i paid a visit to the community garden this morning before work. my plants are definitely growing, especially the peppers and tomatoes. last season my seedlings seemed stunted. maybe because i planted them too early, and the cold weather slowed their growth. i don't have that problem this year.

soon after i got to the cafe, i borrowed the car and left for roslindale to pick up the sur la table air fryer for $20. the route i looked up last night involved cutting across newton-brookline. but the route i took today was more familiar, across the BU bridge, down the jamaica riverway, pass the arboretum, finally to roslindale. it took 35 minutes of driving. once i was in roslindale, i was completely at the mercy of google maps, as i had zero idea where i was. driving there honestly felt like i took a vacation and went to a different country. the streets, the stores, the scenery, all unfamiliar. i saw nothing but multi-family housing, but everyone of them seemed very well-manicured. i know very little about roslindale, just that mayor michelle wu lives here.

my seller actually texted me this morning, to make sure i was coming. when i got there i texted her, she said okay, and then nothing for several minutes. was this a scam? so i texted her back, "is anyone home?" she said she was coming right out. she came out with the oven, with various accessories stuffed inside. she asked if i wanted to see it turn on, i said i trusted her.

it wasn't even 10am yet and i was heading back to cambridge, making good time. once again i let google maps guide me out of roslindale, as i had no idea where i was. it wasn't until i got back onto the riverway (or as i like to call it, the jamaica riverway of death), that i finally got my bearing. i stopped by the memorial drive trader joe's to get a few things, before continuing down memorial drive. i finally got to the cafe by 10:45am.

my father took the air fryer out of car for inspection. my seller said she cleaned the oven beforehand. while it looked clean on the outside, on the inside were signs that the air fryer was definitely used a few times. like oil deposits on the heating coil and fryer fan. i also quickly realized i didn't get all the spare parts. included was the drip tray, two cooking trays, and the fry basket. what was missing was the fry basket handle, rotisserie cage, rotisserie handle, skewers rack, and skewers. it wasn't a big deal because we've bought 3 sur la table air fryers in the past, so we have more accessories than we need. we just needed the oven and more importantly the two cooking trays. those trays easily are worth $20 at least, because you can't buy them. this 13qt air fryer model was an exclusive build for costco, and as such, features non-standard parts. they trays themselves were in pristine shape, with just a bit of greasy food debris that i washed up with a brush. my father spent some time cleaning the oven interior, scraping off the food grease with a razor blade. all and all, it was a worthy purchase.

today wasn't as hot as yesterday, with temperature only in the 80's. it was however super windy. i felt it a few times driving, where a gust of wind would rocking the car a little bit. we set out the patio furnitures but purposely didn't open the umbrella. however when two customers decided to sit outside around lunchtime, my father decided to open the umbrella to give them some shade. i watched through the window as the wind buffeted the umbrella. the umbrella was bucking like a wild bronco, trying to tear itself free. besides the liability issue (falling umbrella hurting the customers), there was the issue of not breaking the umbrella. thankfully sense returned to my father as we closed the umbrella.

you'd think the friday after juneteenth a lot of people who take off for a long 4-day weekend, but just like yesterday, we had plenty of customers. our business was definitely not affected by juneteenth. the only thing we noticed was trash pickup was delayed by a day. a lot of our usual customers made online orders, as we saw a list of familiar names. in the afternoon i made another batch of tea eggs. yesterday's batch i tried something new: i boiled the eggs for only 8 minutes instead of 10. the thinking is since they're going to simmer in the tea egg brine for another 2 hours, boiling the eggs initially for 10 minutes was unnecessary. they just need to be hard enough for me to crack the shells with a spoon. so today's batch i reduced that time even further, to just 6 minutes. i didn't notice any difference with the eggs when i cracked them, felt the same whether it was 10, 8, or 6 minutes.

in the late afternoon i made some pastrami sandwiches. i put the pastrami, swiss cheese, and bread altogether into the oven and toasted for 4 minutes. i then took out the sandwiches and slathered spicy brown mustard on one side and a fistful of homemade sauerkraut on the other.

afterwards, around 4pm, i went over to my sister with the hose and watering wand my father brought from belmont. i set the wand on jet spray and it worked remarkably well in removing the azalea bark scales. in all the info i found online, no one's mentioned that the scales can simply be removed by spraying. it was all, "scrub off with a brush," which is what i did yesterday, and a terrible mess at that. another perk of water spraying is it can rinse off the black soot mold from the bark and leaves. i wasn't out there long, in just 20 minutes i had most of the remaining scales removed. after i finished, i noticed i missed a few spots, but hopefully my sister can take over spraying duty.

i tried the chicken feet my father steam-cooked for an additional hour yesterday. maybe because i had them fresh yesterday, but these leftover chicken feet were not as good. too mushy, and infused with too much flavor. thankfully we have a second half we plan on cooking at home over the weekend.

a check of next week's weather shows a heat wave starting on sunday. that means i have to install my AC this weekend. what's even more insane is that tuesday's forecasted temperature is 104 degrees. in boston's history we've only had 100+ degrees temperature just 27 times. in fact, the hottest local temperature ever recorded for june is only 100 degrees. the last time we had 100+ degrees temperature was back in july 24, 2022 with a temperature of 100 degrees. the hottest temperature ever recorded in boston happened on july 4th, 1911. the temperature? 104 degrees.

in the final few hours that we were opened, it was mostly small sales - drinks mostly. by the time we closed, our profit tally beat last friday's numbers by a few dollars. if we continue this trend, june 2025 will be the first month where we've exceded last year's profit for the same month. that bodes well for a profitable summer. the next door bakery hasn't even opened yet (they were supposed to open today, but had to pass a fire inspection first), we may get more customers from them (or we may lose customers, hard to say).

i went home with an empty box. i'll need that tomorrow for when i visit chinatown in the early morning to buy my chinese cabbage for making paocai. we have just one unopened jar left.

it was a little warm inside the house, but manageable if i strip down to my underwear. of course any kind of hot weather makes the pipes inside of my bathroom wall give off a foul odor. i'll looking to invest in some incense or plug-in air freshener. i didn't eat until late - 9pm - reheated some leftover gyudon.

the day after my run, my legs were a little bit sore (particularly my inner thigh muscles), but otherwise i was okay. temperature today was expected to hit the 90's.

my father was mentioning how he cleaned out the sur la table air fryer. that thing is a workhorse and that's why we have two. but the one we used the most is starting to show some wear. occasionally the fan would make a wobbling sound. so periodically i'd check online to see if i can score a cheap used sur lab table air fryer. sure enough, i scored a hit today on facebook marketplace. someone was selling a 13qt sur la table air fryer for just $20. unfortunately the seller lives in roslindale, which is a haul. but i contacted the seller anyway, hoping i could go buy the air fryer over the weekend. i was surprised when the seller replied immediately. she was a little curt, said i could have the air fryer if it was still available and if i could pick it up immediately. i did some thinking and the earlier i could do is probably tomorrow morning at 10am if i borrowed my parents' car and left cambridge around 9am. she agreed to sell it to me. later i realized the reason why she was in a hurry to sell is because she's moving: if she doesn't get rid of her stuff by the end of the month, she's just going to toss everything out. she also made sure i could pay in cash.

is the bakery opening tomorrow? who knows. my sister said they were postponing their grand opening again. in the meantime, we continue to get free treats from them. they must be experimenting with recipes. today somebody delivered some basque cheesecake. like the spicy dark chocolate brownies last week, these cheesecakes were amazing. they almost taste like flan in how soft they were, yet with just a hint of sugar, and no crust. it felt more like eating a custard pie than a cheesecake.

it was busy again today. we ran out of indoor eating space, so one unlucky customer had to sit in the back in 90 degrees temperature. he quickly ate under the umbrella shade and left for cooler conditions. little moustache came today with his girlfriend. don't know where he lives but they take the bus to get here. ponytail guy came too. he always phones in his order, i've learned to recognize his number. he got his usual, chinese sausage bento. we actually ran out of sausages and was just about finish roasting a new batch just in time for his order. his sausage came right out of the oven after a 45 minute bake.

we had a lull in the afternoon so i changed into some clothes i didn't mind getting dirty and went over to my sister's place to treat her scale infested rhododendron. i saw esmei in the backyard, once again she was very friendly, unlike when my sister brings her to the cafe, and which case she willfully ignores me and gives my parents all the attention because they give her treats. i had clippers today - both short and long. i pruned back some overgrowth so i could access the inner infected branches. i brushed off the scales with a brush and a bucket of water. it was a dirty job. that level of infestation, the scales clump together like silky white cobwebs. they also release a dust when i hit them with the scrubbing brush. i dumped out the bucket and refilled it a few more times with clean water. i crawled behind the rhododendron and did more pruning. i also scrubbed off as much scales as i could, but i could only remove what i could see. there's some more i can't reach - too deep in the tangle of branches - that i'm going to try washing away with a hose and sprayer that my father will bring from belmont tomorrow. after that i'll spray everything with some horticulture oil to smother any surviving scales. all and all, it's not a difficult problem to treat.

i returned to the cafe completely covered in grime around 4pm. i changed back into my clean clothes, and washed all the branch bits and scale guts off my face.

my father deep fried the chicken feet yesterday. that was only step one. step two is to steam them in some sauce, which he didn't for 1-1/2 hours. he split the batch, this one is traditional dim-sum style flavor. it was actually pretty good and i quickly ate about half a dozen chicken feet. my father didn't think they were tender enough and left it to steam cook for another hour.

we thought the day was pretty much over but after 6pm we got two big orders. one was customer C, who accused us swindling her a few months back when she said never got her vegetarian bun to-go but video showed she actually ate it before she left. she went on a tirade about how she spends tens of thousands of dollars at our cafe but not sure if she wants to come back anymore. a few weeks later she was back. she has a habit of coming right when we're close to closing, and overstays so we end up waiting for her to leave before we can close. so while my mother and i were grumbling about her, a surprise online order came in. that late in the day orders shouldn't be processed, so when we checked the pick-up time, it was for tomorrow. i was about to call the customer to ask if she made a mistake when she showed up at the cafe. we figured out the problem and started making her order. the weird thing is she also order almost identical to customer C: pad thai, sesame noodles, dumplings. those two orders gave us a boost. customer C didn't leave until 6:40pm, shambled out of the cafe, left a mess of food on the floor. she said good bye to my father and purposely left my mother and me out because she hates us for some reason.

my mother packed me a bento even though i told her i had gyudon waiting for me back at home. i guess i'm having gyudon tomorrow night then. the temperature was still hot and humid by the time i left, but it was comforting in some strange way, like the air itself was hugging my tightly. the trick is to take things slow, as i slow peddled my way back home.

tonight was game 6 between the thunder and pacers. it was a must-win for indiana or their miracle season ends tonight with a loss. first half was competitive, OKC jumped out with a lead, only for the pacers to get it back midway in the quarter. OKC made a push to almost regain the lead in the second quarter, but the pacers pushed their lead to 20 points going into halftime. in the second half it was all pacers. beginning of the 4th they pushed the lead to 31 points. final minutes was played with just bench players, as both coaches sat their starters in anticipation of game 7 sunday night. indiana wins 91-108. there will be one final game of basketball left to cap off this season.

even though i woke up at 8:30am with the intent of going out for a run on my one day off, i didn't actually leave until after 10am. most likely i was procrastinating. i tried loading a new version of a modded copy of spotify after the version i uploaded a week ago stopped working again. spotify is going hard after pirates, and the mod community can't keep up, uploading new cracked versions of the app almost daily. anyway, it didn't work, so i tried downloading some podcasts, but they were taking too long to download (from streams) so i just copied some mp3 music files onto my phone instead. then for some reason i kep needing to use the bathroom.

eventually i did leave for a run. i haven't gone running in almost 2 months. luckily today was perfect running weather: 68 degrees but overcast, not too cold, not too warm. i wasn't sure how i'd do but i did pretty well considering i haven't ran in months. i had the endurance and i never cramped up. there were some changes on my running route. the city is making much needed repairs to the eliot bridge, so i had to make a circuitous clover-leaf detour just to get to the other side of the bridge. they finally re-installed the drinking fountain by the boat house, there were i get my cold water break. unfortunately i don't have anymore free days to go running this week. i probably won't be running until next wednesday.

coming back, i stopped at the community garden to water my plants. it rained in the early morning, but i don't know if i'm coming back tomorrow, so better to give my garden a proper watering. they set up bouncy castles in the back playground, which can only mean that the school season will soon be over (last day of school is june 24th). one of my striped mallow has already flowered as well as a daylily. the rest of my plants all seem to be in good shape, growing and healthy, no signs of slug or snail damage (so maybe the slug bait is working after all).

it was around 11:30am by the time i made it home. i took a shower and made myself a simple bowl of instant tonkotsu ramen with an egg for lunch.

i went back out in the afternoon to run errands. first i went to the davis square h-mart (via mass ave) to get some benishoga (pickled ginger strips) because i wanted to make gyudon for dinner tonight. i know reliable market in union square carries it, but i remember it was really expensive. prices at h-mart weren't that great either, but at $5.49 for a jar i'm willing to stomach that. i also grabbed some banana milk and a jar of huyfong chili garlic sauce (i like it more than their more famous sriracha).

i then followed elm street east to the UPS store to return a pair of packages for my mother (temu, macy's). i continued on somerville avenue to market basket to get some groceries.

by the time i got back home it was already 3pm. my original plan was to go to belmont to get some pruning and pesticide spraying equipment, then return to my sister's place to treat her scale-infested rhododendron. but it was already getting late and the weather seemed to have darkened, so i decided to do it some other day. it's a very messy job, and i'll probably get coated in sticky honeydew, so it's not something i'm looking forward to.

since i wasn't leaving the house for the rest of the day, i could finally clean the house, or do some retroactive blog updating. of course i ended up doing neither of those things, but instead planted some garlic chives in my alleyway, and threw away the rest because i had way too much.

it was around that time that i saw the karen read murder trial verdict: not guilty on all counts with the exception of the drunk driving conviction which is just a 1-year probation. my personal feeling is her boyfriend probably slipped and fell and died from exposure. but for some reason his cop friends and the state prosecutor were dead set on pinning the blame on her. the trial was for 2nd degree murder, but i think at most it's involuntary manslaughter if she did accidentally bump into him with her car, causing him to fall. but that's a big if, because the investigators botched up the evidence. besides being incompetent, it's no surprise that some of those cops were also sexist pigs, making rude comments about read. something else i've also noticed and i don't know if it's true or not, but a lot of her supporters also seem like they'd be trump supporters too. i don't know why i say this, other than just a gut feeling, after noticing a lot of her supporters are loud obnoxious white folks.

when evening came i made my gyudon. i'd already been defrosting a package of frozen shaved steak since this morning. the recipe went a little faster this time. from start to finish, it took about 25 minutes. with practice, i can probably get it down to even less. i poached my egg for too long and it became a hard-boiled egg. the final result was tasty, and i have enough for 2 more servings, so thursday and friday night's dinner are already set.

just a routine commute to the cafe this like any other tuesday morning. as i approached the intersection of garden and linnaean, i saw the green light and a police officer stopping a pedestrian from crossing while waving at me to approach and pass. so i pedaled faster to get across, but then suddenly he started freaking out, gesturing and yelling at me to stop. i had no idea what was going on, until i noticed the large semi-truck to my right advancing forward. so he wasn't gesturing at me, he was gesturing at the semi. unfortunately i was stuck in no-man's land and couldn't see the turn signals for warning. when i finally passed by the cop, he looked at me exasperated (through mirror shades), and told me point blank, "watch where you're going, you're going to get fucking killed." i was going to say something back, but decided not to waste my breath. it's actually his fault, it looked like he was gesturing at me that's why i advanced; he could've gotten me killed! directing traffic is his job, he's getting paid (on top of his salary), and he yells at me for doing it wrong. ACAB!

we found out today that we're nearly out of salt & pepper chicken, after spending last wednesday morning deep frying a whole batch. we had enough for today (just barely, chicken coincidentally was the most popular bento option). my father did cut up all the pork butts we bought yesterday and marinated them for charsiu pork. we ended up roasting about a box's worth, filled up another container for roasting tomorrow, and filled two more for the freezer. with the leftover fat bits he fried them to make cracklings.

we were busy today, with customers opting to sit on the back patio was the sky was overcast for much of the day though still a pleasantly warm day. we never got slammed, but orders kept on coming for a big chunk of the lunchtime block and then later in the evening. there was hardly any time to check our profits, which is something we like to do to gauge how well (or poorly) we're doing. i normally have a pretty tally of the approximate total (since i work in the back kitchen), but even i was surprised by how much more we made.

i went over to my sister's place to check on the mysterious white fungus on her rhododendrons. from the photos she sent me last night, they looked more like scale insects. turns out they're azalea bark scales, a kind of soft scale. i sprayed some with 70% alcohol but i didn't have the right equipment to deal with it. cleanup looks to be messy, as the scales have coated the bark in sweet sticky honeydew, which in turn is causing black sooty mold to kill off some of the branches. i'd first need to prune off any dead branches, then manually brush off as much scales as i can, before finally spraying the whole underside of the rhododendron with horticultural oil. another solution is to soil drench with systematic pesticide. since the plant has already finished flowering, it won't hurt the pollinators.

i met esmei in the backyard. normally she's very aloof around people, but when visitors come to her house she's very friendly and wants to play.

it started to rain in the early evening. i'd already put a plastic bag over my bike seat. thankfully the rain stopped around when we closed. i managed to make it home without getting soaked.

for dinner i prepared a package of spicy luosifen noodles. i ate while watching poker face. before throwing out the trash, i went and retrieved my motorcycle so i could park it closer to my house and put the rain cover on.

i researched dinotefuran and imidacloprid insecticide for soil drenching. unfortunately these class of neonicotinoids are banned in massachusetts. try to buy them on amazon and it tells you it can't ship to a massachusetts address. that gave me the bright idea of sending it to an amazon locker in new hampshire instead. neonicotinoids are not banned in the granite state. sure, it's a 30 mile drive to the nearest NH locker, but it might be worth if i can get my hands on some stronger insecticide. another alternative is to visit a new hampshire home depot. they carry some pesticides that aren't available in MA stores.

i woke up early so i could walk down to my community garden and water my plants. i haven't been down there since thursday evening, figured the little bit of rain we got saturday morning was enough to hold them over until i could make a visit. nobody else was in the garden, but a bunch of dogs and owners were in the adjacent rear park. all my plants have survived so far, with the except of the ground planted bitter melon, but it's stem had already been snapped when i put it in the ground, so i wasn't hopeful it'd survive. even my ground planted flower seedlings - snapdragons and nigellas - seem to be doing okay, putting out new leaves. i put in some tradescantia on my last visit in two of the grow bags, they're hardier than they look, they're doing well, one of them has even grown upwards which means it's already rooted. the leaves on the hyacinth beans still seem a little yellowy, but they've always been slow growers, i wouldn't too much about them. i brought in an empty trash bin before i left.

i returned home and waited for my parents. we're making a costco-market basket supply run to everett-chelsea. my father specifically wanted to visit that market basket because he says they have the best cuts of meat.

we made it to costco a bit after 10am. i got a chance to take a look at some new macbook pro models. tax-free weekend is in just 7 weeks, and i planned on getting a new macbook pro to replace my current 15" late 2013 retina macbook pro. the question is whether to get the 14" or the 16". i've watched a tons of youtube videos and reddit discussions with various recommendations. seeing the machines in person, 16" was the obvious choice. i thought it'd be enormous, bu it's actually slightly smaller than my current 15", but with a bigger screen because of the reduced bezel. i know i want a 1TB SSD storage, so now the choice is between an older M3 or the latest M4 chip (i'm leaning towards M3 because it's cheaper).

i was happy to see the tipico truck outside the costco parking. they do the same supply run route, we see them whenever we come on a monday morning.

our next stop was the chelsea market basket. i went to go return some cans while my parents went inside to shop. an old lady was returning her cans so i waited patiently. she was taking her time, feeding the same cans multiple times until the machine finally relented and accepted them. i waited for about 10 minutes before she finally finished.

i found my parents inside the supermarket. i went to the seafood department to check out their clams. they sell steamer clams for $6.99/lbs., which is the same sale price at star market. if we ever attempt to make fried clams, i know where to get them now.

we left chelsea a bit before noontime. we had just enough room to fit everything. i got dropped off at my place before meeting up with my parents at the cafe to help unload the supplies. the parking lot was packed with contractor trucks, a total of 4, all working at the bakery. after we finished, we headed back to my parents' place by 1pm.

inspecting the garden, i noticed a bunch of blue beans in RB2 had sprouted. because the beans themselves were pretty big, the seedlings were pretty dramatic. what's interesting is we also have a blue bean trellis on RB0, but none of those beans had sprouted yet. this is all because RB2 gets more sun than RB0. RB0 is partially shaded until late morning. RB2 gets early sun, but doesn't get shaded until late afternoon. that little bit of difference is enough to sprout the blue beans in RB2 first. a few blue beans in the back row of raised beds had also sprouted. the more sun exposure it gets, the sooner it germinates.

my mother made some wonton soup for lunch. i also had some leftover wings from yesterday. my parents had pan-fried wontons instead. my mother ate some healthy salad she got at costco. we also got some costco strawberries that were unusually sweet.

my mother gave me a haircut after lunch. the last time i got it cut was back in mid-october, so 8 months ago. i can tell i need a haircut when my hair gets long enough that i can put it in ponytail. she did a pretty good job this time, normally it takes a few weeks for me to grow into it.

my sister showed up with esmei. esmei was out in the backyard, hunting for rabbits. she could smell them, she just couldn't find them. she eventually gave up and laid down in the shade, still sniffing around and raising her ears to listen.

my sister took my mother to the bank. i went out to the backyard and planted my snapdragons and nigellas into long planters. i used some leftover soil, added some osmocote slow release fertilizer pellets for nutrients. in the late afternoon when i checked RB0, i noticed a single blue bean seedling had sprouted. i also saw that one of the luffas in RB3 was already making a female flower (before any male flowers).

for dinner we grilled some corn and another pair of new york strip steaks. 30 minutes before the steaks were ready to cook, i took them out of the fridge and coated them on both sides with montreal steak seasoning. i got a new bottle from market basket, one that wasn't 25% reduce sodium. for the corn, we coated them with lee kum kee korean barbecue sauce. we found two unopened jars in the cupboard, so i applied the sauce heavily. for the steaks, we cooked them at 550 degrees, 3 minutes per side, rotating at the midway point. we took a thermometer reading after 6 minutes, the steaks were anywhere from 115-130 degrees, so we took them off the grill.

we waited 10 minutes before cutting into the steaks. in the meantime we had some corn. the barbecue sauce was delicious, but the corn was still too juicy, i like a dry grilled corn. when it came time for the steaks, the interior was medium-rare and very juicy. my parents shared a steak while i had one for myself. it was a lot of beef, i could barely finish it, felt stuffed afterwards.

i went home to get ready for game 5 between the pacers and thunder. other than the first few minutes, the pacers never led this game. indiana mounted a comeback starting in the 3rd quarter, got the score down to within 2 points, but there would be no miracle tonight, as OKC seemed to have learned from their past mistakes, and clamped down to make sure indiana would not regain the lead. final score 109-120, OKC wins. game 6 is thursday in indiana.

i was sweeping my sidewalk and front steps this morning when a woman i didn't recognize screamed out my name from across the street like we were old friends. turns out it was my neighbor kimberly, whom i met when i was doing the census back in 2020. i haven't seen her since then, even though she lives just around the block from me. we just have different schedules. anyway, she had a dog and knows my sister through the local dog park. they got to talking and kimberly found i was her brother.

i took the motorcycle to the cafe to drop off a bunch of supplies i bought from chinatown yesterday. i then went to the porter square star market to look for 3-day weekend special sales: tuscan cantaloupes ($1.97/each), nectarines ($1.97/lbs), new york strip steaks ($6.97/lbs), and lamb loin chops ($6.97/lbs.). i found the melons but the nectarines weren't too enticing so i took a pass. i couldn't find any new york strip steaks on sale until i found the last two packages. they had plenty of lamb loin chops though. when i went to self pay, the machine couldn't read the smudged bar code on the steaks and one of the attendants had to help me out, took a little while.

i went to my parent's place. we planted most of the plants last monday, and already there's been a lot of activity. a lot of the squash plants have already flowered. all male flowers so far (which is normal), but soon we can expect to see some female flowers. this strategy this year is to grow squashes as soon as possible, since typically by late summer they don't make it, succumbing to diseases, pests, or drought. some of the bean seeds we planted have already sprouted. interestingly, most of the long bean seeds, which we figured would be least likely to germinate because the seeds were not good quality (just a little bit harvested from last year, the rest of 2023 and 2022). as for the blue beans - mostly likely to germinate - not of them have sprouted yet. nor has any of our newly seeded cilantro or dill.

now is a lowkey time in the garden, where we basically do nothing but water regularly and just wait for the plants to grow. a chipmunk had decapitated one of the long bean seedlings, so i ended up planting 4 new bean seeds in its place.

i helped my father drive two u-posts (using a mallet and a plank of wood) near the rain barrels so he could set up a trellis for the eventual luffa gourd vines. he helped me bring out the dragon fruit cactus and the reed plant from the grow room, the last two remaining plants from the basement. now i can officially close down the grow room for the season. we also pruned the gardenia. i was thinking maybe trim off a third, but we ended up chopping off about 2/3. i wonder if we removed too much. maybe that was the problem last year: aggressive pruning caused it to spend all summer regrowing all its leaves, so didn't have time to make any new flower buds.

i brought the disposable vape pen for my father to try. he was drinking a beer at the time, so not sure if he felt any effects. maybe the THC resin has already been all used up.

in the afternoon my mother and i took a walk down to the mt.auburn star market. there was the aftermath of a girl's soccer game on the grove street playground field. there were only a handful of parents watching from the sidewalk in lawn chairs. nearby, there was a lot of activity in the basketball court, seems to be a popular spot for young people. we admired some flowering plants along the way: linden tree, dogwoods, yellow loosestrife, amsonia, yarrow, delphiniums, columbines, flowering sedums, sour cherries. star market is a nice place to explore, particularly the mt.auburn store which has a decent alcohol selection (it's the only star market i know that has alcohol). they were selling these super sub sandwiches for $8.99, about the size of a baby. i think it's just all their leftover deli meats, like sliced turkey, roast beef, and other cuts. at that price it's a bargain, you could probably eat it for a few days, though i question how tasty it might be.

returning home, my mother felt hungry and thirsty so she started eating the potato chips i bought as well as drinking some of my pink lemonade.

my mother bought some mozzarella and tomatoes and made a caprese salad with some homegrown basil. i was lounging on the zero gravity chair watching poker face and fell asleep.

we grilled some chicken wings and steaks for dinner. the wings i did a dry brine in the afternoon and left them to reduce on the countertop. the steaks i sprinkled montreal steak seasoning about 30 minutes before we cooked them. by accident i bought the low sodium version of the seasoning. we cooked the wings first, about 3 minutes per side, before applying thai sweet chili sauce on both sides and cooking a few additional minutes for some nice char. the steaks we could 3 minutes per side, turning them at the midway point. after 6 minutes we took a temperature reading, it was still 110 degrees, so we left it cooking on medium for another minute before another temperature check that showed 125 degrees. we took the steaks off the grill and left it to rest for 10 minutes. the final result was a tender medium-rare doneness. the montreal steak seasoning was okay, but i could've used a bit more salt. as for the wings, they were cooked to doneness, but not charred enough.

after dinner i went home. street cleaning is tomorrow so i ended up parking 2 blocks away to find a safe spot.

i used the bathroom before taking a shower. i heard noises upstairs while i was in the bathroom. i thought maybe it was my imagination, but later confirmed that jeff was back. my upstairs neighbor has been gone for weeks, i was starting to think he was never returning. he's got a weird schedule, he'll be home for a few days, and then be gone for another long stretch. i don't mind neighbors like that.

there was no getting around it, it was going to rain on today's pride parade. in all the times i've gone, i've only remember one time when it rained, the 2011 pride. to add insult to injury, this is the 13th consecutive week where it rained on a saturday. to find a saturday that wasn't rainy, you'd have to go all the way back to march.

it was going to be rainy and cold, so i dressed in some pants and a long-sleeve pullover, with a foldable windbreaker jacket. i packed my dSLR with just the 55-250mm lens. i also brought my gopro, my insta360, insta360 selfie stick, and my fuji 3D camera. i was going to bring some water but jettisoned it at the last minute because my bag was too heavy. not hydrating keeps me dry and not have to go use the bathroom. i wore my new merrell hiking shoes which supposedly are waterproof but i never really tested that out until today.

the parade starts at 11am so i left the house by 10am. the roads were slightly damp from showers earlier, but otherwise it was dry. riding through kendall square, i noticed they changed the traffic pattern again. broadway used to be two-way, but now it's only one way heading east, with a dedicated two-way cycle track. this seems like a permanent change because they also narrowed broadway, building out the parcel that used to be the US national highway traffic safety property, and creating a new barrier, one with grass and full-grown trees. they also got rid of the bike counter, which used to be one of my favorite things biking through kendall square.

crossing over the longfellow bridge into boston, i went down charles street, then turning onto beacon street to arlington street, getting onto commonwealth avenue. i made the mistake of turning down berkeley street (actually a one way going the wrong direction, but because the street had already been closed off, i only realized i went the wrong way until much water) instead of clarendon street. i went uphill onto clarendon, parked my bike at the intersection of clarendon and columbus avenue.

it was 10:30am, still plenty of time for me to walk down to copley to get a sneak peek of the procession preparations. hot from biking, i took off my windbreaker. not only was there the pride parade today, but there was also a no king anti-trump protest. the pride parade is only for pride participants, so curious to see how the no king protest will manifest. will people stand on the sidelines waving signs? or will protesters crash the parade midroute?

i climbed up to clarendon hill. somebody had taken my usual spot - right next to the mail box. i stood a little bit downhill, on a sidewalk cutout, so i still had a pretty good view of the procession coming up the street. before the parade started though, it began to rain. a light drizzle that was just a nuisance at first, but over time i started to feel damp so i opened up my umbrella. i would open and close the umbrella intermittently. it was hard to take photos holding the umbrella, plus i also didn't want to block the view of people behind me. but without the umbrella i'd get progressively wetter, to the point where i put my windbreaker back on because i started feeling cold and began shivering.

the parade started right at 11am with the bikers (more lady bikers than guy bikers). that was followed by the politicians. i saw mayor wu, congresswoman ayanna pressley, lieutenant governor kim driscoll, governor maura healey, and senator ed markey. elizabeth warren was a no show even though i saw her yesterday when i passed by her house and she waved at me (no lie). maybe she had some personal matters to attend to and couldn't make it.

the procession is getting longer, which is a good and a bad thing. at one point i was wondering if the parade was ever going to end and i ended up walking towards copley just to see the end of the parade so i could leave. you got your banks, and biotech companies, and retailers like macy's and sephora. delta also had a big presence, the employees seem to have so much fun there. NBC telemundo put on a show, hiring dancers dressed in colorful feathers along with a marching band (NBC also does a live telecast, with dual english-speaking and spanish-speaking anchors).

some notable highlights this year includes the mrs.ropers impersonators (gone are the tina turner impersonators), with colorful caftans and curly red wigs. i forgot what organization/company (produce conglomerate), but there were people handing out bananas from shopping baskets. back was the pole dancer, the same woman as last year, she must have some amazing strength to dance so effortless on the pole. i saw a honda rebel 500! i recognized it immediately from the led highlight, but it took me some research later on to identify it as the 500. there were a lot of dog at the parade including a pair of robot dogs! they looked like unitree quadrupeds (sell for $2500-3800 a piece). so it was walgreens giving out big reusable plastic tote bags. i managed to snag 3.

so how the no king protest worked was midway through there was a group of protestors marching. and once the pride parade was over, the back end was an entire procession of even more no king protestors. honestly, i feel like it's as much a protest as it's also a competition to see who can design the best protest sign. the creativity of these protestors is quite amazing. not just signs, but some people made puppets, our costumes, it's nice to see creativity given an outlet to express itself.

i didn't wait for the whole no king protest procession to end. i started walking back up clarendon, retrieved my bicycle, and went down to columbus-berkeley to watch the tail end of the pride parade a second time. i did this last year, and found that looking down berkeley towards the south end are some great photo opps. a woman in the walgreens group noticed me and said, "didn't i see you earlier?" i told her i biked over so i could watch the parade a second time. there was also an apartment where a bunch of drunk twentysomethings were cheering on the parade from the comfort of their apartment windows. people were throwing gifts to them, but they had a difficult time catching anything because they were so drunk. i also walked down to the south end. some side streets were cordoned off for block parties. there was a strong sense of neighborhood community.

i finally left the area a bit after 2pm and headed towards ming's market to get some groceries. by then the rain had finally stopped. my list included: daikon radish, taiwanese cabbage, baby bokchoi, cilantro, longhorn peppers, eggplants, garlic, tofu, peppercorn, fensi (粉絲 glass noodles), mirin, and sunflower seeds. my mother also asked me to get some napa cabbage if it was cheap, but they were $1.19/lbs. and they only carried extra large size napa so i didn't get it.

i left chinatown by 2:50pm. i normally go up washington street, take a left on stuart then up charles street to get to beacon. unfortunately charles street was still barricaded despite the parade having already passed through. i took a detour and went the wrong way down arlington street - still closed to car traffic - to get onto beacon then onto the fiedler footbridge to get back to cambridge via longfellow bridge.

i didn't get home until 3:30pm. first thing i did was use the bathroom. i called my mother asking about business today, but i already knew the answer based on what i saw in the square app: there was hardly any customers today at the cafe, officially 8 sales, plus one delivery order. i stripped off my sweat-soaked clothes and took a shower.

i spent the rest of the day processing my photos. i took 2700 photos, whittled it down to about 450 for an album that i shared with alex. not sure if he'll see them; i sent him an album last year and he made no comments.

the breaking news when i got home was the shooting of minnesota lawmakers. this was politically-motivated, as both were democrats. one lawmaker and her husband had already died, another one and his wife are stable condition. the suspect is still currently on the run. elsewhere in the middle east, israel and iran continue trading missiles. across the united states, cities are staging no king protests against trump. his tariffs are destroying the global economy. his domestic policies (gutting agencies, going after universities, ICE raids) is putting the country in turmoil. and what is he doing today? holding a $45 million military parade in his honor (his birthday, naturally). the supposed excuse is in honor of the army's 250 anniversary, but he would've found some other justification.

for dinner i had some chicken bento my mother prepared for me yesterday. the chicken was braised by my father. i ate the pride banana for dessert.

a busy day, just like every day this week. less windy today, i was able to open the cantilever patio umbrella. when i went to go take down the market umbrella, i noticed the pole was bent from yesterday's wind collision. luckily you can buy replacement umbrella poles online, but that umbrella looks to be out of commission for the time being.

karen read's second trial closing statements were on all the local channels this morning. totally overshadowing the bigger new of israel's attack on iran and iran's subsequent retaliation.

less than a dozen bento were sold today. instead, there was an uptick in fried rice and chicken curry sales. vegetable stirfry noodles were also surprisingly popular. all items that take extra efforts to make. despite requiring more time to assemble, these are actually some of the more inexpensive items on the menu. my mother suggested we should increase the price after the 4th of july break.

we were busy around lunchtime then busy again in the afternoon when someone phoned in a large order. we always get nervous with phone orders because we make the food not knowing for sure if the caller will show up or if we'll get paid. fortunately in all the times we've taken phone orders, we've never once had a prank call. callers show up sooner or later. but that little afternoon push put us above last friday's profit.

my father made a new batch of beef noodle soup as well as pad thai sauce. he toasted some sichuan peppercorn while i used the grinder to turn them into powder. i used the pot-in-pot method to quickly cool down the beef noodle soup broth before my parents divided them into single serving portions.

i took home some leftover beef noodle soup for dinner. as soon as i got back home, i went to go move my motorcycle. thank dennis for warning me that a moving truck was taking over that side of the street tomorrow.

i made dinner just in time for the thunder-pacers game at 8:30pm. it looked like indiana was going to take game 4 and go up 3-1 in the series, but OKC started chipping away at the pacer's 10 point lead in the 4th quarter and ended up with the lead with just minutes to spare. the thunder won 111-104 in a must-win for them if they were to have any chance of winning the final. series is now tied 2-2, as it becomes a best out of 3 series. next game is monday night.

i went to my nearby star market one last time for some more boneless chicken thighs on sale before heading to the cafe this morning. once more, my mother was already there, having walked, while my father would come a short time later after tending to the backyard first.

it was a windy day, but i opened our cantilevered umbrella anyway. that was a mistake, when i saw it collapsing in the strong winds, i ended up closing it. instead i set up my sister's purple market umbrella with the wind vents. i wanted to see - as an experiment - if it'd be able to handle the winds. it seemed stable enough, mostly because it didn't have as large an area as the cantilevered umbrella. but in the afternoon - while two customers were sitting outside - a strong gust of wind actually managed to not only knock the umbrella over on its base, but then blow the umbrella into the street. thankfully the two customers risked their lives to run into the road to retrieve the umbrella. we didn't know what happened until i saw the footage later in the afternoon. so even that umbrella is not windproof. basically if its very windy, you can't use any of the umbrellas.

in the late morning i made a quick run to trader joe's to get some baby cucumbers and some eggs. i noticed TJ no longer has an egg limit, or maybe i just didn't see the sign. a dozen large white eggs were $3.99, or 33¢/egg, not exactly cheap.

today was a busy day, with at least 37 sales. so busy in fact that i made 4 batches of black soy noodles, and nearly had to make a 5th batch if it got any busier. my father was busy rendering all the boneless chicken thighs, marinating them, and finally storing them in containers to be frozen. i made another batch of tea eggs in the afternoon, that's 3 consecutive days, 90 eggs used. that means for sure we need to replenish our egg supply.

the baker next door was busy all day, and we saw employees going in and out. i heard from my sister that the baker has 5 employees. my mother spoke with the baker who told her she hopes to open by next friday. she also brought some sample brownies for us to try. these were made with glutinous rice flour. the brownies were jet black and very dense yet soft. it had a complicated taste, dark chocolate, molasses, and a hint of chili pepper. honestly, i very rarely taste brownies as good as this. i'm very excited to see what they offer when they eventually open.

i've been sleeping late (watching star trek: lower deck episodes to 1-2am), so i was tired today at the cafe. i've got one more day of work friday and then i have saturday off to catch the pride parade. i've been following the forecast on multiple news broadcast and unfortunately it looks to be rainy. i don't remember going to pride in the rain. i must've, just can't recall. it's not a big deal, but depending on how badly it's raining, i'll either have to take the subway, or ride my bike. it'll probably be a gametime decision.

after work, i went to the community garden to water my plants. molly was there, sitting on the pathway, sorting through dozens of zinnia seedlings she purchased. she told me she got some pretty zinnia seeds a few seasons ago, but never got around to growing them indoors because she said it was a lot of work setting up the proper grow lights. another gardener in a plot further back (whom i've never seen before) came up to us and asked about a seedling she found in her garden. i told her it was an elm seedling. before i left, i also noticed david planted the two bitter melon seedlings i gave him.

i came home with a chicken stirfry bento my mother had prepared for me. i wasn't very hungry, and didn't eat until after 8:30pm. afterwards i had some more salted watermelon. they were leftover from yesterday, so the sea salt made the watermelon soggy. that's okay, because i still have two large containers of watermelon left.

last night i made a quick stop at my star market to see if they had any boneless chicken thighs on sale. they only had one package, so i decided to wait until this morning and check out the porter square star market. they had the boneless chicken thighs i was looking for. i grabbed two packages (the limit) and went to go pay.

i made it to the cafe earlier than usual, but was surprised to see my mother was already there. she'd walked again, left the house around 8am. she cooked 7 cups of rice and was roasting some charsiu pork. i made a new batch of tea eggs. once the tea eggs were simmering, i brought up the deep fryer in preparation to fry some salt & pepper chicken. that was also the time when my father showed up. he said he took some gout pills which cured his leg pain, but he still has trouble bending his knee, and said i should go to belmont to plant our bitter melons while he comes in to work today.

we tried something new where we got the folding table and deep fried the chicken outside, so the cafe won't smell like cooking oil the rest of the day. it actually worked out pretty well. later my father fried some battered tofu so i could once again make my imitation taiwanese stinky tofu with hot sauce and paocai. my 2nd aunt showed up for work around 11am, giving me further incentive to leave, but there was so much to do, i ended up staying until 1:30pm, until after our busy lunch period.

biking to my parents' house, i made a detour to the mt.auburn star market, to grab some more boneless chicken breasts on sale. i didn't get to the house until 2pm.

i told my mother it'd take me 2 hours to plant the bitter melons, even though in my mind i figured it'd take less than half an hour. my father and i already weeded the bed on monday, but i still needed to till the soil then add a combination of chicken manure and slow release osmocote fertilizer. i had a dozen chicken-wire column cages so i could only plant a dozen bitter melons. i picked the best ones - those already with long vines - and planted them. i then watered not only the new bitter melon patch but the rest of the raised beds as well.

i noticed some of my orchid flowers have dark spots on them. this is botrytis, a fungal disease that's common to phalaenopsis orchids when they get water on their flowers and the weather is cool and damp. it doesn't hurt the orchids, just damage the flowers. treatment is mostly not watering from above and provide good air circulation. i also noticed one of the smaller jasmines had a few mealybugs. since last fall when i sprayed with bifenthrin, i haven't seen a single mealybug in all of our houseplants. i wasn't worried, i just sprayed them with some insecticidal soap. if anything, it means the bifenthrin has finally worn off, and the plants are safe for pollinator. i'll spray them again in the fall before putting them back into the grow room.

i left for the cafe, didn't get there until almost 4pm. i went home, passing a man on the street marking the road with spray paint and holding a futuristic device. i went home and looked it up: radiodetection RD7200, sells for $3000.

i left soon afterwards to return a bunch of stuff: clear plastic bins that were too small to whole foods (amazon purchase), used nespresso pods at the UPS store, and a pair of oversized kipling bags my mother no longer wanted at a fedex dropoff (walgreens). coming back, i stopped by dollar tree to get a few snacks.

my day wasn't done yet, as i walked to the community garden. i dropped off a pilea plant for anne marie (placed in a paper bag to protect it from the sun), and two bitter melons for david. i also planted a foxglove i dug up from belmont (won't flower this season, just a seedling). i watered my plot before leaving.

it was almost 6pm. i took a shower and did some snacking while waiting for the start of the thunder-pacers game at 8:30pm. i put a frozen chicken alfredo meal in the oven an hour before gametime. when the cafe closed, i saw they sold at least 23 bento boxes (i can't see delivery orders). i don't think we've ever sold that much that wasn't a part of a big order. of course that means tomorrow morning i have to make yet another batch of tea eggs. that's 3 days in a row.

winner of game 3 when teams have split the previous 2 end up winning the NBA finals 79% of the time. OKC won the first quarter, but the pacers got the lead going into halftime, after numerous back and forth. no team ever lead by more than single digits. 3rd quarter going into the 4th was more of the same, like two evenly matched opponents. midway in the 4th quarter the pacers finally broke the thunder, got a multi-possession lead. it was a hard-fought game, but indiana wins 107-116. there's no denying OKC is a very good team. but their weakness seems to be road games. as a young team they can get flustered in hostile territory. so here's hoping the pacers can take advantage of this in game 4. teams up 3-1 in the NBA finals go on to win nearly 96% of the time.