i made it to the cafe around 9am. the next door bakery and hair studio were both closed. no sooner had i dropped off my bag that i was back outside shoveling snow. the snow clearing company we hired plowed the parking lot, but they did a rough job. they buried the trash cans and they clear out the basement stairwell. they also left a mound of snow against the side of the building. i spent an hour digging everything out, removing layers as i went, until i was finally just in my pullover.
my mother made some jiuniang soup when i came back inside along with some homemade glutinous rice balls.
my sister showed up in the late morning, to supervise the snow removal crew, to walk esmei, and to retrieve her car from the alewife parking garage. earlier i made steps in the giant snowbank so esmei could climb over it. the snow might've been too soft because she didn't make it to the top.
we didn't know what to expect in terms of business, but around noontime we got super busy. it only lasted for that hour, then went back to being slow. a lot of bento orders, nearly exhausted our supply of tea eggs, and i almost made a new batch.
i left around 3:30pm via car to market basket. originally it was just to pick up a few things (bean sprouts, pho noodles), but my mother kept adding to my grocery list until i nearly had 30 items. i was afraid i'd forget something. this was the kind of list we made for a weekend supply run, not a quick visit on a weekday afternoon. i took with me two bags of glass jars and aluminum cans for recycling but the machines would only take the pepsi cans and nothing else, despite all these drinks purchased from MB. instead of throwing them out, i put them back inside the car. while grabbing an empty shopping cart, i found one that a customer had forgotten and left a case of mini ginger ale. i put that inside the car before finally making it inside the supermarket.
i had so many things to get i needed a shopping cart (i usually just use a handheld basket). i managed to get everything from my grocery list. when i went to go pay, i realized i forgot the chinese sausages and potatoes. so after i finished paying, i put everything inside the car before coming back to buy the handful of things i forgot.
i didn't make it back to the cafe until 4:30pm, an hour later. my sister came by with esmei. this time we managed to get her to climb the giant snow pile by coaxing her with dog treats. put a treat at the very top of the mound was enough incentive for esmei to climb the snow bank. it's so tall we can't see over it, while esmei disappeared for a time.
i cooked some italian sausages with fennel in the air fryer (350 degrees 25 minutes). it was so good i ate two, leaving the rest for my parents.
the rest of the day ended pretty quickly. sunset wasn't until 5:30pm, dusk around 6pm, as each day we get more daylight. my parents were talking about the coyote they spotted outside the house on saturday. we managed to capture it on webcam. a neighbor's dog was barking incessantly, until you see a coyote lurking along the side of a neighbor's house. it didn't seem very afraid, and just casually walked away.
my parents forgot i walked to the cafe this morning and insisted on giving me a ride. i opted to walk, road conditions to my house and back are not that great, especially on the smaller side roads. two way streets become one way streets, as snow banks cause the roads to shrink.
it made it home by 7pm. after a shower, i made some modified chicken caesar salad. later i had a few bouts of diarrhea. was it the chicken? the creamy caesar dressing? the salad? whatever it was, it made my butt very angry.
i wasn't planning on it but ended up watching trump's state of the union address, or at least had it in the background while i played cyberpunk. it was a rambling diatribe of lies that lasted for nearly 2 hours.