the final minutes, final seconds, the thunder still had chances to win the game. alas, the spurs survived, winning 111-103. they will face the knicks on wednesday, in an NBA final that most people seem to think the spurs will win. in fact, the western conference championship was essentially the NBA finals, we probably already saw our best basketball of this year's playoffs.

i went to haymarket again this morning. got a chance to use the fitness tracking feature of my new xiaomi smart band 10. i also enabled tracking on my velotric bike app, as a secondary set of data. unfortunately with the mi fitness app stuck in metric km unit, it was hard to decipher what i was reading.

it seems 9am on a friday morning is too early for haymarket, as many vendors were still setting up shop. the better time to come would be the afternoon, but i'm working both fridays and saturdays (although i might be able to get there saturday after work if i hustle and take the ebike, maybe i'll try that next time). pickings were a little slim today. no swiss chards, no gold nugget oranges. the overweight panhandler in a wheelchair was already there, i try to hide my cash whenever he's within eyesight. my haul: sleeve of garlic ($2), pineapple ($3), 14 plums ($4), 4 trays of baby cucumbers ($6), bag of clementines ($3), 1lb bag of cherries ($3). that's pretty much it. i left around 9:20am, got to the cafe in about 25 minutes.

my father had brought the potted passion flower to the cafe, putting it on the deck. it's a good idea, but i'm just worried rabbits will snip at the stem bottoms and basically kill the entire plant. we need to protect it with a wire cage.

i made a new batch of tea eggs with the leftover eggs from the bakery. they look like organic brown eggs, and seem like a waste using them to make tea eggs. one egg in particular had a waxing covering that disappeared when wet and reappeared once dried. it looked suspicious so i took it out of circulation once the eggs finished stemming. when we cut it over, it was a perfectly normal egg on the inside. later i learned it was probably some natural bloom, something that happens to eggs to protect them from bacteria.

another day where it didn't see that busy yet we managed to make slightly above our daily average. my aunt showed up, said the barbecue she cancelled last week will be rescheduled for this sunday, rain or shine. in the late afternoon it looked like it might rain so i went out and put away all the deck furniture and closed the umbrella, only for the rain to bypass us. my father pan-seared some breaded pork cutlets. i had a piece, although i think it'd be better if we deep fried them. with pan-searing it's easy to scorch, which happened with a few pieces.

i moved the passion flower back inside when we closed. there was a very light, not even enough to soak my clothes, but i did have to wipe the rain off my bike seat with my t-shirt. when i went to go put away my ebike in the basement, i noticed a bike locked to the deck in the garden. i thought maybe jeff got a new bike, but why not put in the basement? later i discovered he has some coworkers over, and one of them locked the bike there. at this point i try not to dwell too much on trampled plants. i brought back the door sweep, it tested it briefly, seems to be the perfect, i just need to cut it to length.

after a shower, i warmed up the last of the italian sausages but two hot dogs for dinner. nothing good was on television so i rewatched crimes of the future (2022), david cronenberg's body horror film. i don't think i understood it the first time i saw it; this my second viewing things made more sense.

i was watching the youtube live steam of harvard's commencement this morning, waiting for conan o'brien to show up. i also helped my mother take out some more supplies from the next door bakery. they never paid their last month's rent nor any of their utility bills, which we'll probably end up having to cover. that's why whatever we can take to recoup the cost, we took. it was mostly just food ingredients, a bunch of korean stuff we'd never used before. inside the fridge were gallons of milk that were 2 months old. they didn't smell bad, and seems like a waste to dump it all, but who'd dare drink it? the one useful thing we grabbed was a wireless bose speaker. even for something that tiny, it was awfully loud. i suggested we pipe some taiwanese music for the cafe.

would today even be busy? we had a spike around lunchtime, and that was pretty much it. my godmother decided to pay a visit during our busiest stretch. afterwards it wasn't so busy anymore. that gave me time to ride the bike to belmont to pick up my xiaomi fitness band 10 that arrived earlier today. i stopped when i bumped into my sister, taking esmei to fresh pond. i stopped a second time just blocks away from my parents' house when i spotted two plastic garden cloches somebody that tossed out. these look like the one we have in our backyard that i tried to fix by replacing the plastic sheet but it was too soft and didn't really work. these were old as well, with cracks in the plastic, but still much better shape that ours. getting them home was a challenge. originally i thought i could just both to the back of the bike, but they were too large. i ended up strapping one and then hand carrying the other, slowing walking the bike to the house.

besides the fitness band, my rubber door sweep for the basement door also arrived. i brought in all the empty garden refuse bins before finally leaving. what should've been just a quick 30-minute trip ended up taking me over 45 minutes before i got back to the cafe. fortunately they didn't seem too busy while i was gone.

by day's end we still managed to make above our daily average, which was a surprise, since it didn't seem all that busy today. my parents took home some marinated porkchops for dinner, while i went home. i decided not to bring the door sweep because i'd have to strap it horizontal onto my rear baskets, making it hard to ride; i'll take it home tomorrow, when i can stuff it vertically inside a backpack.

i set up the xiaomi fitness band when i got back home. it wouldn't accept my xiaomi account because i made it back in china and the chinese phone number associated with the account no longer works. i tried to reset the phone number but it's going to take 2-3 days before it goes through. it was easier just to set up a new account using my gmail address. after that i managed to pair the phone to the mi fitness app. mi band 10 is a lot like mi band 6, just a slightly wider screen. i also feels brighter, more responsive as well. one thing i noticed immediately was the units were all in metric: km, kg, celsius. i looked for a setting to toggle to imperial but couldn't find it. so i searched online and discovered to my dismay that new versions of the mi band are metric only. this is such an easier fix, they could get a summer intern to update the code for free. the fact that even after so many iterations and requests they still haven't made the change makes me think this is deliberate, that xiaomi is doing this out of spite, since only really two countries still use imperial - the US and the UK. it's a bit of a deal breaker, since now the weather and distance tracking don't make sense. it sucks, and looking at the xiaomi fitness band lineup, it seems like quality is getting worse with each version update. xiaomi probably doesn't make too much money on fitness bands anymore anyway, now they've started branching out to electric vehicles.

after a shower i had dinner, tried to finish up all the leftover barbecue from monday before they spoil. one final piece of corn, one final piece of lamb loin chop, and 2 italian sausages. i also had some sweet heat pickle slices.

a big draw of the mi fitness band is the ability to change the face. i downloaded a watch face app specifically for the mi band 10 and found a face that i liked. but trying to change it turned out to be super complicated. first, i had to turn off the mi fitness app because it interfered with the face changing app. i needed a xiaomi authorization key to make the change, but the face app couldn't connect to the server and couldn't complete the request. after some more researching, i discovered that installing the notify for xiaomi app would reveal the authorization key. once i got that, i went back to the face changing app. once again i had to turn off any apps paired to the fitness band before the change could happen. small victories. still hoping xiaomi will add the ability to toggle the units, but i've seen people on reddit asking for this change for the past 4 years, falling on death ears. anyway, i picked a monochrome watch face that had the most amount of info: time, date, steps, heartbeat, battery, sunrise, sunset, temperature, humidity.

i watched the thunder-spurs game. spurs dominated throughout. at no time did OKC have the lead. san antonio at one point lead by 28 points. in the third quarter thunder kept on missing for over a dozen possessions, which the spurs increased their lead. it seems like OKC just wasn't in the game, hoping to go back home for a game 7 and a home crowd. spurs won 91-118. game 7 is saturday night.

fiddling around with the mi band, i did find a setting to chance the temperature unit from celsius to fahrenheit. so at least i have that. distances are still in kilometer, weight in kilogram.