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JUL

18

2019

i went to bed super early last night, around 10:30pm, because i got up just as early yesterday. i woke up briefly when my indian neighbors were arguing loudly in the middle of the night, sleeping neighbors be damned. i was tempted to record it and run it through some hindu voice translator but not worth the effort. i woke up by 8:00am, annie already gone. it was so hot and humid yesterday, i was surprised by how cool it was this morning, like natural air conditioning, felt nice. i opened a few windows to help ventilate the warm interior.

i'm still not sure what to make of the family living upstairs, currently just a mom and her son. they get up pretty early in the morning, and she drops off her son at camp via uber. i saw them this morning around 8:20am waiting for their ride to show up. the mother was taking a photo of her son, posing on front steps, the house a giant prop. they come home late too, always after dinner, so they're eating out every night, not much of a cook.

i biked to the bank in union square to deposit the rent money (which will be used to cover the cost of the gutter repair project, until steve can send me a check for his share). i stopped by market basket afterwards. i didn't really need anything, but annie asked me to get her some greek yogurt ($3.69). along the way i also got a few supplemental supplies: bag of pretzel crisps ($2), package of shredded parmesan cheese ($1.99), jar of huy fong chili garlic sauce ($3.19), and a can of goya chipotles peppers ($1.89).

my aunt was supposed to be at the cafe at 2pm so i could help her set up her new ipad (6th generation) which arrived this morning. but when i saw on the cafe webcam that she was already there by 1:30pm, i decided to go there early. i took the utility bike because i didn't want to deal with the hassle of finding a parking spot for the motorcycle. transfer was easy, the moment i turned on the new ipad, nearby apple devices were all trying to sync to it. she brought her old ipad - which i sealed up the shattered glass screen with clear tape - which i used to transfer her old data onto the new ipad. it was all pretty automatic and effortless, and was familiar to me since i recently transfered data for my mother's new ipad air (3rd generation; although in her case she had to back up first befoe i did the transfer which ended up taking a while). after moving everything, i tried setting up my aunt's youtube account but she couldn't remember her gmail address nor her password (i seemed to have the only copy but on my laptop which i didn't bring).

so i opted to go home first to get the password before coming back. but while i was outside, i checked with amazon which alerted me that my uncle's replacement kyocera rally phone had been delivered to my parents' place (i thought it was coming to my place, which would've made everything much easier). so instead i rode to belmont to grab the phone, but also my mother's old ipad 5th generation case which is compatible with the ipad 6th generation. while i was there i also couldn't resist checking out some backyard plants.

so far still no aerial leaves. a few possible candidates from earlier in the week turned out to be large floating coin leaves. nothing to do but keep on waiting. there are currently 22 lotus leaves, not counting the 2 that died from the raccoon attack.

one thing that only i seem to be able to do is pick off squash vine borer eggs from cucurbit plants: buttercup squash, zucchini, bottle gourd, and cucumbers. it's vitality important because if just one egg is allowed to hatch and crawl inside the hollow stem, it could very easily kill the entire plant. i found a few today, but i still have to keep vigilante. fortunately it takes 1-2 weeks for the eggs to hatch, so i typically have some time to find them.

a flush of new blossoms have appeared on our regular jasmine plants while the belle of india jasmines seem slow to blossom. my father thinks it's because the roots got damaged when he divided up the plant we purchased back in the spring. when they do blossom the belle of india jasmines last for 2 days and have a stronger scent than regular jasmine. the gardenia won't flower until next spring, but we want it to leave out as much as possible, as the plant was completely defoliated a few months ago and we thought it was already dead. it seemed to have miraculously come back to life and producing so many leaves it seems to be on plant steroids.

i could've stayed longer but left by 3pm when my mother called asking me to bring the slowcooker to the cafe. it was going to be a challenge to carry it on my bicycle but i put the cooker in a cardboard box and strapped two bungie cords through the lid to keep it from popping off during transit.

the kyocera rally phone worked the moment i put in the old SIM card. still not sure what happened to the old phone, hopefully this one will last a bit longer. the ipad case fit my aunt's ipad perfectly. she asked me to help her put on a screen protector (they found 3 that i ordered a while back). i hate doing it on phones, and it's even worse for ipads because of the larger screen, it's practically impossible to keep it completely dust free. i tried my best, but there were still a few trapped dust grains, which appeared as air pockets that can't be smoothed over. the protectors were also cheap plastic ones (instead of glass) which will get scratched over time. i told my aunt to get it redone in taiwan if she wants a better screen protector.

i returned home by 4:20pm. first thing i did was to call my father back so he could set up my aunt's youtube account with the email and password that i found on my macbook.

i had a ham & cheese sandwich for lunch and the exact same thing for dinner. i've got it portioned out exactly so i've got one more sandwich to go before i finally finish all my bread and ham.

around 9pm my aunt called me more than half a dozen times, said she couldn't use the line app on her new ipad even though it worked fine at the cafe earlier. she want trying to send some documents to an insurance person visiting her house. afterwards she called me back, said maybe it was because the ipad wasn't connected to her wifi yet. she managed to figure out the problem herself, but then called me back at least 3 more times to report she still wasn't able to get online. finally i had enough of her incessant phone calls, so i got on the bike and raced down to her apartment. to be fair, her wifi password is the default automatically generated random password that came with her gateway box, and it's a very long and hard to enter password. but i managed to do it on my first try and she was able to get online with her new ipad.

i finished watching long shot today, the charlize theron seth rogen romantic comedy. it reminded me of knocked up, another rogen romantic comedy about a lovable schlub who ends up with a girl way out of his league due to unusual circumstances. long shot wasn't high on my list, but i watched it because i'm a theron fan. it turned out to be pretty good, and rogen wasn't as annoying as i typically find him in films.