i woke up this morning and went to the community garden to water my plants as well as molly's plants. it's the last day she asked me to water so i'm off the hook after that. there were at least one butterfly pea but it hadn't flowered yet so i left it alone. a man i didn't recognize came and water jen's plant. i wanted to ask who he was but didn't.

next i went to the cafe to put away the tea eggs and leftover rice, before watering the plants outside. i came in the morning because otherwise i wouldn't be able come until later in the afternoon.

coming back on linnaean street, there was a pile of stuff somebody was throwing out. i saw it earlier and thought it was just somebody working on their bikes outside as a i noticed a bike repair stand and several bicycles. what i didn't realize was everything was free for the taking. there were just two bikes left - a trek mountain bike and commuter bike. a stern-looking slavic woman had already claimed the commuter bike. i jokingly told her, "great find," but she completely ignored me. i wasn't interested in the bikes though, but more so the pile of power tools. there was a circular saw, what looked to be a router, and a dremel tool. just my luck i took the marin bicycle this morning that doesn't have any rear baskets, nor did i have my messenger bag (didn't think i'd need it). what i ended up doing was grabbing the router and the dremel tool - both in carrying bags - and i looped the straps onto my handlebar grips (one of each side) and pedaled home that way. it worked surprisingly well, thank god for tool bags.

after dropping off the two power tools, i grabbed my trek allant - which does have two rear baskets - and went to grab the other tools. the mountain bike already was good. the leftover power tools didn't find any takers. i grabbed the circular saw and something that looked like a powered staple gun. what i was at it i folded the bike repair stand and took that as well. the stand didn't fit on the bike. or it did but awkwardly, perpendicular to the bike, taking up the entire sidewalk. i ended up holding it in one arm while pushing the bike with the other hand. it wasn't long before i got tired. i hoisted the stand on my shoulder and carried it that way, which was more manageable. the walk back to the house took forever and i didn't have very much time as i wanted to leave for the puerto rican parade by 11am at the latest.

i put all the power tools and bike stand on my backyard deck before bringing them inside. i had 20 minutes to get ready, so i took a quick shower, sprayed on some sun block, then figured out what camera equipment i was going to bring. the canon dSLR with the 55-250mm lens, the fuji 3D camera, and the insta360 camera. i wore my dark polo quick-dry polo with my khaki shorts. i could've taken the velotric ebike - would've been much faster - but i wanted something lighter, more nimble. could've gone with the marin, but i took the trek allant instead because it had rear baskets in case i find more street treasures (you never know).

i didn't leave until 11:10am. google maps told me it'd take 40 minutes to get to egleston square in roxbury, where i normally watch the parade. i started riding but it wasn't until i almost go to the BU bridge did i realize i was going the wrong way. i was riding to jamaica plain, when i should be heading to roxbury. i made a detour on brookline street, crossed cambridgeport, to finally get onto mass ave. from there it was a straight shot to the mass ave T station passed symphony station and huntington avenue, to connect to the southwest corridor that would take me to egleston square.

i left the southwest corridor and rode onto columbus avenue by roxbury crossing since the police had already closed that road. this was the staging area for the parade. i had my insta360 recording as i passed all the processions.

my favorite place to take photos is on the bus island in the middle of columbus avenue, right outside the dimock center. it's basically the crest of a hill looking down columbus avenue as the procession comes up, the sun at my back. i locked the bike to a nearby signpost and waited. i had 15 minutes before the official start of the parade.

the head of the parade didn't get to where i was until 12:20pm, starting two fire engines blaring their horns (i wasn't sure if it was for sure or they were actually going to a fire) followed by a row of biker cops. behind them was mayor wu and her contingency. neighbors were stopping her left and right, asking for selfies, which she always obliged.

i only took a single photo with my camera phone; the rest i took on my canon 80D - 1634 photos. i shot in manual mode, 1/1600s f8.0 variable ISO. a bright sunny day like today, nearly every shot was clear, with an occasionally missed focus that was mostly my fault. even the wrongly focused photos were tack sharp. the weather was nice. even though the sun was out, it didn't feel very hot, and i knew the sun screen would protect me from getting burnt. i brought some ice water which was a relief, but i nearly finished it all before the parade even started (next time bring two waters). it was windy though, which made it seem cooler. i didn't come to the parade last year because it was rainy; the last time i came was back in 2024.

like in past years, we had child dancers, beauty pageant queens, suped up cars featuring obscenely large and loud speaker systems, prancing horses, and indigenous costumed dancers. there was a big goya contingency but telemundo didn't show up this year. besides mayor wu, i also saw edward flynn, boston district 2 city councilor, wearing an uncomfortable oversized dress shirt buttoned up to the sleeves. no senator ed markey or his challenger seth moulton. actually, i don't remember seeing any politicians higher than the mayor at this parade. i'm not exactly sure about puerto rican voting rights and their quasi-american status. can they vote in local elections if they're residents?

the parade was over by 1:15pm. while the procession continued to franklin park, an army of street sweepers were waiting patiently on columbus avenue, ready to clean the streets before the police open it back up to traffic. i rode the bike to jackson square before taking the southwest corridor to mass ave. passing by northeastern university carter playground, i noticed a dozen coeds sunbathing on the grass. i continued onwards, but later regretted not stopping to take some photos.

cutting through kendall square, i noticed a young man had his phone mounted on a tripod. young people with their tiktok videos and whatnot, i figured it was something like that. but as i continued, i saw more photo with their phone cameras out taking photos. what were they looking at? i turned and saw a slow moving train coming down the tracks. this was the grand junction railroad, that moves freight from north station to allston via cambridge. there's no public timetable as to when trains will appear, but for some reason these people taking photos seemed to know. i stopped as well, it's not every day you see a surface level train cut through kendall square. the flashing train lights were on, and the train honked loudly as it approached the intersection. a train operator jumped off the train to personally direct traffic, as the train made its way across the street. i don't think anyone minded the inconvenience. it's such a weird sight seeing a train suddenly appear on normal streets. the train procession wasn't long, just two cars. it seemed to be pulling a purple commuter train car.

instead of going home, i decided to take a quick detour to market basket to get some orange juice for my sangria recipe. i also got some limeade as well. leaving the supermarket, i came across another stash of discarded treasures on village street. glass jars, some sage smudge sticks, coffee filters, and a brita 27-cups large water filter pitcher ($35).

back at home (2pm), i cleaned out the ash from the weber grill. when i checked this morning it looked like there were still briquettes, but those had completely burned to ash and disintegrated once i jostled them. i swept the ash through the holes onto the ash tray then dumped out the ash. i then washed the inside of the grill and left it to dry. only then did i come back inside and take a shower.

i left around 2:30pm via ebike this time. once more i passed by linnaean street. there was even more stuff out on the curb, including a folding table stacked with books and a table lamp. a car had parked on the road while the driver and passenger rummaged through the free stuff. i stopped by the cafe for the second time today to grab an old bottle of triple-sec. when i came this morning none of the flowers had bloomed yet, but there was 2 passion flowers today.

i didn't get to my parents' place until 3pm. my mother asked me where i was, forgetting that i told her i was going to the puerto rican parade. if they were so worried, they never called me. she did check my location on the map, saw i was in roxbury. my father thought i was out buying more stuff off of facebook marketplace because i sent him photos of the power tools i found earlier. i couldn't bring all of them back, so i only grabbed the router. i thought it was a cordless ryobi, but it's actually corded. it looked practically brand new, just a smidge of sawdust. it's one of those tools we would never think about buying, but found for free? sure, we can play with it. my mother made some pan-fried dumplings. but because we were meeting my aunt and matthew for pizza at pepe's in watertown, i was only allowed to eat just a few dumplings.

using google lens, i took an inventory of my found power tools: a master mechanic 7-1/4" corded circular saw (model 134466). a dremel multi-max MM30 oscillating tool, and a powershot pro 9100 heavy duty electric staple and nail gun. out of all these tools, the only one we would have some use for is the circular saw. i thought it was larger than the one we have but turns out our old saw is also 7-1/4" size. as for the bike repair stand, it's a feedback sports sport-mechanic repair stand, which sells for $225. unlike the one i already own ($70), this stand has three legs (mine only has two).

my mother went out and cut down our first inaugural luffa gourd. she wanted to wait until tomorrow but my father insisted she remove it today, so the vines can divert resources elsewhere. my father also pulled up one of our kabocha squash vines. despite my best efforts to keep it free of vine borers, it finally succumbed to them. our of curiosity we cracked open the dead vine revealing 3 fat grubs and many smaller tiny ones. makes me wonder if the BTk injections had any effect. at this rate, i don't think we'll be growing any squash next year. just like how we don't grow cucumbers anymore because of the bacterial wilt. we'll find something else to grow.

we left for assembly row close to 5pm. my mother and i waited outside pepe pizza while my father went to find parking. he ended up parking at a 15 minute spot. we saw matthew, who told us my aunt was already inside. they reserved a table for 5:15pm but there was hardly any customers inside. the few customers that were there all sat outside. my father went out and moved the car after my aunt told him it wasn't a good idea parking at the 15 minute spot. my sister showed up a short time later.

my aunt wanted to treat my mother to an authentic pizza restaurant after my mother told her she's never been one before. all the pizzas we've ever ate either came from nearby greasy spoons or fast food takeout joints like domino's. we probably wouldn't even know what good pizza taste like even if we had it.

we got the 5 small pizza sampler for $80. two white clam pizzas, one pepperoni with hot cherry peppers, one fresh tomato pie, and one amanti della carne (meat pizza). i tried the foxon park kola, which tasted like doctor pepper out of the bottle, but put on ice it became an unidentifiable cola that was either coke or pepsi. my sister got the cream soda. matthew and my father both had a sam adams summer ale. my aunt and mother split a small peach sangria that arrived in a tiny pitcher. we also ordered a caesar salad with anchovies (on the side).

the fresh tomato pie came first. for a small (12") it seemed pretty big. the coal fire oven gave the crust some extra crunch. the pizza was still soft even that it needed to be folded before eating. the tomato pie was okay, but tasted like a vegetarian pizza. what's pizza without some kind of meat? next came the pepperoni with hot cherry peppers. that one was surprisingly spicy, not just the peppers, like maybe even the sauce was hot. i liked this one the best. the white clam pizza was okay. i know it's one of their famous signature pizzas, but it tasted like clams sprinkled on pizza dough with a clam juice sauce. maybe i just miss the tomato sauce. the fourth pizza was the amanti della carne. it seemed like there was too much meat. pepperoni, bacon, sausages, meatballs. one slice and you're already full. after we finished with the pizza, my sister insisted on ordering dessert. we got some kind of fancy caramel cheesecake that we all shared.

afterwards, my father told me aunt to meet back in belmont so my father can give them some luffa gourds. they also got a chance to see our backyard garden. my aunt ended up taking two luffas. i was showing matthew some of the stuff we were growing but my aunt wanted to leave because of the mosquitoes.

i left soon afterwards as well. i made a detour to the community garden to see if there were any butterfly pea flowers to harvest, but i forgot to bring my tiny plastic container. i also came with the BTk and injected one of the squash stems that i saw had some frass (meaning a vine borer had eaten its way inside). afterwards i watered the plants a second time today as they looked dry. anne marie was talking to the community garden neighbor, whom i also know. i waved to her and she told me i still look the same after all these years. heading home, i saw somebody had tossed out some plants so i grabbed them. one of them looked like a philodendron but later i did some research and it's possibility a 'cebu blue' pothos. the other plant was probably a citronella. citronella plants are actually kind of useless because they don't repel mosquitoes on their own, but their chemicals have to be extracted and processed into a repellent.

i've found so much stuff today! it's exhausting!

after a shower, i settled down to write a lengthy blog post. it's right now 1:20am. time for bed.

i woke up at 8am and got ready to go down to haymarket. i left the house by 8:40am, traveling via ebike. this was going to be an easy trip as i was only going to haymarket. i parked my ebike at a signpost out by the road. i went to the bank first to get some cash from the ATM. i wasn't looking to buy anything in particular except some cheap pineapples. my haul: 2 ripe pineapples ($2), 4 limes ($1), 6 lemons ($1), 7 navel oranges ($1), 2 lbs. bag of cherries ($5), 4 large sweet onions ($2), a strand of tomatoes ($1), 2-1/2 lbs. of longans ($10), sleeve of garlic ($2), 2 packages of baby cucumbers ($4). i got a bunch of citrus fruit because i was thinking about making sangria this weekend (last time i made it was all the way back in 2019).

coming back approaching inman square, i passed by a box of spices somebody had left out on the curb. i made a u-turn onto the sidewalk and went back to check it out. it wasn't just one box, but several boxes of spices, a treasure trove for anyone who likes to cook. cinnamon, peppercorns, thyme, a bunch of indian spices, rose water, bitters (for cocktails), hot sauces, salts, spice rubs, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cardamom, saffron. some jars hadn't even been opened yet. i was trying to figure out how to take everything back with my rear basket already full with produce. i ended up strapping a box on top of my fruits and vegetables, and stuffing some jars into my messenger bag. a couple (white) of moving out and they kept bringing stuff onto the curb. i which i could've stayed and rummaged through all their stuff. they were moving to los angeles, that's why they couldn't bring most of this stuff. i asked if they were going to do a cross country trip, they said they already did it before, driving from LA to ohio (where they're from).

i continued onwards very gingerly, didn't want to jostle my haul too much, didn't want to risk anything fall out of the rear basket. since i had time, i went to the community garden to water my plants as well as molly's plot. i then continued to the cafe, bypassing my usual route (because of poor road conditions), instead taking a slightly longer way with better paved roads.

i got to the cafe around 10:20am, right when my mother showed up walking from belmont. my mother wasn't impressed with my treasure trove of spices, actually scolded me for bringing back trash. she was happy that i got some longans, which she'd been saying all week she wanted to eat. she brought some fresh basil today, chopped up a few haymarket tomatoes, and made a caprese salad with capers, mozzarella cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

we had 7 passion flowers today. a few buds from yesterday weren't fully closed yet so i was hard to tell which flowers were old or new until later in the afternoon, when the old flowers completely closed and the new flowers totally opened.

when my 2nd aunt showed up to the cafe, she brought along a bag of longans she bought from ming's market. i saw the same thing last week but didn't buy them because they were $9/lbs. she said the bag she got probably cost $30 easily. her longans were in nicer shape, fresher, compared to the ones i got.

we were busy during the first half of the day but not so much in the later half. which ended up being a good thing as my aunt and matthew showed up in the afternoon after returning from a bike ride into boston. my 2nd aunt treated them to some longans while they shared some nuts they bought from the store on charles street.

my father showed up close to closing time, right before my aunt and matthew were about to ride home. after we closed up, my parents gave my 2nd aunt a ride home while i went home with my spice haul.

first thing i did when i got back was finish restoring the 22-1/2" weber kettle grill. first step was cleaning. i sprayed with the BBQ degreaser but it didn't do anything, the grease/rust was too caked on. i had more luck with brillo pads. a lot of what i thought were permanent rust stains inside the kettle were actually just ash and carbon build up that i could remove with the brillo using some elbow grease. the brillo didn't work as well for cleaning the grill; the rust/grime was just too coarse, causing the brillo to lose fine steel wool hairs. i was hoping once the grill was heated up, i could use a metal brush to clean the grill. next i installed the ash sweeper blades. it didn't come with instructions, but i watched enough youtube videos to have a general idea how to install it. it fit pretty well, and turned effortlessly, but a little jarring since it's so shiny and new. the last thing i did was to install the ash catcher AKA pizza tray. only after i put it on did i see the tray had a small dent. not a big deal, not worth returning.

i got the chimney starter, filled it with charcoal, and made a newspaper donut underneath to lit. everything was ready for a weber grill test run. i just had to get the food first. i was already going to grill some pineapples and onions, but what's a barbecue without meat?

so i took the ebike to the allston trader joe's. i needed to come here anyway to get cheap red wine for the sangria. i ended up buying two bottles of merlot (later i'd find out that merlot is not actually the best wine for sangria). i was also looking for triple-sec but they didn't have it. fortunately we still have some left at the cafe. i ended up just getting some sweet italian sausages. they were a bit more expensive that market basket, but saves me the trouble of running to a second supermarket.

i got back home by 6pm and started the food preparations. i cut the pineapple and large sweet onion into cubes and poke them onto bamboo skewers that i soaked briefly in a tall jar of water. once that was finished, i went outside to light the grill. the newspaper donut caught on fire, heating up the briquettes in the chimney until they were white hot. it was smokey at first, but luckily it wasn't too windy today. it took 25 minutes of preheating before the briquettes were ready. i dumped them out onto the charcoal grate and put on the cooking grate. i put the cover on to allow the cooking grate to come to high temperature before i attempted to clean it with a grilling brush. i didn't notice much improvements. using an infrared thermometer, i measured 350 degrees on the surface of the grill - hot enough to start cooking.

i have an 18" weber kettle grill but i love the larger cooking area of the 22-1/2" grill. i was able to put all my foods on the grill. i dumped the briquettes right in the center, leaving the areas around the edges with indirect heat. the problem with cooking with coal is it's very difficult to control the temperature. i found that out when i went to go flip the sausages and pineapples/onions and they were burnt black. with a gas grill and temperature control, there's less chance of that happening.

i used the meat thermometer to make sure the sausages were cooked on the inside (160 degrees). i removed all the food, put the cover on the grill, then left it to cook off outside.

i didn't eat until 7:30pm. probably one of the most complicated ways to make dinner, taking up 3 hours, from fixing the grill, getting the food, heating up the grill, then finally grilling. the pineapples were juicy and sweet, the onions were sweet and smokey, but the sausages were just meh. i still prefer market basket's sweet italian sausage with fennel. or a nice kielbasa (they didn't have that at trader joe's). it was also my first time having a barbecue for just myself. barbecues are communal cooks, and i've only grilled food with guests, even if it's just one other person.

neil and his family came home a day early. hopefully they'll continue to water, but i doubt the plants need it, they're already soggy as it is.

i took a shower to get rid of the smoke smell.

i woke up at 7am to get to my parents' place by 8am so i can apply a 2nd round of sedgehammer herbicide on the lawn before i needed to get to work at the cafe by 9am. i went out the back to get to the basement and saw that jeff had left me a 4-pack of oak hill blend hard cider and a tiny bottle of fireball.

i ended up taking the ebike, probably the fastest way to get to belmont with all the morning traffic. it was actually kind of chilly - temperature in the lower 60's - and i even grabbed a long-sleeved pullover but then forgot to wear it.

my mother wasn't startled when she saw me, i must've told her yesterday i was coming. i used up the remaining half packet of sedgehammer granules, mixed it in the half-gallon sprayer. i had so much sedgehammer solution, i ended up spraying the small patch of lawn next to the driveway 3-4 times. there was so much sedge sprouts, it makes me wonder if the first treatment back in early june even did anything. my mother was already on her way to the cafe, left by 8am on foot.

after i finished spraying, i went to the backyard where my father was watering the plants. after that rainstorm on tuesday and the subsequent dousing late wednesday afternoon, the rain barrels are at maximum capacity.

luffas continue to grow, hanging from our EMT conduit trellises like long green lanterns. my father has become an expert at luffa growing after taking care of them all these many weeks. for one thing, the luffa plants on our sawhorse stands are no longer producing female flowers. it's like it knows it's made enough, and only had male flowers. he also noticed the luffas planted on the ground - like the ones next to the basement stairwell or the tall makeshift trellis between the quince and the lilacs - those luffas are much larger. they don't have large fruits like the others, but what they lack in luffas they make up for in healthier vines and larger and more abundant leaves. i suggested we drench the grow bag and potted luffas with miracle-gro fertilizer solution.

the grow bag kabocha squashes aren't doing very well. despite my best effort, they still got infested with vine borers at their basal stems. if it was just a leaf i could cut it off but there's nothing i can do once the borers get into the main stem. surprisingly, the few surplus squashes that i planted in the raised beds all seem to be doing very well. when i first planted them i wasn't sure they were going to survive, but now they fill the beds with lush squash leaves, and i don't even have to monitor them for borers.

a pair of butterfly pea flowers finally bloomed. i was going to pick them off for drying but my father wanted to wait and see how big they can get before we pick them.

i left for the cafe before my father, getting there right when my mother arrived around 8:50am. because of street milling, i didn't want to park the velotric out on the sidewalk, so i pushed it into my sister's backyard and locked the bike there.

i fried all the french fries i prepared yesterday, a large freezer bag full of frozen potato strips. i had to cook them in 3 batches because there was so much, at 7 minutes each batch. they were crispy at first, but turned soggy over time. i then fried them a second time, this time only needed 2 batches, at 4 minutes each. honestly, i could singlehandedly eat all those fries in a sitting, which is about 6 large russet potatoes.

only 2 passion flowers today.

something was wrong with our square ticket printouts: there was a tall top and bottom margin per ticket. it's a waste of thermal paper. square corp must've updated the software again. fortunately i found the setting for getting rid of the top and bottom margins. for some reason i can only be found in the iOS version of the square app, missing in the android version. but luckily it's the iOS tablet that does most of the printing, whether that's walk-in tickets or online tickets.

we were busy today from 11-1pm, where we made the bulk of our profit. there was a small uptick at 4pm, but no further business in the evening, which isn't unusual for fridays. a lot of regulars, like the old man (老頭子) who always orders bentos on fridays via phone, and the guy in sunglasses who never says thank you (不說謝謝的). we had a handful of customers who opted to sit out on the deck, the weather pleasant again (warm but dry) like yesterday. one customer called asking if we saw a pair of sunglasses they lost; i used our webcam to confirm they still had their sunglasses when they left the cafe.

i cleaned the deep fryer in the afternoon. that seems to be my job, my father does the frying, while i do the cleaning. i found a new use for the portable waterpik, used it to clean the debris inside the oil tub's filter cage.

terrible news today: lebron james announced he's signing with the sixers. james - who earned $50 million a year with the lakers - will take a huge pay cut and earn just $4 million a year for 2 years. he said he made the decision after learning jaylen brown was traded to the sixers and deciding this team has a real shot at winning a championship. celtics fans everywhere are having a seizure right now.

esmei came to visit the cafe a few times today. besides a hard-boiled egg, we also fed her some french fries.

my aunt came in the late afternoon. my mother gave her most of the garlic chive dumplings they made yesterday. she also gave her some scallion bread she made this morning. my aunt - who visited the natick t-mart last weekend - said the place was very expensive and still at the soft-open stage so not everything is in stock. she said the one reason to go to t-mart is for their food court. everything else, the newton asian market is a better (and cheaper) option.

after work i went home with a piece of scallion bread and some leftover braised beef. my $30 enamel coated carbon steel ash tray arrived as well as my $9 13-1/2" stainless steel pizza pan. i strapped the boxes to the back of my rear basket and went home.

i stopped at the community garden to water. i didn't care so much about my garden except i promised molly i would help her water her plants, so i went there mainly for that. i managed to pick 2 butterfly pea flowers. dorothea was there, tending to her garden.

jeff told me this morning that his family is spending this weekend up in vermont. it's true he's only in cambridge until the end of july, but then they're spending a few weeks on the vineyard while steve & paul are on vacation. he told me he'd tell me about his job drama next week.

i wore my thermacell mosquito repellent clipped to my shorts before going back out again. i watered the back and front yard, before heading over to jen's place and watering their plants as well. honestly, she didn't need it. if anything, her potted plants have too much water and appear quite soggy. i have another day tomorrow to water for them but i'm going to skip it. after that, i think neil and his family return from wellfleet and take over watering duties.

back at home, i went out to the backyard to work on my weber grill. that watertown seller never did get back to me, so i figured he already sold his grill for $20. i watched a few more youtube videos about how to remove an old ash sweeper. the trick isn't to turn the handle back and forth, but rather twist it in place until it becomes loose. armed with my heavy duty plumbing pliers and a hammer, i finally managed to twist the handle after spraying the rusted parts with WD-40 again. i then used a hammer to tap out the handle rod. once the rod was loose, the whole rusted ash sweeper assembly just fell out. i didn't bother installing the new ash sweeper, i'll leave that for tomorrow. i might want to give the inside of the kettle grill a deeper clean. the other important thing was installing an ash pan. would the 13-1/2" pizza pan work? sure enough, it fit like a charm. once i get the grill properly assembled tomorrow, i'm tempted to grill something. i might go to haymarket tomorrow morning and get some pineapples and other vegetables for grilling.

i took a shower and had the scallion bread with braised beef for dinner.

i went directly to work this morning. i brought my 2.5 qt enamel cast iron dutch oven to show my parents. they both thought it was much larger from the photos i sent. my father was frying a new batch of salt & pepper chicken. afterwards he made a new batch of chicken curry. we left the deep fryer in place because i wanted to make some fries. i cut 6 russet potatoes into strips, boiled them until they turned soft, spread them out onto baking sheets, then froze them in the freezer. unfortunately by day's end nobody had any apetite for fries so we'll cook them tomorrow morning instead. i made a new batch of tea eggs and roasted a batch of charsiu pork (one piece in particular looked like a profile of trump). the passion vine had 6 flowers today, but later at the end of the day my mother discovered a 7th flower.

we were pretty busy today between 12-2pm. after two we went into a lull that lasted until the evening when there was another uptick. today wasn't as busy as yesterday but very close. both days beat the prior week's earnings. the only bad day was tuesday and i blame that on the weather. both friday and saturday look nice weatherwise, so hopefully our profit streak continues.

a pair of annoying customers sat out on the patio deck this afternoon. typically we don't mind - it's nice to have some customers outside as advertisement - except they had a terribly loud laugh. this went on for 3 hours, i was tempted a few times to run outside and tell them to shut the hell up.

i went home with some frozen dumplings my parents had made with the market basket ground pork i bought yesterday.

i went into the backyard as soon as i got home, to repair the ash sweeper on my found weber grill. the spare parts arrived today. the tricky part was removing the old sweeper. i flipped it upside down on the backyard table. unfortunately it was so rusted shut, i couldn't budge it. i even sprayed some WD-40 but it was no use. if i can't get the old parts off, then i can't replace them with the new parts, so this grill is as good as dead. i'll try again tomorrow.

last night i saw the exact same 22" weber grill for sale in watertown for $20. i checked again tonight and the post was still up. i messaged the seller owen, asked him if it was still available. if yes, i'll probably buy it, a lot cheaper than trying to salvage my found grill. replacement parts alone will cost me $40+. people are always selling their kettle grills. it's the first grill you get when you're getting into barbecuing, before you graduate to a gas grill or something beefier. but kettle grills have their fans, and they're so simple, with proper maintenance they should last a long time. the going rate for a 22" kettle grill seems to be $50. there's a bunch of them on facebook marketplace but they don't sell very well as i've seen some old listings (like 9 weeks). we're almost into august, most people already have their grill equipment. once we get into fall and winter, the grill market will drop.

for dinner i had some frozen dumplings, but not the ones my mother gave me today. instead, there was some old dumplings i had in the freezer that i ended up boiling.

i tried to read emily wilson's translation of the odyssey last night but couldn't get through more than a page. for one thing the formatting in my epub edition was all messed up. i also think most poetry is pretentious and hard to understand its literal meanings. instead i read stephen fry's odyssey written in prose, which was much easier to understand. it's actually pretty good, fleshed out some aftermaths of the trojan war, like the pillaging and raping and taking the women as slave concubines. i don't remember any of this from my high school iliad.

today was my day off and i wasn't able to sleep late, instead waking up early. i decided to go for a run. it took a bit to get ready because my spotif++ app wouldn't work anymore. i downloaded a newer version that required installing a CA certificate on my pixel phone. the app itself was still a little wonky but it worked, i could at least listen to my movie podcast while i ran. weather this morning was warm and humid. i don't mind the warmth, but the humidity made everything soupy.

i walked down to the river before discovering that whole section is now off limits due to construction. i had to walk on the side of memorial drive across from the river, down to the JFK bridge intersection before i could cross over. a dumpy indian woman ran passed me. i thought she was going to be slow but she ended up putting some distance between us. it's been almost a month since my last run. out of running shape plus the humidity made for a slow run today. after crossing the eliot bridge, i had to cross the street to the mount auburn hospital side of the road. even then eventually the road disappeared and i was on mt.auburn street. i took a shortcut through longfellow park, cutting through the lesley divinity campus.

i stopped by the community garden. the was still damp from yesterday's rainstorm so i didn't need to water. there was also no butterfly pea flowers so i left. walking home, i found a weber kettle grill somebody had thrown out. it was a little dusty but everything looked good. the handle on the grill was slightly bent and the plastic melted. this was a 22" grill, larger than my 18". i decided to noisily push it home.

after a shower i ate a pastry my 2nd aunt got for my from flushing. it'd been sitting on the kitchen counter for nearly 2 weeks, but it was slightly spoiled. there were a few mold spots (which i picked off) but the pasty itself tasted sour, like the milk or the egg had gone bad. i ate it anyway.

i went outside to wash the newfound kettle grill. the previous owner never cleaned out the ash, which attracted moisture and rusted the 3-section cleaning fins. the other thing missing was the ash pan underneath the grill. i went online to look for replacement parts. the cleaning fins cost just $12, but the ash pan was $30. i wonder if i can just use a large metal pizza dish since the clips are still intact, just missing the pan.

i took the ebike to belmont. i brought my two orchids, i simply don't get enough sun in my house to keep them happy. they'll have a happier home living outside underneath the shade of the maple tree with the other orchids. i replanted them in their pots as they were jostled during the trip. i grabbed one of the potted pileas for jen. if she wants more, i have plenty more, plus surplus tradescantia. i also wanted to reapply sedgehammer on the front lawn as i noticed some sedges reemerging. however i thought it was too hot, might come in the morning when it's cooler. instead i did some weeding in the raised beds, pulling up purslanes, wild morning glories, grasses, and some other weeds. while rummaging in the beds, i noticed the longhorn peppers already have a bunch of peppers ready to harvest. nobody noticed because they're low to the ground and green.

i stopped by the cafe. there were only 2 passion flowers today. the passion fruit continues to grow, it hasn't aborted which is a good sign. i noticed one of the leaves on my pilea in the rear basket was starting to get black from being sun scorched. my 2nd aunt was wearing a facemask. my mother said she my 2nd aunt has a cold and my mother also called me today to ask me to work so my 2nd aunt could go home. on top that, today was super busy compared to yesterday.

i went home and switched to my trek allant. i grabbed some plastic seltzer bottles to deposit and went to market basket. the sky was looking ominous. i remembered i had some prescriptions so i made a quick walgreens detour. at market basket i made 50¢ in deposit. i got some ground pork for my mother and some lemonade for myself. i bumped into victor who was videochatting with his son while grocery shopping. coming back, i bumped into him walking home. the sky continued to darken, and a check of the doppler radar showed a thin band of intense thunderstorms heading our way. i watched in real time as it started to rain, then downpour, then flood the streets. the storm drains were so full, they were spouting rain water lik geysers. it was a good thing i didn't apply sedgehammer today, otherwise it would've all washed away.

just as quickly as it started, it quickly ended as well. i was hoping the sun would come out, which would be perfect rainbow weather. it was bright but still overcast. i walked out onto beacon street and didn't see any rainbows.

after another shower i settled in with some thai-flavored chicken feet and a can of hard cider. i fell asleep briefly around 6:30pm, waking up an hour later to close the blinds.

for dinner i heated up some leftover beef noodle soup. not a great idea on a warm night, as i ended up sweating like crazy. turns out it was only warm inside the house (80 degrees), while outside it was in the 60's.

i ordered some replacement parts for the weber grill, should arrive tomorrow and friday. i got a dedicated ash pan but also a stainless steel pizza fan ($9) that might also work and save me some money. i want to try this smoked chicken thigh recipe once i get the grill operational.

i woke up early to start the work week. i had plenty of time to go down to the community garden. i probably didn't need to water since it'd rain later in the evening, but didn't like the idea of my plants baking in the sun all day. i was there more to harvest butterfly pea flowers, which there was one today. that makes a grand total of 4 flowers.

approaching the cafe, i saw somebody had thrown out one of those tumbling composters. i was going to carry it to the cafe, but when i checked the condition, it was missing the panel doors and a rat had chewed a large hole on the side.

i left for trader joe's (TJ) soon after i got to the cafe to get some supplies. i also went there to deposit a check for my parents. the young indian teller had a very soft voice, i could barely hear her despite wearing my hearing aids. at TJ's i got some baby cucumbers and bananas, enough to last us for the week. i was looking for the white chicory i saw last week but they mowed the grass so all the flowers are gone for now.

4 passion flowers today on the passion vines. my father noticed something special about one of the flowers: it was forming a passion fruit! even though they normally don't self-pollinate, occasionally flowers will fruit. or maybe a nearby neighbor has passion flowers as well and by luck we got a successful cross-pollination. currently the fruit is the size of a large olive.

i made two batches of black soy noodles and a new batch of tea eggs. i also ran the ice machine in the basement and collected 9 boxes of ice by day's end. other than that it was an easy day and as easy week as well since we replenished a lot of our stock last week. charsiu pork was a little low so we roasted a new batch. chicken stock also decreasing, will need to thaw them today, marinate tomorrow, and deep fry on thursday. and already i'm thinking about the weekend, thinking about where we'll go. most likely the needham restaurant depot on monday, might also visit the russian supermarket and the new newton asian market.

today was a slow day. we weren't able to make our daily average. a handful of delivery orders and a bunch of online orders. not a lot of walk-in customers. don't blame them, the weather looked like it might rain. original forecast said rain would begin around 1pm, but the latest update said not until 4-5pm, during the evening commute.

my mother made some scallion bread. i ate a few stuffed with braised beef.

i went home early around 4pm when it looked like it was going to rain. once it started it wasn't going to stop. i felt bad leaving my parents by themselves, but if it did start raining, we wouldn't have very many customers anyway. i left with some more scallion bread and braised beef. the rain had already started by then, a light shower, enough to dampen my clothes but not a soaking. i put the rain cover on my motorcycle when i got back. i bumped into the mailman and we chatted briefly about spain's world cup victory.

seems like i made the right decision to leave early, as the rain started to pick up, the sky darkened, then the downpours began. there was no way i could ride my bike under these conditions without getting seriously soaked. the heavy rain beating against the back of my air conditioner was deafening. this wet weather is much needed and will hopefully refill our rain barrels. will it save our lawn though, much of which have already turned yellow? that i doubt.

i fell asleep on the couch around 6:30pm, woke up an hour later. i had some dinner, then took a shower. i watched terminator 2 on pluto.tv. i recently read an article featuring the special effects guys talking about how they did the various effects. at the time it was the most cutting edge of visual achievements, bridging practical with the dawn of computer CGI. nothing like it had been seen before. nowadays, a home laptop could easily make those same effects. the movie itself is okay, but i don't like how they turned schwarzenegger's terminator from a killing machine in the first film to a neutered cartoon cyborg with all the funniest lines.

ever since the new christopher nolan's the odyssey came out (the first movie since wonder woman that i'd actually consider watching in the theaters), i've been in a very greek epic state of mind. i watched a youtube video where stephen fry talks about the trojan war. that then led me to an old interview with madelin miller where she speaks about her novel circe. she recommended the new translation of the odyssey by emily wilson. i ended up downloading a bunch of books: the two novels by madeline miller (worthy of a reread), odyssey by stephen fry, and emily wilson's translation. can't wait to delve into them tonight.

i was still in bed, about to wake up, casually checking some notifications on my phone. on a whim i decided to take a peek at facebook marketplace. i was surprised the marin kentfield seller replied to me this morning. i figured she was just telling me know somebody else had already bought the bicycle, but actually she told me it was still available. i asked if i could pick it up this morning, she said sure. the ad said boston; it wasn't until she sent me the address that i realized it was jamaica plain. i could get to it via MBTA, but it involved taking the orange line all the way down to forest hill. google maps told me it'd take an hour to get there.

i quickly used the bathroom - didn't even bother taking a shower - before leaving the house by 9:15am. i brought my bike helmet - since i plan on riding back - along with a lock in case there was something wrong with the bike and i needed to ditch it somewhere and come back for it later via car.

this is just the second time this year i've taken the subway. the previous time was back in late january when i had my annual physical at MGH and it was too snowy to ride. i've probably taken the bus more than i have the train. today was the last day the red lin was running before it closes the rest of the month for repairs from alewife to park street. the inbound red line train arrived right when i got to the platform. i got off at downtown crossing and switched to the orange line heading to forest hill. a train just left, but another train came a few minutes later. this was one of the new orange line trains, with hard seats.

i got to forest hill by 10am. i had no idea where to go next, which was actually kind of thrilling. so often i'm surrounded by the familiar, i don't often go somewhere where i have zero bearings. i ended up just walking and seeing where i was going on google map, then figuring out if i was getting closer or farther away. by pure dumb luck i was going in the right direction. the address was 315 forest hills street. i walked east along the arborway, baking in the summer sun, until i found the street i wanted. even then i wasn't sure, because i suddenly found myself in what looked to be a rural place, far away from humanity. i kept walking until i saw some houses. my seller recognized me immediately since i was carrying my bike helmet.

she showed me the marin kentfield parked in the back. earlier she put air in the tires and took it out for a test ride to make sure it was road worthy. she got the bike from broadway bicycle in cambridge 4 years ago. she's only getting rid of it because she got a new bike (specialized) in an estate sale. the bike itself had a bunch of cosmetic damages to the frame, but nothing that would affect its performance. it looked like a bike that had a lot of mileage. a good price at $60, not so much if more. she also gave me a kryptonite u-lock with a pair of keys but she didn't have the mounting bracket.

i was able to ride the bike immediately. i got about a block before i got to give the bike a closer inspection. originally i thought the seat was too high, but it was just right. the seller and me were about the same height. one thing that bothered me was the location of the bottle cage on the down tube. whenever i dismounted, the cage would hit me in the crotch, so i took out my hex tools and removed the cage. what attracted me to the bike initially were the fenders (SKS germany). a set of new fenders would be around $70 - more than the cost of the bike.

i retraced my steps back to the arborway, back to the forest hills station, until i found the entrance to the southwest corridor bike path. i was next to the arboretum; maybe in another time i would've gone inside to take a look, but i had to get back home. the southwest corridor made easy work of getting to mass ave. from mass ave i headed northwest back to cambridge across the MIT bridge. once back in town everything was familiar again and it was effortless to get back home.

the marin kentfield rode very well. at first the chain would kind of stutter, until i shifted the front cogs to the middle gear, which fixed that problem. the saddle has an single-axis suspension seat post, which made for a much smoother ride going over bumps. it's inspired me to get suspension seat posts for my other bike, or the very least my ebike which has a very bumpy ride. the handlebars are straight and for some reason very wide. if i get the chance i want to replace it with a northroad-style handlebar. the stem is adjustable, which unlike most of the bikes i own which are fixed. the shifters are for 3x8. the bike must've lived outside all season long because the plastic windows were all hazy. my seller told me she had the rubber grips replaced. the front wheel felt a little loose, and only when i got home did i discover the quick-release wasn't properly tightened. once i did that the front wheel was very stable. maybe it's just because it's a new bike for me, but it felt fast, faster than any of my other bikes (not counting the ebike). i was easily passing people. could it be the lighter frame? i really like the 700c wheels though. it makes the bike tall enough that i can no longer sit on the seat and put my feet on the ground, but bigger wheels allow me to go faster with less effort.

i got home by 11:30am, stopping briefly on a street corner to pick up some mason jars and two aldi grocery bags. i gave the marin kentfield another inspection. i believe this is a 2017 marin kentfield CS2. more recent kentfield bikes all have disc brakes. i'd love to have a regular with disc brakes, but all the disc brake bikes i see on marketplace are hundreds of dollars.

i moved my motorcycle to the other side of the street because of street cleaning. i bumped into susan - on her way to the gym - who told me that dennis got a new neurologist. i got my ebike from the basement and went to the community garden first to water my plants. i picked off a single butterfly pea flower. i then went to market basket to get a few supplies for the cafe tomorrow. coming back, i came across two stainless steel shelving racks for a wire shelving unit. i carefully tied them to the back of my rear basket with bungie netting before very gingerly biking home, making sure now to hit any parked cars, or have any sudden stops.

i unloaded the shelving racks, picked up my stuff, then rode to the cafe to drop off the supplies and water the plants. there was 5 passion fruit flowers today.

it was almost 1pm by the time i made it to my parents' place. turns out they were out as well, going with my sister to fresh pond to take esmei out for a walk. they'd just gotten back and hadn't eaten yet. my mother made wonton soup and we also snacked on some more cherries and lychees.

out in the backyard, my father has been pruning the bottom leaves from our bean stalks, to provide better air circulation. the bottom leaves were a mess anyway, very crowded. all the luffas are getting bigger day by day. i saw a green june bug in our compost bin. i hurriedly went inside to grab my camera, my flash, and my flash bouncer. but by the time i set everything up, the beetle flew away. i haven't seen one of these june bugs in a long time. maybe they're the ones laying eggs in the compost bin, making those giant grubs i see when i dig up the compost come fall and spring.

days seem so empty now without the excitement of afternoon world cup games. watching the news on the zero gravity chair, i managed to doze off briefly.

my mother had already informed us a few days ago that we were having persian koobideh for dinner. around 5:30pm she came out and asked me to order online 3 beef koobideh ($21/each) from vanak cafe. my father and i went to go pick it up later.

it was just like all the times we had it before. this time - probably a cost cutting measure - instead of half a grilled onion, it was just a few shaved pieces. i was the only person to finish everything - both my parents had leftovers.

i went home afterwards. because i didn't take my motorcycle, i didn't have to worry about finding a parking spot. after stashing the ebike in the basement, i watered my front and back yard, before walking over to jen's place and water her yard as well.

i took my first shower of the day. there was nothing good on television, so i ended up watching a dodgers-phillies game. phillies had an early 4-run lead starting from the 2nd inning, the dodgers were playing catchup. the final score was 7-10, phillies win. the red sox extend their winning streak to 14 games.

i woke up at 8am this morning to attend the community garden summer work day. they had one back in the spring on a saturday but i couldn't make it. i went there via bike, got there exactly at 9am. ruth was in charge, there was no sign-up (after they realized nobody really checks attendance anyway) nor name tags. there was a list of things to do, myself and a few others volunteered for weeding duty.

most of the weeds i dug up were crabgrass. there was so much of it in some places it wasn't worth removing. i worked at my own place, found a little quiet corner of the garden where i could just pull up weeds between bricks and paver stones. more and more people started showing up. i introduced myself to a fellow gardener, a guy named ely. later he showed me his 3-year plot, next to anne's. i worked until 10:40am, grabbed a few minutes to water my plot (no butterfly pea flowers), before riding home.

i packed up my things then took the motorcycle to the cafe (street cleaning tomorrow morning so i had to move it anyway). my parents did job cleaning up yesterday after i left work early, so there was nothing to put away. i took out the expandable hose and watered the patio plants along with the garlic chive bed. the passion vine had 6 flowers today.

i got to my parents' place a bit before noon. my father gave me a tour of the flourishing luffa plants since i last saw them 5 days ago. a few small luffa gourds had split apart because he watered too much; those he cut off because they wouldn't mature properly. all the potted kabocha squash plants were wilting. a careful check revealed they all had some borer damage, i must've missed a bunch of eggs the last i checked. i injected the wounds with concentrated Btk solution, a few tiny borer worms even emerged, trying to escape the bacterial poison. honestly, not sure if it's even worth trying to grow squashes anymore, with the amount of vine borer infestation we get every summer. next spring i'm going to try some beneficial nematodes to kill them before they hatch. i might also try some kaolin clay spray to camouflage the squash plants. as disheartening it is to watch squash succumb to these parasites, squash are so easy to grow, grow so fast, and producing full-grown fruits is pretty rewarding.

my mother made a pan-fried a crispy egg pancake stuffed with costco hot dog strips. my sister showed up with esmei afterwards. she was trying to get my mother to go on a walk with her, but my mother wanted to stay home to watch the world cup final.

the game started at 3pm between argentina and spain. it was a rough affair, scoreless throughout regulation time. seems like spain was always on the offense, while argentina barely tried to score. what was there strategy? hoping to get to the penalty stage and win it that way? you give spain enough chances, eventually they'll score.

this was the first world cup final that featured an extended half time performance, similar to our super bowl. it featured madonna, BTS, and shakira, a little something of everything.

the scoreless game continued in the second half. argentina didn't make it any easier when one of their players got a second yellow card in stoppage time, which became an immediate red card. argentina then had to play extra time down a man. it felt like relief when spain finally scored a goal at the 106 minutes mark. at least something was happening. argentina - impotent throughout the game - could not equalize. spain won 1-0.

the award ceremony turned political (farcical?) when trump was invited to present the medals and trophies. FIFA also invited the mexican president and the canadian prime minister, but that was for show, this was all a play act to stroke trump's fragile ego. would trump not even show up, after scapegoating spain for not allowing trump to stage his war machines in his iranian war and threatening an 100% embargo? but of course trump would show, the man is feckless in his craving for attention. the spanish players were graceful all, shaking trump's hand (i wonder if any of them gave him an extra hard squeeze?) as he put the medal around their necks. what happened next is so cringe it makes me nauseous just thinking about it. instead of getting off the stage, trump positioned himself to center stage as the spanish players were about to celebrate their hard won victory. trump shuffled off to the side, but still wouldn't leave. FIFA president infantino had to rush across the stage to politely ask trump to exit, but trump stood firm as the fireworks fired off behind the players while they lifted the world cup trophy. trump finally meandered off, like an old man with dementia who accidentally got out of his house.

and just like that the 2026 world cup is over. messi was crying after he received his 2nd place medal, as the argentinian fans serenaded him from the stands. would this be his last world cup? is the reality of true retirement from football fast approaching? it's been a fun month watching these matches. i love international sports competitions like the world cup and the olympics. women's world cup is next summer in brazil, can't wait.

for dinner my mother made a stirfry with some more garden-harvested swiss chard. at this rate i don't think they'll last long enough for next season. probably just easier to grow them again from seeds. she also made a stirfry with tofu squares, hot peppers, and salted pork. my aunt called my father, said they were right outside. she bought some lychees from the new natick asian supermarket and gave them to use to try. what's special about these lychees are their incredibly small seeds. they were also super juicy, squirting everywhere.

i got back home by 7:40pm. since it rained yesterday, i didn't have to water jen's front and backyard, but i did it anyway because i had some spare time, plus i was curious to see their backyard. i didn't realize how exposed their backyard is to their neighbors, with nothing but low chain link fences between the property lines. that sort of openness actually made their backyard feel more expansive. their yard was very shady, but all the canopy trees belonged to nearby neighbors, they had no trees of their own. i was surprised to find so many potted plants in the backyard. i've always thought jen as a lightweight gardener since she got her plot after i've already been gardening for well over a decade, but it looks like she has quite the green thumb. there was a table with orchids, and various shade-tolerant flowers. i was very impressed. so i watered the front then the back, even filling up a watering can to water the handful of potted plants on the multi-tiered deck.

facebook marketplace sent me a local deal on a bicycle: a marin kentfield step-thru hybrid for just $60. it even includes fenders and a lock. google lens showed me it was a CS2 with 700c wheels. i went ahead and contacted the boston seller but didn't hear back. chances are they already have some buyers lined up. i really like the marin kentfield. latest models all include disc brakes, but this one doesn't (older model). at this price though, even with rim brakes, it's still a steal. maybe i'll get lucky and the seller will contact me in the morning. otherwise i'll keep on looking for a replacement for my trek utility bike.

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just a little behind-the-scene detail, but this post tonight features a new color scheme called "periwrinkle". the last color scheme i created was more than 7 years ago, "pistachio".

woke up before 8am, left by 8:30am. went first to the community garden to water and check on my butterfly pea. no flowers this morning. next i went to whole foods to return a pair of wired earbuds i bought off of amazon for my mother but she didn't want them anymore. i then went down cambridge street though lechmere/cambridge crossing to haymarket. i got there by 9am. my haul: 4 lbs. of rainier cherries ($10), 3 bunches of scallions ($2), cilantro ($1), sleeve of garlic ($2), a ripe pineapple ($1), 3 yellow dragon fruits ($5). i bought the cherries from otto, president of the haymarket pushcart association. i always hear him chatting about sports with the customers, and i've always been jealous. but today he asked me who i think will win the world cup, spain or argentina. i've been accepted in his inner circle! i told him argentina, because i was rooting for messi to repeat. he said he just hopes the world cup will bring more american interests for soccer.

i went up tremont street and headed to ming's market to get the rest of my supplies. the city is in the process of removing all the coin parking meters and replacing them with zone coded parking you can only access via an app. the parking meter were i usually park was only partially removed, so i could still lock my ebike this time. i got pad thai noodles ($2.19/package) and tianjin preserved vegetable ($4.79). i also got the last three remaining packages of chacha salted squash seeds for my mother. they didn't have lychees but they did have longans at $8.99/lbs.

since i still had an hour before i needed to be at the cafe, i decided to go to hong kong eatery in chinatown proper to get some duck for my mother and some thai-style chicken feet for myself. i ended up getting the wrong thing - chicken instead of duck. learning from last time, i also asked for no bag (otherwise they'll charge you for one without asking).

i finally headed back to cambridge, getting to the cafe right at 10:30am. while parking my bike i saw my mother walking to the cafe. while grabbing the foods i purchased from hong kong eatery, one of the box slipped out of my hands and crashed onto the parking lot asphalt, spilling my thai-flavored chicken feet. after all that work to safely bring it home, i butter finger everything onto the floor. i picked up the pieces and my mother gave it a rinse, figured i could still eat it because eating food off the floor is just something i do.

i went outside and washed off the food stain from the parking lot. i also watered the plants. there were 3 passion flowers today. a mother and daughter walked by and asked if the white flowers were jasmine. she said they walk by every night and the smell is amazing. i started setting up the patio deck but it was really windy and threatened to teat the umbrella off its foundation, so i closed back up the umbrella and put away the chairs and tables.

my 2nd aunt showed up for work, we haven't seen her in almost 2 weeks. she told us all the amazing things she ate at flushing. unfortunately she's not in the habit of taking food photos so we couldn't see any of them. my father showed up a bit after noontime.

we were busy today, which was a surprise. it's been a busy week overall. even though today we made the least amount, we still made above our daily average. once again, beef noodle soup was unexpectedly popular. our long-held belief that people only crave beef noodle soup during the colder seasons might need an update. but the most popular item today was the bento, which are easy to prepare. sometimes i wish we just sold bentos and bubble tea, and don't bother with the other stuff.

in the afternoon i casually checked the weather. i hadn't seen the forecast since yesterday morning. that strong rainstorm that was scheduled to arrive around 8-9pm tonight? well, it was coming early. like now. i confirmed this with the doppler radar, which showed a large blob of heavy rain out by worcester, soon to arrive in cambridge. once it starts to rain, it wouldn't stop until after 5pm. there was about 2 hours left before we closed, so i opted to go home early. with the arriving rain i didn't think there'd be much customers, but they still managed to get 7 more sales, including our regular crystal.

a few minutes before i got home, it started to drizzle lightly. so i made the right decision to leave early. i put the ebike away in the basement.

highlight of the day was the world cup match between england and france for 3rd place starting at 5pm. after a shower, i hunkered down with my "fell on the floor" edition of thai-style chicken feet. i kept looking for impurities like gravel but it was surprisingly clean. of all the places i could dropped them, parking lot surface wasn't the worst option.

while waiting for the game to start, i watched a little bit of godfather part II on pluto.tv. godfather is like catnip for me, whenever it's on i have to watch it. i ended up going down a rabbit hole researching don fanucci, the gangster vito corleone guns down in his first execution. why did he accept less money? was he really well connected? all those questions answered the further i searched.

the france-england world cup game was probably one of the most exciting matches of this year's world cup. english coach sat out team captain harry kane and jude bellingham, as well the prime goalkeeper. that didn't seem to matter though, as england scored its first goal at 3 minutes. that started an onslaught that ended with 4 goals by halftime. france was essentially finished. the only question was would england push it to 8-0? but gallic pride manifested itself in the second half, when france managed to score 3 goals. england finally scored again on a penalty kick, bringing the score to 5-3, but france scored another goal in stoppage time, making it 5-4. could england hold on? or could france equalize and force extra time? jude bellingham was substituted into the game late. he made it count with about a minute left in the game when he scored a goal for england, bringing the score to 6-4. game ended, england wins the bronze medal. the only good news for france is mbappe managed to score 2 more goals, so he's in good shape to win the golden boot award. but what an exciting game! i wish all world cup games could be like this: low penalty, lots of offense, shifting momentum swings.

my mother also made some scallion bread today. she opted not to sprinkle any sesame seeds, which made for a cleaner bread. she gave me the rest when i went home early, along with some watermelon and cherries. so i ate that the rest of the day. i had leftover beef noodle soup from yesterday but decided to freeze it for next week, wasn't in the mood tonight.

coming home early also allowed me to do two loads of laundry. i've skipped doing it the past two weeks because it's been so hot and i didn't want to further heat up the house by running the dryer.

i harvested another butterfly pea flower from the garden this morning before heading to the cafe. i took a quick trip to trader joe's before we opened, getting some supplies (cucumbers, spinach). coming back, i spotted some white mutated chicory growing a grass bank by the fresh pond rotary. i'm tempted to mark it somehow and come back for the seeds so i can grow this rare variant.

today there as just 2 passion flowers. they didn't fully open until almost 11am due to some hazy condition blocking out the sun.

my mother made some rice noodle soup in the late morning. i managed to have some before we started getting busy.

today was the busiest day this week. in just one hour (12pm) we made half the day's profit. it started when that rude chinese astrophysicist called the cafe asking us to prepare a bowl of beef noodle soup for him. normally i'd be super annoyed, but today he said he wanted 6 bowls as he was bringing coworkers. not enough time to get angry, we started scrambling to cook enough noodles and heat enough beef noodle soup. it went downhill from there as more customers came in, as well as incoming online orders. did everyone just decide to order at the same time?

the most popular item today was beef noodle soup. we nearly exhausted our supply, but fortunate my father was making a new batch today. veggy buns were also very popular. we also had a few customers sit outside on the patio deck as today wasn't so hot and humid. the deck has gotten very little use this season. makes us wonder if we should continue to have it.

my godmother brought her grandkids to the cafe in the late morning, but left once we started getting busy. my aunt came around at 1pm, right after we survived a gauntlet of customer orders.

i made more drink experiments using faux lime juice, mint syrup, and italian sparkling water. i was basically making virgin carbonated mojitos. i feel like it's still missing a key ingredient (other than alcohol). maybe a dash of bitters to add another dimension.

i watered the outdoor plants in the early evening because i noticed they were kind of dry. only later did i find out my father didn't water at all this morning.

my parents finished out the day by portioning the beef noodle soup stock into individual servings before i brought them downstairs to put in the freezers. i went home with some leftover beef noodle soup.

riding back, i saw somebody had thrown out a gray enameled dutch oven pot. it was small enough (4qt?) for me to put it in my messenger bag. when i got back home, i watered the front and back yard before going inside to check out my new dutch oven. it's a brandani brand, which i found out is a brand you'd typically find in tj maxx or homegoods, not one of the better name brands, but still serviceable. i have a cast iron dutch oven that i only use to make no knead before that i haven't used in a while. i want to try some recipes with this enameled dutch oven, maybe make some beef stews, maybe make a sour dough no-knead bread.

i didn't have the beef noodle soup for dinner - saving it for tomorrow night. instead i finished the last two juicaihezi from yesterday.