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the day before thanksgiving is a stressful time as you collect the last of your ingredients before everything is closed tomorrow. not sure how it plays out in other states but here in massachusetts stores are required by law to be closed, which doesn't happen at any other times besides thanksgiving. it's kind of nice that most everyone has the day off, but it can suck if you forget to buy something essential.

this morning i biked down to the savmor discount liquors in east cambridge near lechmere to pick up some beers. i could've saved myself the trip and gone to the liquor store around the corner, but i wanted a bigger selection, and maybe a better price. i'd been here just one other time, with my italian roommate marco back in 2011, who introduced me to some european beers.

i remember they had a bigger selection than what i actually saw, and i was disappointed with the lack of choices. they didn't even carry any woodchuck amber hard cider, other than a six-pack of a flavor i didn't recognize that looked like it wasn't selling because it was covered in dust. i got a six pack of fat tire belgium white, six-pack of long trail double bag, six-pack of luck buddha, six-pack of taiwanese mango beer, and finally a 5-pack of choya travel-size plum wine. i ended up spending $60 because the taiwanese novelty beer was the most expensive at $18 while everything else was $10/pack. the lucky buddha beer was the cheapest at just $8.88, it's probably not that good, but the buddha-shaped bottle looked amazing that i had to get it.

riding back home, i drop my bike off of a sidewalk curb. that sudden jolt was enough to jostle the beer bottles in my rear bike baskets as i heard something falling off and then a split second later an explosion of frothy beer as one of the belgium whites smashed to the ground. i looked around to see if anyone saw me and quickly got out of there.

back at home, after unloading all the beers, i rode to market basket to pick up some last minute items. it was starting to get crazy but not yet at insanity level. i got some more drinks - a gallon of apple cider (non-alcoholic) and a 12-pack of moxie soda for anyone who prefers a sweet drink. i was also supposed to get some mussels but the ones they had didn't look fresh and the shells were tiny, so i decided to check out star market instead.

after dropping off the supplies at home, i walked to star market. there was a sale on clementines, but they looked like tiny lemons as they were quite yellow and small so i didn't get them fearing they'd be sour. they had some fresh looking mussels, but they we selling at $3.99 and i wasn't going to pay $8 for a bag of mussels when they usually go for $4-5. besides, with a dozen people over for thanksgiving, one bag probably wasn't going to be enough. i left star market empty-handed. a line was forming outside petsi's pie. it got so long i could see it from inside my house, stretching nearly a block.

for lunch i made a turkey sandwich, with a serving of rice pudding and some chamomile tea i got earlier. i realize i'm not a big fan of chamomile, i prefer chrysanthemum tea which has a sweeter taste, but you can only find that in asian super markets.

my sister came over an hour later to collect a few things she asked me to get for her from market basket (she was going to drive there originally but i laughed at the suggestion, drive there the day before thanksgiving? be serious) including some corn muffin mix and a jar of chicken bouillons. she could've also taken my flan and beers, but there was no room for the flan in the cafe fridge and i was afraid if the beer went to belmont, my father would drink some of it before thanksgiving. the trash truck can right she was she was about to leave and scratched the rear bumper of her car when they carelessly dragged out the trash bins.

with the possibility that one of our guests still might stay at my place, i finally got around to tiding up the guest bedroom. i put on the bedsheet and folded some clothes that had been on the bed since this summer (clothes that i was hanging from my clothesline, they were still on the hangers). i did a load of laundry and put away all my summer clothes (mostly shorts) while bringing out my winter clothes (sweaters).

in the afternoon my father drove to logan airport to pick up pansusu arriving from texas. my mother called to ask me to order a bus ticket for pansusu who's leaving for new york city saturday morning.

finally i did a water change on my aquarium, as there was a large clump of hair algae growing from the center of the driftwood. i should've never let it get so large, it's been nearly 2 months since i last cleaned the tank, after i made a personal promise to clean more often (weekly) to control the algae bloom.

for dinner i made another turkey sandwich, finally exhausting all my sandwich ingredients. sandwiches are okay, but i really want to step up my game. next time i'm thinking meatball subs. i ate while watching the nets-celtics game which started around 7pm. this was supposed to be kyrie irving's return to boston game, but he had a "shoulder injury" and couldn't make it with his teammates, not even to sit on the bench for moral support. truth is, he didn't want to come back to his former team because the crowd was going to boo him mercilessly. the game was close, mostly because of brooklyn's lights out 3-point shooting (21 made), which apparently is the new normal (enough so that they're rumors of creating a new 4-point shooting line). the game also marked the return of kemba walker as he sprained his neck. kemba set a new high point record as a celtics with 39 points. the thing i love most about his playing style is he doesn't hog the ball, he gets his points within the rhythm of the game. so it doesn't even seem like he was scoring a lot, but suddenly he's almost getting 40 points. i didn't recognize anyone on the nets' team, but they had a talented group of young players who just wouldn't go away. celtics finally broke it open with just minutes to go, and won with a final score of 121-108.