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i went with my parents in the late morning for a baifu (foodpak) supply run in south boston. we got there by cutting through central square to storrow drive, then exiting near kenmore square to get onto mass ave. going to baifu is always a scary proposition because it sits at the epicenter of methadone mile. nothing like driving through alleyways clogged with drug users openly injecting themselves or going to the bathroom in public to make you on edge.

we bought 2 cases of noodles as well as a case of fermented sour mustard greens. i saw a cat there which i've never seen before; it looked like a mouser, wasn't very friendly, and skulked away when it saw me. my father also got a larger-sized iron wok, cantonese-style with two u-shaped handles instead of a single long handle. a wok that size, a single handle would be too heavy given the weight of the wok. we got to baifu and left by 12:10pm.

instead of going home the usual via (either via mass ave or onto 93), my father re-attempted the shortcut that gets us to the chinatown supermarkets on washington street, continuing straight down berkeley street until we got to storrow drive. it's still a little tricky navigating this shortcut, but this time we were successful (instead of getting lost in south boston and the seaport district), and have proof that it can be done.

we got to the cafe by 1pm. after dropping off the supplies, we returned to my parents' house. while my mother was making turkey broth rice noodles for lunch, i was busy outside storing the garden hoses. they've been outside too long, and now that the weather has turned cold, they've become stiff and no longer coil very easily. when they do coil, they often kink, which will eventually ruin the hose come spring. the only solution would be for it to be warm enough that i can recoil the hoses, but i don't see anymore warm days left.

i also noticed that the honda element has been leaking some kind of fluid underneath the car. transmission fluid? brake fluids? either way, it needs to get fixed soon. it's actually been going on for months now but my father didn't have time to check it out, and wasn't even sure which car was leaking. but it's gotten worse, and have stained the driveway and parking lot with oil stains that can't be washed out. i ended up putting a large sheet of cardboard underneath to catch the drips and to see where it was actually leaking.

around 2pm it started to rain. not that i saw it with my own eyes or even heard it, but i knew it was happening from the doppler radar. i was happy to stay indoors and watch a combination of world cup football and american football. earlier costa rica beat japan (1-0) and morocco beat belgium (2-0). croatia beat canada (4-1) eliminating canada from the round. the big game however was spain versus germany. it was a must-win for germany if it hopes to advance. it didn't exactly end the way the germans had hoped though. spain has a 1-0 lead but germany managed to tie it up at the end 1-1 before time ran out. germany remains alive, but trailing in the 4th position. it'd need to beat costa rica in the next match and for japan to lose against spain, both of which are good possibilities, but the germans no longer have control of their destiny.

i bought a skein of yarn for my mother from temu.com and some keychains to pad the order to get free shipping. i also looked at deals for tire inflators/air compressors, both 12v and battery-operated. the big purchase i made today was buying the pixel 7 directly from google for $499. i've decided to go ahead and do the pixel 6 trade-in upgrade. originally i thought i only had to pay $20 more to get the pixel 7, but that's not entirely true. i didn't take into consideration the tax implications, as i had to pay an additional $30 in taxes. so in the end i'm actually spending $50 to upgrade from 6 to 7, which is still a bargain.

we had sour fish stew for dinner. my father added too many ingredients - fish and tofu - that it diluted the stew too much. it was still good though. my godmother also dropped off a large bottle of manischewitz concord grape wine. i'm familiar with the brand but i thought they made sparkling on-alcoholic cider, not actual wine. i had a sip, taste like very sweet grape juice with a hint of alcohol, a little bit dangerous since the sugar masks the 11% alcohol content.

my father gave me a ride home around 7pm. i looked under the car and saw two distinctive oil spots from whatever's leaking under the front of the car. riding home, i also got a chance to observe the new amazon-brand windshield wipers, which worked well enough i didn't even notice them.

from time to time i'll look at craig's list for imac deals. my mother uses the mid-2007 24" imac i found on the sidewalk 1-1/2 years ago. but there was a reason why my neighbor tossed it out, besides it just being old: it also has very loud fan noises. my mother says it doesn't bother her, but it would drive me crazy if it was me. so ever since then, i've ben keeping my eyes open for good imac deals, which thankfully isn't too hard to come by, given that a lot of imac users simply toss out their computer once it gets too old.

i had my eyes on a late 2014 27" retina imac 32GB/256GB 3.5GHz i5 for $350 from an arlington seller. i like the larger screen size and that it's new enough to have USB 3.0. the CPU speed was sort of meh, and i didn't like how small the storage was, but that can be replaced. but i kept on looking, and tonight came across a potential jackpot: late 2015 27" 5K retina imac 40GB/1TB 4GHz i7 for $100. the roslindale seller seemed legit, said he was upgrading to an M1 mac and no longer needed the imac. to put it in perspective, this make and model of imac can sell for for $800-1000 (according to everymac.com). the seller obviously has no desire to recoup any cost and just wants to get rid of the machine for cheap.

the posting had only been up for 2 hours and i quickly messaged the seller, hoping to be the first buyer contacting him. 2 hours later he texted me back. said he could do the exchange tomorrow afternoon but has a dentist appointment from 2:30-3:30pm. he's also free all of tuesday. i told him i needed to run some errands tomorrow but could be free by 1pm, and that i'd contact him in the early afternoon.

i'm tempted to keep this imac for myself, it's way too much power for what my mother will use it for, which is a glorified monitor to streaming her various shows. a late 2015 machine is actually two years older than my current macbook pro (which i'm very happy with). with a 4GHz i7 processor, it's actually faster than my current 2.6GHz processor. and 40GB of memory? i only have 16GB. the seller doesn't include the keyboard or mouse, but that's fine, i have my own. that would've been too good to be true, since the apple magic trackpad 2 alone that originally came with that machine costs around $80 (buy a trackpad, we'll throw in an imac for free).