i biked to belmont this saturday morning. after having some almond pastry and scallion pancakes for lunch, my father and i went on a supply run, first to ming's market in chinatown followed by food-pak express in roxbury.

everywhere i looked i saw white flowering pears. younger trees have that upright oval shape while older trees branch out more into an umbrella shape.

the parking lot across from south end ming's market was nearly empty and i was afraid the place had finally closed after my father remarked business wasn't doing well the last time we were here. turns out everybody was parking in the much larger adjacent parking lot, which apparently is free on weekends, or at least with validated parking. they had a collection of herbal teas, including kunlun chrysanthemum, something i've been drinking quite a lot these days. i was actually rationing my supply because the one that i have was a gift from somebody to my parents, but apparently it's not that rare (at least i can get it at the asian supermarket) so i'm going to be more generous with my portions (though 5 flowers is enough for a tall glass of tea, with several refills without losing flavor). they also sold something called a slimcado (slim avocado) which i'd never seen before.

next stop was food-pak express in roxbury, the asian restaurant supply store. my father didn't realize how close it was to where we were (a bit over a mile) and i looked up the fastest route via google maps before we left the house. basically we followed I-93 via the shortcut of albany street then frontage road. it was so easy, my father said he could do chinatown-food-pack runs in the future instead of making it into two separate trips.

we arrived at the cafe by 2pm to drop off the supplies. my father was helping my 2nd aunt and sister's godmother with some paperwork. we returned to belmont before 3pm. pulling into the driveway, i noticed something was off at the top of the house. the gable louver had a large hole in it. i climbed the ladder to take a closer look, there were already broken pieces in the gutter. i was surprised that the louver was simply a piece of plastic. i removed it from the house easily, looking into the attic from the hole. not sure how long the louver's been broken, but i didn't see any water damage nor any signs of critters. the louver looked like it'd be easy to replace, so my father and i went to home depot to look for a replacement part.

the vinyl gable louver itself costs $9, an exact match. we also got a tube of silicone caulk to seal the louver and a caulking gun (not sure if we had one at home, save us a trip of getting one from the cafe). it was easy to fix, although the silicone caulk was difficult to work with because it was so runny. i also got the wrong kind, white instead of color, but you couldn't see it anyway. my father put in a few screws to keep the louver in place. the only thing left to do now is to paint it.

more flowers have blossomed on the kwanzan since last weekend, although the tree is not yet enveloped by a pink cloud of petals. despite all the rain we've had over the past few days, not a single flower petal has been shed yet.

the bareroot kwanzan flowering cherry has developed flower buds after all, when we initially thought this year was going to be all leaves.

the wisterias are also slowly starting to come alive, swelling their leaf buds. we have two large potted wisterias, and two smaller potted wisterias, and one that doesn't have any roots but lots of branches and buds that i planted in a medium pot. we would never plant them back in the ground, but we're hoping to train them into flowering trees, like the ones we saw at mahoney's.

after dinner my father asked me to go visit my sister's godmother so she could sign some forms, since she's leaving for new york city again tomorrow afternoon. while i was there i saw the two empty bedrooms, one of which those MIT girls are interested in renting for a month in june. coincidentally, both of them contacted me later in the evening, asking if they could see the apartment tomorrow. at first i told them no (because nobody's at the cafe), but i thought about it and said i could meet them tomorrow morning between 10-11am, since i would be passing through the area.