we're entering one of the coldest stretch so far this year. i packed up all my things - including ingredients and equipment for making japanese cheesecake and egg nog - and headed to the cafe. i spotted a velotric in the wild, with a lovely sea foam color. i thought it was a breeze, but it's actually a discover 2. if you didn't know, you might've mistaken it for a regular bicycle. passing by my sister's place, i picked up a 5500A car battery jumper (yaberauto) that was delivered there this earlier this morning.

my father went to buy some pork butts from market basket soon after he got to the cafe. someone from the harvard taiwanese student club called this morning, spoke with my mother to confirm a 47 bento order for tomorrow evening. kind of last minute, but this is a very big order, and not too much hassle for us to put together. so today was about doing the prep for tomorrow, making sure we have enough materials to assemble everything.

my parents made a new batch of veggie buns this morning while i made two new batches of tea eggs. most of the eggs will get used up tomorrow for the big order, so there's a very good chance i'll need to make another batch on saturday. i'm nearly out of tea egg spices as well, i'll need to make more.

we had toasted bagels for breakfast along with salmon cream cheese. i sliced some onions and stuffed them into the sandwiches for additional flavor. we ate late morning but then it got busy and by the time i returned to my half-eaten sandwich, it was already cold.

unfortunately there was no time today to make cheesecake nor egg nog. maybe tomorrow then.

we were busy during lunch time, but not so much after that. profit-wise it wasn't too bad - made above our daily average at least - but still only half of what my parents made yesterday.

my apple magsafe 3 cable wasn't able to be delivered because nobody signed for it. my sister put up a bunch of post-it notes on her front door, telling the deliveryman to drop off the package at the cafe instead. but i wasn't sure if that'd work, so in the afternoon - during a lull - went to my sister's place and waited for the UPS van to arrive. my sister wasn't home, took esmei to rock meadows and promptly got lost in the woods because her phone ran out of juice and she couldn't use the gps anymore. i basically stood by the window like a crazy person and waited for 20 minutes before deciding that was crazy. i didn't care if the cable didn't get delivered today, i'll just order a new one. UPS now charges for the service of holding the package at an UPS location ($8), rescheduling the delivery ($12), or delivering to a different address ($17). so i went back to the cafe, and a few minutes later, a UPS guy shows up.

we roasted a batch of charsiu pork. my mother made brownies. we baked a new batch of chinese sausages. i suggested we deep fry the salt & pepper chicken today as well, because it'll be super cold tomorrow, and we won't be able to leave the window and door open for ventilation without freezing to death in the kitchen. my father still wanted to do it tomorrow, but after giving it some thought, decided today was the better day. besides, he already marinated a large batch of chicken yesterday, and they needed to be deep fried before they went bad.

earlier when i went over to my sister's place to check if my apple package had arrived yet, i picked up an amazon package for me that was delivered to her place. inside was a new desk lamp and two boxes of 2.6 gallon compost bags. the lamp was for my father, he doesn't have any light by the cash register, and when he eats there after we close, he's only illuminated by the glow of his laptop screen. the light worked very well, very bright, with the ability to change hues (warm to cool) and brightness. we also tried one of the compost bags. instead of rolls, they come in boxed dispensers. the bags are very similar to our old bags, except these are just 9¢ a piece while the previous bags were 11¢s; each.

we ended up having dinner at the cafe, noodles with turkey broth. a girl called the cafe 2 minutes before we closed. "can i order a charsiu bento? i live right around the corner, i can come pick it up right away." we originally weren't even going to answer the phone, but she called twice, and i thought maybe it was an emergency. "we're about to close," i told her. "okay," she replied, then hung up. i think if she came in person and made the order we'd definitely make it for her, but not if she calls when we're closing. there was also a teenage boy using our wifi to play games on his phone. "do you need anything else?" i asked him. he said no. "we close at 6:30pm." he said he knew that, and would leave at 6:30pm, but it was already 6:30pm, and he still didn't go. so i turned off the wifi. the left immediately.

my parents drove home after work. somebody had left the door ajar in the honda a few days ago so the battery was drained. my father used the old jump starter to restart the car so they could drive it back along with the other car. i took my bike. temperature had dropped into freezing temperature by then, and would reach the low teens overnight.

it's nice to have dinner at the cafe and come home not having to cook. i can just relax the rest of the evening. after a shower i turned on the tv to watch some thursday night football. however the whole house seems to be vibrating because my upstairs neighbors were blasting their music on maximum volume. you think i was living below a bunch of teenagers, not a pair of entitled retirees. just when i was thinking they weren't so bad (they did after all cleaned the backyard), they do something to remind me why i hate them and wish for their imminent demise. i was tempted to text them and politely ask them to turn it down, but i've tried that before and it didn't end well. so i grabbed my bluetooth speaker, put it up as close to the ceiling as possible (on top of my bookcase), and blasted the audio from thursday night football. it didn't make them shut up, but it did make me feel better. they finally turned it down an hour later.

the game was between the cowboys and lions. with the patriots not making it to the playoffs last year, i was rooting for detroit. dallas looked like they were going to lose, but made it competitive by almost tying in the second half. but the lions won in the end, and now it looks like the cowboys might not get into the playoffs, or they'll need a lot of help from other teams.

i found my klein voltage tester at the cafe and used it tonight to test the broken led string light. i thought i was making progress, but it ended in failure. besides, i don't have anymore spare led's. my fear is maybe there are more than one dead led's. i tried my best to fix it, but it's probably easier if i just buy a new strand. so i went on amazon to find a replacement. i measured my three living room window yesterday and the length i needed was 34ft. after an exhaustive search, i decided on a 100 globe LED 33ft strand (JMEXSUSS, $16). it has a remote but no app. i realized i didn't need an app, i just wanted a simple strand with fixed christmas-colored lights. it has a memory function so i can use it with my own timer. another candidate was a $30 strand that did have an app. i like that i can change the colors, but then thought it'd be exhausting changing the colors all the time to reflect holidays and whatnot. besides, $30 was more than i was willing to spent for christmas lights; for that price i could get a 6x6ft led curtain.

with the patriots on a bye this weekend, looks like it's going to be a quiet week football wise. looking at the schedule, the late afternoon broncos-raiders game looks interesting because if denver loses, new england will become the first seed in the AFC. bengals-bills game also worth watching: if buffalo loses, i believe new england clinches the AFC east title. bengals aren't going into the playoffs, but the return of joe burrow has made them dangerous again.

update: i found out i measured my living room windows wrong. what i need isn't 34ft by 43ft. luckily there's a 100 globe LED strand exactly 43ft for sale for $10. i wanted to get that one originally, but it was too long. but now it's the perfect fit! it's due to arrive sunday, i'll try to install it sunday night. that leaves me a 3-1/2 weeks window where i can properly display these lights without looking like a crazy everyday-is-christmas person.

2nd update: just discovered that "43ft" actually means 33ft of actual light and 10ft of extension. so not sure how that's going to work. i'll keep it regardless, just to have something to play with. they can be daisy-chained together to form a longer strand, maybe i'll use them as outdoor lights.

3rd update: i ended up buying a second strand! now i have 66ft of light. i'm going to try and do all 4 sides of each window.

i was tempted to go for a run this morning, my one day off. but not only was it cold outside (30's) but there were still some icy spots. although it mostly rained here in cambridge yesterday, it did snow overnight so there was snow on cars and grassy services. i decided to play it safe, go running some other time.

i squandered my morning. i had big plans to try making another japanese cheesecake. with the leftover yolks i'd use it to make homemade egg nog. i also looked up recipes for portuguese egg tarts, found a promising filipino recipe that could make use of leftover pie crusts i had in the fridge. before i knew it, it was lunchtime so i ate a hot dog pastry i bought yesterday in lowell.

i went to the community garden to collect my milk crates. i made two trips, stacked the crates on the back of my bicycle and slowly wheeled it home. along the way i picked up a cocktail shaker set somebody had thrown out ($22). it includes a cocktail shaker, mixing spoon, strainer, ice tongs, wine key, muddler, liquor pourers (2), and a jigger, all in a bamboo stand. the second time i was in the garden i bumped into anne-marie, cleaning out her plot for the season.

next i went to whole foods to return the knockoff magsafe 3 cable. my genuine apple magsafe 3 was supposed to get delivered at my sister's place today, but UPS required a signature so they didn't leave the package. a signature for a cable? i went to the UPS website to change delivery location but it wasn't an option, restricted by apple. while i was at whole foods, i saw an ad for raos pasta sauce on sale ($5.99 24 oz) so i went in and bought a jar, roasted garlic.

i went to market basket to get some cheesecake ingredients. i called my mother who asked me to get some milk for the cafe. my original plan was to ride to belmont to pick up the double boiler i needed for making both the cheesecake and egg nog (in hindsight, i could've probably rigged something up with a pyrex bowl and a saucepan). but if i made the cheesecake at home, i wouldn't be able to deliver it to my mother until tomorrow - when the cheesecake is already cold. so i decided instead to make the cheesecake at the cafe tomorrow. i had other reasons for not wanting to ride to belmont. since i'd be taking the ebike, i didn't want it to get coated with all the salt the city and town have been sprinkling on the roads.

i decided to put up some christmas lights. went down to the basement to find my bag of led string lights. i must've had these for almost 20 years, the aging plastic starting to smell. before i strung them up, i decided to test them first. 2 strands still worked, but on the 3rd strand only half the lights lit up. i couldn't fix it and thought about buying a new set.

i added more insulation to the gap off my french door. turns out i didn't have to do too much, a lot of the insulation i put up last winter was still there.

i went to the dollar store to get some nail polish. i had the bright idea - inspired by my father - to paint my bicycle lock key. it always takes me a few seconds to find that key on the keychain, i figured if i could color-code it somehow, it'd save me some time. they had all sorts of colors and finishes, but in the end i picked a metallic blue polish. i also got some snacks while i was there.

i painted the lock key when i got home. i did a few coats, it seemed to be working well. the whole house did smell like nail polish for a few hours afterwards.

i went out one last time, to the star market parking lot. the weatherman today said we'd get a colorful sunset, so i was out there waiting to capture it with my wide-angle lens. it was colorful, but i've seen better sunsets. i went home after the colors faded.

it was insanely busy at the cafe today. not only that, but organizers from the harvard taiwanese club came to the cafe to inquire about a big order for friday. they bargained for a cheaper price on bento boxes, and went back to their student at large to decide if they want to order with us (so it's not a sure thing yet, we'll find out by tomorrow). i called my mother afterwards, she said today was easily the busiest day of the entire year, like two days worth of profit in just one day.

for dinner i had the last of the lowell pastries, a pork floss bun. there was nothing good on television. i watched a bunch of youtube videos before switching to pluto.tv.

i woke up at 6am to get ready for jury duty, the sun wouldn't rise until another hour. i wasn't nervous about the actual jury duty itself, more so about the drive there, and especially coming back, when it's supposed to be snowing.

i've been selected for jury duty before, a long time ago (predates the blog). i reported to the middlesex superior court in east cambridge, which no longer exists (closed in june 2014 due to asbestos and mold). it was the days before smart phones, i don't remember if i brought a book, but i sat in the jury pool room for a few hours and then was dismissed along without everyone else.

i used a grocery bag to carry a portable power bank, a bottle of ice water, and an umbrella (for the rain). i wore a dress shirt and my flannel-lined pants.

i made one final check of the route and my destination (a parking garage) before finally leaving by 7am. i got onto route 2 via rindge avenue towards alewife. i followed that to interstate 95 then route 3 north to lowell. this was basically the way we went to chelmsford a few nights ago. there was no traffic, and the weather was quiet for the time being. in the rear view mirror i could see the sun rising behind me. google maps took me the lowell connector, which is a location i always hear on the news so nice to experience it personally. for some reason lowell district court doesn't have any parking, and the website recommended i park in a garage across the canal (HCID parking garage).

i made good time, it was still just 7:30am, i had half an hour to get to the court house. it was already starting to flurry. it wasn't a long walk, just 5 minutes away. the court house is a new building that's impossible to miss. it's actually called the lowell justice center because it houses not only the lowell district court but the middlesex superior court as well. i was surprised there was a 9-story parking garage right next to the court house. i saw it on the map but didn't bother going there first because the website didn't even mention it. i should've parked there, saved myself a walk, but i didn't mind, got to see a little bit of lowell and its famous canals.

i went through security check. having recently gone through cambridge district court, i knew what to expect. the security lady was much nicer, could tell right away i was here for jury duty. she pointed in the right direction. inside the jury pool room, i gave my identification form and questionnaire to the jury clerk. i read online that the guy in charge of the jury pool is really nice and they weren't kidding. very friendly, helpful, gave me card with my jury number (52) and said i could have a seat.

i used the bathroom first, which was conveniently located inside the jury pool room, along with some drinking fountains. the bathoom was super clean. more people started filing in. the court house had free wifi, which i signed in. i read some patriots news from last night, then started reading an ebook about soviet snipers during WWII.

at 8am the clerk came out and thanked us for our service, gave us a quick walk-through as to what to expect. he said there were 16 jurors who didn't show up, and will have to deal with the consequences. he said he checked the docket, and there's only one case today that might need a jury. since this was a district court, only 7 jurors would be picked for the case, not 14 like in a superior court case. he said they often settle before it gets to the jury stage, or go to a bench trial, and he'll try to get everyone out as soon as possible. he said we had some time to get coffee and snacks from the courthouse cafe (ran by a blind guy that you wouldn't know was blind) before he'd start a video presentation at 8:40am.

the video talked about how trial by jury is a hallmark of the american justice system and guaranteed by the constitution. it's one of the two things a citizen can do to actively participate in government besides voting. a juror has the power to dispense justice, while a judge acts as a referee of sorts. the way the video showed it, it sounded like being in a jury box might actually be kind of cool and fun! but i'd rather go home, don't want to get caught in the storm.

after the video a judge came to see us. we had all to rise just like in the movies. he repeated much of what we saw in the video, thanked us for our service, told us by being here, it greased the wheels of justice, and lawyers typically prefer settling then having a case be decided by jury since they don't know how it'd go.

so we waited. thank god for smart phones, otherwise i'd be super boring. i surfed the web a bit, then went back to my russian snipers book. i sat next to a window and could see the snow falling outside. i was thinking if i did get called to serve in the jury box, i wouldn't be able to get back to work today. and since i have tomorrow off, i wouldn't return to work at the cafe until thursday. which meant i would've had 8-days off. no wonder thanksgiving break felt so long - i basically got a whole week off!

around 11am the clerk came out and said the case will be a jury trial after all. he said jurors 1-42 would have to report for jury selection while everyone else was to continue waiting in the jury pool in case they needed more jurors. i was juror 52 so i was one of the lucky ones. there were just a few of us, i think there were a total of about 64 jurors, though like the clerk said, 16 didn't report. jurors who were taken for selection started returning to the jury pool. finally the clerk came out one last time, told us the jury box had been filled, and that we could all leave. because of our service today, we'd be expect from jury duty for the next 3 years.

while we were filing out, i asked the clerk about the case. he said was a domestic violence case with one witness. i asked if i could find out the verdict online. he told me i could do one better and actually watch the trial while it was happening, told me which court room to go. now if i didn't have to work or try to dodge a snowstorm i would've taken him up on the offer, but i decided some other time. most trials are actually open to the public as stated in the constitution, for the sake of transparency.

there was already a layer of slippery snow on the ground when i left the court house. i walked back to the parking garage, shivering a bit, as the temperature seemed to have dropped. i insert my parking ticket stub into the kiosk and paid ($6, court does not validate).

instead of going straight home, i wanted to get some lunch first, bring it back to the cafe. there was a vietnamese sandwich place (saigon sandwich house) next to the courthouse, but i find another place a bit further away that was also a bakery. i followed google maps to get me there.

lowell asian bakery and restaurant looked a little beat up. asymmetrical parking lot, a restaurant that looked like somebody's house that they converted the first floor into a business. i picked up some pastries then ordered 4 vietnamese sandwiches: two supremes ($10 each, banh mi has gotten expensive since the last time i bought one), one crispy pork belly ($11), one roasted duck ($10). the chubby asian cashier told me i might have to wait 15 minutes as they just received a large order. i said i was okay with that. besides the cashier, there was an older asian man wearing an all-white uniform who seemed to be the butcher. a hispanic guy actually made my sandwiches, and there was also a woman who seemed to be the baker. place seems pretty popular, a few people came in to pick up their orders.

i ended up waiting close to 20 minutes. by the time i left, my car was entirely covered in snow. i didn't have a brush so used a mitten i found in the front seat to clear off the snow. i then proceded to drive back to cambridge.

i called my mother earlier letting her know i was returning to the cafe. while it was only raining in cambridge, it was full-on snowing in lowell. the rear window was still partially blocked that i could only use the left and right mirrors to see behind me. trying to navigate out of an unfamiliar city while it's snowing was a challenge. i got onto the lowell connector and got back onto the highway.

the highways hadn't been plowed yet. all the cars drove in a single file in the middle of the 3-lane highway, doing about 40mph in a 55mpg zone. you couldn't even see the lines on the road. my windshield wipers were wiping on maximum, but it was so cold the snow would freeze up, so i kept clearing the snow with windshield wiper fluids, to the point where i already ran out. to make matters worse, the windows also started to fog up. i turned on the AC but it didn't work fast enough so i drove with the windows open, freezing my ass off in the car just to keep it from foggy up. i did hit the defroster so the rear window finally cleared up. it was pretty stressful, i could barely see, i was freezing, and i felt like the car could slip and slide at any moment. i braced myself for impact.

once i got to I-95 they finally plowed the roads. i still didn't dare driving too fast, but at least now i could kind of approach the speed limit. i also had the fog situation under control and could finally close the windows and turn up the heat.

on route 2 the snow transitioned to heavy rain. compared to the snow, driving in the rain was easy. route 2 was also a familiar stretch of highway, and i managed to drive about the speed limit and quickly get back to cambridge.

i arrived at the cafe by 12:30pm, relieved i didn't die. my car was the only one covered in snow. my sister was helping out, but could finally leave once i arrived. she took home a vietnamese sandwich for lunch. today was actually her birthday, so i consider this a birthday sandwich, even though i didn't say so. the banh mi was actually pretty good, although the bread was too crispy and crumbled to pieces as i ate. my parents split one while i had half a supreme and half a crispy pork. i grabbed a menu before i left, and looked over it as i ate. lowell asian bakery and restaurant seem to have everything: roasted meats, pastries, vietnamese sandwiches, pho, chinese takeout, buns, sichuan cuisine, custom cakes, catering platters, seafood, lunch specials, boba drinks, moon cakes. the takeout menu itself had 10 pages, it was more like a book.

fortunately it wasn't too busy today while i was gone. most of the morning profit consisted of a hat my mother managed to sell. still, we did have customers, particular closer to the evening, when we sold a bunch of bentos and i made a new batch of tea eggs. we didn't break the daily average, but given the bad weather, we still did okay. i predict it should be much busier tomorrow when the weather will be nicer (but cold).

my mother cooked some thick rice noodles for dinner that she served with fresh turkey broth. we ate after we closed the cafe. i was going to walk home in the rain, but my parents gave me a ride back, saving me from another thorough soaking. i spent 15 minutes just taking out the trash. my upstairs neighbors finally did some yard work, but almost like a joke, they filled up a dozen paper garden refuse bags, which i brought one by one. most of them were soaked in the rain, so i tore up a few. i also tossed out my own trash while i was at it, before finally coming inside.

since i already had dinner, nothing left to do but use the bathroom, take a hot shower, and change into some clean clothes. there was a knicks-celtics game on NBC, which i casually watched. boston ended up beating new york, 117-123. to be honest, i don't follow basketball as much these days, ever since the owners decided to blow up the team and fill it with young players. seems like a lost year, i don't expect the celtics to go too far.

went to market basket this morning to get some supplies, then rode the motorcycle to the cafe to make some prep work. my father was there with pansusu. my father and i went to the upstairs apartment and brought over one of the small dorm fridges because the sandwich fridge up front died last wednesday. after that my father took pansusu to star market do some shopping.

since i might not be here tomorrow because of jury duty, i helped my parents out by making a new batch of tea eggs and two new batches of black soy noodles. i refilled the cooking oil dispenser, sesame oil container, and tonkatsu sauce dispenser. i vacuumed the floor and cleaned the induction cooktops.

i finished by 12:30pm. my father came back to pick up a few things. i watched the news for tomorrow's weather forecast. the latest model shows a weakening system, more rain than snow. we probably won't see any snow in the boston area, only when you go further west or north. this will probably mean they won't postpone jury selection due to severe weather.

we went back to belmont. even though it probably won't snow here, i put the motorcycle away in the garage anyway just in case the weather does get bad. besides, we might get another chance at snow this saturday. instead of going out for meatloaf (which pansusu said was one of his favorite foods), my mother made wonton soup for everyone.

i helped pansusu install a VPN on his lenovo laptop. i went with v1vpn, which was advertised to always in work in china. a one year subscription is $39.99. instead of having its own app, it uses a third party app - hiddify - to access the VPN service. UI is a bit sparse, and i didn't see any places to change the country, but because i selected china as the host country, it tried connecting to asian servers (HK, JP). we won't know if it actually works or not until pansusu tries the VPN back home in china. i tried installing it on his iphone, but i couldn't get the link to download the credentials because he can't access gmail on his china iphone. i tried logging directly to gmail.com but pansusu doesn't remember his gmail password.

my father drove pansusu back to south station so he can take the acela train back to new york city (his flight leaves tomorrow). i went along because we were going to ming's market afterwards to get some cafe supplies. there was a bit of traffic, but we left so early, there was plenty of time even if we did run late. we got to south station by 3:25am, for a 4:12pm train departure.

we headed to ming's market. my father waited outside in the car while i ran in and quickly grabbed what i needed. in total i was probably gone for 10 minutes before hopping back in the car. we drove back to belmont. i forgot to call the juror line earlier to see if my group had been selected for jury duty (was supposed to call after 3pm). fingers crossed, i finally called. unfortunately i will have to serve tomorrow, no even a weather delay.

for dinner we had leftover turkey rollups. that's all i ever wanted to eat this weekend!

i left early, drove one of the cars since i need it tomorrow to get to lowell. i got home by 6:30pm, took me several minutes to parallel parking in a space in front of my house.

after a shower, i used pansusu's $50 apple gift certificate to buy another magsafe 3 charging cable. apple sells them for $49 which is highway robbery, but they work better than any third party magsafe 3 cables.

i spent the rest of the evening watch the giants-patriots game. i might go to sleep before the game ends, but currently the score is 15-30 with just a quarter left in the game, new england ahead.

this thanksgiving break feels so long, i can't believe it's only sunday and we still have another day off tomorrow. it's mostly because i've been on break since last wednesday (though still running errands). i'm ready to go back to work to be quite honest.

i rode my ebike to belmont this morning. this is because with the rain that's supposed to arrive by early afternoon, i could ditch the ebike in the garage. my father and pansusu were already back in belmont. they were supposed to go to IHOP this morning, but ended up having beef noodle soup for breakfast at the cafe instead. i had some turkey rollups when i arrived. that's all i really want to eat this weekend!

pansusu got a notification from apple on his iphone, saying he'd passed authentication. they stil wouldn't reset his password, but at the very least he could set up his iwatch now. he got it to work so the iwatch can ping his iphone, but for some reason the iwatch can't use the find my app to locate the iphone. there was a message to update his apple account, i'm sure that'll fix it. but better for him to do that in china, with the help of some apple store technician. he also got wechat to work with his iwatch as well, so he's happy for the time being.

i helped my father order a portable power station. yes, we've built a bunch ourselves, and also bought a pre-built 100A LiFePO4 battery with a built-in BMS and bluetooth app. but those are not power stations. past few years power stations have proliferated online, and the prices have been dropping steadily. it now makes sense to get one, if nothing else, just to play with. in the past we've have to assemble everything if we wanted a power station: the battery, the BMS charging controller, the MPTT solar charging controller, an inverter, and a battery status display screen. but with a prebuilt power station, everything is already combined in a unified device. anyway, we got the anker SOLIX C2000 gen 2 for $720 (including taxes). it only came out about a month ago. it's rated for 2048wh, which is about double what our DIY 100A LiFePO4 batteries (1200wh). the SOLIX C2000 isn't due to arrive until a few days before christmas.

so the big thing today was my aunt and matthew were treating us to a seafood dinner. she asked us to meet them at fishbones in chelmsford at 4pm, for an early dinner. we left around 3:30pm, google maps said it'd take us 30 minutes to get there. it was bad day for driving, with thanksgiving travelers returning home plus the rain. by the time we got there, my aunt and matthew were already there, along with my sister.

my aunt kept asking me if i wanted to order something else because she heard i don't eat seafood. it's not that i don't eat seafood, it all depends on how it's prepared. the traditional chinese way is to steam everything, and that just makes everything smelly and slimy. however, anything seafood that's deep fried or grilled, i'll eat it. my aunt ordered for us, and said we'd share everything. we started with some raw oysters. there was two different kinds - one from massachusetts, one from maine - i could really taste the difference. we also got some sangria which i sampled. we also got a plate of fried appetizers, from clams, to onion rings, to scallops, to shrimps, to white fish. it was good, but split into pieces, some of them sort of crumbled. we got a plate of calamari, which was just a whole octopus tentacle. that as good too, had a smoky flavor, with a balsamic vinegar dipping sauce.

the main course was 4 plates: fried flounder over pilaf, swordfish and salmon over pilaf, shrimp and lobster over linguine noodles, and a lobster cheese risotto. they seemed to be individual servings: split amongst 4 guests, everyone could sample a little bit, but i never felt fully satisfied. everything was cooked very well though, a lot of flavors, a farcry from last night's frank's steak house. the seafood was fresh too, there was no fishy taste, which is the thing i dislike the most about seafood.

for dessert we got two cheesecakes. once again we split them, but i could easily eat a single slice all on my own.

overall fishbones is a nice restaurant, i just wish it wasn't so far away. there's got to be some seafood restaurant closer to cambridge that doesn't involve a 30 minute drive.

we had a harrowing drive home. in the dark, in the rain, with post-thanksgiving traffic, it was 30 minutes of terror as my father drove about 45mph on the 55mph highway, cars passing us left and right. at one point my father even overshot a red light. afterwards pansusu told me father he needs to be careful driving, as his reflexes aren't so good anymore.

because we ate so early, we got back to belmont by 6:30pm, which is usually when we eat dinner. i was waiting for the rain to subside before returning to cambridge. my father said he could give me a ride, but i was sure the rain would stop soon. i finally left around 7:30pm during a lull in the rain. it wasn't pouring rain, but even a drizzle left me soaked. my pants were entirely drenched from splashing through puddles, i could feel the water dripping into my shoes. riding the ebike allowed me to get home sooner, but the faster speed just meant i got soaked even more. it was also hard to see, rain drops coating my glasses, it was a miracle i made it home in one piece without crashing.

by the time i got to belmont around 11:30am, my father had already taken pansusu to deluxe town diner in watertown for a traditional american-style breakfast. nevertheless, when my mother mad turkey bone broth with noodles for lunch, they still had some.

my father was taking pansusu to the cambridgeside galleria apple store so pansusu can get an iwatch. my father asked me to come along but i said i had a lot of yard work to do. so when they went to go shopping around 12:30pm, i stayed behind to work.

with rain arriving tomorrow, today was the perfect opportunity to mow the lawn one last time before applying fall fertilizer. the grass didn't really need cutting - the cold weather had pretty much stymied any growth. i raked what little leaves was on the front lawn and used the mower to shred and pick them up for composting.

there was a lot more leaves in the backyard. besides the cherry plum finally losing all its leaves, underneath the maple was piles of dried maple leaves. i started by first disassembling the sawhorse plant stands. i put away the wooden planks and stacked the plastic sawhorses on the wooden picnic table. i then partially mowed the back lawn, first to trim all the uncut grass that had previously been growing below the sawhorses, as well as picking up all the burgundy-purple cherry plum leaves.

i raked out all the maple leaves, pulling them away from the exposed roots so i could then mow them. i put all the shredded leaves into garbage refuse bins, save them for next season so i can mix it with fresh grass clippings to make compost. i had to do multiple passes, making sure i wasn't clogging up the mower.

my sister showed up around that time with esmei. esmei appeared in the backyard, didn't even bother greeting me, sniffed around a bit, chased some phantom rabbits, before going back inside.

it was a cold day - temperature in the 30's - but the more i worked outside, the warmer i got. i started first by taking off my jacket, followed by my long-sleeved pullover, until i was finally working in just a t-shirt.

once all the leaves had been shredded, it was finally time to apply the fertilizer using the drop spreader. i bought a 10 lbs. bag from amazon, but discovered i also had half a bag left from last year. following the instructions, i set the drop spreader to 6. the fertilizer was tiny white crumbles. i started with the front yard first before moving to the backyard. i was finally finished close to 3pm.

my father came home a short time later. pansusu bought an iwatch, but it was taking forever to update the iwatch software. i forced the watch to reset so we could redo the pairing. everything was normal until we got to the actual pairing, when the iwatch app asked for pansusu's apple account password and he couldn't remember it. when we tried to reset the password, that's when we ran into a problem. he used his china phone number to set up the apple account, with no backup e-mail. since he was in the US, verification wasn't so easy, and apple told us it might take a day before the password can be reset. so there was nothing we could do until apple texted him via his china phone number.

pansusu was treating us to dinner at frank's steak house in north cambridge. when he called at 4pm to make a reservation, the earliest time they could give us was 6:45pm. we had no choice but to wait. my mother helped me make movie theater popcorn, she didn't know you could make it on the stove. i mixed the flavacol with a spoon this time to thoroughly coat all the kernels in the flavor salt, so the finished popcorn came out pretty tasty, just the right amount of saltiness and coloring.

around 6:20pm we headed out to north cambridge. we got there in just 10 minutes later. my aunt was already there, while matthew was circling the block looking for parking. we were seated right away, by a table close to the entrance so whenever somebody came in or out we felt a cold draft.

the clientele seems to be mostly elderly townies. the place is surprisingly big inside, large enough to seat 173 customers. there's a bar with multiple flat screens all showing the celtics game. you know this is an old school local joint when they even have keno here.

the menu seemed promising. i got the sizzler, which is a NY sirloin served on a sizzling platter. my father go the boneless ribeye. pansusu got the prime rib. my mother got the chicken pappadelle bolognese. we also got the sicilian calamari and appetizer combo.

service was kind of slow. our waitress was an old lady who seemed to be a seasoned veteran. the only other person who seemed older was an even older lady working the cash register, whom my mother thought was maybe the mother of the owner.

we got some dinner rolls which we buttered and ate while waiting for our orders. the appetizers were kind of underwhelming. the calamari was served with a tomato sauce. the combo looked like the sort of snacks your mother might make you after school. i had two wings slathered with blue cheese sauce.

my entree came with a side of baked potato and a cup of clam chowder. the chowder wasn't bad, bits of real clams (not canned), very thick, very strong dairy taste. my mother and father got the side salad, i wish i got that instead of the potato. matthew got the frenh onion soup as a side, it looked like a bowl of bubbly black foam (but it did look delicious). my steak on the other hand was disappointing. there was no sizzle, the steak seemed cold on the outside, despite the hot cast iron skillet. at least the steak was still warm on the inside, but there was no flavor, just bland. i ended up sprinkling a lot of salt just to bring out some flavor. if i had to do it again, i would've gotten the blue cheese burger.

i was so full afterwards. what crazy person goes out for steaks just 2 days after thanksgiving? my stomach is still recovering from all that turkey, and now you add a piece of steak?

my sister did come because she was attending her high school reunion. she called, asking why we didn't pick up esmei yet, not realizing we were still at dinner.

we finally finished by 8:30pm. my father drove us back to belmont, before leaving with pansusu to the upstairs apartment and to look after esmei who was home alone sleeping. it was cold - temperature in the lower 30's - as i rode the motorcycle home. it was finally cold enough to see my own breath. i had my sherpa fleece hoodie and the handlebar mitts, so it wasn't too bad.

i met my father at the cafe at 10am so we can clean out the grease trap. this is our annual post-thanksgiving tradition. this was long overdue and the past few weeks the kitchen sink has been slow to drain.

we started by emptying the shelves. we then removed the actual shelves so i could crawl into the space and open up the nearly 2 dozen stainless steel screws to access the grease trap. we replaced these screws last time and they were still in good condition, no corrosion. i knew i was getting close when i could smell the trap opening up.

inside was a dense cake of semi-solid grease. it had the consistency of crumbly wax or butter. i scooped out the solids and dump them into a double-lined bucket that my father would periodically help me move out and replace with new trash bags. in years past we'd remove the grease trap cover along with the accumulated grease and clean it in the sink. this time we pushed all the solids into the trap itself before removing the cover for cleaning. while my father was doing that (using paper towels and alcohol spray), i was continuing my grease scooping. yes there was a very strong odor, but it wasn't that bad. kind of reminded me of taiwanese stinky tofu.

once the lid and trap had been mostly degreased, we reassembled everything. my father also cut up new foam strips to form a sealant around the grease trap lid. we put all the screws back and i climbed out of the hole.

we ran hot water in the sink but the section closest to the trap was still blocked. that's because solid grease had accumulated in the pipe. we tried to unclog it with a skewer but finally resorted to a plunger to dislodge the obstruction. the sink drained normally after that.

we then reassembled the shelving unit before putting everything back. we started at 10am but didn't finish until 1pm. my father went back to belmont while i went home to change clothes and take a shower before heading to my parents' place.

i didn't get to belmont until almost 1pm. my sister was there was esmei but they were about to leave. i figured i'd be eating leftover turkey, but my mother said that was for tonight when pansusu arrives, and made me some wonton soup instead.

my father's seese turbo jet blower arrived today. it looks like a portable blowdryer or maybe a heat gun. it even came with its own case. i played with it briefly, it's powerful but also loud (that's why the kit included earplugs). the blower was strong enough to blow some of esmei's plush toys. she herself didn't seem bothered by the noise. i also went outside and blew some dead leaves. it doesn't really work if you're blowing directly above the leaves but once you get the right angle, the leaves are no match.

my father and i also collapsed our expanding dining table.

the batteries in the living room didn't seem to be charging anymore. my father wasn't sure if there was something wrong with the batteries, the watt meter, the MPPT controller, our the solar panel itself. he replaced the wattmeter and there was still no life. we ended up taking the battery and controller to his bedroom where he had another battery-solar-panel setup that was working. we swapped the panel to the non-functional battery-controller and it started working. so definitely a panel issue. the panel itself seemed fine; so when my father traced the cable, he discovered some critter had chewed through the wire. he made a temporary fix where he cut the broken wire and respliced it together. it started working after that.

my aunt barged into the house totally unexpected, didn't bother calling first. she was delivering some chestnuts they'd just roasted, still hot. my mother was able to give her 2 boxes of chocolate crepe cookies we forgot to give her last night.

my father left for south station so after that, to pick up pansusu who had taken the acela from new york city to boston. he was due to around sometime around 4pm. they came back by 4:45pm. when pansusu saw me, the first thing he said was, "you got really fat!" i'm trying to remember how much i weighed the last time i saw him. at least 5 lbs. less.

we immediately started dinner, first with some leftover clam chowder. there was enough for all 4 of us, with a little bit left over that i ended up finishing as well. later pansusu asked if there was more before i told him the bad news. my father opened up the bottle of umesky japanese plum liquor they got in japan. my father also cooked up that second batch of mussels. we served it in a flat wide bowl this time, to make it easier to scoop up the butter-garlic-wine sauce. after that came the turkey. pansusu seemed surprised we eat it peking duck style; he must've forgotten he visited during thanksgiving a few years ago. finally, it was time for flan.

we finished dinner by 6pm. pansusu was a little tired, so my father took him to the empty apartment above my sister's place, where he'll be staying for the next few days. my mother was relieved he was staying in belmont.

i went home soon after that. temperature outside was 36 degrees. cold, yes, but today i replaced my regular hoodie with a sherpa wool hoodie, which has much better insulation. over that i wore my wind resistant jacket. that kept my body toasty warm. the only casualty were my hands, which were cold, but not painfully so. i did by the end of my trip start riding one handed so i could at least keep one hand warm. i'll use the handlebar mitts next time.

used the bathroom, took a shower, spent the rest of the night doing more portable power station research. my anker 140W laptop charger also arrived tonight. at $60 it was kind of a splurge, along with another $18 for a 2m magsafe 3 USB-C cable. but it's one of the few chargers that can charge up my new 16" M3 macbook pro, plus it has additional USB-C ports to charge additional accessories. even cooler is it has an LCD display that can tell you how much watt each port is using. it feels very futuristic. it'll come in handy for traveling, i won't need to bring a bunch of chargers, just this one can power both my laptop and phone and whatever else.

update: i tried recharging my M3 macbook pro with the anker laptop charger and the new magsafe cable. when i plugged in the new cable, the macbook kept cycling on and off, like it couldn't fully recognize the cable. that didn't happen when i used the original apple charger. however, when i used the original apple magsafe cable with the anker, that worked fine. i kept fiddling with it, occasionally the new magsafe would work, but more often than not it either didn't charge at all or kept cycling on/off repeatedly. also when it was working, it was charging with full power (40W max), unlike the original apple cable (68W max, on a laptop that was already 78% charged). a few amazon reviews for the anker charger does mention the cycling problem, but only when the macbook is fully charged (when my laptop fully charged i didn't see this problem, but i was using the original magsafe cable). so not sure what it could be. i'll still keep the charger, but i might replace the magsafe cable with either a different brand or just another original apple magsafe cable ($49 versus $15 i paid for the iffy magsafe). or i just keep the iffy magsafe and only use it with the original apple charger which seems to work fine.

i love how quiet it is on thanksgiving day. a lot of neighbors are gone, there's hardly any road traffic, pretty much everything is closed. it kind of feels like early pandemic days.

i went to the cafe by 11am, at the same time my father was there to pick up some last minute ingredients. i ended up putting my heavy backpack in the car while i motorcycled to belmont.

it was nice that i already brought most everything to belmont yesterday. i did bring my marinating clam chowder though, forgot to grab that yesterday.

i turned on the television and caught a bit of the macy's thanksgiving day parade. i've always wanted to see it in person, but the logistics of traveling to new york city around thanksgiving day and back makes it impossible.

i arrived in belmont early to figure out what to do with the largest turkey we've ever bought. my parents had already taken the bird out of the cooler and left it thawing on the kitchen counter. my notes from last year said i used the national turkey federation (NTF) guidelines for roasting in a convection oven (instead of the butterball guide). last year we had a 24 lbs. turkey; this year it was 28 lbs. just to give you a sense of how big the bird was, the guidelines don't even have roasting hours for a turkey of that size, so i had to estimate. NTF says to roast at 350 degrees. last year it took us 2 hours and 40 minutes to finish roasting that turkey. so this year i set the timer to 3-1/2 hours, with a check around the 3 hours mark.

we preheated the convection oven starting at 1:30pm for a 2pm roast, but the oven was already preheated by 1:45pm so that's when we put in the turkey. the bird was in a racked roasting tray, but because it was so big, we also placed it on top of a large baking sheet to capture any drips. another thing i did was to clean the inside of the oven beforehand. there was still some blackened drips from last year's thanksgiving. if i didn't clean, the drips would char and create a burnt smell. the kitchen and much of the smell started to smell like roasting turkey. it was a nice smell - smells like thanksgiving! - so we didn't bother to turn on the ventilation hood.

once the turkey was in the oven there wasn't much left to do but wait. my mother went to watch her chinese dramas while my father took a nap. i was watching the early afternoon football game between the packers and lions and doing some preliminary pre-black friday sale research on portable power stations.

by 4pm my parents started ramping up their preparations. they made chunbing bread for wrapping the turkey. my 2nd aunt was supposed to be here by 3pm to help out, but i saw her location on google maps and she was still in harvard square.

the first guests to show up was my sister and her godmother. seems like my sister hadn't made any of her dishes yet, and brought her all tools and ingredients to an already overcrowded kitchen so she could make them here. i put a gopro harness on esmei and let her out in the backyard. the harness kept slipping off as she ran around the yard chasing after rabbits. i noticed rabbits had chewed up a large escape hole on the eastern side fence.

i fished out drinks from the various coolers and put them onto trays. some polar seltzers, woodchuck hard cider, zero gravity juice, and sierra nevada little things IPAs.

instead of making more desserts, i asked my sister to focus on appetizers. she brought a cheese board for people to snack on. my aunt and matthew were the second set of guests to arrive. they came right when the packers-lions game ended, 31-24 packers victory. the late afternoon game was between the chiefs-cowboys. matthew picked out a zero gravity buck bukc juice which is an IPA with 9% alcohol. for his second beer he tried to pick something less strong but ended up choosing a sierra nevada big IPA that had 9.5% alcohol.

i'd been periodically checking on the progress of the roasting turkey. around 4:45pm i looked inside the oven and noticed the thermometer probe on the bird had already popped. using a digital meat thermometer i checked the temperature: 185 degrees in the center, 175 degrees on the thighs. the ideal temperature is 165 degrees, so we went over. fearing a dried turkey, we took the turkey out of the oven and left it resting on the countertop. one thing i didn't do this year was baste the turkey. i read it wasn't necessary in a convection oven, that the circulating hot air will crisp up the turkey. but because i didn't baste, the skin didn't have that beautiful golden brown color, nor did i oil/butter the turkey beforehand. next time, oil or baste!

my 2nd aunt finally showed up around 5pm (2 hours late). she forgotten the buses were running on a holiday schedule, and the belmont center bus wasn't even operating today. she ended up taking the 73 waverley square bus, and found our house through muscle memory.

while everyone was chatting and eating the appetizers (there was also salmon on crackers), i went ahead and started assembling my clam chowder. i dumped the marinating potato cubes into a large pot, before adding the juices from 2 cans of baby clams and another 10 oz. can of just clam juice. while that was simmering, i chopped up some bacon and cooked them in a pan. recipe calls for just half a package, but i ended up using the whole package, figured more bacon the better. once most of the bacon fat had rendered into hot sizzling oil, i poured the whole thing - bacon oil and bacon bits - into the chowder. i then added a whole carton of light cream and the baby clams and stirred everything for a few more minutes before the chowder was finally ready. originally i thought we wouldn't have enough chowder for everyone, but there was enough for all 8 guests (including myself) plus a second serving. nobody went for the second serving as there was more food to come.

next my father prepared the mussels. i bought 2 bags, but a single bag seemed to be enough for all of us. besides, we can save the second bag for tomorrow when pansusu visits. these were cape cod mussels but a closer inspection of the tag showed they were in fact from canada. my father prepared them with a butter-garlic-white wine sauce.

after that my father took everyone on a tour of our basement grow room. while matthew and i were talking about how to winterize pepper plants, everyone was back upstairs, where my mother made fried spring rolls and my father made salt & pepper jumbo shrimps in the enameled cast iron dutch oven. i ate a few spring rolls with thai sweet chili sauce. i tried one of the shrimps but they tasted too shrimpy. i still think the best way to prepare jumbo shrimps is stir-fried on high heat in a wok.

only then, finally, did we get to the turkey. it almost seemed anticlimactic at that point, since we already ate so much food already. also since we already had at 13-lbs turkey last week, the wait was already over and this was more of an encore.

matthew was glued to the television, hoping for the cowboys to lose. against the chiefs they had a pretty good chance, but kansas city this season really stinks, and they ended up losing to dallas.

after we cleared the table of dirty dishes came time for dessert. i thought it was just going to be my flan, but once again my sister had to steal my thunder and made everyone try some apple cheese cake dessert she made. i made enough this year that everyone could take home a flan afterwards and we still had enough left over for ourselves.

everyone left by 8:30pm. matthew and my aunt gave my 2nd a ride home (even though it was in the opposite direction of where they lived) while my sister took her godmother home. i didn't leave until 9pm, after helping my parents clear the table.

like this morning, it was pretty quiet. if i did see another car, i assumed they were leaving some thanksgiving party. there was plenty of parking spots on my street. even though my upstairs neighbors weren't here, the lights upstairs showed that there was somebody still there, their mystery guest that stays at their place alone while they go elsewhere for thanksgiving.

the third game of the night was between the bengals-ravens. cincinnati had just played the patriots last sunday and lost, and now on short days rest they were playing again on thursday. i figured they'd lose against the ravens, but this game marked the return of joe burrow, and he smoked baltimore for a 32-14 victory. 4-8 bengals are not going to the playoffs, but burrow showed that he can still lead the team to victory when he's healthy, and hopefully a more promising next season.

i had a busy day planned for today, wednesday, my one day off. no time to even shower, after i used the bathroom, i biked to market basket to pick up some very last minute items: bean sprouts, cilantro, mussels. i've found that early morning day-before-thanksgiving is usually a petty calm and peaceful affair. i would not dare to go back to any supermarkets later tonight, i imagine they'd be insanely crowded, since no supermarkets will be open tomorrow. there were just 2 other bikes parked at the stand, both with yellow fenders (coincidence?). the line for pies outside petsi's wasn't as long as in years past, which was surprising. maybe it was still early.

back at the house, i started making the clam chowder.

i didn't think 6 large russet potatoes would be enough, but i weighed them and they were about 2.8 lbs (i only need 2 lbs worth). after peeling and trimming off any moldy bits, i still had 2.4 lbs left. i cut them into small cubes before boiling them to al dente softness. i left them draining in the metal colander, figured they'd cool faster than the glass pyrex bowl. i waited half an hour for them to cool before moving on to the next steps.

i poured the semi-cooled cooked potato cubes into a pyrex bowl and added the remaining ingredients: salt, fresh ground pepper, chopped onions, and chopped clams including the juices. i used my small food processor to chop up the onion (no tears). i normally use snow brand clams, but i got these cape may chopped clams from ocean state job lot. after stirring them a bit, i poured everything into a 1-gallon freezer bag. because the potato was still warm, i left it to cool completely on the countertop before putting them in the fridge overnight to marinate.

around noontime i took the motorcycle to the cafe. my original plan was to simply ride the bicycle, but i seemed to have forgotten, and since i already took the cover off the motorcycle, i decided to go with that instead. besides, with the motorcycle gone, that'd leave an empty parking space for when i return.

i went to the cafe to borrow the car. my parents and 2nd aunt were super busy, and my mother told me they botched another order this morning, when a customer took the wrong takeout bag. they also got a $100 order with a bunch of noodles, and this was before my 2nd aunt arrived, so they were in a rush to fulfill that big order.

i drove the car back to my place to move the flan, mussels, and beer. earlier i took two coolers from the cafe and filled them with ice, but one of the flan trays wouldn't fit so i had to get creative. i then went to belmont to drop off everything, but not before i took a detour to the mt.auburn star market to look for holiday ham and hard cider. they didn't have any ham on sale (i should've grabbed one earlier). of their hard cider selection, i went with the classic woodchuck amber. thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without some hard cider.

i finally made it to belmont around 1:30pm. i dug up two more coolers from the garage and put them all in the sunroom. i then divvied up the ice and load them up with flan, drinks, and mussels. i had a chance to take a sneak peek in the basement grow room. there was no signs of bugs. my three-prong pesticide control seems to be working so far.

i spent the next 2 hours cleaning the house. i moved my father's electronic push cart into the sunroom, and assembled the chairs around the dining table. i vacuum the floor before finally taking out the bissell little green hydrosteam cleaner from the box and using it to try and clean the stains from the seat cushions. i filled a spray bottle with amazon brand carpet cleaner. it had a pleasant scent. i then used a brush to work in the cleaner before using the hydrosteam to vacuum out the stain. i was spraying it with water before i switched to hot steam only. the stain was lessened but it didn't completely remove it. maybe i didn't mix in enough carpet cleaner. when i drained the discharge tank from the hydrosteam, it was a little dirty, so it did do some cleaning, just didn't completely get rid of the stain.

i returned to the cafe by 3:30pm. it was still busy at the cafe, i stuck around to help out a little bit. my father and i took bedding from the car and brought it to the upstairs apartment, where my sister was waiting for us along with esmei. esmei had free run of the apartment, trying out the beds and sofas. my sister had just given her a bath so she was still fluffy and slightly damp.

after returning to the cafe, i went home. i went over to bruce's place to drop off the thanksgiving flan. i found out they were watching the american revolution documentary as well, though they're a few episodes behind.

i hadn't eaten anything all day, so finally made myself an instant cup of shin black noodles. i also found a can of norwegian mackerel in tomato sauce and ate that as well. i watched the latest episode of pluribus (5), which apple released early last night to avoid conflicting with thanksgiving. two things happened in this episode that i predicted: that the others would purposely avoid carol so she can't trigger them again and that future interactions would be done via drones.

when the cafe finally closed, i checked today's tally. like yesterday, it was super busy, and we ended november on a positive note, beating last november's earnings. it terms of ranking, it's just our 7th profitable month, but not bad considering the thanksgiving holiday and closing for 3 days.

google photos remix has a new AI style - watercolor. it's a pretty conservative "filter" and doesn't really reimagine the photo besides just turning it into a watercolor.

i made some white cheddar pasta shells for dinner around 9:30pm. afterwards i made a big bowl of movie theater popcorn. i added too much flavacol so it was really salty. i ate about half before i had enough.

i took a shower last night but instead of the moisturizing body wash, i used a regular sandalwood-scented body wash instead. i figured i've been moisturizing for almost 2 weeks, i should be safe. apparently i was wrong, because when i got into bed, my legs and arms were itchy from dry skin. so it looks like i can't just stop moisturizing, i'm in it for the long haul.

i woke up this morning without any lightheadedness, so my weird symptoms seemed to have passed. at times throughout the day i still felt a little groggy, but nothing like what i felt yesterday and over the weekend. potential rainstorms by the time i returned from work, so i packed my rain pants and wore my rain jacket when i left for the cafe this morning.

i counted 19 tea eggs total, would that be enough for today and tomorrow? last year, the week of thanksgiving, we had a very slow tuesday and wednesday, so we figured history would repeat itself. my father brined the 26 lbs. turkey in the cooler and later i placed it inside our sliding door fridge after i moved one of the shelves to get clearance.

i went to trader joe's in the late morning to get a few last minute items, including baby cucumbers for the cafe and packages of scallions for thanksgiving. i'd never seen the place so busy before, felt more like market basket. was the entire neighborhood out here shopping? heading back, i admired some crabapple trees opposite bonny's, full of tiny fruits in various shades of yellow, red, and orange.

today ended up being a crazy busy day. we were busy every hour with the exception of 4-5pm, when it looked like things were tapering off, but starting at 5pm it got even busier. it's kind of surprising because tuesday is supposed to be the busiest thanksgiving traveling day, but apparently many of our customers weren't traveling, so it was business as usual for them.

as far as thanksgiving preparations, besides brining the turkey, my father braised some beef shank while my mother braised a bunch of eggs. she also cooked some tendon my 2nd aunt had gotten her, instead of tripe which we can't seem to find.

i ended up making a new batch of tea eggs right around closing time, because we wouldn't have enough for tomorrow, especially if it's just as busy as today.

my parents stayed behind to cook some fish for dinner while i biked home after work.

for dinner i cooked some ravioli with a jar of ready made pasta sauce. i ate while watching episode 4 of american revolution.

i didn't bother taking out the trash tonight. all that garbage belongs to my upstairs neighbors, they should be the ones to bring out the bins, i don't know why they just expect me to do it, like i'm the resident custodian. i barely make any trash, i could go weeks without needing to throw anything out.