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i woke up earlier than usual on a sunday so i could bake some blueberry muffins. but first i took a peek outside to see how much snow we got overnight. not only was it more than i expected, but the rain that was now falling wasn't melting the snow at all. instead, it seemed to make the snow even strong by making it super saturated which will later freeze solid into ice once the temperature drops.

but that's a problem for later. for now, i'm working on my muffins. i have all the ingredients i need except for yogurt. i did have a tub of yogurt in my fridge, but it must've been there for months because when i opened it up it was covered in pink mold. i poured it down the toilet. instead of yogurt i went back to what i used to use which is lemon juice.

cake flour jumbo
blueberry muffins
(6 servings)

1 stick salted butter, thawed
3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup yogurt
2 cups flour
4 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup half and half
2 cups frozen blueberries
cooking spray

sparkling sugar

thaw butter overnight. preheat oven to 425°F. cream butter & sugar; add eggs, vanilla, yogurt juice; mix dry ingredients into batter 1/3 at a time, adding some half and half after each mixing. combine blueberries. spoon into jumbo muffin pan. top with sparkling sugar. bake at 425°F 10 min. 375°F 30 mins. + additional 10 minutes if necessary

i haven't made blueberry muffins since january 2024, so more than a year ago. in fact the frozen package of wild blueberries i still have in my freezer were from that time. actually, much of the muffin ingredients i had were purchased for those muffins.

i started by creaming the sugar and butter. i left the butter outside to thaw overnight so it was already soft. i've never successfully creamed sugar and butter before. i basically mash the butter with two spoons until it's combined with the sugar in sort of a dough. but i've seen photos of proper creaming and mine has never looked like that. i've used a hand mixer in the past but all it did was splatter bits of sugared butter everywhere. if my muffins never seem to rise, it's all because of improper creaming technique.

i then added the remaining wet ingredients: eggs, vanilla, lemon juice. to that i added my dry ingredients mix (which i combined together in a large plastic bin by sifting the ingredients) in third batches, mixing in some half and half after each mix.

the batter looked a bit dry, and the addition of two cups of frozen blueberries didn't help it either. but in my experience, dry batter works just as well as wet batter. once it heats up in the oven, the batter will flatten before rising.

i scooped the batter into my 6 jumbo muffin pan. i sprinkled some sparkling sugar before putting it into the oven at 425°F. after 10 minutes i lowered the temperature to 375°F and baked for another 30 minutes.

while my muffins were baking, i went outside to shovel the sidewalk. i was dressed in my rain gear since it was now raining. my neighbor don was already doing his part. i noticed footprints leaving my upstairs neighbor's place. instead of shoveling this morning, he simply went out and assumed i'd do it instead. the snow was wet and heavy, a good 5 inches worth. it clears off the sidewalk cleanly, but tougher to pick up and dump. after i finished the sidewalk, i shoveled a path into the backyard.

i came back inside the house with the place smelling like a bakery. the muffins had risen into a familiar dome shape but appeared to be slightly burnt. i took them out of the oven and dumped them onto a baking sheet. all fell out except for one. i poked around the edges with a thin spatula and tried inverting it again. instead of coming out cleaning, it broke up into pieces. i tried one: it wasn't that good, tasted of stale ingredients, particularly the flour. i packaged 4 into a container for my parents.

i called my mother, asking if she went outside to help my father shovel. our single-stage snowblower needs its paddles replaced. my father found this out when he used it to clear last weekend's snowstorm. because the old paddles have been worn down too much, it no longer makes contact with the ground. that means not only doesn't it not blow snow out of the chute, but it won't self-propel either. we haven't had time to replace them yet, and honestly didn't think today was going to be a big snowstorm and thought the rain would mostly melt everything. from the living room webcam i could see my father had already cleared the driveway and sidewalk by hand. he called me back a few minutes later, said he was coming over to pick me up.

i was in belmont by noontime. not only did i bring my muffins, but i also brought the leftover mujaddara from last night, not sure if my parents would be interested in eating it. while my father continued to clean up the driveway, i went into the backyard to work on the snow on our solar panels.

it looked pretty daunting at first. most solar panels we saw with normally sloped roofs already had their panels cleared of snow from the combination of snow and rain. some snow did slip off of the panels on our main roof, but not enough. and the sunroom panels were completely buried. if we didn't clean them today, the snow would be frozen in place for a week if not longer. i wore my rain gear it but it was hard to work in and i kept taking off the hood despite the rain. the freezing rain was pretty miserable, and i took off my glasses at one point because they kept fogging up and i didn't need to see clearly to work.

it took about an hour to clear the snow off of the solar panels. my father helped out by removing some of the snow from the panels on the western side of the house, the parts he could reach standing on a smaller ladder with another roof rake. my body was probably going to ache tomorrow, all that shoveling combined with solar panel clearing work. the last thing i did was to refill the empty birdfeeder.

my mother made some lamb noodle soup for lunch. it was good, but she used instant noodles, which made it taste cheap, somehow less dignified. i checked my text messages and saw that john had wrote to me. he was in town today and asked if i wanted to get some lunch. it was already 1:30pm, and if i was to head into boston it'd take about an hour. not to mention all the freezing rain that was falling. we rescheduled to possibly next sunday. he told me they got an apartment in natick, which was news to me.

i didn't have much to do the rest of the day. i was hoping my sister would bring esmei over but she never left the house. i ended up watching old doctor who episodes on pluto.tv. it featured the sixth doctor with companion peri brown.

for dinner my parents reheated the other half of the cob-smoked duck. there was also a chicken & tofu stirfry and a cabbage stirfry. my mother feasted on the duck while drinking some baijiu. after dinner my father gave me a ride home around 6:30pm.

i thought i was arriving early to the cafe but my father was already there. he was baking some chinese sausages in the oven and roasting some charsiu pork in the air fryer. i cooked up 5 cups of rice and mopped the salt from the floor in the front of the store. i brought out the hyacinth and the altruist daffodil bulbs from the basement. later after work i moved the bulbs to the back of the cafe, where it's much sunnier but colder, ideal bulb conditions.

my father made some jiuniang with eggs. he asked if my 2nd aunt wanted any but she said she had a big breakfast at the chinese senior center in medford before coming to the cafe today. i ate one of the salted drumsticks she made.

my 2nd aunt brought some yellow bean sprouts and asked me to make a korean banchan out of them. i cooked them in boiling water for a minute before soaking them in ice water. for the sauce, a teaspoon of gochujang, a squirt of sesame oil, 2 minced garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, some chopped scallions, and a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds (all ingredients we had on hand). the final result was surprisingly delicious, my 2nd aunt said it was one of her favorite dishes. my father sampled some and liked it so much he ate a bunch with some rice.

though we made less than average, we still made more than last saturday. not too bad considering it's a long president's day weekend and many local schools have their winter vacation next week. we sold about an equal amount of bentos to noodles. noodles seem to be very popular this week, including beef noodle soup, ramen noodles, and zhajiang noodles. stirfry noodles are also popular.

my sister brought esmei over in the afternoon. she was wagging her tail and sneezed before excitedly jumping on my father hoping for treats. my sister took her away when a customer came into the store.

after work my father gave my 2nd aunt a ride while i biked home. it was supposed to be snowing, but the latest forecast pushed the start back to around 5:30pm. i put the bike away in the basement. we're due for some snow overnight (2-4 inches), transitioning to a day of rain on sunday. my hopes is the rain will wash away all the snow. but if that doesn't happen, i need to go to belmont and clear all the wet snow from the solar panels before they flash freeze sunday night.

saturday evening back at home after work, i have zero obligations. it feels like bonus time. i ended up doing a load of laundry. i finished watching the new NBC show the hunting party; the first episode was intriguing enough for me to want to watch the rest of the season. it's garnered some negative reviews though, so who knows if NBC won't cut the series short. it features actors i've never seen before, which is rare. usually when that happens, it's likely a canadian import, but this is an entirely US produced show.

it started snowing silently and i didn't realize it until out of curiousity i looked out the window to see everything already coated in white.

i was going to start dinner around 7pm, but i got caught up in updating some numbers for the cafe spreadsheet (found out we had some wrong formulas) that i didn't start dinner until 8:30pm. i was tempted to cancel and just eat something frozen, but i already postponed cooking once this week.

mujaddara (lentil rice)
(3-6 serving)

3 onions, sliced thin
1/4 cup olive oil

275g (1-1/4 cups) lentils
700g (3 cups) water
1 tsp cumin

200g (1 cup) rice
2 tbsp fried onion oil
handful fried onion
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

tzatziki
bean salad
avocado


fry onion in olive oil until golden brown, stirring constantly (20+ minutes). dry caramelized onion on wire rack, saving fried onion oil. cook lentil in water, high heat, add cumin, once boiling, reduce to medium-high and cook covered for 8 minutes. add/mix rice, onion oil, fried onion, salt & pepper. level off, add water if necessary to submerge everything. cook covered high 2 minutes. cook covered low 20 minutes. serve with fried onion topping, tzatziki, bean salad, and sliced avocado.

i made mujaddara. i can't believe it's almost been a year since the last time i made it. seems like just yesterday. i still had a container of leftover caramelized onions. this is my one recipe when i want to eat healthy. i got some red lentils from market basket on wednesday (it was the only variety they had, though they used to also carry black lentils), but discovered i still had enough black beluga lentils so i used that instead. i might've overdone it with the caramelized onions, some of them were a bit burnt and crunchy to the point of being hard. i didn't get much fried onion oil and used up all the amount i made for the recipe. this time i added some avocado slices to make it even healthier after picking a few ripe ones on sale from star market.

i didn't eat until 10pm, the whole cooking process took 1-1/2 hours. i washed everything down with some chai milk followed by a drumstick ice cream cone. i've decided i'm also going to make some blueberry muffins tomorrow morning so i took out a stick of butter to thaw overnight.

it wasn't until 11pm when i finally took a shower.

biking to the cafe this morning, i kept my eyes open for black ice. for the most part i was safe until i got to rc kelley road. having fallen here before, i spotted the black ice immediately. i opted to walk the bike for that stretch, and even then it was still slippery.

i go down to the basement and inspect the bulbs every morning. the two hyacinth bulbs are doing the best, but one has roots that are twice as long as the other one. i think they're ready to be moved upstairs next week. the vase with the altruist daffodils (3O-R) had also already sprouted when i took them out of the cold garage. i can't see the roots through the leca pellets, but the bulbs have started to grow new shoots so that's a promising sign. they can probably go upstairs next week as well. as for the two other daffodils, they were still dormant when i took them out. however one of the sun disc (7Y-Y) daffodils have put out a small green shoot. the red eye daffodils (smallest of the bulbs i have, 3W-GYR) haven't shown any activity yet (these daffodils were the ones i wanted to the grow the most).

we tried the beck's seafood crab dip with rice crackers. this is a very chunky dip, not very pulverized. it didn't taste as good as the sea gold crab drip we used to get, which much more savory and delicious and has a creamy texture. my parents also finally ate some of the cob-smoked duck my aunt got my mother for her birthday back in december. ducks are notoriously fatty, and after warming up half the duck in the oven, cutting it into pieces was a messy affair, like being drenched in duck fat. the duck had the pink hue of smoked meats, and had a sweet cob-smoked flavor. in honor of chinese new year, my mother found a package of black pearl sesame rice balls in the freezer. we ate it with some sweet fermented glutinous rice.

i made a new batch of tea eggs in the afternoon. i used the brown eggs i got from market basket on wednesday. usually brown eggs are more expensive, so they're associated with a higher quality of egg, even though nutritional they are exactly the same as white eggs, just that brown egg hens require more feed, so their eggs cost more. brown eggs are good for tea eggs in that they come out really dark compared to white eggs. i'm a little worried because these are fresh eggs, and fresh eggs are harder to peel. we'll find out next week.

my aunt stopped by around noontime. she asked we were busy, my parents said no, but that was after we just had a busy stretch. she left once we started getting busy again. today turned out to be the busiest day of the week (so far). we also got a few big delivery orders that don't reflect in our square POS tally. bento boxes are always our biggest seller, but today we also sold a lot of beef noodle soup, and surprisingly ramen noodles. for a time, every customer who came in ordered ramen, it couldn't have been a coincidence. makes me wonder if there's something on social media, like a tiktok challenge or something.

esmei came to the cafe. she kept trying to rush into the kitchen, knowing there was probably food inside. i noticed she has a droopy tail. it's not like she can't wag it, but once she loses interest, her tail will simply drop, making it hard to read her intentions.

our new 9-1/2" nonstick dep frying pan arrived today. i didn't like the 9-1/2" sensarte frying pan that arrived last week. even though it looked like our old pans, it wasn't deep enough. this new one is plenty deep - 3" - but the walls are straight instead of sloped. another big difference is the pan is white granite instead of black granite. maybe that's why it was on sale ($18). the white wouldn't be as good at hiding stains, that's my main concern.

my mother gave the new pan a test cook in the evening when she made some fried rice for a customer. she liked the non-stick - but that's just because it's new. after we use it for a while, it will start sticking. she thought it'd be hard to pour the food out because the sides weren't sloped, but the brand new non-stick coating made it effortless. she did notice it was slightly heavier than our old pan. we'll probably keep it though. it's not perfect, but it's much better than the old pans we currently have which all have lost their non-stick coating after 4 years of heavy usage.

i went home with half a leftover sandwich my sister bought but didn't want anymore so she gave it to us. there was also a blueberry muffin that my mother took for herself.

i put my bicycle away in the basement, but afterwards realized i still need it for tomorrow. i plan on riding to the cafe in the morning. by late afternoon when i return home it will already be snowing, but i'm betting that i can still get good traction in fresh snow and can make it home safely.

i ate immediately. the sandwich was weird - turkey, bacon, avocado, lettuce, not sure what to make of it. it was tasty, and filling enough that i wasn't hungry afterwards. i ate while finishing episode 5 (season 2) of severance. i had an ice cream drumstick for dessert. afterwards i went to take a shower.

i slept with the dehumidifier on last time. i used distilled water because it doesn't leave behind white mineral dust like with tap water. i didn't rally notice any improvement in my sleep. my skin was still itchy and i scratched my arm in the middle of the night to make it bleed. if anything, the added bit of humidity made the room feel colder. when i woke up there was still about half an inch of water left in the tank (the original amount was an inch). maybe i need to turn it on higher, i used the lowest setting last night.

freezing rain was falling this morning. i woke up early thinking i'd have to walk to the cafe. but i saw the forecast said the rain would stop by mid-morning. so i decided to take the bike. i wore by rubber boots, which was the only waterproof footwear i had. i did bring a pair of normal shoes to change into. i wore my sherpa wool fleece hoodie underneath my waterproof rain coat. it was actually pretty comfort, maybe a little too warm (i wish the coat had vented armpits).

my father helped me clean the salt from the floor. i sprayed vinegar while he wiped with a dry mop. later we wet the floor with a wet mop (warm water) before wiping a third time with a damp mop (new warm water).

my father made some breaded porkchops for breakfast. it wasn't exactly tonkatsu because it was pan-fried instead of deep fried. later in the afternoon we deep fried two boxes of marinated salt & pepper chicken. we tried deep frying some vegetarian spring rolls afterwards. some of the shells burst from the high temperature, but they were still pretty good, better than when we bake then in the oven. i also had some dong quai chicken soup.

business was slow today, though we did get two online delivery orders in the late morning. we figured it was the rain keeping customers away. we didn't get busy until 3pm. overall it was a good day despite the weather, we made our daily average.

the rain had stopped by the time we closed, but the roads were still wet from snowmelt since the temperature today hovered in the upper 30's. it's supposed to get cold overnight - 20's - and i'm afraid there might be black ice tomorrow morning.

my mother packed me some leftover breaded porkchops for dinner. my bicycle was soaked, but at least the rain washed off all the salt deposit. my upstairs neighbors must be away because all their lights were turned off, even the porch light.

i didn't eat right away, took a shower first, changed out of my fry oil smelling clothes. after dinner i ate an ice cream drumstick. there's something subversive about eating ice cream when it's cold outside.

waking up on your birthday, you feel like maybe there should be a spotlight on you. it is after all your special day. but in the grand scheme of themes, it's just another day, nothing more. just know that 51 years ago, in a hospital in taipei, at 8:42am, i was born. and then somehow through it all, i've wound up here.

feeling some egg procurement stress, i wanted to drive to restaurant depot this morning and see if i could buy some eggs in bulk. but i remember the past few times we've gone, i never once saw eggs there, whether that was the needham or the everett store. what makes today any different? so instead of doing that, i decided to visit market basket first, see what their egg situation is.

so i ride down to market basket (after replacing my bike lock with one that has keys). they are fully stocked with eggs. the price has gone up somewhat, but 18 eggs at $5.49 is a good deal considering you can barely find eggs in other supermarkets. they also have a 2 carton limit per customer, which is a lot better than trader joe's which limits you to a single dozen carton. i bought two cartons, enough to make a single batch of tea eggs (30). how is market basket able to have eggs while other places don't? good suppliers. plus i think they've purposely kept the prices low for their customers. they're definitely losing money at these prices, but when customers come for the eggs, they'll buy other things.

i ride down to the cafe to drop off the supplies by 11am. my mother has a family tradition where you eat two eggs in the morning on your birthday. my parents made me eggs with some sweet fermented rice (jiuniang) added as well. today is actually the lantern festival in chinese new year (元宵節). on this day you're supposed to eat glutinous rice balls (湯圓) except we didn't have any and there wasn't any time to make some.

i returned home briefly just to use the bathroom before i'm out again. this time to harvard square, to bonchon, to get some korean fried chicken, my birthday tradition. i ordered online before i left: 6 pieces of soy garlic wings ($10), 6 pieces of spicy wings ($10), daikon radish and coleslaw for the sides. bonchon doesn't have the lunch special anymore. $10 for 6 tiny wings is pricey, but they're so good it's worth it. i rode through harvard square right when students were getting out of class, so i was in a sea of young people. i was probably the oldest person though, it's kind of a weird thought. when i get to bonchon my order is already ready. seeing me taking a photo of the inside, the employee hands me a menu. coming out, i helped a delivery guy hold the door while he pushed in a pallet mover stacked with takeout containers (i know this because i recognize the brands). if there's a rule that says on your birthday you have to do a good need, i've fulfilled that obligation.

returning home, i bumped into my neighbor neil. i told him i watched some of the scotland-ireland rugby game on youtube. i asked him why some players where those tiny cloth helmets. he said it's to protect their ears, because of all the pushing and punching, players can get cauliflower ears. he was impressed that i followed up on rugby. seems like he doesn't often find people who are interested in the sport. he was on his way to washington dc for work, and had to go pack. is there a rule that says on your birthday you have to have a nice chat with somebody? obligated fulfilled.

stashing the bike in the alleyway, i heard a bird mob in the backyard. i thought they were crows, but when i went to go investigate, it was a swarm of bluejays. i saw a red cardinal sitting peaceful in the tree. where they mobbing the cardinal? i looked some more and saw a red-bellied woodpecker scrambling up the side of a utility pole. that was what the jays were angry about. apparently both bluejays and red-bellied woodpeckers are aggressive birds. a single bluejay is no match fo a red-bellied woodpecker, but when they form a mob of half a dozen, that's a different story. they managed to drive the woodpecker away before i could rush inside to get my camera. there's probably some rule that says on your birthday you need to spot some wildlife. i saw a red-bellied woodpecker, which i don't often see.

once inside the once, i prepared for my korean chicken feast. i only go through about half (6 wings) before i was pretty full and stopped eating, saving the leftover wings for later. i sat back and relished in my food coma.

in went out a little bit later, to star market to get a few things. i was going to deposit some beverage cans and bottles, but a good thing i forgot to bring them, because the machines were all broken. i got some lamb chops, sumo oranges, avocados, and sugarbee apples. i also grabbed a spinach and mushroom pizza. star market had zero eggs. i've never seen that before. when i came last week they egg shelves were bare but at least they had a few cartons. all they had today were packages of 6 hard-boiled eggs for $5.99. after years of practice, and having a star market basically right next door, i've learned to game their system. i maximize my discounts at every opportunity, only buying things that are on sale. my savings for today was 49%. without discounts, i would've paid double that amount. star market is mostly all self checkout these days. the "supervisor" watched me carefully as i paid for my purchases. i purposely made gestures they showed i wasn't stealing anything, like shaking my grocery bags to show they're empty, and laying out all of my stuff on the counter before rebagging them. i hate self checkout. plus, if i was going to steal something, i wouldn't do it there.

i wasn't very productive the rest of the day. i finished the leftover korean wings later in the afternoon. i discovered i had a humidifier (still in the box) in my closet, didn't realize it, unfortunately my mother already ordered me one using her health insurance benefit. i'll try it out tonight, see if i sleep any better with it running. i turned up the heat as it was a little chilly inside the house (60 degrees). i made a glass of cold chai latte, then went to the bathroom an hour later when my lactose intolerance caught up to me. i did some more bike lock research, as will as researching canon speedbooster, making distilled water at home, and electric home spirits distiller.

i was going to make mujaddara for dinner but got lazy and decided to just boil some frozen homemade chinese dumplings instead. the gods of cooking would surely cut me some slack on my birthday? instead i'm going to make mujaddara on saturday, when i'll probably return home after work because it's going to snow and rain from saturday evening and all of sunday.

i watched the spurs-celtics game. the spurs are better after trading for de'aaron fox, but their inexperience still showed when they matched up against the defending champions celtics. without jaylen brown, with jrue holiday, celtics still kept their lead in double digits for most of the game, most of the time hovering around 15-20 points. no surprise, celtics won 103-116. during halftime i boiled the dumplings and ate them during the second half.

the streets were clear enough that i could ride to the cafe this morning. there was still some hard-pack snow on the side of the road, but just very minor amounts. when i went to lock my bike to the signpost, i noticed the bike lock key was missing from my keychain. i wasn't surprised since the head of the key was plastic. where could it have gone? the last time i used the bike lock was last wednesday, so the key had almost a week to disappear without me realizing it. unable to lock the bike, i just wrapped the lock and the cable around the frame so from a glance it'd look like it was locked.

i went to the basement to check on my bulbs. a few had developed some mold. i brushed it off with my finger, but keeping the bulbs dry is key to preventing them from getting moldy and rotting.

my father was making a batch of beef noodle soup. i cooked some dumplings, several batches of black noodles, and made a new batch of tea eggs. i'm worried if we'll be able to find eggs given the nationwide shortage. all the eggs we have now are organic ones we got from costco two weekends ago that cost $10 for 2 dozen. we currently have 6 dozens left, which is only enough to make 2 batches of tea eggs.

the big thing i was making today was a new batch of taiwanese paocai. the last batch i made back in late december (8 containers) lasted us about 7 weeks. the 6 heads of cabbage we got yesterday only weighed about 18 lbs. total. once i remove the cores, it'll be down to 17 lbs. the cabbages were pretty crispy, easily broken apart by hand. they felt more like crunchy lettuce than tough cabbage. to that i added 17 tbsp of salt. i then mixed it all together with a gloves hand. my mother helped me shred about 2 cups worth of carrots which i reduced with about a tablespoon of salt. i left the cabbage to reduce for 1-1/2 hours, periodically mixing it. i then drained and rinsed the cabbage in a large plastic colander. i hand-squeezed clumps of cabbage by hand before putting it back in the large bowl for mixing. once that was done, i added two chopped chili peppers and a tablespoon of sichuan peppercorn. instead of 17 lbs. i used 16 lbs. as the reference, so i added 8 cups of sugar along with 8 cups of white vinegar. i mixed everything together before putting them into containers. i ended up with 10 quart-size containers of taiwanese paocai, with a little bit of sugary vinegar left over (for marinating cucumbers). the whole process took nearly 3-1/2 hours.

my gopro enduro batteries came. i got the pair used (like new) for $30 because i didn't want to spend any more for something that should be standard with all gopro cameras. there were also several third party knockoffs for cheaper, but i couldn't trust their claims and went with genuine gopro brand just to be safe. nothing on the battery says they're enduro, and they look just like normal gopro batteries except they're white instead of blue. when i put the first battery into the gopro to charge, it wouldn't charge (the red led wouldn't turn on). the second battery worked like normal, arrived with an 80% charge. later i discovered the first battery was already down to 0%. once i left it plugged in for a minute, it finally started charging.

today was quiet for the most part. lunchtime went and gone without too much business. maybe it was that cold weather again making customers hesitate to go out and get food. but around 1pm we got really busy. a large group of graduate students suddenly showed up. even though there was a lot of people, we didn't make all that much, since some only ordered a drink. it was confusing more than anything else, as we suddenly got an influx of orders and had to strategize how to assemble everything. not only that, but we also had a few online orders just to make it more complicated.

i biked home after work. i attached the gopro to the handlebar to shoot a video. temperature was probably around the lower 30's, not sure if it was cold enough to properly test the new enduro battery. the gopro did not turn off though (which it sometimes does, especially when it's cold), which is a good sign.

i threw a frozen chicken alfredo into the oven as i took a shower. they take a long time to cook, nearly an hour. there was nothing good on television so i watched some youtube videos instead. i discovered this aged great! which is a channel that does funny 10-minute recaps of terrible 80's movies.

i researched new bike locks. the one that i used is the onguard X2 power mini u-lock (circa 2009?). the lock still works fine, but with just the spare key left, i'm afraid to use it in case i ever lose that key and can't get the lock opened anymore. i've only ever used small u-locks, which are more lightweight, but aren't long enough to lock the rear wheel to the frame, which is the preferred most secure way to use a u-lock. so i'd like to get a longer u-lock this time. in the meantime, i have another spare u-lock (exact same model) which i retrieved from my fleet of basement bikes.

my father came to pick me up around 10am this morning for a boston supply run. normally we get onto storrow drive and cut through kenmore, but today we crossed the longfellow bridge to get onto route 93 south.

we go to baifu/foodpak about once a month to stock up on asian restaurant supplies. we noticed they had a new sign, probably to coincide with their recent expansion. if they don't outright own the property, rent must be dirt cheap, as they're just about the only business that still managed to survive being at the epicenter of methadone mile. although the area has cleaned up a lot compared to a few years ago, it's still the norm to see drug users openly shoot up in broad daylight.

we didn't get too much, just some rice, noodles, chopsticks. our favorite loader was working and he helped us put our stuff in the car. he seemed to be in a bad mood though.

after foodpak we went to ming's market. c-mart has free parking, but ming's market has cheaper prices. ming does have free parking but only on weekends (some deal they made with the nearby parking lot). fortunately there was plenty of metered street parking. we paid $2.35 for an hour's worth of parking using the parking app. here we loaded up on produce. i picked 6 heads of chinese cabbage to make my taiwanese paocai.

we finally left chinatown by 11:40am. it took 25 minutes to drive to the cafe to drop off the supplies. my sister just happened to be bringing esmei to belmont so esmei ended up getting a ride with us after we finished unloading.

my mother made thin noodles with eggs and tomatoes for lunch.

my father moved the bulk of his newly-potted osmanthus cuttings down into the basement. unfortunately there seems to be a mini fungus gnat outbreak, and since none of the osmanthus were treated with Bti mosquito bits, they were be perfect breeding grounds for gnats. so he moved them all back upstairs. since i was already in the basement, i ended up spending an hour watering the plants.

for dinner my father made a stirfry using the salted vegetables i got from chinatown along with some leftover charsiu pork. he also made a sour fish stew. afterwards he gave me a ride back to cambridge.

celtics played the heat tonight. without jimmy butler, miami is just a shell of their former self that went to the finals just a few years ago. plus the heat was without tyler herro and jaime jaquez (out due to illness). i figured the celtics were going to win this game easily, but you never know with boston. celtics was without jaylen brown (illness) while holiday was still out due to injury. the heat actually led in the first quarter but the celtics went into another gear and got the lead in the second quarter and never looked back. boston was up by 24 at one point. final score was 103-85.

i couldn't wait to wake up this morning to shovel the sidewalk. when i looked outside my living room window though, there wasn't as much snow as i'd thought. i went out around 9am. the snow had mostly stopped by then, only some light flurries. i'd say we got about 3" of snow here in cambridge. it had a wetter consistency so it was pretty easy to shovel, clumped together well, scraped off the sidewalk clean.

my neighbor neil was also shoveling. we chatted briefly. i asked how come he doesn't get his kids to clean the sidewalk, he said he's pretty anal about it, and likes to do it himself. he wanted to shovel the snow before going back inside to watch a scotland-ireland six nations rugby match at 10am (ireland won 18-32). after i finished the sidewalk, i made quick work shoveling a path into the backyard. i finished by 9:30am.

i used the bathroom one last time before taking a shower. i packed up my gopro and insta360 cameras, as well as my canon dSLR with the 55-250mm telephoto and the 10-22mm wide angle lenses. i also carried a container of black tea in my contigo tumbler.

i was heading into chinatown for the annual chinese new year lion's dance which starts at 11am. i wasn't sure if it was going to get cancelled because of the snow, but a post on their facebook page said it was still happening. i figured it'd be very beautiful, traditional chinese dancing lions against a background of snow.

because of the snow i wasn't able to bike into boston, so i took the subway from porter square instead. the up escalator was broken, but the down was still working. i put $20 onto my card. i haven't taken the subway since august (when my californian relatives came to visit). i've been lucky in that all the times i needed to get into boston (doctor's appointment, haymarket, chinatown, etc.) the weather was nice enough that i could bike. there was just 3 other people in my subway car - an asian guy white girl couple and a hispanic man. i got off at downtown crossing and arrived in chinatown by 10:30am.

since i've been to a few of these lion dances before, i was selection with what to photograph. first time visitors all congregate by the erected platform, where all the lion dancers would assemble. but the better photo opp is to listen to the sounds of drumming and watch as the lion dancers arrive into chinatown from multiple directions.

i stayed in the back as the announcers were introducing the various lion dancing troupes. afterwards they broke up to various areas of chinatown. i followed the two black lions group (gung ho club). it was an all chinese troupe, and they seemed to be associated with freemasons for some reason. they went down beach street, visiting the various businesses, before making their way down knapp street. here was where i was waiting. i remembered from last time it was a good place to photograph, with some stone steps i could stand on for elevation. afterwards they went onto kneeland street.

i took the knapp street alleyway to get to harrison avenue, where i watched a few other lion dancers. i got pretty good views of two yellow lions, and discovered it was an all-female dance troupe. there was another pair of red and green lions (with a praying mantis on their emblem) that had a mix of asian and westerner performers. there was a yellow and orange pair, and two grey pairs with very fuzzy lion fur.

i was shooting in manual mode f/8 1/1600 sec variable ISO, which is my default setting for outdoor action. but i made a mistake when i didn't factor in the overall lighting. like when i was shooting in the alleyway it was already dim, so the photos came out pretty dark. i can only use manual mode in bright daylight, otherwise i should be using aperture or shutter priority.

so all that romanticizing about the pretty white snow background? in reality much of the snow had already been cleared away. what remained were slushy potholes filled with street garbage or dirty trampled snow that soon became slush. it wasn't pretty at all.

another thing i noticed was the proliferation of fancy analog cameras, including several medium format cameras. i know there's a movement with the younger generation for analog film, in some attempt to be edgy or creative. for me, having grown up with analog photography, i can tell you that digital a far superior in nearly all ways. why anyone would want to waste medium format film to shoot some lackluster dancing lions is a mystery to me.

i finally left chinatown by 12:30pm. i thought about visiting a bakery to get some pastries, but all the businesses were pretty busy from the influx of spectators, so i decided against it. instead of walking back to downtown crossing, i headed for south station instead. i haven't been here since my return trip from new york city back in july. the skyscraper they built on top of south station is nearly complete. inside the station is a new arching structure which will look impressive once completed. with the alewife-bound train about to arrive, the announcer mentioned it was going to be one of the new red line trains.

the new train was okay. instead of this weird rainbow biohazard fabric seats of the old train, these were plastic plastic seats instead. and not individual seats but more like a bench (NYC metro style). this train also had LCD screens, though i was sitting too far to see what was on it. i imagine MBTA announcements and possible ads.

i got off at porter square around 1pm. originally i was going to get off at harvard square, but figured if i was taking a bus to belmont i'd have to go to harvard square anyway. when i got back home i called my mother. she said my father was going to go pick up my sister so she could go to alewife and retrieve her car, and pick me up along the way. i agreed, had time to use the bathroom before my father finally showed up at 1:50pm. my sister was in the backseat with esmei. she was pretty obedient, engrossed in looking out the window, before she got bored and laid down to rest. we dropped off my sister at alewife while we took esmei back with us to belmont.

this morning my father used the toro single-stage snowblower to clear the sidewalk. he said it worked but not very well, because the rubber paddle was too worn down to make contact with the ground. we bought a replacement paddle back in september 2020 with the idea of replacing it at some point but never got around to it because we didn't need to use the snowblower for the past few years. hopefully we can replace the paddle before the next major snowstorm. better yet, if i can get the two-stage craftsman snowblower to work, we can use that machine as well.

first thing i did when i arrived in belmont was to go out in the backyard to clear the snow off the solar panels. my father already did some panel cleaning, using the pole fully extended, and from the ground, whatever snow he could reach. most of the snow on the main roof had slipped off already (or my father had cleaned them), with the exception of the handful of panels in the middle of the roof that were only partially exposed. the sunroom panels were entirely covered.

more snow fell in belmont, i'd say about 4 inches. at first i thought clearing that amount of snow from the panels would be daunting, but turns out it was actually pretty easy. that much snow had more weight, and since it was heavier, whenever i broke off a piece with the foam roof rake, it'd slide down the panels and off the roof. i made quick work of the sunroom solar panels, before i moved the ladder and cleaned up some leftover snow from the main roof panels.

back inside the house, i ate some cold chinese dumplings. my sister had shown up and was still in the house with esmei. we turned on the puppy bowl for esmei to watch. we also tried to get esmei to give me a kiss: for some reason she'll kiss everyone except for me. that's because i rarely give her treats, so she knows that any tricks she performs for me will be for naught. my sister eventually look esmei back home.

my father was busy transplanting some osmanthus cuttings which we've been nurturing in a sand medium into soil-filled pots. he showed me how the cuttings now have new roots. even though they're just cuttings, they're still able to produce fragrant flowers.

today was also the super bowl, as i watched the pregame coverage (which started at 1pm), hoping to catch some new commercials. for dinner my parents made a simple chicken with green pepper stirfry and a cauliflower stirfry. afterwards my father gave me a ride home just as the game was starting.

the super bowl was between the eagles and chiefs. i was rooting for the eagles because they seemed like the underdog and i didn't want mahomes and company to win their third consecutive championship, something that's never been done in the modern NFL era. eagles put up 7 points in the first quarter and 17 more in the second quarter, while holding the chiefs scoreless. in the third quarter the eagles scored 10 more points. could kansas city come back from a 34-0 deficit? could this be a repeat of the patriots 27-3 comeback over the falcons?

chiefs finally managed to score a touchdown in the third, but couldn't complete the 2-point conversion. they just didn't play well tonight, in the most important game of the season. turnovers (including at least two interceptions), inability to get downs, chiefs were plagued with issues. final score was 22-40, but it really was never that close. eagles win their second super bowl in 5 years since 2017 (against the patriots no less). for the chiefs, it's their 5th super bowl appearance in 7 years, having won 3 out of those 5, not a bad record. mahomes other lost was in super bowl LV against tom brady and the buccaneers. i totally forgot about that game, it was another laugher, tampa bay beat kansas city 31-9.

i walked down to the cafe this morning despite the aches in my legs. after cooking 5 cups of rice, i spent the 30 minutes before we opened on cleaning the salt off of the floor.

not a lot of change in my forcing bulbs. the hyacinths might have some more roots, but no additional activity. the clear jars make it easier to see compared to the leca pellets i have in the daffodil vases.

my 2nd aunt showed me her electric bill, which she said saw a sudden spike in price. she normally pays $50 a month, but her latest bill was over $100. i looked it over and realized her problem: she got her neighbor's bill by accident. her actual bill - which we found online - was around her average $50.

the three of us - my father, my 2nd aunt, myself - finished the rest of the strawberry cake i made yesterday. my 2nd aunt also brought some portuguese custard tarts she got from chinatown yesterday and gave one each to my father and me. plus we cooked some cheese balls in the air fryer.

esmei showed up briefly. my sister said the vet gave her the wrong heartworm medication, the one that didn't kill any heartworm larvae. the vet said esmei doesn't need to be tested for heartworm until october, which seems a long ways away. in the meantime she can go back to doing normal dog stuff i guess? her two bald patches probably won't grow back in until she sheds her undercoat after the winter is over.

today was kind of like a repeat of yesterday: a handful of bento sales followed by beef noodle soup. but the item that was the most popular seemed to be the bubble milk tea. even in the winter with the weather so cold, people can't seem to get enough of it.

after work, my 2nd aunt went with us to belmont. my other aunt was treating us to dinner at joyful garden in watertown in honor of both her and my father's birthday today. dinner wasn't until 5:30pm so we had about an hour's wait before we left. that gave us enough time for my father and i to start the trickle charger on our honda (which haven't been driven in a few weeks) and to spray the interior chute of the toro power clear snowblower with lubricant. my father had actually pushed the machine outside in anticipation of the snow, but i said it might get stolen even though he had it underneath a tarp. we pushed it back inside the garage. the last thing i did was to refill the birdfeeder, figured the birds might be hungry after the snowstorm.

i got a birthday present for my aunt - a twistable kitchen timer - but it hadn't arrived yet at my sister's place before we closed and left the cafe. however it did show up soon afterwards so i asked my sister to bring it with her when she went to the restaurant. she also turned on her living room webcam so we could see esmei but esmei went to go sleep in the bedroom so we couldn't see her.

when we got to joyful garden, we received some bad news: there was a 45 minute wait for a table. my aunt didn't make a reservation because none of us thought it'd be very busy tonight, which turned out to be the exact opposite. not only that, but they'd invited a troupe of lion dancers to perform, as they went table by table asking for money while musicians outside violently pounded their drums. it was so loud we all retreated to the safety of target next door. target seemed to be mobbed with college kids doing grocery shopping.

back at the restaurant, the lion dancers were finishing up. matthew was there waiting in case a table opened up. before he could speak to the manager again, my aunt ran out of target and told us they'd just called her (6pm) to let her know our table was ready. we got lucky because a party of eight cancelled. the table was located at the far end of the restaurant, so we sat with the wall behind us.

my aunt said she'd been at joyful garden for dimsum but never for dinner. we got the set course meal for 8 people, which included the stirfry twin lobster. my sister's godmother was there too and i tried to help her connect her xioami redmi watch 2 lite but it still wouldn't work.

even though i've had their set course meal before, it's always different, depending on the chef's choice. we started with a plate of cold appetizers, deboned duck feet with sea cucumbers. that was followed by the fish maw soup. next, coconut shrimp with walnuts and pineapples. fried flounder. guifei chicken. beef with string beans. fried seafood with porkchops. finally the lobster.

our table was next to two other tables that seemed to be holding an office function. instead of sitting down, those customers were just standing around chatting. once their food arrived they sat down to eat. unlike us they didn't get the set course meal. we saw a plate full of chinese dumplings which didn't look as delicious as what we were having.

for dessert we had taro coconut sago. we finished by 7:30pm. my sister gave her godmother a ride home back to central square while my parents dropped off my 2nd aunt in west cambridge before dropping me off. actually my mother got dropped off first because she said she needed to use the bathroom. my father and i got out of the car and discounted the trickle charger from the honda sitting in the driveway. it wasn't enough to fully charge the battery, we'll connect it back up tomorrow after the snowstorm.

there was a primetime celtics-knicks game on ABC. boston was without holiday (injury) and porzingis (illness, last minute scratch). that didn't seem to matter as the celtics basically dominated the knicks. new york never had the lead, and boston pushed their lead to 35 points. celtics were firing on all cylinder, tatum finished with 40 points (brunson wasn't far behind with 36). even without porzingis, boston played with 3 centers: kornet, horford, and queta. kornet dominated with 14 points (all under basket dunks) and 12 rebounds. queta finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds. second most powerful scorer was pritchard with 25 points, shooting 6-8 from 3-point range. final score 131-104.

it started snowing around 10pm. i had no idea until my sister told me about it. it's supposed to snow heavily until 6am, where it'll taper off, finally finishing by 1pm.

i didn't want to risk slipping on the icy roads so i walked to the cafe this morning instead of taking the bike. even then it was slippery going, i'm lucky i made it without falling down.

i mopped the floors before we opened. this, after walking 1-1/2 miles to the cafe, left me panting to catch my breath. vinegar spray with dry mop, wet mop, and damp mop. my mother asked why i even bother cleaning the floors when they'll just get dirty again once customers track salt back inside. i do it out of principle.

because it snowed yesterday (forecast 2-4" but less than an inch fell in cambridge), i was worried my parents' solar panels would be buried underneath the snow. but my father said he went out this morning to check and most of the snow had already fallen off. a check of the solar app confirmed it, as we got a decent production of 26.3kWh today.

i decided to put all my forced bulbs in the basement for the time being. in most of the research i've come across regarding forcing hyacinths and other bulbs, it says after the few months of chilling, place them in a dark cool place for a few weeks once they've been seated/watered in their vases/pots. nobody says why, but i'm guessing it's to allow the bulbs to grow some roots first, which is something they do in the dark. the cafe basement is perfect for it, with a temperature in the lower 50's. after about 2 weeks, the bulbs can be moved into the light, at which time they start growing the leaves and finally the flowers. having said all that, the two hyacinth bulbs in the hyacinth vases have already sprouted multiple tiny roots, it didn't take very long. all it needed was some water and like magic they're growing.

my godmother's son alex came by to pick up sleds for his kids from the cafe basement. my aunt also showed up after alex left. they both came around lunchtime, which is our busiest time of the day. we sold about a dozen bento boxes and half as many beef noodle soup. those two our are specialties so good to see their popularity haven't waned. with the colder weather, i would've thought more customers would be clamoring for beef noodle soup.

the 9.5" sensarte frying pan arrived today, to replace the 9.5" carote frying pans.i thought they'd be exactly the same but they're different. the sensarte pan has a lighter color, but more importantly, the sensarte isn't as deep as the old carote. so now i'm debating whether to return it or not. i did a deeper search on amazon and found a few 9.5" pans that more closely resemble the carote.

my father and sister left for arlington to see the accountant. my sister took esmei with her for some reason, even though her dog would just sit in the cold car by herself. it was just my mother and i manning the cafe. so of course it got even busier than our lunchtime period. thankfully it wasn't anything crazy, easy stuff that i knew how to assemble while my mother made the drinks.

i decided to make another strawberry cake. this time i was using a duncan hines boxed cake mix. instead of a 13x9 pan, i used a glass pyrex 9x7 pan instead. my father helped me mix the ingredients before i poured it into the pan and baked it in the breville oven for 25 minutes at 350°F. the glass pan allowed me to see the cake rising as it doubled in size. everything looked good, i even tested it with a toothpick to make sure the center was dry. but the cake had a worrying jiggle as i took it out of the oven so i baked it for another 5 minutes. it seemed firmer now, and more so after a few minutes of cooling. when i inverted the cake into a baking tray, it plopped out, revealing a gooey raw interior.

i put the cake back into the 9x7 pan and baked it for another 15 minutes. i performed the toothpick test, making sure i go all the way through the center to verify it was done. because the cake is thicker in a 9x7 pan, it needs at least 40 minutes of baking, if not more. when i dumped out the cake a second time, it was properly baked. the cake was soft enough that a we could cut it with a thin rubber spatula. my mother took a large corner piece. she said it wasn't as good as the pillsbury strawberry cake we made last time, not enough strawberry flavor. the cake was very moist though. later i learned that instead of water, you can also use milk. i'll try that next time for a richer cake.

i accepted a ride home from my parents after we closed. i would've been fine walking. my mother was surprised i didn't bring anything with me today, not even my bag.

after a shower, i made some white cheddar pasta shells for dinner with chopped spinach and a dash of hot sauce. there was nothing good on television so i watched some youtube videos.

for some reason my body is really achy. my first thought was maybe it's the ezetimibe, with muscle aches as one of its side effects. but then i remembered what i've been doing the past 3 days: roundtrip bike ride to my parents' house on wednesday, roundtrip bike ride into boston on thursday, roundtrip walk to and from the cafe on thursday, and then a walk to the cafe this morning. my legs could really use a rest. the ironic thing is despite all this supposed exercise, my weight hasn't changed.