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i slept with the dehumidifier on last time. i used distilled water because it doesn't leave behind white mineral dust like with tap water. i didn't rally notice any improvement in my sleep. my skin was still itchy and i scratched my arm in the middle of the night to make it bleed. if anything, the added bit of humidity made the room feel colder. when i woke up there was still about half an inch of water left in the tank (the original amount was an inch). maybe i need to turn it on higher, i used the lowest setting last night.

freezing rain was falling this morning. i woke up early thinking i'd have to walk to the cafe. but i saw the forecast said the rain would stop by mid-morning. so i decided to take the bike. i wore by rubber boots, which was the only waterproof footwear i had. i did bring a pair of normal shoes to change into. i wore my sherpa wool fleece hoodie underneath my waterproof rain coat. it was actually pretty comfort, maybe a little too warm (i wish the coat had vented armpits).

my father helped me clean the salt from the floor. i sprayed vinegar while he wiped with a dry mop. later we wet the floor with a wet mop (warm water) before wiping a third time with a damp mop (new warm water).

my father made some breaded porkchops for breakfast. it wasn't exactly tonkatsu because it was pan-fried instead of deep fried. later in the afternoon we deep fried two boxes of marinated salt & pepper chicken. we tried deep frying some vegetarian spring rolls afterwards. some of the shells burst from the high temperature, but they were still pretty good, better than when we bake then in the oven. i also had some dong quai chicken soup.

business was slow today, though we did get two online delivery orders in the late morning. we figured it was the rain keeping customers away. we didn't get busy until 3pm. overall it was a good day despite the weather, we made our daily average.

the rain had stopped by the time we closed, but the roads were still wet from snowmelt since the temperature today hovered in the upper 30's. it's supposed to get cold overnight - 20's - and i'm afraid there might be black ice tomorrow morning.

my mother packed me some leftover breaded porkchops for dinner. my bicycle was soaked, but at least the rain washed off all the salt deposit. my upstairs neighbors must be away because all their lights were turned off, even the porch light.

i didn't eat right away, took a shower first, changed out of my fry oil smelling clothes. after dinner i ate an ice cream drumstick. there's something subversive about eating ice cream when it's cold outside.

waking up on your birthday, you feel like maybe there should be a spotlight on you. it is after all your special day. but in the grand scheme of themes, it's just another day, nothing more. just know that 51 years ago, in a hospital in taipei, at 8:42am, i was born. and then somehow through it all, i've wound up here.

feeling some egg procurement stress, i wanted to drive to restaurant depot this morning and see if i could buy some eggs in bulk. but i remember the past few times we've gone, i never once saw eggs there, whether that was the needham or the everett store. what makes today any different? so instead of doing that, i decided to visit market basket first, see what their egg situation is.

so i ride down to market basket (after replacing my bike lock with one that has keys). they are fully stocked with eggs. the price has gone up somewhat, but 18 eggs at $5.49 is a good deal considering you can barely find eggs in other supermarkets. they also have a 2 carton limit per customer, which is a lot better than trader joe's which limits you to a single dozen carton. i bought two cartons, enough to make a single batch of tea eggs (30). how is market basket able to have eggs while other places don't? good suppliers. plus i think they've purposely kept the prices low for their customers. they're definitely losing money at these prices, but when customers come for the eggs, they'll buy other things.

i ride down to the cafe to drop off the supplies by 11am. my mother has a family tradition where you eat two eggs in the morning on your birthday. my parents made me eggs with some sweet fermented rice (jiuniang) added as well. today is actually the lantern festival in chinese new year (元宵節). on this day you're supposed to eat glutinous rice balls (湯圓) except we didn't have any and there wasn't any time to make some.

i returned home briefly just to use the bathroom before i'm out again. this time to harvard square, to bonchon, to get some korean fried chicken, my birthday tradition. i ordered online before i left: 6 pieces of soy garlic wings ($10), 6 pieces of spicy wings ($10), daikon radish and coleslaw for the sides. bonchon doesn't have the lunch special anymore. $10 for 6 tiny wings is pricey, but they're so good it's worth it. i rode through harvard square right when students were getting out of class, so i was in a sea of young people. i was probably the oldest person though, it's kind of a weird thought. when i get to bonchon my order is already ready. seeing me taking a photo of the inside, the employee hands me a menu. coming out, i helped a delivery guy hold the door while he pushed in a pallet mover stacked with takeout containers (i know this because i recognize the brands). if there's a rule that says on your birthday you have to do a good need, i've fulfilled that obligation.

returning home, i bumped into my neighbor neil. i told him i watched some of the scotland-ireland rugby game on youtube. i asked him why some players where those tiny cloth helmets. he said it's to protect their ears, because of all the pushing and punching, players can get cauliflower ears. he was impressed that i followed up on rugby. seems like he doesn't often find people who are interested in the sport. he was on his way to washington dc for work, and had to go pack. is there a rule that says on your birthday you have to have a nice chat with somebody? obligated fulfilled.

stashing the bike in the alleyway, i heard a bird mob in the backyard. i thought they were crows, but when i went to go investigate, it was a swarm of bluejays. i saw a red cardinal sitting peaceful in the tree. where they mobbing the cardinal? i looked some more and saw a red-bellied woodpecker scrambling up the side of a utility pole. that was what the jays were angry about. apparently both bluejays and red-bellied woodpeckers are aggressive birds. a single bluejay is no match fo a red-bellied woodpecker, but when they form a mob of half a dozen, that's a different story. they managed to drive the woodpecker away before i could rush inside to get my camera. there's probably some rule that says on your birthday you need to spot some wildlife. i saw a red-bellied woodpecker, which i don't often see.

once inside the once, i prepared for my korean chicken feast. i only go through about half (6 wings) before i was pretty full and stopped eating, saving the leftover wings for later. i sat back and relished in my food coma.

in went out a little bit later, to star market to get a few things. i was going to deposit some beverage cans and bottles, but a good thing i forgot to bring them, because the machines were all broken. i got some lamb chops, sumo oranges, avocados, and sugarbee apples. i also grabbed a spinach and mushroom pizza. star market had zero eggs. i've never seen that before. when i came last week they egg shelves were bare but at least they had a few cartons. all they had today were packages of 6 hard-boiled eggs for $5.99. after years of practice, and having a star market basically right next door, i've learned to game their system. i maximize my discounts at every opportunity, only buying things that are on sale. my savings for today was 49%. without discounts, i would've paid double that amount. star market is mostly all self checkout these days. the "supervisor" watched me carefully as i paid for my purchases. i purposely made gestures they showed i wasn't stealing anything, like shaking my grocery bags to show they're empty, and laying out all of my stuff on the counter before rebagging them. i hate self checkout. plus, if i was going to steal something, i wouldn't do it there.

i wasn't very productive the rest of the day. i finished the leftover korean wings later in the afternoon. i discovered i had a humidifier (still in the box) in my closet, didn't realize it, unfortunately my mother already ordered me one using her health insurance benefit. i'll try it out tonight, see if i sleep any better with it running. i turned up the heat as it was a little chilly inside the house (60 degrees). i made a glass of cold chai latte, then went to the bathroom an hour later when my lactose intolerance caught up to me. i did some more bike lock research, as will as researching canon speedbooster, making distilled water at home, and electric home spirits distiller.

i was going to make mujaddara for dinner but got lazy and decided to just boil some frozen homemade chinese dumplings instead. the gods of cooking would surely cut me some slack on my birthday? instead i'm going to make mujaddara on saturday, when i'll probably return home after work because it's going to snow and rain from saturday evening and all of sunday.

i watched the spurs-celtics game. the spurs are better after trading for de'aaron fox, but their inexperience still showed when they matched up against the defending champions celtics. without jaylen brown, with jrue holiday, celtics still kept their lead in double digits for most of the game, most of the time hovering around 15-20 points. no surprise, celtics won 103-116. during halftime i boiled the dumplings and ate them during the second half.

the streets were clear enough that i could ride to the cafe this morning. there was still some hard-pack snow on the side of the road, but just very minor amounts. when i went to lock my bike to the signpost, i noticed the bike lock key was missing from my keychain. i wasn't surprised since the head of the key was plastic. where could it have gone? the last time i used the bike lock was last wednesday, so the key had almost a week to disappear without me realizing it. unable to lock the bike, i just wrapped the lock and the cable around the frame so from a glance it'd look like it was locked.

i went to the basement to check on my bulbs. a few had developed some mold. i brushed it off with my finger, but keeping the bulbs dry is key to preventing them from getting moldy and rotting.

my father was making a batch of beef noodle soup. i cooked some dumplings, several batches of black noodles, and made a new batch of tea eggs. i'm worried if we'll be able to find eggs given the nationwide shortage. all the eggs we have now are organic ones we got from costco two weekends ago that cost $10 for 2 dozen. we currently have 6 dozens left, which is only enough to make 2 batches of tea eggs.

the big thing i was making today was a new batch of taiwanese paocai. the last batch i made back in late december (8 containers) lasted us about 7 weeks. the 6 heads of cabbage we got yesterday only weighed about 18 lbs. total. once i remove the cores, it'll be down to 17 lbs. the cabbages were pretty crispy, easily broken apart by hand. they felt more like crunchy lettuce than tough cabbage. to that i added 17 tbsp of salt. i then mixed it all together with a gloves hand. my mother helped me shred about 2 cups worth of carrots which i reduced with about a tablespoon of salt. i left the cabbage to reduce for 1-1/2 hours, periodically mixing it. i then drained and rinsed the cabbage in a large plastic colander. i hand-squeezed clumps of cabbage by hand before putting it back in the large bowl for mixing. once that was done, i added two chopped chili peppers and a tablespoon of sichuan peppercorn. instead of 17 lbs. i used 16 lbs. as the reference, so i added 8 cups of sugar along with 8 cups of white vinegar. i mixed everything together before putting them into containers. i ended up with 10 quart-size containers of taiwanese paocai, with a little bit of sugary vinegar left over (for marinating cucumbers). the whole process took nearly 3-1/2 hours.

my gopro enduro batteries came. i got the pair used (like new) for $30 because i didn't want to spend any more for something that should be standard with all gopro cameras. there were also several third party knockoffs for cheaper, but i couldn't trust their claims and went with genuine gopro brand just to be safe. nothing on the battery says they're enduro, and they look just like normal gopro batteries except they're white instead of blue. when i put the first battery into the gopro to charge, it wouldn't charge (the red led wouldn't turn on). the second battery worked like normal, arrived with an 80% charge. later i discovered the first battery was already down to 0%. once i left it plugged in for a minute, it finally started charging.

today was quiet for the most part. lunchtime went and gone without too much business. maybe it was that cold weather again making customers hesitate to go out and get food. but around 1pm we got really busy. a large group of graduate students suddenly showed up. even though there was a lot of people, we didn't make all that much, since some only ordered a drink. it was confusing more than anything else, as we suddenly got an influx of orders and had to strategize how to assemble everything. not only that, but we also had a few online orders just to make it more complicated.

i biked home after work. i attached the gopro to the handlebar to shoot a video. temperature was probably around the lower 30's, not sure if it was cold enough to properly test the new enduro battery. the gopro did not turn off though (which it sometimes does, especially when it's cold), which is a good sign.

i threw a frozen chicken alfredo into the oven as i took a shower. they take a long time to cook, nearly an hour. there was nothing good on television so i watched some youtube videos instead. i discovered this aged great! which is a channel that does funny 10-minute recaps of terrible 80's movies.

i researched new bike locks. the one that i used is the onguard X2 power mini u-lock (circa 2009?). the lock still works fine, but with just the spare key left, i'm afraid to use it in case i ever lose that key and can't get the lock opened anymore. i've only ever used small u-locks, which are more lightweight, but aren't long enough to lock the rear wheel to the frame, which is the preferred most secure way to use a u-lock. so i'd like to get a longer u-lock this time. in the meantime, i have another spare u-lock (exact same model) which i retrieved from my fleet of basement bikes.

my father came to pick me up around 10am this morning for a boston supply run. normally we get onto storrow drive and cut through kenmore, but today we crossed the longfellow bridge to get onto route 93 south.

we go to baifu/foodpak about once a month to stock up on asian restaurant supplies. we noticed they had a new sign, probably to coincide with their recent expansion. if they don't outright own the property, rent must be dirt cheap, as they're just about the only business that still managed to survive being at the epicenter of methadone mile. although the area has cleaned up a lot compared to a few years ago, it's still the norm to see drug users openly shoot up in broad daylight.

we didn't get too much, just some rice, noodles, chopsticks. our favorite loader was working and he helped us put our stuff in the car. he seemed to be in a bad mood though.

after foodpak we went to ming's market. c-mart has free parking, but ming's market has cheaper prices. ming does have free parking but only on weekends (some deal they made with the nearby parking lot). fortunately there was plenty of metered street parking. we paid $2.35 for an hour's worth of parking using the parking app. here we loaded up on produce. i picked 6 heads of chinese cabbage to make my taiwanese paocai.

we finally left chinatown by 11:40am. it took 25 minutes to drive to the cafe to drop off the supplies. my sister just happened to be bringing esmei to belmont so esmei ended up getting a ride with us after we finished unloading.

my mother made thin noodles with eggs and tomatoes for lunch.

my father moved the bulk of his newly-potted osmanthus cuttings down into the basement. unfortunately there seems to be a mini fungus gnat outbreak, and since none of the osmanthus were treated with Bti mosquito bits, they were be perfect breeding grounds for gnats. so he moved them all back upstairs. since i was already in the basement, i ended up spending an hour watering the plants.

for dinner my father made a stirfry using the salted vegetables i got from chinatown along with some leftover charsiu pork. he also made a sour fish stew. afterwards he gave me a ride back to cambridge.

celtics played the heat tonight. without jimmy butler, miami is just a shell of their former self that went to the finals just a few years ago. plus the heat was without tyler herro and jaime jaquez (out due to illness). i figured the celtics were going to win this game easily, but you never know with boston. celtics was without jaylen brown (illness) while holiday was still out due to injury. the heat actually led in the first quarter but the celtics went into another gear and got the lead in the second quarter and never looked back. boston was up by 24 at one point. final score was 103-85.

i couldn't wait to wake up this morning to shovel the sidewalk. when i looked outside my living room window though, there wasn't as much snow as i'd thought. i went out around 9am. the snow had mostly stopped by then, only some light flurries. i'd say we got about 3" of snow here in cambridge. it had a wetter consistency so it was pretty easy to shovel, clumped together well, scraped off the sidewalk clean.

my neighbor neil was also shoveling. we chatted briefly. i asked how come he doesn't get his kids to clean the sidewalk, he said he's pretty anal about it, and likes to do it himself. he wanted to shovel the snow before going back inside to watch a scotland-ireland six nations rugby match at 10am (ireland won 18-32). after i finished the sidewalk, i made quick work shoveling a path into the backyard. i finished by 9:30am.

i used the bathroom one last time before taking a shower. i packed up my gopro and insta360 cameras, as well as my canon dSLR with the 55-250mm telephoto and the 10-22mm wide angle lenses. i also carried a container of black tea in my contigo tumbler.

i was heading into chinatown for the annual chinese new year lion's dance which starts at 11am. i wasn't sure if it was going to get cancelled because of the snow, but a post on their facebook page said it was still happening. i figured it'd be very beautiful, traditional chinese dancing lions against a background of snow.

because of the snow i wasn't able to bike into boston, so i took the subway from porter square instead. the up escalator was broken, but the down was still working. i put $20 onto my card. i haven't taken the subway since august (when my californian relatives came to visit). i've been lucky in that all the times i needed to get into boston (doctor's appointment, haymarket, chinatown, etc.) the weather was nice enough that i could bike. there was just 3 other people in my subway car - an asian guy white girl couple and a hispanic man. i got off at downtown crossing and arrived in chinatown by 10:30am.

since i've been to a few of these lion dances before, i was selection with what to photograph. first time visitors all congregate by the erected platform, where all the lion dancers would assemble. but the better photo opp is to listen to the sounds of drumming and watch as the lion dancers arrive into chinatown from multiple directions.

i stayed in the back as the announcers were introducing the various lion dancing troupes. afterwards they broke up to various areas of chinatown. i followed the two black lions group (gung ho club). it was an all chinese troupe, and they seemed to be associated with freemasons for some reason. they went down beach street, visiting the various businesses, before making their way down knapp street. here was where i was waiting. i remembered from last time it was a good place to photograph, with some stone steps i could stand on for elevation. afterwards they went onto kneeland street.

i took the knapp street alleyway to get to harrison avenue, where i watched a few other lion dancers. i got pretty good views of two yellow lions, and discovered it was an all-female dance troupe. there was another pair of red and green lions (with a praying mantis on their emblem) that had a mix of asian and westerner performers. there was a yellow and orange pair, and two grey pairs with very fuzzy lion fur.

i was shooting in manual mode f/8 1/1600 sec variable ISO, which is my default setting for outdoor action. but i made a mistake when i didn't factor in the overall lighting. like when i was shooting in the alleyway it was already dim, so the photos came out pretty dark. i can only use manual mode in bright daylight, otherwise i should be using aperture or shutter priority.

so all that romanticizing about the pretty white snow background? in reality much of the snow had already been cleared away. what remained were slushy potholes filled with street garbage or dirty trampled snow that soon became slush. it wasn't pretty at all.

another thing i noticed was the proliferation of fancy analog cameras, including several medium format cameras. i know there's a movement with the younger generation for analog film, in some attempt to be edgy or creative. for me, having grown up with analog photography, i can tell you that digital a far superior in nearly all ways. why anyone would want to waste medium format film to shoot some lackluster dancing lions is a mystery to me.

i finally left chinatown by 12:30pm. i thought about visiting a bakery to get some pastries, but all the businesses were pretty busy from the influx of spectators, so i decided against it. instead of walking back to downtown crossing, i headed for south station instead. i haven't been here since my return trip from new york city back in july. the skyscraper they built on top of south station is nearly complete. inside the station is a new arching structure which will look impressive once completed. with the alewife-bound train about to arrive, the announcer mentioned it was going to be one of the new red line trains.

the new train was okay. instead of this weird rainbow biohazard fabric seats of the old train, these were plastic plastic seats instead. and not individual seats but more like a bench (NYC metro style). this train also had LCD screens, though i was sitting too far to see what was on it. i imagine MBTA announcements and possible ads.

i got off at porter square around 1pm. originally i was going to get off at harvard square, but figured if i was taking a bus to belmont i'd have to go to harvard square anyway. when i got back home i called my mother. she said my father was going to go pick up my sister so she could go to alewife and retrieve her car, and pick me up along the way. i agreed, had time to use the bathroom before my father finally showed up at 1:50pm. my sister was in the backseat with esmei. she was pretty obedient, engrossed in looking out the window, before she got bored and laid down to rest. we dropped off my sister at alewife while we took esmei back with us to belmont.

this morning my father used the toro single-stage snowblower to clear the sidewalk. he said it worked but not very well, because the rubber paddle was too worn down to make contact with the ground. we bought a replacement paddle back in september 2020 with the idea of replacing it at some point but never got around to it because we didn't need to use the snowblower for the past few years. hopefully we can replace the paddle before the next major snowstorm. better yet, if i can get the two-stage craftsman snowblower to work, we can use that machine as well.

first thing i did when i arrived in belmont was to go out in the backyard to clear the snow off the solar panels. my father already did some panel cleaning, using the pole fully extended, and from the ground, whatever snow he could reach. most of the snow on the main roof had slipped off already (or my father had cleaned them), with the exception of the handful of panels in the middle of the roof that were only partially exposed. the sunroom panels were entirely covered.

more snow fell in belmont, i'd say about 4 inches. at first i thought clearing that amount of snow from the panels would be daunting, but turns out it was actually pretty easy. that much snow had more weight, and since it was heavier, whenever i broke off a piece with the foam roof rake, it'd slide down the panels and off the roof. i made quick work of the sunroom solar panels, before i moved the ladder and cleaned up some leftover snow from the main roof panels.

back inside the house, i ate some cold chinese dumplings. my sister had shown up and was still in the house with esmei. we turned on the puppy bowl for esmei to watch. we also tried to get esmei to give me a kiss: for some reason she'll kiss everyone except for me. that's because i rarely give her treats, so she knows that any tricks she performs for me will be for naught. my sister eventually look esmei back home.

my father was busy transplanting some osmanthus cuttings which we've been nurturing in a sand medium into soil-filled pots. he showed me how the cuttings now have new roots. even though they're just cuttings, they're still able to produce fragrant flowers.

today was also the super bowl, as i watched the pregame coverage (which started at 1pm), hoping to catch some new commercials. for dinner my parents made a simple chicken with green pepper stirfry and a cauliflower stirfry. afterwards my father gave me a ride home just as the game was starting.

the super bowl was between the eagles and chiefs. i was rooting for the eagles because they seemed like the underdog and i didn't want mahomes and company to win their third consecutive championship, something that's never been done in the modern NFL era. eagles put up 7 points in the first quarter and 17 more in the second quarter, while holding the chiefs scoreless. in the third quarter the eagles scored 10 more points. could kansas city come back from a 34-0 deficit? could this be a repeat of the patriots 27-3 comeback over the falcons?

chiefs finally managed to score a touchdown in the third, but couldn't complete the 2-point conversion. they just didn't play well tonight, in the most important game of the season. turnovers (including at least two interceptions), inability to get downs, chiefs were plagued with issues. final score was 22-40, but it really was never that close. eagles win their second super bowl in 5 years since 2017 (against the patriots no less). for the chiefs, it's their 5th super bowl appearance in 7 years, having won 3 out of those 5, not a bad record. mahomes other lost was in super bowl LV against tom brady and the buccaneers. i totally forgot about that game, it was another laugher, tampa bay beat kansas city 31-9.

i walked down to the cafe this morning despite the aches in my legs. after cooking 5 cups of rice, i spent the 30 minutes before we opened on cleaning the salt off of the floor.

not a lot of change in my forcing bulbs. the hyacinths might have some more roots, but no additional activity. the clear jars make it easier to see compared to the leca pellets i have in the daffodil vases.

my 2nd aunt showed me her electric bill, which she said saw a sudden spike in price. she normally pays $50 a month, but her latest bill was over $100. i looked it over and realized her problem: she got her neighbor's bill by accident. her actual bill - which we found online - was around her average $50.

the three of us - my father, my 2nd aunt, myself - finished the rest of the strawberry cake i made yesterday. my 2nd aunt also brought some portuguese custard tarts she got from chinatown yesterday and gave one each to my father and me. plus we cooked some cheese balls in the air fryer.

esmei showed up briefly. my sister said the vet gave her the wrong heartworm medication, the one that didn't kill any heartworm larvae. the vet said esmei doesn't need to be tested for heartworm until october, which seems a long ways away. in the meantime she can go back to doing normal dog stuff i guess? her two bald patches probably won't grow back in until she sheds her undercoat after the winter is over.

today was kind of like a repeat of yesterday: a handful of bento sales followed by beef noodle soup. but the item that was the most popular seemed to be the bubble milk tea. even in the winter with the weather so cold, people can't seem to get enough of it.

after work, my 2nd aunt went with us to belmont. my other aunt was treating us to dinner at joyful garden in watertown in honor of both her and my father's birthday today. dinner wasn't until 5:30pm so we had about an hour's wait before we left. that gave us enough time for my father and i to start the trickle charger on our honda (which haven't been driven in a few weeks) and to spray the interior chute of the toro power clear snowblower with lubricant. my father had actually pushed the machine outside in anticipation of the snow, but i said it might get stolen even though he had it underneath a tarp. we pushed it back inside the garage. the last thing i did was to refill the birdfeeder, figured the birds might be hungry after the snowstorm.

i got a birthday present for my aunt - a twistable kitchen timer - but it hadn't arrived yet at my sister's place before we closed and left the cafe. however it did show up soon afterwards so i asked my sister to bring it with her when she went to the restaurant. she also turned on her living room webcam so we could see esmei but esmei went to go sleep in the bedroom so we couldn't see her.

when we got to joyful garden, we received some bad news: there was a 45 minute wait for a table. my aunt didn't make a reservation because none of us thought it'd be very busy tonight, which turned out to be the exact opposite. not only that, but they'd invited a troupe of lion dancers to perform, as they went table by table asking for money while musicians outside violently pounded their drums. it was so loud we all retreated to the safety of target next door. target seemed to be mobbed with college kids doing grocery shopping.

back at the restaurant, the lion dancers were finishing up. matthew was there waiting in case a table opened up. before he could speak to the manager again, my aunt ran out of target and told us they'd just called her (6pm) to let her know our table was ready. we got lucky because a party of eight cancelled. the table was located at the far end of the restaurant, so we sat with the wall behind us.

my aunt said she'd been at joyful garden for dimsum but never for dinner. we got the set course meal for 8 people, which included the stirfry twin lobster. my sister's godmother was there too and i tried to help her connect her xioami redmi watch 2 lite but it still wouldn't work.

even though i've had their set course meal before, it's always different, depending on the chef's choice. we started with a plate of cold appetizers, deboned duck feet with sea cucumbers. that was followed by the fish maw soup. next, coconut shrimp with walnuts and pineapples. fried flounder. guifei chicken. beef with string beans. fried seafood with porkchops. finally the lobster.

our table was next to two other tables that seemed to be holding an office function. instead of sitting down, those customers were just standing around chatting. once their food arrived they sat down to eat. unlike us they didn't get the set course meal. we saw a plate full of chinese dumplings which didn't look as delicious as what we were having.

for dessert we had taro coconut sago. we finished by 7:30pm. my sister gave her godmother a ride home back to central square while my parents dropped off my 2nd aunt in west cambridge before dropping me off. actually my mother got dropped off first because she said she needed to use the bathroom. my father and i got out of the car and discounted the trickle charger from the honda sitting in the driveway. it wasn't enough to fully charge the battery, we'll connect it back up tomorrow after the snowstorm.

there was a primetime celtics-knicks game on ABC. boston was without holiday (injury) and porzingis (illness, last minute scratch). that didn't seem to matter as the celtics basically dominated the knicks. new york never had the lead, and boston pushed their lead to 35 points. celtics were firing on all cylinder, tatum finished with 40 points (brunson wasn't far behind with 36). even without porzingis, boston played with 3 centers: kornet, horford, and queta. kornet dominated with 14 points (all under basket dunks) and 12 rebounds. queta finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds. second most powerful scorer was pritchard with 25 points, shooting 6-8 from 3-point range. final score 131-104.

it started snowing around 10pm. i had no idea until my sister told me about it. it's supposed to snow heavily until 6am, where it'll taper off, finally finishing by 1pm.

i didn't want to risk slipping on the icy roads so i walked to the cafe this morning instead of taking the bike. even then it was slippery going, i'm lucky i made it without falling down.

i mopped the floors before we opened. this, after walking 1-1/2 miles to the cafe, left me panting to catch my breath. vinegar spray with dry mop, wet mop, and damp mop. my mother asked why i even bother cleaning the floors when they'll just get dirty again once customers track salt back inside. i do it out of principle.

because it snowed yesterday (forecast 2-4" but less than an inch fell in cambridge), i was worried my parents' solar panels would be buried underneath the snow. but my father said he went out this morning to check and most of the snow had already fallen off. a check of the solar app confirmed it, as we got a decent production of 26.3kWh today.

i decided to put all my forced bulbs in the basement for the time being. in most of the research i've come across regarding forcing hyacinths and other bulbs, it says after the few months of chilling, place them in a dark cool place for a few weeks once they've been seated/watered in their vases/pots. nobody says why, but i'm guessing it's to allow the bulbs to grow some roots first, which is something they do in the dark. the cafe basement is perfect for it, with a temperature in the lower 50's. after about 2 weeks, the bulbs can be moved into the light, at which time they start growing the leaves and finally the flowers. having said all that, the two hyacinth bulbs in the hyacinth vases have already sprouted multiple tiny roots, it didn't take very long. all it needed was some water and like magic they're growing.

my godmother's son alex came by to pick up sleds for his kids from the cafe basement. my aunt also showed up after alex left. they both came around lunchtime, which is our busiest time of the day. we sold about a dozen bento boxes and half as many beef noodle soup. those two our are specialties so good to see their popularity haven't waned. with the colder weather, i would've thought more customers would be clamoring for beef noodle soup.

the 9.5" sensarte frying pan arrived today, to replace the 9.5" carote frying pans.i thought they'd be exactly the same but they're different. the sensarte pan has a lighter color, but more importantly, the sensarte isn't as deep as the old carote. so now i'm debating whether to return it or not. i did a deeper search on amazon and found a few 9.5" pans that more closely resemble the carote.

my father and sister left for arlington to see the accountant. my sister took esmei with her for some reason, even though her dog would just sit in the cold car by herself. it was just my mother and i manning the cafe. so of course it got even busier than our lunchtime period. thankfully it wasn't anything crazy, easy stuff that i knew how to assemble while my mother made the drinks.

i decided to make another strawberry cake. this time i was using a duncan hines boxed cake mix. instead of a 13x9 pan, i used a glass pyrex 9x7 pan instead. my father helped me mix the ingredients before i poured it into the pan and baked it in the breville oven for 25 minutes at 350°F. the glass pan allowed me to see the cake rising as it doubled in size. everything looked good, i even tested it with a toothpick to make sure the center was dry. but the cake had a worrying jiggle as i took it out of the oven so i baked it for another 5 minutes. it seemed firmer now, and more so after a few minutes of cooling. when i inverted the cake into a baking tray, it plopped out, revealing a gooey raw interior.

i put the cake back into the 9x7 pan and baked it for another 15 minutes. i performed the toothpick test, making sure i go all the way through the center to verify it was done. because the cake is thicker in a 9x7 pan, it needs at least 40 minutes of baking, if not more. when i dumped out the cake a second time, it was properly baked. the cake was soft enough that a we could cut it with a thin rubber spatula. my mother took a large corner piece. she said it wasn't as good as the pillsbury strawberry cake we made last time, not enough strawberry flavor. the cake was very moist though. later i learned that instead of water, you can also use milk. i'll try that next time for a richer cake.

i accepted a ride home from my parents after we closed. i would've been fine walking. my mother was surprised i didn't bring anything with me today, not even my bag.

after a shower, i made some white cheddar pasta shells for dinner with chopped spinach and a dash of hot sauce. there was nothing good on television so i watched some youtube videos.

for some reason my body is really achy. my first thought was maybe it's the ezetimibe, with muscle aches as one of its side effects. but then i remembered what i've been doing the past 3 days: roundtrip bike ride to my parents' house on wednesday, roundtrip bike ride into boston on thursday, roundtrip walk to and from the cafe on thursday, and then a walk to the cafe this morning. my legs could really use a rest. the ironic thing is despite all this supposed exercise, my weight hasn't changed.

i woke up at 6:30am this morning. it was still dark outside as i got ready to ride into boston to retrieve my hyacinth vases. i left by 7:30am. temperature was 24 degrees (but felt like 18) with an overcast sky. knowing what was in store weatherwise, i didn't see a lot of other cyclists. it wasn't supposed to snow until 8:30am, but i already saw a few stray flakes. i rode the same route i'd normally take to get into boston, except i detoured on galilgeo galilei way to get onto vassar street before connecting onto mass ave to cross the MIT bridge into boston. i then turned left on commonwealth avenue and made a u-turn at farfield street.

i'd never met anyone who lived in one of these fancy brownstones off of commonwealth avenue. i sent sydney a text letting her know i'd arrived. she replied she was coming down. dressed in gym clothes (did she just get up?), she was much smaller than i'd imagined. she gave me the two vases, i gave her the $6. last night i checked out some of the other stuff she was selling. most of them were priced too high, like i could buy brand new for cheaper. one thing that looked interesting was a wifi indoor plant watering kit she wanted to sell for $55, but that was the retail price.

i took out my gopro and mounted it onto the handlebar so i could take a video riding back home. however the camera kept shutting off even though it said i still had 50% battery life. i tried restarting it a few times, only for it to shut off seconds later. the gopro battery is notorious for bad cold weather performance. i could probably make the camera work if i took out the battery and warmed it up with my body heat for a few minutes, but that was too much hassle. there wasn't much to record anyway, just the amount of salt already applied on the streets by the boston road crew.

i got back home by 8:30am. by then it'd started to snow, heavy flurry coating everything in white. with the snow today followed by the one arriving saturday night, i won't be doing any riding anytime soon, so i decided to put my bike away in the basement. before i did that though, i sprayed the rusty gears and chain with DIY powerwash before riding everything off with some warm water i had in a 2L soda bottle with a sprinkle head attachment. it'll do for now, but i probably want to lube the chain with wax before i ride it again.

i called my father to let him know i was using the bathroom and wouldn't get to cafe a little late. i didn't leave until 9am, walked to the cafe, got there before 9:30am.

the hyacinth vases i bought were bigger than the ones i've seen at trader joe's. they were a good fit for the two hyacinth bulbs i had. the remaining daffodil bulbs i planted in leca. since these are hardy outdoor bulbs, after they finish blooming inside, i'll plant them in the ground outdoors in their forever home.

my mother asked me to help her make an appointment to see an eye doctor. she'd been experiencing white flashes in her eye. a quick google search showed it may be a sign of a detached retina. when i called her eye doctor, at first they thought i was trying to make a normal eye exam appointment. once i told them it was because of white flashes, they immediately classified it as urgent care and said she could come in as early as today. so i made an appointment for 4pm. my mother asked my 2nd aunt to come and fill in while i took my mother to her appointment, but when my sister found out, she said she'd come and help my father while we were gone.

i made a new batch of tea eggs today while my parents made a new batch of vegetarian buns. because of the bad weather, it wasn't a mystery when business was really slow today. nevertheless, we still made an okay amount given the circumstances, surprised even us a little bit. the snow only last until the early afternoon, before it transitioned to freezing rain.

during a lull in the early afternoon, i made two more ham-egg-bagel sandwiches for lunch.

i took my mother to her appointment a little bit after 3pm. it was in medford square, which google maps told me was just a 15 minute drive through davis square and tufts (my old haunt). it was good that it was still during daylight hours since i was a bit rusty with my winter weather driving.

my mother was pretty worried about her eye, especially after i told her the stipulation for detached retina surgery is no plane rides during the healing period, which might take several weeks. with my parents' japanese vacation at the end of the month, my mother was fearful she might have to cancel.

basically there was a lot of waiting. a nurse brought us into an exam room to do the preliminary eye exam and to dilate my mother's pupils. we were back out in the waiting room, where we were the only ones left. people were going home already, and there was just one receptionist behind the desk. the nurse came back and brought us to another exam room. here we waited for what seemed like forever. my mother almost wanted to cancel the appointment and go home.

when the doctor finally arrived, she examined my mother's eye. besides the white flashes that's been going on for about a week, she also noticed some new floaters that showed up two weeks ago. these are also classic signs of possible retinal tearing. after the exam, the doctor told my mother she didn't see any tearing (good news). however the white flashes and floaters are signs of vitreous detachment, which is a side effect of aging, and there are no treatments. the floaters are permanent, but your eyes will eventually adjust and compensate for them. the white flashes happen when the vitreous detachment happen close to the optical nerve, which then sends jolts that appear as flashing. everything else seems normal, but the doctor told me mother to come back and check again after a month, just to confirm it's not a retinal tear. retinal tears they can easily fix with lasers (fairly routine), but if left untreated, tears could lead to retinal detachment, which would then require surgery. one sign of retinal detachment is when you see black curtains at the edges of your vision. the doctor also said my mother had early signs of cataracts, but nothing to be concerned about, just need to be monitored.

with that we finally left by 5:30pm. the receptionist had already left so there was nobody there to book an appointment, but the doctor said she left a note and they'd call my mother back tomorrow. with traffic, with rain, we didn't get back to the cafe until almost 6pm. my mother was fine in the car, but once we got to the cafe, her dilated pupils couldn't stand the bright lights so she put on some sunglasses.

10 minutes before we were about to close, somebody called to make an order. we didn't mind, just a bit more profit for an otherwise inclement-weather-related slow day. my parents were set to leave before my mother remembered i'd walked to the cafe this morning and offered me a ride but i'd already left. i stopped by my sister's place to see esmei though, before continuing home. i made the smart decision not to bike, as the roads and sidewalks were treacherous with black ice. i never fell down, but slipped a bunch of times, my arms outstretched to brace myself for any potential falls.

there was a mavericks-celtics game. right from the start it didn't look good for boston. at least in the first quarter dallas only led by single digits, but after that the mavericks just blew the celtics away. they led boston by 27 at one point. final half of the 4th quarter mazzulla sat down all his starters and put in bench players. that was actually the more exciting part of the game for celtics fans, as our bench guys got the game down to within single digits. but celtics ran out of luck, and finally lost 127-120. don't let the score fool you, it was never that close.

during halftime i made dinner, some spicy luosifen noodles. probably not the healthiest of foods, but a good hot meal on a cold night.

disgusted by my gopro battery dying on me because it was too cold, i went online and bought a pair of enduro batteries ($30). instead of lithium ion, they use lithium cobalt chemistry. supposedly they can work in cold temperatures down to 14°F. the amazing thing i saw was a battery tester who put gopros in the freezer overnight. the one that had the regular battery couldn't even start, but the enduro gopro started without any problems. that's what sold me.

not wanting to squander my one day off, i try to cram as many errands into the day as possible. i started with a trip down in the basement to put away my christmas lights and bring up my lighter fluid (for my refillable hand warmer). i washed a load of laundry. i took a shower. then i made a ham-egg-cheese-avocado bagel sandwich for lunch along with half an asian salad mix.

in the early afternoon i went down to harvard square to catch the hasty pudding parade. originally i wasn't going to go because the woman of the year was cynthia erivo, and i'm not a big fan of hers. the only thing i've ever seen her in is the outsider (2020) stephen king miniseries and she was in bad times at the el royale (2018). then i was watching the news and found out the parade was today (i thought it was yesterday). i decided to go just for the spectacle, maybe i'll photograph something interesting. afterwards i planned on heading to belmont so i took some combination wrenches with me to work on the snowblowers.

i left pretty late - 1:30pm - for the 1:45pm parade. i parked the bike near the MBTA entrance opposite church street and walked down to quincy street for the start of the parade. there was already a crowd of people (mostly students) so i didn't get a good spot, just perched on the elevated marble barrier of a sidewalk tree. the parade ran late for some reason, but they were handing out free ice cream and cannoli. i beckoned to a guy who had a bunch of cannolis on a tray and quickly ate one while i waited.

the parade started with several marching bands, including one from burlington high school. marching bands have gotten cooler recently, but it's still populated with weirdos. that was followed by a mechanic bull ride, which apparently you can rent for functions. behind them were chinese lion dancers. not sure how that fits in with the parade, but it's part of the spectacle. speaking of which, blue man group showed up as well, shooting streamer guns in the air. only then did we finally see cynthia erivo. her convertible was behind the media truck. i was so glad she wore a hat, i was afraid she'd freeze with her bald head. very few people had actual cameras, everyone just had their phones. of the few cameras i did see, they were all dSLR's. pocket cameras are virtually nonexistent when they compete with phones.

once cythnia erivo passed by, i decided to leave instead of catching the procession against further down the street. did i mention it was a cold day, temperature in the 20's? i didn't wear my wool socks so my feet were starting to freeze after so much standing.

my sister sent me a text. esmei's test came back. she still has heartworm larvae in her blood. the antilarval medication (ivermectin?) isn't strong enough, so they're changing her prescription. that's the bad news. the good news is heartworm larvae (L1 stage) need to pass through a mosquito in order to develop into an adult. they can't reach maturity on their own, so if the larvae can be killed, that should hopefully stop the cycle. that means esmei is still contagious and could possible give heartworms to other dogs if she's bitten by a mosquito, but not a concern during the winter.

i left harvard square by 2:20pm. i rode down brattle street to reach belmont. it didn't take long, about 16 minutes, but it felt pretty cold in the shade. only when i finally reach some sunlit areas was i able to warm up.

a sprayed WD-40 into my rear derailleur shifter. it's been stuck all this winter, i can only ride in gears 4-7. it loosened the clickers but i still can't reach the lower gears.

next i moved onto the snowblowers. earlier i read online that the bolts securing the carburetor onto a craftsman 2-stage snowblower is typically 10mm. i had my 10mm combination wrench but it didn't fit. fortunately i was smart enough to bring a few other sizes, and it correct fit seems to be 11mm. this is a weekend project, and i didn't have time to tackle it today.

instead i focused on the 1-stage toro snowblower. there's a snowstorm tomorrow but it's only forecasted to dump 2-4" of snow. the bigger snowstorm is saturday night into sunday, with the potential of being 8" of snow. so if we can get one of the snowblowers working, that would really make shoveling a lot easier. armed with the impact drill, i managed to remove one of the stuck screws immediately on the snowblower cover, but the other one when i tried ended up stripping some more. there wasn't too much i could do at that point. however, with three cover screws already removed, i could lift up the cover far enough that i could stick my hands inside. the most important thing was to replace the primer bulb. the old one was stuck on the console fairly tight, i ended up breaking two plastic prongs in order to remove it. once i did that, it was a simple matter of installing the new primer bulb and attaching the air hose. i put all the screws back and restarted the snowblower. i tried it first without priming, but it didn't start. once i primed it 3 times though, it purred alive. so this toro snowblower is good to go. it could use some snow jet lube, but the can i found in the garage said the lube has to be room temperature to be effective, so i brought it inside to warm up. my father can spray some lube beforehand if he needs to use the snowblower.

with that i was finally done. i was freezing, working in just a pullover as i didn't want to wear my bulky jacket while i made repairs. i left around 3:30pm.

my day wasn't over yet. once i got home, left again for market basket to get a few groceries. with the snowstorm coming tomorrow, the place was pretty busy with panic shoppers. they had plenty of eggs and milk, but sections of the bread aisle were empty. i called my mother earlier, she asked me to get some napa cabbage, bean sprouts, and bananas for the cafe.

i contacted sydney, my back bay hyacinth vase seller. i told her i'd like to come earlier tomorrow - 8am - to pick up the two vases. watching the forecast i'm getting conflicting reports, but the snow tomorrow might start as earlier as 8am, so the sooner i'm done with boston, the better.

i had a half sour pickle as a snack then finished the other half of the asian salad. for dinner i reheated the three leftover slices of everything pizza from last night. nothing good on television tonight, so the perfect opportunity to go to bed early since i have to wake up early tomorrow morning.

today was the third most profitable day we've had within the past three months. i had a feeling business was going to be good because of the nicer weather (mixed with temperature in the 40's). we never got slammed, but we were still pretty busy, and a few larger orders put us over the top. a lot of it was easy stuff too, like bento. we ended up selling 14 bentos, which meant by day's end we only had 8 tea eggs left from the 22 i warmed up this morning.

my father used the meat grinder to grind up the large chunk of pork shoulder we got on sale from costco. we used the coarse grinding plate, but it still wasn't as coarse as the ground pork we get from market basket, so my father asked me to go online and search for grinding plates with even larger hole sizes. the meat grinder made quick work of the pork, grounded up everything in a matter of minutes. one of these days i'm going to make my own sausage using the grinder.

once there was a lull in the early afternoon, i made lunch for everyone: ham egg avocado everything bagel sandwiches. i added some swiss cheese i found in the fridge. initially i used a stainless steel pan, but even though i used butter, the egg still got stuck on the pan, so i ended up switching to a non-stick pan. the avocado i got yesterday from aldi's ($1.50) was perfectly ripe. even though my mother originally said it was too much sandwich, she still managed to finish it all.

esmei showed up at the cafe to humiliate me once again. she gave a kiss to everyone except for me. even when i had my face nearly pressed up against hers, she totally ignored me.

a mother with two toddlers came to the cafe in the late afternoon. her children were noisy and got even noisier but they both started crying. the mother didn't seem to mind, but it was driving us insane, and even drove away some sitting customers who asked to take their food to go. finally, thankfully, she left.

my father brought to the cafe the bulbs i kept in the garage since late november. mostly daffodils, but a few hyacinths. i was never able to find hyacinth bulb vases (though trader joe's do they them with bulbs for $3.50 each), so i reused the same shallow glass containers i had for the paperwhites. i'd forgotten which bulbs were which, but fortunately i had the foresight to take add some notes in my google photos album so i sort of had an idea.

after layering the bulbs in the containers, i was about to water them before i decided to go online and look again for hyacinth forcing vases. i had my eye on a facebook marketplace listing from a few weeks ago, two hyacinth vases for only $4, a real bargain. i decided to contact the seller who lives in back bay boston. to my surprise, she replied soon afterwards. she asked if i could come thursday morning. yes that's doable, but a snowstorm is due to arrive at 10am, so i had to get back before then. before i agreed, she clarified that her ad was $4 for each vase, not both. i was ready to back out of the deal, and told her about they sell for just $3.50 at trader joe's. she lowered the price to $6 for both. i was still a little hesitant, but decided to go for it. hyacinth vases for some reason are expensive and hard to find. even on aliexpress they go for $5+ a piece.

30 minutes before closing - after we figured there'd be no more customers - we suddenly had two large orders come in, one online, one by phone. i didn't mind, one last hurrah before the day ended. the online customer showed up early though, and had to wait another 5 minutes before we were able to put together his order.

i didn't bring anything home besides the leftover bagel sandwich ingredients, which i'm going to make again tomorrow for lunch. i popped a frozen pizza in the oven while i went to use the bathroom and take a shower before the 7:30pm celtics-cavaliers game. here were the top two teams in the eastern conference. both teams had already met twice, split the wins. celtics - coming off of a three game winning streak - faltered a bit at first before taking the lead and never giving it back. boston led by 20 points in the 2nd quarter, but cleveland stuck around. instead of closing out the game, celtics let the cavs back in within the final minutes, the lead down to single numbers. boston held on though to win it 112-105. celtics are now 4.5 games behind the cavs.

the pizza was good, a star market brand supreme pizza with everything. it also had a thick crust, so i was only able to eat half before i was stuffed (saving the rest for tomorrow).