once i got back home my mother called asking when i was going to chinatown. the cafe needed bokchoi, and she wanted me to pick up some additional asian vegetables. i don't remember if i ever ran in the morning then went on a long bike ride. could that be too much exercise? after a quick shower, i ate some leftover baguette with brie then biked into boston by 1pm.
i was just going to get some watermelon seeds at c-mart then head over to ming's market, but i ended up buying the bulk what i needed to get from c-mart. i normally come on fridays - which is busy - but on a thursday afternoon not so much, and it was actually pretty quiet, something i'm not used to. i got some shanghai bokchoi ($1.99/lbs), milk bokchoi ($2.69), and taiwanese cabbage ($0.79/lbs).
i managed to get everything except for taiwanese apple sidra soda, which only ming's market seems to carry. so i had no choice but to go there to buy them. my mother originally asked me to get 2 6-pack ($6/pack), but i ended up buying a whole case (24 cans). i'd brought my bungie netting and tied the box to the top of my rear bike baskets. i left chinatown by 2pm.
i biked all the way to the cafe, arriving by 2:45pm. i went via the charles river bike path and then across the MIT bridge. i went pretty slowly, didn't want to jostle the case of soda tied to the back too hard and have it flying off onto the street.
after dropping off the supplies, i was out the door again, this time taking the car to the watertown home depot to get some cinder blocks to use as a stable base for the ice machine. somebody had cleared out the stock of hollow 8x8x16" cinder blocks ($2.49/piece), only leaving behind cracked ones. i had no choice but to buy 4x8x16" solid concrete blocks ($1.55/each) instead, 8 of them instead of just 4. each block weighs 33 lbs, so it was a real workout lifting them into the shopping cart.
when i went to go pay, the cashier charged me the price for hollow blocks, which for some reason are more expensive ($1.97/each). when i came back to let her know (after already having paid), she just shrugged and said, "you told me 4x8x16," and pointed to the return department, all the way on the other side of the store. so i ended up pushing nearly 300 lbs. worth of cement blocks to return and buy them again at the correct price. what was supposed to be a quick trip to home depot ended up taking half an hour.
i returned to the cafe by 4pm. my father helped me move the blocks down into the basement, where we stacked them 4 high each and placed the ice machine on top of that. the base was pretty solid, there was still a little bit of wobble, but that was the machine itself, even after we adjusted the legs.
before i left my mother packed me some dinner with leftovers my 2nd aunt had brought to the cafe. i biked back home by 5:45pm.
i'm happy to report i did not take a nap on the couch today. part of the reason was i felt gross from the bike ride earlier, and needed to take a shower. but i waited until the evening, after eating the prepared dinner my mother made for me, while watching thursday night football streaming off of amazon prime. during halftime i finally took my shower, but i also flossed beforehand so i brushed my teeth as well, and was basically ready for bed at that point. the game was between the chargers and chiefs, los angeles seemed to be winning in the first half, but kansas city scored big in the 4th quarter. and justin herbert looked hurt, like maybe a cracked rib. he made a valiant effort though, scored a touchdown with a minute to go in the game (down by 3 points), but the chargers couldn't get the ball back.