seems like all we do on the weekends (including mondays) is go on supply runs. this morning (11am) i went with my parents to the everett-chelsea-medford supply district.

first stop was the everett costco to get some eggs. unfortunately eggs are in short supply these days due to the ongoing avian flu epidemic across the US, so customers were only allowed to buy no more than 4 dozen eggs ($7.50/two dozen). another thing i noticed with chinese new year happening next month, there was a lot more chinese foods i'd never seen before at costco, really catering to their affluent chinese clientele.

second stop was the everett restaurant depot. if any place had eggs in bulk, it'd be here. we bought a whole case of medium eggs (15 dozens) for about $50. we also looked for paper takeout bags but they were all sold out (we have another supplier that will deliver).

third stop was the flagship chelsea market basket with 37 lanes of checkout. we haven't been here in a while, not since late august. my parents came here to get ground pork, something they haven't been able to do at the somerville market basket, where twice already my father was told their meat grinder was broken (my father believes this is a lie and that they just don't want to be bothered with grounding meats for customers).

originally our next stop was supposed to be bianco & sons (medford) to get some chinese sausages, but we decided to skip it to save time (plus we still have sausages in the freezer, don't need to come back until another 2 weeks). so instead we went to the malden 88 chinese supermarket, to get some asian food supplies, including ingredients my sister needed for her catered meals on wednesday.

each stop we made, the car got more full with supplies. we took the toyota sedan today but should've taken the honda utility vehicle because it has more storage space. there was barely anymore room left in the trunk or the back seat.

already 2pm, we left for our final stop, the medford ocean state job lot. it was a quick visit, my father stayed in the car, i went in to return a cashmere yarn that had the wrong price, while my mother purchased some more yarn. we finally headed back to cambridge by 2:30pm, arriving at the cafe to drop off the supplies around 3pm.

we left by 3:30pm for belmont. leaving the parking lot, i noticed a black/dark brown SUV parked on the sidewalk with the headlights on and a driver sitting inside. i glanced to see who it was, and turned out to be JOHN MALKOVICH! i told my mother, who'd seen him so many times around the neighborhood (he lives in cambridge apparently) that she wasn't the least bit fazed, but this was my first malkovich sighting. what he was doing in his SUV i don't know, since most of the businesses in that area closes on monday (other than the dry cleaner). also an SUV seems so unlike him for some reason, as my mother has seen him waiting for the bus before.

my mother had a load of laundry in the washer from this morning that she forgot to put in the dryer and finally put them in the dryer when she got back home. she waited until today to do laundry because it was sunny (free solar electricity), but didn't realize that our solar panels were still covered in snow from last night.

i went into the backyard with the foam roof rake and ladder to try and clear off the snow. much of it had already melted, only some spots on the sunroom panels. unfortunately the snow had melted and refreezed, so it wouldn't come off the panel. by tomorrow it should all be melted anyway though.

i replaced the windshield wipers on the toyota with new ones we got from costco last week. these were michelin-brand wipers, replaced old goodyear wipers. i looked up the specs before i got them, the website said 19" and 21" for this model of camry, but the new wipers seemed about an inch shorter than the old wipers. they still work though, now both cars have brand new wipers.

when i finally went inside i had a very late lunch (4:30pm) of leftover pan-fried dumplings. my father also got some frozen portuguese custard tarts which he reheated in the toaster oven. they were okay, the custard part was piping hot, and didn't taste as good as fresh custard tart. i thought i also tasted a bit of artificial sweetener.

my mother made a stirfry of mustard greens we bought at malden 88, along with a stirfry that combined all the leftovers from over the weekend. after dinner my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. i could've taken the bike, but with the salt on the road from last night's snow removal cleanup, i think i'll wait until next weekend to take out the bike, wait until the forecasted rainstorm on friday to wash away all the salt off the roads.

there was a monday night football game between the patriots and cardinals. new england currently has a 6-6 record, and needed a win tonight to still have a shot at the playoffs. i only half-watched the game, expecting a lot of cringe from a patriots team that seems to be floundering this year. in the 3rd quarter new england busted the game open, victory assured.

my parents have been thinking about getting a freezerless refrigerator as we've seem to be running out of storage space in our regular refrigerator. these units exist, but for some reason they're awfully expensive ($1000+) for what they are. almost feel like it'd be cheaper just to get a regular fridge and only use the refrigerator portion. but then i came across something called a convertible freezer to refrigerator, which i didn't know existed. they seem like the best of both worlds, use as a freezer, use as a fridge, and they even come in chest freezer options which are the most energy efficient.

so that didn't take long: i managed to crack the new screen protector on my pixel 7. actually, just the protector on the camera ridge, cracked the corners. i should've known something was wrong when i found a little piece of glass on my keyboard last night. i ended up removing the camera protector since it was causing glare in some of my photos anyway. as for the screen itself, the protector on that is still pristine, even though i've already dropped the phone a bunch of times (the crystal palace case is super slippery unfortunately).