i woke up at 7:30am to get ready for my 9am allston dentist appointment. i left the house by 8:30am, cutting across harvard square. in my haste i forgot to wear my helmet, but i was riding slow anyway.

when i got to the dentist office, there was a vietnamese lady dentist i didn't recognize. i think doctor huang rents out their dental practice space to other dentists. doctor huang's wife was there too, we chatted briefly before i sat down in the dentist chair. just a reminder, i was there to get my implant crown fixed after it became loose for the second time. doctor huang removed the crown and compared it to the old crown. he showed me that the abutment of the new crown is different than the old crown. it came from the same manufacturer, but they changed the design since the last time i had my crown made.

doctor huang put in the old crown and took an x-ray, before reinstalling the new crown. the moment he screwed it in place, i could feel the crown pressing painfully up against the front teeth. doctor huang removed the crown, filed it down slightly, and reinstalled it. it was still tight, he removed and filed one more time, before installing it for good. there was still some contact, but nothing like it was before. he then took another x-ray. there was still a small point of contact to the adjoining front tooth, but nothing compared to an x-ray he took the last time the crown became loose.

i volunteered to pay for his time (seems like i come practically every week) but he said no. he did tell me that if this still doesn't work, he might need to make a new crown. i said good bye to his wife, and told her i was sorry to hear about the passing of her aunt. she told me she was 90+ years old and had been sick for a while, so it wasn't unexpected.

i was done by 10am. i decided to revisit bazaar, try a few more different brands of smoked sprats. i came in from the cambridge street entrance. the cashier was the same blond girl from last time. she was working behind the pastry/bread counter today. she seemed to be the only person working. i got two round cans of smoked brand, one old riga brand (same brand as the glass jar sprats we've bought before) and another riga brand.

coming back i also stopped by the allston trader joe's. they had hanging pots of prayer plants and tradescantias, the two varieties i have but these were way healthier. i picked up a few things for the cafe.

i got home around 10:45am. i thought about riding to market basket, but decided to do it after lunch. i reheated the three slices of leftover spinach and mushroom pizza from last night.

after i finished eating, i biked to walgreens to pick up an amlodipine prescription. i then went to market basket. once again, it was mostly things for the cafe. i glanced at the eggs but we have so many at the cafe, it'll be a few weeks before we need to replenish our supply.

when i got back home around 1pm, i put all the supplies into the car and drove to the cafe to drop them off. i moved foods from the freezer into the refrigerator to defrost. i also defrosted a box of marinated charsiu pork so i can roast a fresh batch tomorrow. i vacuumed the floor, including the tiny fern leaves. but the most important thing i did was to change all the clocks (two wall clocks and two microwave clocks). i didn't go until almost 1:45pm, walking home so i could leave the car behind.

i was finally done when i got home. besides doing a load of laundry, i didn't do anything else constructive the rest of the day. i spent it watching youtube videos, fell asleep briefly in the late afternoon, only to wake up around 5pm because i was getting cold on the couch and closed the blinds before i turned on the heat.

it's been over 6 months since i last made my instant pot century egg & pork bone congee (september 2024), i didn't realize it was that long ago. it's a super simple recipe and probably the only thing i use my instant pot for these days. it's the perfect food for cold nights, and now that the weather is slowly turning warmer, i eat congee while i still can. most of the ingredients are asian kitchen staples, the hardest things to get are probably the bone-in spare ribs and century egg. the recipe will work perfectly fine without a century egg, but that is one of the traditional ingredients. the spare-ribs must be bone-in (to extract maximum savory pork flavors), that's why i only use bottom cuts. a little packet of pickled mustard greens is also essential i've found, adds a salty crunchiness to the rice porridge.

what this recipe gains in simplicity it makes up for in time: it takes a long time to make. most of that is just waiting for the instant pot to come to pressure (20 minutes), cook at pressure (35 minutes), then slow release (20 minutes). in total it takes close to 2 hours to make from start to finish. i always start too late and end up not eating until well in the evening. today i started around 6pm and was able to eat by 8pm.

the rice porridge was very hearty, really warmed me up. after i finished i felt like i just ended a workout, taking off layers and sweating. i lightly tested out my new crown, i didn't put too much pressure on it. so far it's felt pretty stable, hasn't loosened like the past two times.

celtics played the jazz tonight at home. utah is the second worst team in the NBA. you wouldn't know it from the first half though, where they matched boston point for point. towards the end of the 2nd quarter celtics did start to pull away a little bit going into halftime. the third quarter was the same hauser show, where he managed to make 7 three-pointers, giving boston a 24 point lead. give the jazz credit though, they fought back and managed to come back from that deficit and to tie the game with just minutes left. but the celtics were just too good, they locked down and scored some crucial points to win the game 108-114. same hauser had a career night with 33 points.