i didn't leave until 9:40am. with the ebike via cambridge street i got to haymarket in about 20 minutes. the last time i was here was exactly 5 months ago in november, when i came in search of cheap berries for my dehydrated fruit rollups. the place was buzzing with activity, helped in part by an influx of tourists here for the st.patrick's day parade (they're the ones wearing green). a lot of vendors were selling carambola and right now is orange season so there were various citrus (though no gold nuggets yet). my haul: 8 carambola ($4), 15 large mandarin oranges ($5), 2 bags of cotton candy grapes ($3), 6 sumo oranges ($5), 2 sleeves of garlic ($4), 1 fyffes gold pineapple ($2), 1 box of cherry tomatoes ($1), 2 boxes of strawberries ($2).
returning home i went down boston's cambridge street to cross the longfellow bridge. not so much earlier, but it got really windy. so much so that the wind would push the bicycle sideways, the faster i went, the stronger the push. without the ebike, i would be struggling to ride against the wind. at one point i heard what sounded like somebody honking repeatedly behind me but when i turned around i saw nothing. i went directly to the cafe, skirting by harvard square. i didn't get there until 10:45am. my mother was there, my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt because she'd bought a bunch of stuff for us. when i rummaged through my grocery bags, i realized the box of cherry tomatoes was missing, must've popped out of my rear basket during the bumping ride. this happens fairly frequently to the point where i should secure a bungie netting over the cart to prevent things from flying out.
my father had vented out all the bottled makgeolli again, afraid of them exploding. i told him it wasn't necessary anymore since we put them in the fridge, the cold temperature greatly reducing fermentation. my father went home in the early afternoon, bringing with him a 1L bottle of makgeolli he was going to drop off at my aunt's place. we gave some makgeolli for my 2nd aunt to try, she loved it immediately.
we were busy for the first two hours today, with a smaller steady stream of customers the rest of the day. it was so busy that i ended up cooking 4 more cups of rice on top of the 6 cups my mother cooked this morning, but as soon as i did that, we hardly had anymore rice orders, more noodles. we made above our daily average, and was nearly the most profitable day this week, off by a tiny amount.
my heavy duty retractable hanging planter attachments arrived today. i got it for our cafe fern, which we take down every saturday to water, but it makes a big mess of dead fern leaves. it'd be better if we can just pull it down to water then push it back up afterwards. the hook attachment works and seems plenty strong (supposedly can hold 44 lbs) but the actual attachment points - small carabiners - aren't the right shape for our wall hook or the planter hook. i jerryrigged some keychains to hold everything in place for the time being, but we'll need to figure out a better solution.
my father showed up around closing time even though my mother told him she was going to walk home today. my 2nd aunt ended up walking home, and so did my mother. my father ended up taking home some trash and some foods. i went home with a frozen bag of dill dumplings.
when i came home i spent an hour writing the blog entry for last night. once that was finished, i played some cyberpunk until 8:30pm. i didn't realize in the black sapphire mission you can talk with lizzy wizzy after her performance and she'll gift you the crown she was wearing. i so badly wanted this crown that i ended up replaying 2 days worth of gigs just so i could redo the black sapphire mission. i didn't mind though, it's actually kind of fun trying out alternative solutions and hearing different dialogue.
i boiled 18 dumplings for dinner. i accidentally boiled a large pot of water when i only needed half.
i returned to cyberpunk and finally got the crown from lizzy wizzy. turns out it's pretty ugly and i'll probably never wear it, so it was all for naught.
i found myself dozing off again on the computer. i've been average 6 hours or less of sleep a night, it's taking a toll. i won't be able to get sleep late tonight, need to wake up early tomorrow for a supply run. this is a big one, taking us from everett (costco) to boston (foodpak, chinatown). we're doing it sunday because it's going to be rainy and windy on monday and i'll probably just stay home instead.