i biked to the cafe this morning, my first time biking since the snowstorm of sunday night. sides of the road are still lined with compact snow and ice, so the safest place to ride is in the wheel wells left behind by car traffic. even then, i rode in straight lines as much as i could, turning or making adjustments only when i clearly see there's no snow or ice on the asphalt. the streets will get better day by day, those who ride now are the pioneers.
i threw out all the remaining paperwhite bulbs. some of them still look healthy, but since they're not hardy enough to live outdoors here in new england, there's no point in keeping them. it seems wasteful, but apparently it's common practice to discard them once they've been forced to bloom indoors.
i took some meguiars plastx plastic cleaner and polish and tried to get rid of the scratches on our future acrylic menu board. i used a microfiber cloth to apply the plastx. it removed a few light scratches but most of them were still visible afterwards. plastx is more like a polish. designed for cleaning headlights, it says it can remove cloudiness, yellowing, oxidation, and fine scratches. other than fine scratches, the acrylic board doesn't have any of those other problems. by the end of the day we ordered the novus scratch remover kit for $21.
my mother asked me tuesday if there was any way to get rid of the commercials when she watched youtube. i said no, at least not on the ipad. but then i did some research yesterday and came across brave browser, which is designed to be ad-free. i installed it on my mother's ipad and it worked, now she can enjoy youtube without commercials. i'm surprised such an app exists. i'd imagine google would spent a lot of money to circumvent its ad-blocking technology in order to earn that ad revenue. at least for now it works. does work on everything though. when my mother tried iyf.tv, there were still plenty of ads, but i think that's mostly because chinese websites use different ad serving technology.
my parents went to subway last night and got two subs. they only finished one, saving the second one for me. i couldn't eat the whole thing so i had half in the afternoon for lunch.
our solar panels have been snow free since yesterday, as we produced our average amount of winter electricity for this time of the year (25Kwh), while our neighbors' panels are still snow-covered. that's only because we managed to manually clean off most of the snow on monday, something our neighbors with high roofs can't easily do. but temperature today was in the lower 30's, slightly below freezing. that was warm enough to melt snow so that by the afternoon, most of our neighbors' panels were snow-free as well.
my 2nd aunt showed up in the late afternoon. she went to chinatown today and brought half a soy sauce chicken (豉油雞) for my mother, and came to deliver it along with some baby bokchoi.
business today was terrible, just like it was yesterday. we were busy briefly around noontime, then quiet the rest of the day. is it because of the cold weather? then how come we make okay profit on tuesday? the most popular item today was fried rice, which outpaced bento as number one. it was so non-busy my father gave my 2nd aunt an early ride home around 5pm so she wouldn't have to walk back home.
my parents made some slow-cook beef stew today and packed me some on rice for dinner. the ride home was a bit harrowing as i biked gingerly, eyes fixed on the road, trying to avoid any icy patches in the dark. my route back involves traveling the wrong way on three residential one-way streets. luckily no cars came down tonight, otherwise i'd have to bail out out the snow banks. when i got back home, i noticed my upstairs neighbors had changed out their porch light. it was a blindingly cool white spotlight. it was so bright i turned off my own porch light. now it was a medium-bright warm white light, much more eye-appealing.
after changing out of my smelly restaurant clothes, i took a shower before eating dinner.
there was a celtics-lakers game, but it didn't start until 10:30pm. as much as i want to watch it, i need to sleep too. i stayed up late watching the celtics-clippers game until 1am and ended up with just 6 hours of sleep so i was sleepy at work.
when i called my father this morning to tell him i was going to go pick up his prescriptions, he said he already did it this morning. the only other thing i needed to do outside was maybe get some groceries, but i still have plenty to eat in the office, so decided against it. the last remaining thing on my to-do list was call xfinity and negotiate a new contract. i wasn't looking forward to it.
when i finally called in the late morning, it took forever to get a live agent. xfinity kept asking me if i wanted to try their automated chat, and even forced me to try it before hanging up. i called them back and finally got a live agent, donna. i told her my situation, how my sister used to pay $40/month, but the price had gone up to $60/month, and there were any new discount deals. she offered me an existing speed deal of 500Mbps for $45/month for 2 years, $35/month if i sign up for xfinity wireless. $45 was a good enough deal so i took it. while i had her on the phone, i asked if there were any deals i could get for my own personal account. i currently pay $60/month for 800Mbps. i don't need that speed (100Mbps is more than enough). she offered me a $35/month of 300Mbps for 2 years, with 1 year under contract. i took that deal as well.
so i managed to save $20/month for my sister's place and $25/month for myself. not bad. i think i got lucky, donna was a generous agent, was willing to offer me discounts without having to jump through hoops. i'll need to call xfinity back in another 2 years when the discounts expire.
i was in a pretty good mood the rest of the day. i had a bowl of instant tonkotsu ramen for lunch. in the afternoon i got dressed and went outside. it was just as cold as yesterday, but i dressed so warmly i didn't feel it. i visited the dollar store for some unhealthy snacks, and got some chips at star market on the way back. star market continues to suffer an egg shortage, there were just a few cartons left.
i heated a philly cheesesteak hot pot in the microwave and ate it while watching nosferatu, which became available for streaming today. i spent the rest of the day doing that, watching youtube videos, and retroactively updating blog posts (working on may 2023).
for dinner i heated up a thin crust pizza. the lack of crust allowed me to eat the whole thing. i was hoping to have dinner while watching the celtics-clippers game, but that wasn't until 10:30pm.
it was still too icy to risk biking, so i woke up a bit earlier this morning to get ready for work. i left the house by 8:30am, and walked down to the cafe to get there before 9am. temperature outside was 14 degrees, and the high temperature today would barely reach the lower 20's.
the walk took 25 minutes. i was all bundled up so it felt pretty warm. i saw a few brave individuals biking on the road, and wondered if i should've taken the bike as well. i spotted turkeys - usually i ignore them - but they were iridescent in the morning sun that i had to take a few photos.
i was the first to arrive. i cooked up 7 cups of rice, hung up the boston fern, opened up all the ordering tablets, reheated the tea eggs, moved out all the frozen food to thaw, vacuumed the floor, and mops up the salt stains. my parents didn't show up until almost 9:30am, i was worried they weren't coming.
i ordered 150 gallons of heating oil for belmont (at $3.55/gallon). i also continued to help my parents decouple from their old cambridge trust bank account. i redirected two eversource utilities account. i moved out an autopay account. now the only thing left are ubereats payments (uber said it might take 2 weeks to update bank account changes) and EZ pass payments. the last thing i had to do was negotiate the xfinity cable bill at my sister's place. she currently pays $40/month for 500Mbps but the 2-year contract is about to expire and the new price is $60/month starting on sunday. i decided to call xfinity tomorrow when i have the day off so i can work out the logistics.
another thing i did today was change the plan for our verizon phone accounts. my mother noticed the price had gone up, and when i logged in, i saw we were signed up for unlimited data plus hotspot, which was $45/person. the regular verizon unlimited is only $27/person. so i changed the plan for everyone, saving us about $60/month.
my father brought a bendable condenser fin brush that i used to remove the thick clumps of dust on the fins of the kitchen refrigerator. afterwards the fridge seemed to be running cooler than usual, which is a good thing. speaking of which, i washed some of the vinyl-coated wire fridge shelves because there was some mold growing on them.
the only supply run we did this weekend was my parents went to costco early sunday morning (before the snowstorm). the only thing they got for the cafe was some more eggs. because of that, we ran out of a few things, like bean sprouts. so in the afternoon i took the car and drove to market basket to get that along with a few other things. i came back with a cold cuts sub that i ate half for a late lunch.
i also got a pillsbury strawberry cake mix. one of my few memories1 as a recently arrived immigrant child was my mother baking a strawberry cake in a little toaster oven. we'd never had anything like that before and i remembered it was the most delicious cake i've ever had. i don't even know how she did it, it was almost like magic. i specifically remember the smell, and how the crust was brown and crunchy. not sure what made me think of it now, but i got a cake mix hopefully to duplicate that experience. making it wasn't hard, cake mix combined with water, oil, and 3 eggs. i baked it in the breville smart oven for 38 minutes.
the final strawberry cake was very delicious. the crust is the best part (my mother selfishly ate 2 corner pieces), the rest of the cake amazingly moist. my father had to stop himself after eating 2 pieces as he could've easily ate more. if there was one complaint, maybe i should've used a deeper dish. the 9x13 pan was a bit shallow, so it was like eating a sheet cake. next time, maybe i'll tray a loaf pan instead.
i didn't think i needed to, but we sold enough tea eggs that i ended up making a new batch. i started so late, it just finished simmering by the time we closed. i also made a batch of green tea, left to cool overnight so it can be poured into pitchers.
i'm probably the only person i know who still watches the news on television. it's actually the "show" i watch the most. i watch it in the morning, at noontime, in the early evening, and the late evening. i like to know what's happening locally, nationally, and internationally. i keep track of the weather, and i follow sports news when our local teams make their post-season push. whenever the news is on, i'm watching it. unfortunately trump has taken the joy out of news watching, as now i try to avoid as much trump news as possible. my new strategy is this: i wait 5-10 minutes before tuning into the news, with the hopes that all the trump stuff gets broadcasted early on, and i can watch the rest.
my father was toying with the idea of getting an electric snowblower, since our two gasoline blowers are too much of a hassle to maintain. EGO has two-stage snowblowers but they cost at least $1000. EGO single-stage snowblowers are cheaper, even more so without batteries. their cheapest option is a single-stage with rubber rotor blades for $420 without batteries (SNT2100). their steel auger version without batteries (SNT2110) retails for $470. finally, a rubber auger version with auger-propulsion sells for $600 without batteries (SNT2120AP). they all require two batteries, ideally 5Ah each. EGO brand 5Ah batteries sell for $200 each, but chinese knockoffs are just $60-80/each. come spring a lot of these will go on sale.
must've been the cold weather, it was kind of a slow day. it didn't get busy until after 1pm, then busy again close to 6pm, when 3 people came in and ordered beef noodle soup. in the end we made nearly exactly the same amount as last tuesday.
my parents forgot that i walked to the cafe today and were about to leave when i casually said i was walking back home. they offered me a ride but i insisted on walking. i stopped by my sister's place to see esmei. my sister didn't bring her by the cafe today because it was too cold and there was too much salt on the sidewalk. esmei came barreling out from the back of the house. she looked at my two empty hands and turned right around.
i passed by the library walking home, saw the sewing circle, grabbed a quick photo. i bumped into my mailman, still making the rounds. he said the reason was because there was a holiday yesterday, so there was a backlog of letters and packages. approaching home, i was shocked by the new replacement porch light my upstairs neighbors installed, it was a full-on blinding floodlight, probably the brightest light in the neighborhood.
for dinner i finished the other half of the cold cuts sub. i added some banana peppers for some extra spiciness.
1 another early childhood US memory is my mother taking us to the fresh pond zayre department store and eating a hot dog in the little eatery in the back. not sure why i remember it so vividly. it was probably the first time i ever had a hot dog. it was probably served from one of those rolling hot dog warmer.
i woke up at 9am this morning and immediately went outside to shovel the sidewalk. it wasn't as bad as i thought, about 5 inches of powdery snow. i was afraid my upstairs neighbors would beat me to snow clearing work, yet i wasn't surprised when i didn't hear a peep from them. i was surprised that some of my neighbors had already cleared their sidewalk and cars, though don wasn't up yet. one car parked directly outside that i didn't recognize even shoveled dirty salty sludge onto our front garden area. i made quick work of the front before clearing out the alleyway then the backyard. i saw rat tracks going from margot's backyard into renee's place. that's when i discovered the basement door was opened. fortunately the rat tracks did not go into the basement.
i took a quick trip to star market to pick up some keurig green mountain caramel vanilla cream coffee for my mother before packing up my things. around 9:50am i walked to harvard square to take the bus to belmont. the streets were all cleared though patches of sidewalk were still snow packed. professionally managed apartments and schools were good about keeping their sidewalks clean. it was cold - temperature in the 20's - but the sun was out and i was dressed warmly, so it felt pretty nice.
i managed to catch a 10:15am 73 bus heading to belmont. there was just one other passenger who got off on huron avenue, leaving me the only remaining passenger on the bus. maybe because it was martin luther king jr. day, but there was very little traffic and we made very good time. i got off after 10 minutes and walked the rest of the way to my parents' place. people were digging out, cleaning snow off their cars, clearing their driveways. unlike cambridge, belmont cleared the streets but left them untreated so there was still a layer of snow on the roads. belmont seemed to have gotten a little more snow, about 6 inches.
when i finally reached my parents' house by 10:30am, i was surprised my father hadn't shoveled the sidewalk yet. we have a large two-stage gas-powered snowblower in the garage but it wouldn't start when my father tested it yesterday. he went to my sister's place and got the smaller gas-powered single-stage (rubber paddle) blower. that too failed to start. we're terrible at snowblower maintenance, and both machines haven't been used in years since we haven't had that much snow. anyway, the snow was fairly light so the both of us manually shoveling made quick work of it, from the sidewalk, to the driveway, to the cars.
the main reason why i was at belmont so early wasn't to help shovel the sidewalk but rather to clear the snow off of the solar panels. below freezing temperature is forecasted for the entire week. night time temperatures will be in single digits, possibly negative degrees (fahrenheit). whatever snow i don't clear away now will freeze solid the rest of the week.
i grabbed my ladder and roof rake. every time i clear the snow off of the panels it's a different project. from the amount of snow, to the kind of snow (icy, powdery, compact). today we had powdery snow, but there was a layer of ice at the bottom that couldn't be removed (the snowstorm started as rain before transitioning to snow). i did the best i could, managed to expose little bits of the dark panels underneath with the hopes that those area will get hot underneath the sun and melt the rest of the ice. snow on the main roof panels were easier to clean, with the ice underneath melting right away. by the time we were finished, most of the main roof panels were already cleared. the sunroom panels were more challenging. i managed to clear off most of the snow, but the underlying ice layer wouldn't budge. yes there would be some melting, but the angle of those panels is such that they won't simply side off. those will take longer to melt.
at the very least we were able to clear snow off our panels. almost all our other solar neighbors had snow covering their panels. that snow isn't coming off anytime soon, so they won't be able to generate any electricity the rest of the week.
i came back inside by noontime. my mother made me a hot dog for lunch along with some fresh soy milk. i turned on the tv hoping to catch the news. instead i caught the very moment when trump was sworn into office. every single channel was covering the event. i ended up watching a DVR recording of the 6am news.
after lunch i went down to the basement to water the plants. there's an increase i fungus gnat activity, judging by how many gnats i caught on the yellow sticky traps. it's the most i've seen this season. maybe my Bti-infused water is too diluted. the blooming peach-colored moth orchid is so beautiful, even more flowers than before. not to mention it seemed to have formed a second flower spike, so more flowers to come. orchids don't need fertilizer when they're blooming, only when they're in their vegetative growth phase. orchids can also be repotted after they finish flowering.
i refilled the birdfeeder. moments later, birds of all ilk started showing up. today i saw: house finches, white-breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker, juncos, and chickadees. because it was so cold, the birds were all fluffed up. the chickadees looked egg-shaped. in other wildlife observations, i saw a large rabbit in the backyard while i was up on the ladder. curious to see where it'd go, it stopped by a fence post and simply jumped over the fence like it was nothing. i knew rabbits could clear that fence but i always thought they needed a running start. apparently they don't. so much for trying to make the backyard rabbit proof.
my mother was finding things to wash and volunteered to wash my winter jacket. i can't wash it at home because my washing machine has an agitator. but the LG washer at my parents' place has an impeller, so good for washing bulky garments, like a jacket. afterwards the jacket felt like brand new, can't remember the last time i washed it.
i roasted some brazil nuts. my mother said they're her favorites, even though i find them tasteless compared to hazelnuts or chestnuts. i learned that eating too many brazil nuts can be dangerous as they contain high levels of selenium. symptoms of selenosis includes abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, breathing problems, heart issues, and kidney failure. at most you're only supposed to eat 3 a day. i had a hard time finding roasting instructions for in-shell brazil nuts. i ended up going to the diamond website and reading the instructions off of a packaging photo (350°F preheat, 20 minutes).
i went outside again in the late afternoon, hoping to clear the ice off of the sunroom solar panels. by that point the sun was very low on the horizon, and what snow/ice that melted earlier had already frozen solid again. there wasn't anything left to do but wait and hope that the sunshine tomorrow can continue melting more of the snow/ice.
i tried to reattach a broken bottle brush using some 2-part epoxy. it probably won't work (just easier to buy a new one, they're cheap), but in order to hold the two pieces together, i used a soldering base with adjustable arms.
in the evening i tried searching for some news on the local channels but every single one of them was broadcasting trump's inauguration celebration, which i had zero interest in seeing. luckily i realized there was a celtics-warriors game (celtics won by the way, by 40 points).
for dinner we had stirfry tofu with onions, leftover grilled salmon, juicy braised beef, cantaloupe, and blueberries. my father gave me a ride back to cambridge afterwards.
i spent the entire day at home waiting for the snow that wouldn't come until the evening. i slept late, didn't get out of bed until 10:30am. i kept the house at 60 degrees but i didn't feel cold at all, dressed in my sweat pants, sweater, and slippers. i think maybe because it was so dry, plus the fact that the temperature outside was a balmy 40's. it was warm enough that i saw a lot of people jogging. i was briefly tempted to go running myself, but when i had my morning weigh-in, i'd lost 2 lbs. (thanks to my week long salad diet) so didn't feel the need to exercise. it was better to stay home. did i have an irrational urge to go to the supermarket and see if they have any bread or milk? maybe for milk (suddenly wanted cereal or hot chocolate), but i could wait until tomorrow when the super market will be sure to be empty.
for lunch i heated up some old frozen honey barbecue chicken fingers. they weren't that good, and ate them with 5-year expired blue cheese dressing. surprisingly, i didn't get sick. i spent much of the day drinking various teas, must've gone through 4-5 glasses, from jasmine, to bengal spice, to sleepytime vanilla. i gave my insulated thermos a real workout.
i also spent a good chunk of the day retroactively updating old blog posts and erasing their associated photo folders from my computer. not sure of my progress, but did free up 7GB worth of storage space.
in the afternoon my neighbors came back from where ever it was they went. at least i think it was them. they will occasionally let random friends stay over while they're gone without telling me. other than some initial stomping, they were mostly quiet the rest of the day. they too were probably waiting out the storm.
i finished watching the season finale of silo. i didn't like the second season, i hate watched most of it, occasionally fast forwarding the boring parts, which was many. but there were some good parts in the finale that didn't exactly salvage the season, but offered enough good will that i'll watch season 3 when it comes out. martha - who everyone thought betrayed mechanical - actually told them she was being watched through mechanical sign language, unbeknownst to bernard. and the scene where juliette finally escapes silo 17 and comes back to silo 18? cresting over the hill, as the rioting mob sees her on the screen and everyone stops to watch her come back? that was an awesome moment, gave me goosebumps.
the day was punctuated by two NFL games: rams-eagles at 3pm and ravens-bills at 6:30pm. i had no stakes in the first game. i was rooting for the rams because they seemed like the underdog and was a feel good story, being they're from los angeles and with the recent wildfire tragedies. but the eagles won it in the end, 22-28. it started snowing as the game began, the same snowstorm that would eventually come to new england.
it started to snow around 5pm, although by 3pm the sky was already getting dark.
the second game was more interesting. i was rooting for buffalo, but i also like baltimore. it was a close game, with the bills taking a 10-21 lead going into halftime, but then in the 3rd quarter they were held to zero points while the ravens scored 9. it was a close game, with an opportunity to go into overtime, but the ravens failed a 2-point conversion and the bills ate the clock. final score 25-27. bills face the chiefs in kansas city next sunday.
for dinner i heated up a stouffer's lasagna. post-pandemic, not only did their serving sizes decrease, but they also changed the recipe. their frozen lasagna used to be my favorite, but now instead of ground beef, they use chunks of sausage instead (or is it ham?) in a cost saving measure. it's not very good now and i don't think i'll buy them again. i of course have made my own lasagna in the past, but i've always found my own recipe too bland. could be time to try again though, i'll try to find a recipe i can improve upon.
the final snow forecast seems to be a late arriving system that started with rain before transitioning to snow, and moving fast enough across new england that instead of a blockbuster, we'll probably get about 6 inches here in the greater boston area. not a bad amount, but not like a blizzard where we measure accumulation in feet. the bigger issue is how everything will flash freeze afterwards. after i shovel my sidewalk tomorrow morning, i'd heading down to my parents' place to see if i can do anything about the snow on the solar panels. if we can't clear the panels tomorrow, most likely they'll be covered all next week as the temperature is going to drop significantly.
i went online last night looking for used acrylic panels. i figured post-pandemic, there'd be a lot of businesses trying to get rid of them. i started with craig's list, followed by facebook marketplace. didn't find the plexiglass i wanted, but marketplace showed me a t-fal deep fryer somebody was selling. it'd been posted for 3 weeks with no takers so the seller reduced the price from $50 to $30. the seller was located in newton, not too far from here. so i contacted them last night before bed, said i'd be available to pickup on sunday.
unable to repair the broken deep fryer, we ended up buying another t-fal EZ clean deep fryer ($125). we never gave up on the old broken one though. if we could only find the right replacement part, it'd be an easy fix. after some research, i discovered that some other brands of deep fryers use the same reset switch. if i could source a cheap (or free) deep fryer, i could swap out the reset switch. every few weeks the past few months i'd go online looking for cheap used deep fryers. the most promising possibility was a presto profry from a revere seller for just $15. it was missing the cord, but i just needed it for parts (specifically the reset switch). whether it'd work or not i wasn't 100% sure. but now that i might be able to buy a used t-fal deep fryer, that's an easier fix, i just have to swap ou the heating element. no messy disassembly, no fingers crossed hoping it'll work.
i woke up this morning and the seller had replied (at 6am), asking what time i could come on sunday. i asked if 11am was okay. she said yes and sent me her address. she also told me she'd leave the deep fryer outside on her porch and i could either venmo her the money or leave the cash inside her mailbox. upon further though, i asked if i could come pick it up today around 4:45pm, after i get out of work. she said sure. while on facebook marketplace, i saw another seller - this one in boston - selling a t-fal EZ clean for $60 (later it dropped down to $40). that one looked to be in better condition, but like i said, all i really wanted is the heating element, i have all the other parts already.
i walked down to the cafe since i'd be going with my father to newton and would get a ride back home afterwards. i got there early - around 10:25am - but my father was already there. my mother decided to stay home. my father was cutting up the pickled mustard and roasting some charsiu pork. i was out front mopping up the salt tracks from the floor (need to do it twice to completely get rid of the salt stains).
my father brought some more led light strips he found back at home, including a strand of white leds. the lights didn't seem very bright though. the controller was a little wonky, wasn't able to adjust the light intensity. the leds were also warm white, which looked a little too yellow, but still much better than the blue hue of the RGB leds. i much rather prefer a natural white color temperature. i did a test where i compared the different between led lights shining from the top of the acrylic panel and leds shining from the top and one side. i couldn't really tell the difference. i also drew a larger taiwan island using an ipad this time for tracing.
as soon as we opened at 11am we got an online order (almost didn't see it as we were both busy in the kitchen). perhaps it was a sign today would be busy. my 2nd aunt showed up right as we were preparing the order. when the customer arrived, she said she wanted to eat here instead, saving us some takeout containers.
it did not in fact get busy. after that first customer, we hardly had any business. seems like my mother picked the right day to take off. was it the weather? temperature today was in the 40's but overcast with rain falling around 3pm and into the evening. or maybe people were busy making snow preparations, mobbing super markets for the last carton of milk or loaf of bread.
my 2nd aunt brought some frozen mozzarella balls that we heated up in the air fryer. i watched a few episodes of cheers on pluto.tv. every once in a while i'd go down to the basement and admire our glowing plexiglass signage.
it started to get busy around the afternoon. we made okay profit give the slow start. saturdays can get pretty busy sometimes, but since the start of the new year, saturday business has been slow. harvard's spring semester doesn't begin until the 27th. we'll probably get busier once that happens, when the students come back.
my 2nd aunt actually left around 3pm, after she heard we were going to newton after work to pick up a used deep fryer. the original plan was to drop her off first, but she wanted to walk home for the exercise, and left early to beat the rain. we started cleaning half an hour before closing and thankfully no new customers showed up.
it was still a bit early to leave for newton (the scheduled time was 4:45pm). but i came up with a plan where we could get some subs from the watertown center subway (using a coupon so 3 subs for the price of one) before heading to newton. i made the order online using the subway after before we left the cafe. it was already raining at this point. by the time we got there the order was ready.
the seller lived in newtonville, which was just across the watertown border. newton is so huge, i'm still discovering parts of it that i never knew existed. we followed the google maps direction but it was a tricky route, and at one point we went off-course. not a problem since we had plenty of time to spare. when we arrived i spotted the deep fryer on the porch as promised. i was offended that the seller didn't want to meet face-to-face. they were taking all the risk, putting faith that i'm an honest person and would leave the money as promised. i stuffed $30 cash inside an envelope the seller provided for me in the mailbox.
we thought heading back would be easier, but it was just as tricky, and we almost got lost again. once we got our bearing, we made our way back to my parents' place without anymore issues. passing through watertown center, we saw some amazing animated tree light display. how they managed to wrap the trees and then synchronize the lights is nothing short of amazing. everyone should go and see it in person if they have the chance.
the deep fryer was a little dirty, like they never properly cleaned it. it didn't look like it was heavily used, but the knobs felt a little sticky. once we clean it up, it'll look and work like new again. too bad we had to take the heating element. that means we actually have three t-fal deep fryers. if somehow one day i can get my hands on a broken deep fryer and strip it for parts, i might be able to find a working thermal reset switch i can install into our third t-fal.
as for the subs, i got the chicken teriyaki for myself (that's my default subway sandwich), the club sandwich for my mother, and the philly cheesesteak for my father. given the price we paid we shouldn't be complaining, but the sandwiches seemed to be a lot of bread and vegetables and hardly any meat. the cheesesteak seemed the most worthwhile option, but even that one is not real shredded steak (more like gyro slices with barely melted cheese).
after we finished eating, my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. it was raining a bit heavier now. since it's snowing tomorrow, i've opted not to go to belmont tomorrow, wait until monday morning. my mother said she wanted to go to costco tomorrow before the snowstorm, i told her it's going to be crazy busy, she said she's willing to brave it.
watched the hawks-celtics game. what can i say? celtics lost 119-115. the game went into overtime. it was an exciting matchup, but the ending wasn't the one i'd hoped for. celtics go on a 4 game road trip starting with the warriors, followed by the clippers, lakers, and mavericks.
i logged into the tiktok website tonight, because i'd heard it was already down. there was just a message saying that tiktok wasn't available right now, and that "we are fortunate that president trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate tiktok once he takes office. please stay tuned!" trump was the one who originally wanted to ban tiktok in his first term, and now he's going to get credit for bringing it back? fortunately it's easy to circumvent the block with a VPN. i signed in from toronto and was able to see tiktok just fine.
my father returned to burlington this morning for a followup doctor's appointment regarding his prostate. my mother ended up walking to the cafe which took 40 minutes. i was the first to arrive. there was a dusting of snow overnight, most noticeable on cars and trash cans. my mother arrived at the cafe a few minutes after i did. "it's so warm!" she said, even though the temperature was in the 30's. my father showed up a few minutes later.
remember those paperwhites i started back in november? i've since lost interest after they finished blooming. i tried watering with diluted alcohol but they still all grew to full size with long stems that eventually toppled. originally i thought about saving the bulbs, but it's easier just to throw them out and grow new ones, since they're too delicate to be planted outside, and it'd take a few seasons of nurturing to get them robust enough to bloom again. it's kind of a shame, because the bulbs themselves still seem very healthy and plump. my next forced bulb project is waiting for those hyacinths and daffodils to have enough time to winterize in the garage before i take them out to sprout. i stored them exactly 2 months ago, so it's already been 8 weeks. i can probably start forcing them at the start of february.
before we started getting customers, i biked to the fresh pond whole foods to return my 2nd aunt's unused unopened ipad. i'd never returned anything there before. not sure if it's holiday season only, but they had a dedicated desk to process amazon returns. i felt a little weird giving them the ipad without a receipt, but soon afterwards i got a "return received" e-mail. i looked for bean sprouts but they didn't have any. i also checked out their smoked salmon selection on sale this week. they sell the same brand of smoked white fish salad i'd had before, except it sells for $4.99 at market basket while at whole foods it's $8.99. i felt very out of place being there, besides the fact that everything is more expensive. i kept thinking at any moment an employee would come up to me and say, "sir, you can't be in here, you have to leave now."
we found the spare clear acrylic panel in the basement. it has a dimension of 29x41" with a thickness of 3/8". my father took down the RGB light strip from the panel by the checkout desk so we could create a mockup of what a potential menu board might look like. we discovered that with only a strand of led light strip on top of the panel was enough to light the whole panel (no need to go all the way around). we tried various colors of neon pens. the lighter colors worked the best - white, yellow, green - while the darker colors were barely visible - blue and purple. i also found a cool technique where i could trace something on my phone (i used the silhouette of taiwan as an example) since the board is transparent. the panel itself has a lot of scratches - acrylic is notorious for accumulating scratch marks. it might be easier just to buy a new panel, but after checking the price - a panel of similar dimension and thickness costs hundreds of dollars - we decided it'd be cheaper to buff out the scratches. fortunately that's something very doable and we can get the board looking like new again with some elbow grease.
as we were starting to get busy, the light-up menu board mockup was taking too much space so i moved it to the basement. i kept it lit and would occasionally go down to the basement just to look at it. there's just something cool about glowing fluorescent writing on a clear board.
today was much like thursday and tuesday, just the right amount of busy. in the afternoon i brought up the deep fryer so my father could make a new batch of salt & pepper chicken. i also wanted to make some french fries. i cut up 8 spuds (small to medium size) into strips, didn't bother peeling them. i then boiled the raw fries in some salt water with a tablespoon of baking soda for about 5 minutes. parboiling makes the fries more moist and the baking soda draws out the starch for crispier fries. i drained the fried them placed them on two baking trays to let them dry out a bit. we then fried them in two batches, 7 minutes at 325°F, then 3 minutes at 375°F.
the final results (tossed with some salt) were probably the best fries you could ever possibly make at home, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. my father also cut up some sweet potatoes into strips, but he didn't boil them or did he double fry them, so they were a little on the soggy side.
my aunt showed up right when were were making the fries. she had a sausage bento for lunch then sampled some fries before leaving. she also saw esmei when my sister stopped by. my sister said esmei's favorite food is fries, so we gave her some, even though my sister didn't like the fact that they were salty.
the weather forecast for this weekend doesn't look promising. rain tomorrow, followed by snow sunday, then blistering cold conditions next week. i decided i wouldn't go to belmont tomorrow but go home after work. there's also a good chance i don't go to my parents' place on sunday, but stay home instead and wait for the snow to come in the afternoon. monday looks to be a busy day, with a supply run plus i need to clear the snow off the solar panels otherwise they'll freeze solid all next week.
back at home, it was the third and final night of chicken caesar salad. i put a cover on the pan when i heated up my shredded chicken, which kept them from drying up completely. the defending champions celtics were overdue for a dominating win after so many recent loses. tonight the magic came to town. boston beat them in their last meeting, but they were without banchero, who was back tonight. celtics led for much of the game. in the first half they were flirting with double digit leads, before the proverbial dam broke in the second half and they lead by as much as 27 points. celtics win 94-121.
i got a letter from france today. i thought it was from eliza (since she's the only person i know living there) but when i opened it up i was pleasantly surprised to find it was a postcard from drew. he spent the holidays in paris and elsewhere in france, finding time to send me a card.
i've been giving it a lot of thought and i think i made a mistake recommending my 2nd aunt to buy a new ipad. what she should've gotten instead was an android tablet. ipads are okay, but this exist inside of apple's walled garden, and as such, doesn't give you the sort of flexibility android can offer like manually installing your own apps. there are comparable samsung and google brand tablets that work just as well as the newest ipad.
i brought my set of dental picks. i got these a few years ago, figured i might need them one day, though at the time it seemed like a waste of money. but that day is today! i used one of the picks to pry inside the broken charge port on my 2nd aunt's old ipad. my intention was to maybe push in the prongs, or clear any obstructions, enough so that she can attach a cable to charge her ipad. i couldn't push in the prongs, but discovered i could pull them out. but the prongs seemed to be coming out, and i managed to extract them. that can't be good. but surprisingly, when i reinserted the apple lightning apple - i thought it'd be loose - it fit perfectly.
that made me super confused. how did that little piece of metal get inside the charge port anyway? it looked like a tiny staple. not sure who figured it out - either my father or mother - but one of them said the little metal piece was actually a part of the charging cable. i'd never seen this before, but a part of the cable actually fell off and got trapped inside the charge port, preventing a lightning cable to be inserted.
so the good news is we managed to fix my 2nd aunt's ipad. bad news is now she has no use for the new ipad that arrived last night, so we're returning it. i really wanted to try out the new 10th generation ipad! the one that's all screen (no home button) and now features a usb-c charging port. i went over to my sister's place close to noontime to retrieve the ipad that was sent to her house. esmei greeted me when i opened the door to the apartment, while my sister was still asleep.
my father - an avid tiktok user - made the switch to xiaohongshu ("little red book") after learning that tiktok will stop working in the US on sunday. he said it was just like tiktok. how long before xiaohongshu also get banned by the federal government?
it was a moderate level of busy today. i cooked 6 cups of rice, we used up most of it. it never got too crazy with customers, which is what we like. we made about as much as yesterday, and more than last thursday's profit. we're on course to match last january's earnings. bento boxes were the most popular item, minced pork the most popular of the choices.
there was a leftover chinese pastry (braided bread with bit of hot dog and scallions) from yesterday that i ate for lunch in the early afternoon. later my 2nd aunt showed up to retrieve her fixed ipad. she brought with her some subway sandwiches which she split with us. while eating, i saw news of david lynch's death. he's one of my favorite directors. kind of a polite weirdo, that was one of things i loved about him. dead at 78, an unrepentant smoker, it was emphysema that took his life, not a surprise. twin peaks, mulholland drive, dune, blue velvet, all my favorites. i have an original VHS recording of weekly twin peaks episodes when it first aired on ABC in the early 90's when i was still in high school.
my 2nd aunt brought her old lightning cable. that little piece of metal shrapnel that was stuck inside the ipad charging port fit the tip of her old cable perfectly. the case of the ipad that wouldn't accept any charging cable is officially solved. we ended up throwing away the old cable.
my 2nd aunt had another IT question for me. she found a chinese-subtitled korean streaming website (kortw.tw). however when she tries to stream a show, it always brings up an error message. seeing that the website is taiwan-based, i let her use my VPN account with a taiwan location. that did the trick and now all the shows are available.
i saw esmei a few more times today: when my sister brought her to the cafe briefly. esmei demonstrated a new trick of alternating paw shakes before receiving a treat; i saw esmei again when she was in the back seat of the car after coming back from a walk. because i rarely give her any treats, she's learned to ignore me for the most part, focusing on my parents who constantly give her treats. i don't bribe dogs for their affection!
my father and i continued to think about the lighted clear acrylic glass display board. it could turn into something really cool. we first need to get some white led light strips. he already put out the smaller aliexpress acrylic board that i casually wrote some bento choices as a test. we also discovered that we can use a sliced up boba straw to either hold an led light strip in place or to use it as a shield to prevent light leaks from acrylic glass edges.
my 2nd aunt stayed at the cafe to knit, before finally leaving around 5pm. our last customer came at 6pm, after he left, we started cleaning and getting ready to turn everything off.
i was in no hurry to eat dinner. i took a shower before finally moseying into the kitchen to make another chicken caesar salad. i mixed some pre-cooked shredded chicken in some olive, pepper, and salt, before pan-frying them so they were slightly brown. that made the chicken taste a bit better, but also made them tough like chicken jerky.
i woke up a bit before 8am to get ready for my 9am dental appointment in allston. it was another cold day but nothing like what it was last tuesday when i biked there. having survived that day, all other cold days seem warm by comparison. i still basically wore the same thing i did last time except i skipped the flannel pants and i wore my normal puffy black winter jacket instead of the columbia interchange. riding the bike, i warmed up underneath my clothes.
when i got there the language school adjoining their office had just opened as well. a collection of international students made their way inside. international kids always seem so cool. more stylish, more confident. i personally think language schools are kind of a scam, it's an excuse for them to party in the US on their student visa.
i had to get a new mold made of my upper teeth. the one made last week, doctor huang put in the wrong implant post, so that mold was no good. it went a lot smoother this time, mostly because he'd already loosened the crown on my last visit, so no hammers were necessary to remove it. he cast a new mold and even took an x-ray to confirm the type of post needed. i offered to pay for his time and extra material cost, but he said what i paid last time was already enough (he hadn't cashed the check yet). there were no other customers so we chatted a bit more. they told me about a patient of theirs that biked all he way from lexington to allston. he was a man in his 60's and used an electric bike. it probably wasn't a good experience because the next time he came he drove. i also told them about seeing them last year during the boston marathon. they said they live right next to heartbreak hill, so the marathon basically runs by their front steps.
i was out by 9:40am. i went to yi soon bakery to get a few things for my parents and 2nd aunt. coming back, i stopped at the brighton trader joe's to get some stuff for the cafe (like baby cucumbers and garlic). crossing the charles river, i noticed for the very first time that the river was partially frozen. even though they were far away, i spotted a few hooded mergansers with their unmistakeable plumage patterns. i wish i had my telephoto lens so i could take better photos.
cutting through harvard square, i saw that tiger sugar was no longer there. i'm not too surprised, it's hard making a profit off of boba alone, no matter how high end and expensive it is, especially in a prime real estate spot like the heart of harvard square. i made a detour to harvard vanguard to pick up a few prescriptions for my mother. apparently they also offer free prescription mail delivery, but when you order on the phone using their automated system, you need to speak with a live pharmacist afterwards to request this service each and every time. seems like a very inefficient way of requesting this convenience.
i made my way to the cafe around 11am. my 2nd aunt hadn't even shown up yet. a few orders came in and i started working just to help out even though technically it was my day off. my father and i tested the plastic divider shielding the cashier area from customers. was it acrylic or polycarbonate? we happened to have a short led strip which was thin enough to fit the edge of the plastic. the fact that it was able to light up the entire glass meant it was acrylic, which is what we wanted. the led strip was RGB only so it couldn't properly reproduce white light. the closest it got was blue, but it was proof that we could create a light board if we wanted, maybe use it to write our menu.
my 2nd aunt eventually showed up. she brought her 6th generation ipad, said her cord was broken, wouldn't charge anymore. we found her a replacement cable but when we tried to plug it in, it wouldn't fit inside the charging port. turns out the problem wasn't the cable but the port itself. the port's been so abused, the prongs inside that hold the charge cable in place have been mashed to smithereens, preventing the cable from inserting. it's a fix beyond our DIY expertise, as it requires desoldering. we told my 2nd aunt she could try taking her ipad to chinatown to find a repair place. my father suggested he could take it with them to taiwan to fix but that's not until the end of next month. after we checked online on the price of a new ipad ($299, 10th generation, circa 2022), my 2nd aunt decided to buy a new one. i ordered it for her on amazon, it's actually going to arrive later tonight.
i got back around noontime, ate a pork floss pastry for lunch. afterwards i biked to market basket to get some groceries. there was a sale on romaine lettuce so i decided to make chicken caesar salad for dinner the rest of the week. i had some shredded chicken in the freezer which i defrosted (from my spicy mexican chicken soup recipe a few months back). i'm overdue for some light meals, seems like every morning i'm getting heavier and heavier.
i spent the rest of the afternoon rewatching jett. it's a crime that this show only got one season, but what a glorious 9-episode season it was. jett is one of the coolest character to ever appear on the small screen. did carla gugino ever win any awards or receive any nominations for her performance? maybe one reason the show didn't get as much recognition is it premiered on the eve of the global pandemic. people had more pressing concerns.
i made my chicken caesar salad for dinner. i reheated some shredded chicken in the microwave. the hardest part of the recipe was chopping up the lettuce. added to that was the readymade caesar salad dressing, some shredded parmesan cheese, and croutons. the chicken itself was kind of bland, i might try to grill it in a pan next time for a bit more flavor. while eating my salad i realized my mistake: never have something cold to eat on a cold day. fortunately i had some hot tea to keep me warm.
celtics played the raptors tonight. boston's kind of in freefall right now, losing more games than they've won, to teams they should beat (on paper at least). seems like everyone brings their A game when they play the defending champions, and the celtics are not up to the task of defending that title. of course the raptors were highly motivated, having lost to boston in a 50+ points beatdown 2 weeks ago. this was their redemption game at home.
last night i started reading the ministry of time by kaliane bradley. it's received awards for being one of the best books of 2024. that there was a scifi premise - and time traveling to boot - intrigued me enough to find a copy. it's surprisingly funny. can't wait to go to bed tonight so i can read a few more chapters.
my father was busy all day preparing all the meats we got yesterday: cutting and seasoning the boneless chicken thighs; cutting the pork butts and marinating them for charsiu; cooking the ground pork for making both minced pork sauce and zhajiang noodle sauce. he also made a new batch of beef noodle soup with the beef shank he cut up into cubes last week. the pork butts we got from the chelsea market basket was one of the better cuts we've ever bought, with amazing marbling that makes them seem like more expensive cuts of meat. of all the market baskets, chelsea has the best meats, followed by waltham. somerville is last, but because it's the closest, sometimes we have no choice but to buy from there.
i tried out the illuminated clear dry erase board. when it's lit up it looks pretty cool. we used to have one for our sushi menu back when we used to sell sushi before we stopped because obtaining the necessary permit to sell any kind of raw food was too much of a hassle. anyway, the technology for that clear dry erase board was old, it probably used something like fluorescent bulbs to light up the glass. nowadays, with led light strips, it'd be easy to build our own.
my mother reheated yesterday's leftover beef stew for lunch. i had some with rice.
today was busy during lunch and not much after that. it gave my father time to do all his meat prep work. most of our online orders were old customers, there was only one or two names i didn't recognize. it's funny, i recognize all the names, and i remember their orders, but because i work in the back kitchen, i have no idea what these customers look like when they come and pick up their orders.
in bank info update news, grubhub finally updated our bank info. my sister told me last week. when i checked the payment info today, i noticed it was now the new bank account. ubereats takes the longest, they finally sent my sister a form essentially resubmitting all our financial credentials including tax id. why can't they more like square, where i just go to bank info in the app and easily update the bank routing and account number myself, no need to jump through all these hoops? but it looks like we may finally be able to consolidate all these delivery service payments into one bank account.
end of the day we were packaging: chicken and marinated pork into boxes to be frozen until we need them; zhajiang noodle sauce into pots to be frozen as well; and the beef noodle soup portioned into single serving containers, making sure each one has enough beef chunks and soup, then frozen until ready to serve. before we knew it, it was almost closing time. every time we make a new batch of beef noodle soup, i get to take home some leftovers.
i didn't have dinner until 8pm. i cooked some noodles and reheated the beef noodle soup. there was chunks of beef, plus an assortment of tendon and sinews and fatty bits, the parts we can't serve to customers, but the tastiest bits in my opinion. once again, it seemed like i had a huge bowl of beef with a little bit of noodles, given how much meat i had.
