my father was already deep frying some salt & pepper chicken when i arrived at the cafe. just a small batch, enough to last us until the end of the week. after he finished, i biked down to trader joe's to get a few things. once again, not too much, since we're closing next week, just enough for the next few days. i saw peruvian alpine muscat grapes on sale, but $8.99 for a small box was too rich for my budget.

there was some drama with my parents' flight ticket. a few days ago i helped my mother select their seats, which they paid $160 for the "privilege". this morning turkish airline informed my mother they changed her seat, despite the fact that she paid for it already. i called the airline but the agent was pretty much clueless, since his computer still showed up the old seating assignment. he also didn't offer any advice on how to get a refund for the seat selection. he said they could reselect new seats but would have to pay again. i thanked him for his help even though i was swearing at him in my mind. the situation would need to resolved at the ticket counter.

a photographer from the city came to take our photo. we won some sort of cambridge small business award. there's even supposed to be a ceremony, but i have no interest in attending. my mother said she'll go after learning there would be free food.

we were busy around lunchtime, but no business anytime else. my parents were working until the late afternoon, before going home to change and leaving for the airport. their flight to istanbul is at 9:50pm but they plan on getting to logan around 6pm. my sister offered to give them a ride, saving me the trouble, as i hate driving to the airport. but i'm always the one to do it, both to drop off my parents and then to pick them up. my 2nd aunt showed up around 1pm to man the cafe with me for the final few hours.

my parents finally left around 3:30pm. for the next 3 hours i was terrified it might get busy and my 2nd aunt and i alone wouldn't be able to fulfill an onslaught of orders. but it was mostly quiet, as we each surfed on our phones, and we both nearly fell asleep. a few people came in for drinks, and then in our final our we had a handful of bento sales. it wasn't enough to put us over the daily average, but combined with some cash sales and deliveries, we did surpass that number.

now we just have friday and saturday. i'm hoping both days will not be busy, which is the opposite goal of most businesses. yes we can be busy, but not crazy busy. i'd already removed some of the more complicated items off the menu (pad thai, fried rice), just bentos and noodles. but i have a weird feeling it's going to be busy tomorrow friday, and then saturday is always a crap shoot. it's not that my 2nd aunt and i haven't work together before in the past; but that experience combined with my sister was so traumatic, i still have nightmares about it to this day.

once we survive the next 2 days, the following week will be a breeze since we're closed. i need to supervise the fence install at my parents' place, finish my taxes this weekend, and visit chinatown next weekend to get some ingredients for making a new batch of taiwanese paocai.

riding home, i was admiring the spring signs. clumps of daffodils emerging from the ground, forsythia bushes yellowing, okame cherry trees turning their telltale dark pink.

for dinner i had some leftover pasta with meat sauce. i watched the celtics-knicks game. this was a back and forth game. celtics played amazingly, despite not having jaylen brown. knicks had a 13 point lead midway in the 3rd quarter, but the celtics mounted a comeback and got a 7 point lead. it looked like maybe boston would win it, but new york had some great offensive plays in the final minutes to win the game. despite the loss, it was a good showing for the celtics, to still be competitive despite missing one of their stars. the game felt like a playoff preview. knicks can still get the 2nd seed if they win out and celtics lose out, but i doubt that'll happen. boston will need to beat the 26-54 pelicans at the garden tomorrow, or the 44-36 magic on sunday. knicks need to watch out, since the cavs are just a game behind them. new york is currently the 3rd seed but could fall to the 4th. they play the 45-35 raptors and 43-37 hornets, both home games.

i played 1-1/2 hours of cyberpunk. managed to find a quest i hadn't played yet, helping a robot find a bunch of missing code around the dog town stadium. the ending was bleak, the robot couldn't be restored to its original sentient form, but i had the option to reprogram it so i did and made it into a guitar-playing android.

i woke up at 8am to get ready to go to belmont for the solar audit at 9am. temperature was 30 degrees this morning - cold but not crazy cold. it is after all april, despite it snowing yesterday. at least it was sunny with temperature supposedly reaching the 40's later today.

i arrived right when my parents were leaving for the cafe. the video call required microsoft teams, the skype replacement after microsoft killed off skype. i've been meaning to install it (to regain my skype contacts) so finally had a legit reason to do so. i entered the call early, and was surprised that my agent ciara joined a minute later. with a name like that i was expecting a black lady but it was a white woman. she was calling from florida and was horrified to hear how cold it was here today.

the audit was for our SREC payments, which we have just 2 more years before it expires. since the time we got solar panels back in december 2017, we've sold 63 SREC's for nearly $16k. the solar panels basically paid for itself over time. anyway, we were randomly selected for an audit to verify we do in fact have the number of solar panels we say we do. it required me to go outside and point my phone to the roof so ciara could take a photo and count the number of panels. she also had me go to the side of the house so she could capture the roof angle. finally i went to the basement so show her the inverter, including the serial number and display readout. she also had me point to the electricity meter so she could take a snapshot. and that was it.

since it was freezing temperature last night, i thought the ground might be frozen solid and too cold to do any gardening work. but when i tested the soil with a spade, it was only the very top that was frozen - a crust of frozen soil - while the dirt underneath was still soft.

so i ended up sticking around in belmont for a good 4 hours doing yardwork. i had my jacket on at first, but took it off when i started getting hot. later i took off my pullover and worked in only a t-shirt despite it being in the 40's. it's amazing how warm it can feel working out in the sun.

i worked the soil in the raised beds so i can plant some early spring seeds. i pulled out all our bean frames/trellises, which we left outside during the winter. all the hemp strings were broken, they'll need to be restrung. hungry rabbits had also gnawed at the wood of one of the frames. another frame sustained a crack in the middle of the top bar and that will need to be replaced. i loaded 4 bean trellises into RB0. beans really want to climb, so the taller the trellis the better. we made one trellis 8ft tall, and that might actually be our template for future trellises. taller the frame, the more beans we can grow.

suburban robins are smart. they come when they see people digging, because it means they might be able to score a worm meal. unfortunately the raised bed soil was too cold for worms. there was also a large rabbit in the backyard. i kept chasing it away, it kept coming back, until i ended up putting some wire fencing against the large gaps in our soon-to-be-replaced fence to sort of make it harder for the rabbit to come into our backyard. i think it was here feeding on the pussy willow catkins. later i also noticed rabbit chew marks on some pruned hawthorn branches. while turning over some old logs, i found some termites underneath. we'll need to keep any eye on that, might have to refill the termite bait stations around the house.

since we won't actually plant beans until may, i can still plant some early spring crops in RB0. so in the spaces beneath the bean trellises, i planted some 'cherry bell' radishes, after first dosing the soil with some osmocote slow release fertilizer pellets. in the small space in front of the trellis i sprinkled some cilantro seeds.

on the left side of RB2 i made a bed for some swiss chards. i've never grown chards before, i've seen in other garden plots and they look so pretty. to make the soil richer, i dug up some homemade grass-leaf compost along with some osmocote pellets before sprinkling the chard seeds. these are biennial, so they'll overwinter and continue to produce for next season. i also planted some french finger radishes in a pot. afraid that squirrels might dig up the soil (that's just something squirrels do), i covered the pot with some chicken wire.

i moved out all the osmanthus and the lemon verbena. another cold night but they should be able to survive 30 degrees. only reason why i brought them in on monday was the temperature was supposed to dip into the 20's.

i finally left belmont around 12:45pm. i still had a 2:30pm appointment with the painter. after i got home, i made a grocery list and took the ebike to market basket. i consider MB a low theft area so i only locked the bike with my abus chain lock. i decided i was going to make spaghetti for dinner.

i came home with a plate of spicy grilled tuna roll for lunch. i had about 20 minutes to eat before my appointment. i noticed the replacement starter motor for the toyota camry had already arrived and asked my father to pick it up from my sister's place. after the painter meeting i'd go to the cafe and install the new starter motor.

i waited and waited but elias didn't show up until 3pm. in his defense, he was driving out from lynn. with a name like that, i was kind of expecting him to be greek, so was surprised to see a hispanic man. i showed him where we needed shingle repairs/replacement and where we needed painting. i soon realized it was all mostly related to the upstairs unit, all this work to beautify my neighbor's place, i'd end up paying 40%.

after elias left, i raced to the cafe via ebike around 3:30pm. my father and i then spent the next 2 hours replacing the starter motor. the youtube video i watched yesterday that inspired me to do the fix ourselves was less than 3 minutes long. it seemed so easy, it'd be crazy not to try it ourselves. however when we opened the hood and started taking things apart, things didn't look the same. for one thing, the engine air filter assembly was way more complicated. that's because the video i watched was for a 4 cyclinder camry, and ours was a 6 cylinder. so i went back onto youtube to search for a more relevant video. i finally found one, i just needed to know how to remove the air filter housing, everything else was the same.

once the air filter housing was removed, we took off the filter housing bracket and the two parts of the air intake duct. with that we could finally access the starter motor. up to this point everything could be removed with just a 10mm socket. i bought a 3/8" drive socket extension kit that also arrived with the starter motor, but we ended up not needing it so i'll return it. the socket set itself came with a 6" extension which was long enough for our need. the starter motor required a 12mm socket to remove the solenoid wiring and a 14mm socket to remove the two screws attaching the starter to the engine. i wasn't sure if we'd be able to do it by hand, since another video i saw a woman had to use a breaker bar to release the screws. but hand force was enough to loosen the screws, as the old starter motor came out. the old unit was a toyota brand denso starter manufactured in japan. they actually sell denso starter repair kits for around $13, maybe that can be a future project, since the denso starter is used in many vehicles.

we put in the new starter motor then started putting all the pieces back together. once that was done, my father went inside to get the car key but i realized i had it in my pocket the whole time. i went behind the wheel and turned on the ignition. car started! tha's a relief, because if we spent all this time and effort to replace the starter and the car still won't start, then we have no idea what's wrong and the car will definitely need to be serviced at a mechanic. it only cost us $70 for the new starter motor, versus if we had the car serviced which would've cost $600-800.

i didn't leave the cafe until 6pm, didn't realize it was so late already.

i waited until 7:30pm before i started making dinner. pasta with meat sauce is one of the simplest recipes. sauté some chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, cook the ground beef, added the readymade tomato sauce, simmer for however long you want (or don't), cook your pasta of choice, enjoy! barilla cellentani is my poison, i usually cook 150g, about 1/3 the box. i let the meat sauce simmer for half an hour, but it probably didn't need it, since the bottom of the sauce was slightly dried and scorched. i typically don't add salt to my sauce, all the sodium comes from the tomato sauce and the parmesan cheese i sprinkle afterwards.

i had my pasta with some makgeolli rice wine i brought home from the cafe. earlier i'd already taken a few sips of meszcal, and now combined with the rice wine i was in no shape to drive. the makgeolli doesn't taste too bad, but i don't like the strong alcohol content. makes it so i can't drink too much of it.

i managed to go to bed early last night - midnight - but for some reason i woke up at 6am and couldn't fall back asleep. instead i surfed the internet on my phone until it was finally time to get up at 8am. it was so dark outside. when i took a peek out the window, i was surprised to see it snowing. not just any snow, but big flakes, like falling ash.

we were busy this morning, which usually portends a busy day throughout. that included a large grubhub order, as a long receipt rolled out of the thermal printer. an 80+ year old man came to pick up the delivery order. we watched him return to his car in the parking lot, worried he might fall on the slippery asphalt or unable to open his car door while holding two bags. so yes it was busy throughout the day, but it wasn't too bad. a lot of online orders today.

i made a new batch of tea eggs this morning. i was careful, but 4 of them cracked during steaming. i wonder if it's a equipment issue, because they all cracked in the same area. maybe that part was hotter than the rest of the steamer? maybe i didn't boil enough water and the metal got too hot? maybe new eggs had something to do with it? the broken eggs didn't go to waste though: my mother ate one, and she fed another to esmei (who only ate the egg whites, yolk are too nutrient dense for her).

my mother red roasted some string beans with pork, i ate some around 3pm.

my father and i finally filtered the 2 gallon jar of makgeolli. so this is supposed to be the good stuff, using steamed glutinous rice with h-mart purchased nuruk. we decided to let it ferment a bit longer to see what kind of flavor might develop. instead of the typical 7 days, we left it to ferment for 12 days. there was no longer 3 separate layers in the jar, it was just a single layer of dissolved rice, the bacteria having consumed most of the solids.

when we opened the jar, it didn't smell of jiuniang, but more of alcohol. after the first strain, we tasted the wine. very alcoholic, not sour, not sweet. once again we made something more similar to sake than makgeolli. so 12 days was simply too long. next time we'll know to stop after a week. the perfect makgeolli is a combination of three flavors: sweet, sour, and alcohol. this one we made was mostly alcohol, very similar to the improperly cooked sona masoori rice with makgeolli lees. in order to make it palatable, my father added about a cup of sugar. properly made makgeolli you don't need to add any sugar because it's sweet as is.

i signed my parents up for turkish esims via airalo. it's kind of a leap of faith whether they'll work or not, but they used it on their last few trips (to eastern europe, to japan) and it never failed. 10GB of data for 15 days was $15 each.

the day went by fast, neither of my parents realized it was time to go home. as i was about to leave, i saw my mother wave to me from inside the car. i went up to her to see what they wanted. it looked like the car wouldn't start. fortunately we have a jump starter just for this occasion, but it didn't seem to do anything. my father immediately said there was something wrong with the starter. we even tried turning on the headlight while cranking the AC and that worked fine. with just 2 more days before they leave, my father doesn't have time to tow the car to the mechanic. instead they decided to abandon the car in the parking lot, come back and deal with it after they return from vacation. my mother called my sister (who was at fresh pond with esmei) to come and give them a ride back home.

due to that little bit of drama, i didn't get back home until 7pm. i didn't bring home any food tonight. instead i reheated some frozen fish sticks for dinner, made my own tartar sauce with mayonnaise, relish, and lemon juice. not the most elegant of meals, but it should tide me over until tomorrow.

i went onto youtube and looked up how to replace the starter in a car. earlier i did some research and google told me the average price to replace the starter is $600-800. the part itself isn't too expensive, it's mostly labor cost. anyway, the video i found showed not only was it very easy to access the starter on a 20 year old toyota camry, but it also easy to replace. i sent my father the video. after he saw it, we decided to try replacing the starter ourselves, save some money, no need to tow the car. especially after i found out a new starter motor is only $70 on amazon, and we can get it delivered by tomorrow. i also got some drive socket extension bars while i was at it ($10). hopefully the parts arrive in the afternoon, so i'll have time to do the fix. it will be an epic DIY achievement if we can repair the car, plus it's my first time actually working on any cars. heck, maybe i'll be replacing brake pads next time.

trump said "whole civilization will die tonight" if iran doesn't open the straight of hormuz and surrender to the US. this being tuesday, of course that meant TACO so it wasn't a total surprise when right before the 8pm deadline he said he'd suspend bombing for two weeks. and when that time comes, he'll make some other excuse.

a good hornets-celtics game tonight. hornets led for most of the first 3 quarters, though only by single digits. in the fourth quarter boston flipped a switch and then suddenly they were in the lead while charlotte seems to have lost all its mojo and couldn't score again. celtics win 102-113. using my own math, there are 3 more games left in the regular season, and the knicks are 3 games back. for new york to overtake us, we'd have to lose all of the next three games (against the knicks, pelicans, and magic) while the knicks need to win all three (celtics, raptors, hornets). so basically the celtics need to win one more game to lock in the no.2 seed.

i finally got a chance to ride the trek hybrid. the top tube just sits below my crotch, the saddle about 5 inches higher. the saddle was actually too low, i couldn't fully extend my legs while pedaling. the bike is pretty barebones. it doesn't have fenders, or rear rack, or even a kickstand. i also found out it's missing a bell as well. the front headset has a little play, i don't know how to adjust it just yet, i'll find some youtube video to watch. what the bike does have are toe clips. i've toyed around with them myself, but they end up being more hassle than they're worth. if i don't use them, i occasionally hear them scraping against the ground.

when i come to a stop, i can put my foot down if i tip the bike on its side slightly. the bike itself is super light with an all aluminum frame, about 27 lbs., which is nothing compared to my ebike which is 50 lbs. easily. i don't like the straight handlebars, makes me ride in a forward leaning posture when i prefer a more laid back upright sitting posture. because the top tube is so high, it takes some work dismounting, i have to lean the bike and swing a leg over the seat.

so another reason i was riding the trek hybrid today was to see just how much faster it is compared to riding my trek utility bike. traveling a distance of 2.93 miles, my average speed was 10mph. my total moving time was 17-1/2 minutes, total travel time 19-1/2 minutes. so actually no difference. i figured with the large 700c wheels i would be moving faster, but it's pretty much the same compared to my utility bike.

temperature today was in the 40's and a mix of clouds and sun. it was also very windy so it felt much colder. my mother made wonton soup again for lunch. my parents waited for me to finish so we could do a waltham supply run. while trying to fully extend the insta360 selfie stick, i managed to pull the stick apart into two pieces. we couldn't figure out how to put it back together again so i ended up buying a replacement stick on amazon, to be delivered later in the afternoon.

outside was a robin sitting on the sidewalk. it might've been a window strike but it was far away from the house. it was just sitting there with its eyes closed.

we headed to the waltham costco first. from the highway we could already see the parking lot filled with cars. it was super busy today, everyone seemed to have come out today since costco was closed yesterday sunday for easter. we didn't need much, i just wanted to go there to get more soil. all they had were potting soil, no raised bed soil. we ended up buying 3 bags.

next we went to the waltham market basket. we only got enough supplies for the week, since we'll be closed the following week while my parents are on vacation. i had to ask a taller customer for help to get some drinks down from the high shelf. do tall people like it when shorter people ask them for help to reach items?

my mother took a quick trip to nearby marshalls while my father and i loaded the groceries in the car. i ran to the market basket liquor store and grabbed a case of assorted woodchuck hard cider and a bottle of baijiu. my mother bought a windbreaker jacket for my father.

instead of returning via the highway, we came back via waltham main street, so we could stop by mulan and pick up some lunch specials as well as some smoked duck. we got the salt & pepper porkchop and spicy chicken. my mother couldn't believe how expensive everything has become. eating out is okay, but we'd only ever get takeouts, since we couldn't afford to sit down and pay the additional 20% in tips.

since we didn't stop by the cafe, we had to pile all the refrigerated and frozen stuff in the fridge. we then had a second lunch. the salt & pepper porkchop was cooked well, but not salty enough, a little too sweet. and definitely not spicy. likewise with the chicken, though every once in a while you might eat into a bit of hot pepper. the duck wasn't too salt but had a strong smokey flavor.

around 4pm i went down to the basement to water the plants. 2 weeks ago i didn't water, and last week i watered with a very diluted 1 tsp of gnatrol powder. i shouldn't have gotten lazy with the regimen because there was definitely an uptick of fungus gnats today, when i thought i had everything under control. so now i'm back to square one, added 3 tsp of gnatrol to 5 gallons of water. while watering the orchids i noticed one of them was growing two flower spikes.

my father was experimenting with the insta360 camera. he shoot a quick video outside and i connected it to the computer so he could watch it on the larger screen. a few minutes later the computer lost the connection to the camera, said it was suddenly disconnected. when i tried to remount the camera the mac didn't recognize it and wanted to reformat the memory card. the camera itself wouldn't recognize the card either. i had no choice but to reformat. i'd never seen that error before, but makes me a little worried. one thing to lose a video file, but to corrupt the entire 500GB memory card? that's a little dangerous. we weren't even doing anything, just replaying the video.

when 6pm came around my mother said she wasn't very hungry. she told me i could have the leftover pizza from last night for dinner, so i started packing up my things. i was hoping to wait for the insta360 selfie stick to arrive, but i accidentally sent it to my house instead of belmont. what did arrive was the selfie stick wrist strap and a replacing pump spray wand.

it's been a while since i manually biked to belmont and back. i like it, gives me a decent workout, build up a little bit of sweat. it's also nice traveling slow for a change, feels safer. i also don't feel obnoxious as i sometimes do riding the ebike.

i didn't reheat the pizza slices until 8pm. i used the stovetop technique where i reheat the pizza on medium-low heat for a few minutes to crisp up the crust, then i add some water into the pan and put the lid on to steam the pizza and melt the cheese.

while i was doing that, i noticed my little seed starter tray of stevia seeds have sprouted! kind of surprised, because the seeds were so tiny, i honestly didn't think they'd do anything. now i just need to nurse them to full seedling stage. my other seeds - tomatoes and peppers and eggplants - have yet to germinate. and no action in luffa gourds in wet napkin. if anything, i think some of the seeds have gone moldy. i'll have to check my notes and figure out how i germinated those seeds. i think i put them on top of the warm led lights once i get my grow closet set up?

i tried going to bed early last night, managed to sleep 7-1/2 hours, but i still need more sleep. i really ought to be going to bed by midnight at the latest if i plan on waking up 8-9am. i learned last night that the rain will will arrive in the early afternoon and stop by 7-8pm. that meant i could ride there and back. so instead of riding the trek hybrid i repaired yesterday - it doesn't have any fenders - i opted for the velotric ebike instead. i left pretty early, around 9:30am. i brought my rain pants just in case the rain doesn't let up when i return in the evening.

passing through the observatory hill, the parking lot was full from people going to easter mass at the catholic church next door. cars after cars what i thought were minivans were actually SUV's. i don't believe americans prefer SUV's, i think it's the US car companies that want people to believe they want SUV's because they can sell them at a higher cost than sedan and smaller vehicles. every car seems obnoxious, so big that drivers have to climb into their vehicle.

i got to belmont by 10am. it wasn't raining yet, but there was already a fine mist, like a fog, and i arrived slightly damp. i was hoping i could get some backyard work before the rain, but it looks to be too late. today would've been a nice day for a supply run, but market basket is closed on easter.

i brought my insta360 camera and showed my father how to use it when they're on vacation turkey. after he familiarize himself with the physical buttons and how to start and stop a recording, i installed insta360 studio on his computer and showed him how to edit a 360 movie. it's a different way of shooting, not so much angles (since the camera captures everything), but more like the position of the camera itself in 3D space. we then installed the insta360 app on his phone so he could remote monitor a recording. i think he finally understood how the 360 camera works when i moving the camera around on the selfie stick and the footage didn't change, even though i was rotating the camera in different directions. it stayed perfectly balanced, perfectly stabilized, like a magic trick.

as we got closer to lunch, my mother made wonton soup. i made some popcorn as a snack using the carbon steel wok.

elias from prince painting called me. he was supposed to call at 10am this morning, but he said he accidentally forgot. he was apologetic for calling on easter. we scheduled to meet wednesday afternoon so he can take a look at the house (replacing some shingles and some touchup painting).

my sister burst into the house with esmei later in the afternoon. esmei was super soft after my sister washed her recently, almost like a stuffed animal. esmei ran around the house, even got some zoomies. later she poked her head against the sunroom door, wanted to go outside. since it was still raining, she'd only get dirty, so we didn't let her out, but she started whimpering. that meant she wanted to use the bathroom. my sister knew this and was preparing to take her outside for a walk but waited another 30 minutes before finally leaving, after i shouted at her that esmei needed to use the bathroom.

my mother said she wasn't cooking tonight, so whatever we had for dinner had to be ordered out. most western restaurants were closed - pizza shops, greek deli, those were all off limits. the only reliable options were fast food joints, so we decided to get some domino's pizza even though it was still only 4:30pm. they had a special deal this weekend, $10 for any large pizza with up to 7 toppings. we ordered two pizzas: NY style with bacon, sausage, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, and banana peppers, and another NY style with alfredo sauce, chicken, mushrooms, spinach, garlic, feta cheese, and shedded asiago parmesan. if we paid original price, it would've been $55; with coupon, it was just $20. how do they even make any profit at those prices?

my father and i went out to pick up the pizzas. my mother said this was the best pizza she's had in a while. normally it's very greasy, but tonight the pizza was baked to perfection, not even any grease stains in the box. my mother ate three slices but got drunk on her gin and tonic and was struggling to stay upright. i myself had 4 slices, three of the bacon-sausage, and one of the chicken-spinach.

i biked home around 6:30pm, it'd stopped raining for about an hour already. even though the ebike has fenders, i was traveling so fast on wet roads that the residual spray still dampened by pant legs. i stashed the ebike in the basement, thinking about taking the trek hybrid tomorrow instead.

no cyberpunk tonight. instead i spent the evening looking through aliexpress, trying to figure out what else i wanted to buy for this latest shipment. i got a bunch of stainless steel screws: M5 6mm (for the handlebar bottle cage), M4 10mm (for the velotric LCD screen), and M5 12mm (bike frame attachment spares). i also got some tree swing straps, a 7 inch speed square, and replacement canon dSLR rubber eye cups. i wanted to get a stainless steel replacement spray wand, but i didn't know if any of the aliexpress ones would fit on my portable sprayer, so i decided to pay a little more and get it from amazon instead. if it doesn't fit at least it'd be easy to return.

i woke up at 8am and rode the ebike to my parents' place so my father and i could assemble a replacement raised bed (for RB3). it was either do it this morning or tomorrow morning (before it rains). i figured do it today so we have time tomorrow to tackle other garden projects. it's the last weekend before my parents leave for vacation, so whatever i need my father's help to do i need to do it within the next couple of days.

the weather was surprisingly warm. temperature was in the 60's and sunny. hard to imagine it would later drop into the 40's and overcast.

we first removed the old raised bed. it wasn't hard, the old wood had mostly disintegrated. we just had to remove the 3 inch deck screws so we don't accidentally step on them. the screws themselves were in pretty good shape considering they've been out in the elements for a decade and a half. this old raised bed was installed back in april 2011. instead of pressure treated wood, we went with a more natural approach by treating them with linseed oil first.

i shoveled dirt from the edges of the borderless raised bed to make room for the new frame. my father was busy cutting up the wood with our circular saw. the blade wasn't long enough to go through the 4x4 rectangular post, so my father had to make each cut twice, top and bottom. 8ft long post gave us 8 1ft long corner pieces. next we cut one of the 2x10 8ft planks in half. these planks had been sitting outside since last summer so they've been properly weathered. we use pressure treated wood, which nowadays are copper-based (instead of arsenic and chromium) and much safer.

we attached the corners to the 8ft planks first. it involved drilling some pilot holes before attaching 3" deck screws. once that was down, we moved the wood onto the lawn and pieces them together. since the lawn isn't completely flat, we laid the pieces onto 2 long wood boards for support. we then assembled the frame, drilled pilot holes, and finally drilled in the deck screws. the frame requires two people to lift and put into place. we could see which areas were elevated and dug out those areas until the frame dropped into place.

i left by 10:30am, went to the cafe to start my saturday shift. my mother was already there, having walked from home. it was already 11:10am and my 2nd aunt still hadn't shown up yet. i checked the map and saw that she was in medford. did she forget she had to work today? then my mother remembered: my 2nd aunt told her she was going to a friend's funeral. so it was just my mother and i today.

we hoped it wouldn't be busy but the opposite happened, as we were suddenly bombarded with customers. our only saving grace was my father was going to show up and bring some food to the accountant whom he was visiting. it was harrowing 30 minutes before my father finally showed up just as we were wrapping up all the orders. once he showed up, it suddenly wasn't very busy anymore.

my father left for the accountant. once he came back, he stuck around until we closed.

i noticed it earlier, but the lcd screen on my ebike was crooked. i took a closer look and discovered one of the retaining screws had fallen out. whoever assembled this bike did a poor job. first the rubber foot on my kickstand fell off; now a retaining screw for the screen.

because it's going to start rain tomorrow afternoon, i'll probably take the bus to belmont in the morning. however, i could take one of my many bikes and just leave it there in the garage. i decided to take the trek hybrid jeff gave me. but first it needed a tune-up. for one thing, the seat height was too high, i dropped it to the lowest level. the front wheel was also missing a quick release skewer spring, which i added. i took it for a quick test ride, seems to work okay, but there was no braking powder. i brought the bike back inside and replaced both front and rear brakes. now the brakes were working. i took it on another test ride, it works perfectly. can't wait to ride it tomorrow.

i brought home some leftover beef noodle soup which i had for dinner. i didn't eat unil 9pm. there was so much i thought i was going to burst.

it was cold and wet this morning, temperature in the upper 30's, but promise of a warm up later in the day. the morning started slow, there was time for me to make some salmon spread bagel sandwiches. it looked to be another slow day like yesterday, but then we suddenly got slammed between 2-3pm. it was a perfect storm of walk-in orders combined with a large group of noisy children who had good friday off and came in for their boba fix. my aunt happened to show up during that time.

my mother's ipad air started acting up again, the screen wouldn't display anything. she meant to replace it but it'll start working intermittently. there's nothing wrong with the device other than the fact that occasionally it will just display a blank screen. apps are still running fine in the background, you just can't see anything.

by late afternoon the clouds parted, and the weather became sunny and warm. my mother made century egg rice porridge with salted pork for an early dinner. after she finished eating, she left the cafe early around 6pm, walking home. my father and i manned the store but there was no customers by that point. for some reason my sister made my father take esmei to belmont. she was buckled in the backseat, patiently waiting to be chauffeured to my parents' house.

i didn't have any of that rice porridge because i had my own porridge at home to finish. after a shower, i warmed up my leftovers and ate dinner while watching the celtics-bucks game. a boston loss tonight would guarantee the pistons get the number one seed in the eastern conference playoffs. celtics didn't get the memo thought because they dominated the bucks. milwaukee never once led this game. granted, they didn't have giannis or bobby portis, and since they've been eliminated from the playoffs weeks ago, they didn't have much to play for besides pride. boston won 133-101. with just 5 more games left in the regular season and still behind the pistons by 4, chance of the celtics securing the number one seed are slim. it looks like the number two seed it is then, with the eastern conference going through the pistons.

i played a bit of cyberpunk during the game. i participated in one of the drag races, won $10,000. i drove the muckmobile - one of the fastest cars in the game - and used my quickhacks to blow up a few cars to thin out the competition. i drove terribly, crashing often, but i still managed to win the race.

i promised myself i would do my 2nd aunt's taxes tonight so i can give it to her tomorrow. her taxes are easy, with very simple and basic finances, with no payments or refunds to be bad. i filed her federal return online, then printed out her state return to be filed by mail. i also did preliminary taxes for my sister, she's basically paying the same amount she paid last year. i tried finessing my taxes a bit more, trying to eke out some deductions. real estate taxes made zero impact. i still need to put in numbers for home office and IRA deductions. i think in the end it won't make much difference.

it was raining this morning, so i put on my rain gear before leaving for the cafe. pretty much the whole day was wet and cold. when i got to the cafe, i found the pussy willow catkins i brought over yesterday had all wilted. i picked the best i could find and put them in vases with a little water.

big news this morning was the firing of attorney general pam bondi. this after homeland security secretary kristi noem was fired just last month. i was surprised when i found out bondi's age: 60 years old. i'd thought she was in her 40's. getting fired probably saved her career, as trump was making her do more and more illegal things on his behalf to the point where she risked getting disbarred. i heard national intelligence director tulsi gabbard will be fired next. kind of weird that only women in his administration are getting axed.

a container of dark soy noodle had gone slightly bad. instead of throwing it out, my mother made some stirfry noodles for lunch. next with some homemade hot sauce, it was pretty tasty.

we filtered the 5L jar of sona masoori rice that we added jiuniang yeast and makgeolli lees. this was from march 19th, with rice that wasn't cooked properly and still mostly hard grains. we gave it a taste test, bitter from the strong alcohol, a little bit sour, but no sweetness. after we strained it, my father added some sugar. it tasted okay, but i think it needs even more sugar to bring out the other flavors, strangely enough. just like when we made suanmeitang, too little sugar it tastes bland, but once you add just enough, you can suddenly taste the complexity of flavors.

esmei showed up in the late afternoon. my father gave her a treat, she put it in her mouth before spitting it out, after realizing she was getting an egg from my mother. esmei loves hard-boiled eggs, can't get enough. she started crying as she grew impatient. maybe a normal dog would bark, but she just whimpers. after she got her egg she wouldn't leave, hoping for another egg.

after the supposed lunchtime rush, we barely made $100. it was starting to look like another slow day. the jewish school across the street was because of passover. however things picked up close to evening time. longtime customer crystal showed up with a big order, and we had another big online order. that combined with a few ubereats delivery and cash put us above our normal daily average, so not a bad day considering the foul weather.

we made a new batch of beef noodle soup. there should be plenty enough to last us for another week, before my parents leave for vacation. using the pot-in-pot method to lower the temperature, i got it down to the upper 60's. that was too low as the oils in the soup started to clump together, making it harder to scoop into individual servings.

it wasn't raining anymore by the time i went home. i put on my rain gear anyway just to stay warm. for dinner i reheated some leftover congee from last night. there was nothing good on television, so i went back to cyberpunk. i'm basically scratching the bottom of the barrel at this point, with no new gigs or missions left to do. i did return skippy to regina jones.

i managed to do everything today except finish my taxes and go for a run. in the morning i went outside and took a few photos to send to reliable fence so they could give me an estimate. i never really took a close look at our gate, but it's actually kind of complicated. there are in fact 3 posts, all cemented to the ground. the gate itself is reinforced with diagonal boards. it also sits direct next to our neighbor's electricity meters. the more i look, the more it seems that around $2000 is a reasonable price.

in the late morning i went to market basket to get some groceries, mostly for the cafe. temperature today almost reached the 70's and was surprisingly humid. i decided i was going to make century egg pork bone congee for dinner, and i had all the ingredients except scallions which i'll get from the cafe. i returned home to drop off a few things before switching to my ebike and heading to the cafe.

i brought along the aliexpress order my mother had made on her own using my account but accidentally shipped to my house. it included traveling pants and an inflatable foot rest that she said may or may not be allowed on airplanes due to safety concerns.

i went to the mt.auburn star market to look for easter ham on sale. my own nearby star market is a mess, i visited twice, no ham on sale, but they put out the full price hams in the sale display, which is kind of shady business practice. the mt.auturn store did have ham on sale but not a lot (99¢/lbs). i picked two of the smallest ones.

i continued to my parents' house via belmont street. i made a quick stop to our backyard neighbors to drop off some letters letting them know we're replacing the fence in 2 weeks. the house directly behind us, the owners seem to be gone, replaced with contractors. i hope they're moving, a family of entitled assholes. the chopped down a perfectly healthy pine tree in their backyard because they saw a hawk sitting on a branch watching their chickens (back when they had chickens). they also piled a bunch of soil against the fence which resulted in it buckling and toppling over.

my primary reason for coming to belmont was to clear away any obstructions against the soon-to-be-replaced fence. that included two piles of dried wood that we've saved up from tree cutting over the decades. when i got to the backyard, i realized there were still a bunch of pussy willow catkins that needed to be cut and saved. however in just 2 days time, most of the fuzzy catkins have turned into flowers. i cut them anyway, maybe they can still be used as cut flowers. i was collecting buckets of catkin-covered branches before i noticed some scale insects. after that i was more selective with my cuttings. i found out it wasn't just a little bit of scales, but a massive infestation. whole branches were covered with scale insects that you couldn't even see the bark. this could probably be treated with horticultural oil had we decided to keep the tree, but the infestation was so high up in the branches, we probably would've never noticed. i believe they're oystershell scales (Lepidosaphes ulmi). something else i noticed about the pussy willow is rabbits will feed on the catkins. those on lower branches were defoliated.

i started moving all the old wood piles. these make great firewood, very dry and light, properly dried after all these years.

since it was still early (around 2pm), i decided to drive to home depot to see if they restocked their 2x10-8ft pressure treated wood planks. the sky was very overcast and looked like it'd rain at any moment, but the doppler radar only showed rain clouds to our south, no immediate danger. home depot didn't have the wood i wanted. instead i got a bundle of furring strips and some seeds: radish, sweet basil, and cherry tomatoes.

after returning home and dropping off the furring strips, i made my way back to the cafe with a bucket of pussy willow catkins. that must've been quite a sight, my barreling down the street in my ebike, with an explosion of fuzzy yellow catkins in my rear basket.

esmei was outside, she came up to me when i parked my bike. she was interested in the pussy willow but smart enough not to eat it. it was just something she'd never seen before and was curious. i brought to give out to customers, and to use as decorations. esmei didn't want to leave, so used to getting treats whenever she visited, she wanted to stick around and wait for more free food.

i got back home by 3:30pm. the weather had changed by then. this morning was warm and humid (so much so that my bathroom started to smell again due to faulty pipes); now it was cold and some sprinkles. i was in no mood to go running.

i finished copying all my insta360 video files onto an external hard drive. there's something like 600GB worth of data that i started copying this morning and was finally finished by the afternoon.

i didn't start making my congee until 7pm. this morning i'd already defrosted a frozen package of bone-in spare ribs. not sure how old it was. i hadn't made this recipe in more than a year. not even during the winter, where this would be the perfect easy comfort food.

while the congee was cooking in the pressure cooker, i filled 4 cups with potting soil and planted 4 cherry tomato seeds. we don't have enough space in the raised beds for all these plants. i may look into building a few upside down planters to grow the tomatoes.

the congee was ready to eat by 9pm. i filled a large bowl with the rice porridge and ate while watching the second half of the heat-celtics game. this was a fun game to watch. celtics went from trailing midway in the first quarter to leading by 20 points by the end of the quarter. it was a 3-point onslaught. but large point swings are common in the NBA, and by the 4th quarter it became a regular game again with the heat down by only single digits. that didn't last long though, celtics got through scoring groove back again, and finished the game with a win 147-129.

i got to the cafe a little late this morning as i first went to star market to get some sweet potatoes on sale before heading to harvard vanguard to pick up a prescription for my father. temperature was in the 50's and i heard it might be in the 60's later, so i just wore a hooded sweatshirt.

we filtered out the wine from one of the 1-quart mason jar. this one was the properly cooked sona masoori combined with crushed jiuniang yeast powder and makgeolli lees from march 20th. the lees made it ferment something fierce, as it started bubbling almost immediately. the fermented rice had a nice smell, fruity, alcohol. tastewise it was very dry, a bitterness from the alcohol, no sweetness, no sourness. we poured the content into a nut milk bag and squeezed out the liquid. it tasted like very dry champagne. we added a few spoonful of sugar to make it more palatable, but it was missing that sour component characteristic of good fermented rice wine. drinkable yes, but not as good as makgeolli, or the jiuniang wine we collected last week.

there were barely an customers around lunchtime, so we had our own lunch. i had some leftover lamb pilaf my mother made over the weekend. business picked up starting around 1pm, and we were mildly busy until around 3pm. we missed making our daily average, but that's not including the 3 ubereats delivery orders we got earlier in the day. we closed out march making almost the same amount we made last march 2025.

reliable fence contacted me today with a tentative installation time: the week that my parents will be on vacation. that's actually perfect time, since i won't be working that week, so i can supervise the fence work. i also called them to make an appointment for them to come and check out my alley fencegate. they're so busy, the earliest they can schedule someone to come out won't be until the end of april. after describing the project, the woman i spoke with said i could send them a few photos and they can give me an estimate based on that.

i went to trader joe's to pick up a few things for the cafe. i stopped briefly at whole foods looking for bean sprouts but they didn't have any today. i bought a bag of herbs & spices popcorn that's surprisingly addictive, must be the yeast extract they added.

close to closing time, my mother and i went to the upstairs apartment to take away several bags of beddings and towels. esmei was there, happily greeting us when typically she's more aloof when we meet her around the cafe. i think she rarely gets visitors, so gets excited when people come over. my mother accidentally hit her head on the corner of a cupboard door, so we quickly went back to the cafe.

my parents stayed to eat some steamed red fish while i went home.

final day of march and i was determined to plant some garden seedlings. but first i had to melt draining holes in all my 16 oz. plastic cups. i bought a bunch a few days ago from the dollar store, but didn't realize i had a bunch already from last season. it took me a little over 20 minutes to make all the holes. it would've been faster, but some cups got stuck together when the melted plastic fused together and i had to use a knife to surgically separate them. i got a chance to check out the stevia seeds. they're so tiny, it'd be easy to mistake them for plant chaff. so small in fact the static electricity in the plastic bag them came it made them stick to the inside and hard to get out.

for dinner i cooked up the ichiran ramen my parents brought back from japan. the secret is the broth packet full of savory flavors. i didn't have any scallions but added an egg and some pickled radishes. it was pretty good, i drank the entire broth, something i wouldn't normally do with instant noodles.

i played an hour of cyberpunk, until 10pm. in went in search of easter eggs. i went to the columbarium and found evelyn parker and alex xenakis' niches. i went to the top of the advocet hotel and saw the roy batty easter egg. i got a call from nele springer to meet her back in dogtown. that ended up being a biotechnica trap as i was ambushed by a bunch of mercenaries. i was trying to kill them with skippy but switched to erebus when things got serious.

i wasn't going to plant anything until tomorrow, but i was struck with some sudden gardening inspiration and went to the kitchen to plant something at least. i started with the stevia seeds, planted in starter cells. the seeds were so tiny, i had to use a tweezer to gently place a seed into each cell. even the simple act of watering them might risk washing them away, so i had to be extra careful. i then filled two trays with cups - 12 each. to each cup i added some potting soil before watering them from the bottom in the sink. i then planted the following: 4 goat horn hot pepper, 4 long thin cayenne peppers, 4 serrano peppers, 4 corkscrew peppers, 4 fourth of july hybrid tomatoes, and 4 chinese long eggplants. i actually planted 2 seeds per container, as an insurance, but if they all germinate, i might end up with double the seedlings (not a bad problem to have). i didn't finish until almost midnight.