i tried to get into apple+ widow's bay but after 1-1/2 episodes i got bored. single dad who's the mayor of a small new england island town with a history of strange and creepy incidents. is it supposed to be horror, comedy, father-son conflict, office drama - i didn't know what to make of it. after the first season ended (10 episodes), i kept hearing really good reviews of the show, so i decided to give it another try last night. glad i did because the story really picks up. i finished 4 episodes and would've watched more but i had to go to sleep. episode 4 really amps up the creepiness factor (social outlast local lady throws a party and wins over all her former classmate bullies) and makes it official that we are in legit horror genre.

i managed to sleep until 9:30am for a change (in the guest bedroom), after i was just talking about how i'm unable to sleep late. i did wake up at 7:30am then again at 8:30am. i had the urge to pee but was too lazy to get out of bed so i just crossed my fingers and hoped i don't have any water-related dreams.

weather conditions were optimal for a run. i kept promising myself i'd do it every wednesday but finally got the chance today. this is actually my second run of the year; my first run was back in march, when it was still cold outside. today was my first warm weather run. since i just have one day off a week, i can only run once a week. i could run on saturday morning before work at 11am, but i've never done that. i could also wake up early and go running before work on a weekday, but that means i'd need to wake up at 7am to have enough time to get to work by 9am. working nearly full time at the cafe has basically killed my running schedule. i could also go running after work. it doesn't get dark until well past 8pm, plenty of daylight. that might be an option if i'm serious about getting back to running.

i haven't used my earbuds in ages so it wasn't a surprise they'd lost their charge. it would've taken too long to recharge them, so i opted to used my hearing aids instead, set to bluetooth audio streaming. these resound vivias are definitely first generation. to pair the hearing aids to the phone actually involves disconnecting them bluetooth, which seems like the opposite of what you'd normally do. it took 15 minutes of fiddling around to finally get audio to stream from my spotify. also in my procrastination i decided to clean one of my living room windows. i use windex for cleaning, then i treat it with rain-x so rain drops don't collect in the window.

i didn't leave the house until 10:40am. completely forgot to stretch beforehand, but i don't normally run until i get close to the river anyway. going past bowdoin street i noticed somebody had thrown out a rain barrel onto the curb. i turned around to check it out. i've actually been in the market for another rain barrel, periodically checking facebook market place every few weeks or so. this one was perfect. i thought maybe i could carry it back home. then i had the bright idea of running to the cafe to borrow the car and come and pick up the rain barrel. so i half-heartedly ran to the cafe which was about a mile away.

my mother was surprised to see me. out of breath, i grabbed the car key and headed back to bowdoin. i saw my 2nd aunt just arriving at the cafe before i left. what took me more than 10 minutes by running took just 3 minutes by car. i was afraid somebody had already taken the barrel, but it was still there on the curb. there's not a big demand for rain barrels, especially ones located on small side streets. i grabbed the barrel and returned to the cafe.

the barrel was the same size as our largest terracotta-colored olive barrels. originally it was black, but somebody had painted it a grey color, maybe to prevent the water from heating up in the sun. it had a single piece screw-on lid, which had drain holes and a large opening for a gutter down spout. there were holes drilled along the top sides for overflow, and two holes drilled at the bottom for output, one high, one low. the holes were plugged up by something i've never seen before: threaded plastic plugs with a hex-shaped nuts. don't know how well they work compared to plastic stoppers. there was still some water in the barrel which unfortunately spilled inside the car. the water seemed clean though, not the mucky water we get in our barrels at the end of the season. it couldn't fit back inside the car while one of the seat was folded down, so my father will take the barrel home tomorrow (he needs to give my 2nd aunt a ride home after work, that's why the seat needs to be down).

i left the cafe by running, which was new to me. i headed to the river, which was about another mile away. i didn't mind, i was passing through neighborhoods i rarely visit on foot, as i admired all the expensive houses. i spotted a lot of hydrangeas, i guess they're in season now. i passed by the high-rise apartment that was torn down because of foundation cracks, now just a large chain-linked parking lot. once i finally reached the river, i turned on sports tracking (running) on my mi fitness app. this was my first time running with the mi fitness band 10.

i ran clockwise around the river, which added some extra distance compared to where i normally start. only a few runners and cyclists. they're adding a cycle track to that stretch memorial drive, so all the plane trees were surrounded by wooden barricades. i stopped to admire the white mulberries, only took photos even though i should've picked some. across the JFK bridge, i took some photos of female rowers. my pixel 7 camera phone can only do 2x, which is a paltry magnification (and not even true zoom but a crop and zoom). my main reason for upgrading my phone would be to get a phone with optical zoom (pixel 9/10 pro have native 5x optical zoom).

i listened to the what went wrong podcast about behind-the-scenes stories of how famous movies. i listened to how stephen spielberg's war of the worlds (2005) was made. not sure if it was the hearing aid, or maybe the pirated version of spotify i was using, but the audio would pause intermittently and i had to open the app and play it again.

crossing eliot bridge (still not fully repaired yet after a year but can finally walk on it on both sides), i stopped for a drink of water at the boat house fountain. i continued running until i made it to ash street, then walked my way home. i looked my fitness app and couldn't make sense out of it because the spiteful programmers at xiaomi will not gave us the option of english units, just metric. so around the river i ran 3km it tells me.

i stopped by the community garden to water my plants. there was nobody else there - if you don't count the horde of screaming children behind sacramento field, having fun in bouncy houses and other end-of-the-school-year merriments. a live deejay was playing some danceable music. last day of school is this friday. the first squash flower i got was a female; not sure if it got pollinated or not (if not, it'll just whither away and drop off). one of my hyacinth beans has flowered, which is surprising because they don't normally do that until the end of the summer. maybe it's all the hot weather we've been getting.

i didn't get back home until 12:30pm. how many miles did i run today? not sure. but my fitness band said i walked 17,000 steps today. i didn't stay too long, just long enough to drink some water before taking my trek allant out for errands. i was still wearing my running clothes, which felt a little weird, particularly the shorts, which are commando-style, so i was afraid i might accidentally flash somebody while biking.

i picked up one of my prescriptions at walgreens. all the pharmacists i used to see are mostly gone, a new generation of pharmacists now work there. the one who helped me was a blonde girl wearing a face mask that was pulled down to her chin. i noticed her left arm was dotted with small tattoos. after that i went to harvard vanguard to pick up two prescriptions for my mother. the pharmacist there was a young asian man wearing a sweater. i asked him about it, he said they blast the AC there. next i went to market basket. nothing for dinner, i'm already spoken for, but i did get som spicy grilled salmon roll ($6.99) for lunch. i also got a few things for the cafe.

i got back home around 1:30pm. it wasn't that hot inside the house, but it felt hot because i've been running around all day. so i turned on the dry function on my inverter AC to cool the house a bit. i then took a quick shower before eating my sushi while watching ground B of the world cup. for the final games of the group stage, each group play simultaneously (so no one knows the final outcome, to prevent teams from tanking if they know they've already advanced). switzerland vs canada (2-1), bosnia versus qatar (3-1). switzerland and canada were going to advance to the next round regardless the outcome, but had canada won, they would've secured "home field" advantage and the next game would be played in canada. even though bosnia was 3rd, they still advance under the new world cup rules, where 8 3rd place teams advance based on their match points.

i stayed until the games ended around 2:30pm. i threw a load of laundry into the washer - mostly bedsheets, but i also threw in some dirty clothes since there was room. i changed into some normal clothes then biked to davis square to get some things from h-mart. i added some wax grease to the locking clasps on my rear bike baskets. that made them too loose, and one of the baskets kept opening while i was riding, causing me to kick it with my back heel as i pedaled.

it's true h-mart is nearby, but there's no easy way to get there. all routes involve circling around the neighborhood since elm street is a one way leaving davis square. i basically rode until i hit the one way then walked the bike the 2 blocks to h-mart.

i was searching for nuruk (to make makgeolli). when my sister went to the burlington h-mart a few weeks ago, she couldn't find it, so i was worried maybe this store wouldn't have it either. but they had plenty in stock, the same brand i used before ($3.49). i also searched for yeo's sweet chili sauce - the only sauce i eat with my zongzi - but they didn't have it. while i was leaving, there was also a sale on flavored aloe vera drinks so i grabbed two bottles.

returning home, i stopped by the porter square star market to get some fried chicken ($7.99 eight pieces). yes i have zongzi back at home and that was my original plan, but i had a craving for fried chicken.

when i got back home by 3:30pm, i threw the washed laundry into the dryer. i took another quick shower before settling down with some fried chicken to watch world cup group C. scotland-brazil (0-3) and morocco-haiti (4-2). i should've found my moroccan mailman, who was probably ecstatic that morocco won. i was sad that scotland lost, but their game points total (3) might earn them a berth as one of the 3rd place teams.

after the game i went outside to plant the half dozen foxgloves i brought from belmont on monday night. i put in a new repellent cartridge and turned on the thermacell device. i wore it clipped to my pocket. it actually worked, i didn't get a single mosquito bite. i planted 2 foxgloves in the backyard, 1 next to the hydrangeas, 1 in a pot outside the alley gate, and 2 in our tiny front yard. i then watered everything. while i was watering i noticed one mosquito was brave enough to land on my forearm. i gently blew it away. i think maybe the water spray interferes with the repellent smoke. nevertheless, i still get didn't any bites, so a victory.

next i went to work investigating my trek utility bike. i used the crank puller tool to remove the crankset so i could have a better look. turns out the problem has something to do with the bottom bracket, which is wobbly. that would also explain the grinding sound. i can also look inside and see metal parts that seem to be frayed. these bottom brackets are sealed, so the fact that i look see inside is not a good thing. fortunately i replaced the bottom bracket back in july 2024, so i have some firsthand experience. i went online and ordered a new one, should be here by friday. hopefully i'll have time saturday after work to fix it.

while i was out, i also adjusted the balance of the front brake pads, and replaced a torn p-clamp that was holding the rear baskets in place.

my laundry was done drying. i folded my clothes and put the sheets back onto the bed, including the duvet cover for my winter comforter (probably should put that away in storage, don't need during the summer) and the pillow cases. i'm going to have a good sleep tonight on freshly washed sheets.

i can't resist a bargain: so tonight i was searching amazon prime for anything that looked good. i ended up getting a 50ft garden hose and some ice machine descaling tablets for the cafe. i was also looking at new sneakers, but all the ones i saw were thick cloud foam soles and i think they look ugly. the nikes i have now will do for the time being.

i took one final shower, a more thorough wash including my hair. for dinner i had more fried chicken (drumstick, wing, thigh - no breasts). when 9pm came across i watched the group A matches: south africa vs south korea (1-0), czechia vs mexico (0-3). both games were played in mexico. the mexican fans watching the africa-korea game were cheering when mexico scored a goal. mexican fans were also rooting for south korea - kpop is really big in mexico apparently. unfortunately south korea seemed listless. whenever they got close enough to the goal to attack, they just fell apart. nevertheless, because they have 3 match points, there might be a chance they advance as one of the 3rd place teams. but with a performance like that - against a south african team that lost their first match and tied their second - south korea will probably get eliminated sooner than later.

in the late evening i ran fan mode on my inverter AC. i thought it'd just blow air from the outside into the house, but i think it was actually just recirculating the indoor air, because my room temperature didn't change (77 degrees) while it was 67 degrees outside.

i took the trek allant to work today. it's really nice riding a bike where the gears work and there isn't weird creaking sounds. i also like the lighter frame and bigger wheels, feels like i'm going faster. the folded rear baskets didn't hit the heel of my shoes like it does on my modified ross road bike.

the wait continues: the passion vine buds still haven't flowered yet. it continues to produce new buds on fresh vines. when and if it does flower, it'll be quite spectacular. i'm imagining people parked at the intersection amazed by our flower display.

because we sold all the noodles and dumplings on saturday, i had to make new batches today: 4 servings of dumplings, 2 batches of black soy noodles. only when that was done was i able to go to trader joe's on a supply run. it'd also be my first time testing out the rear baskets.

after i paid for my things, i went outside to load the rear baskets. one of them opened up easily, while the other one was firmly stuck. it took several minutes before i was finally able to pry apart the rusted metal clip holding the folding basket together. each basket can hold a single grocery bag worth of food. some of the more delicate items - like bananas - i put in my messenger bag.

the loaded up baskets felt good in that i couldn't hear them or notice they were there. compared to my plastic folding rear basket on my velotric ebike which rattles incessantly when i ride. the baskets wouldn't fit a 12-case box of beverages, but i could always strap it across the rear rack and hold it in place with bungie netting.

when i got back to the cafe, i took some 3-in-1 oil and dribbled it inside the rear basket hinges to loosen them up.

a father (italian?) came to the cafe with his young daughter, asking my mother if she teaches any knit/crochet classes. the little girl - who had piercing pale green eyes - said she already she knew how to do some stuff. not sure what my mother said, but i told the father that there's a knitting circle every tuesday night (tonight) at the nearby library he can check out to see if they offer any courses.

it's amazon prime days! however with the gloomy economy (shrinkflation, rising oil prices, ongoing iranian war, inept federal administration, etc.) i'm not in the mood for any buying spree. i did see a sale on a 100W solar panel for only $38. i told my father about it and we ordered one.

in the late morning i made a new batch of boba pearls. we got busy around lunchtime, but business quickly disappeared by 1pm. from that point on, every hour it got progressively busier, until we got another spike in the evening after 5pm. yes we had our share of online and delivery orders, but today there was also a lot of phone orders. i've made it very clear i don't like phone orders. besides taking up my time to write down the order, i also have to trust that the caller will show up and pay for the order. when they order online, i just get a ticket with everything listed. if they don't pick up the order i don't sweat it because i already got paid.

i had a zongzi for lunch in the early afternoon. our business neighbor jeana came by to pick up her fried rice. we showed up the passion flower vine, which she gave us the end of last year. she was amazed how well it was doing, and full of flower buds. she agreed it'll looking amazing once it blooms.

in the late afternoon i made a new batch of tea eggs. i'm not happy with the recipe. i think the tea flavor needs to be stronger. visit any taiwanese 7-11 convenience store and the first thing you smell is tea eggs. i want to recreate the scent. i used tea bags, but i want to try it with some loose tea.

what has now become a habit, we watch the world cup matches while we work. first game today was between portugal and uzbekistan at 1pm. portugal won 5-0. second game was between england and ghana played here at "boston" stadium (foxborough) at 4pm. the english team don't train in the US but rather back in england. they flew to boston last night. maybe it's this transatlantic commute that mucked up their mojo because they couldn't score against ghana. fortunately neither could ghana, and the game ended with a 0-0 draw.

there were bouts of rain all day, light drizzle, nothing serious. the sky was overcast all day. i actually left the cafe 10 minutes early to try and beat some rainstorms approaching the area. turns out it wasn't necessary, what little rain there was barely dampened my clothes. i brought out the trash cans, all of them full courtesy of jeff and his family staying here for the past week.

i came home with half a dozen oil rice zongzi and a steamer pot. i was preparing dinner a bit after 8pm when i noticed the sky outside through the blinds was a brilliant orange color. i couldn't resist so i went outside with a camera and caught the tail end of a brilliant sunset. i came back inside and cooked two zongzi.

after years of waking up early for my cafe shifts, i am now incapable of sleeping beyond 7:30am. every morning at 7:30am i will wake up, sometimes even earlier than that. it's as if my body knows i have to get up. to drive home the point, my bladder will also join in the fun by sending an urgent urge to pee. so i have no choice but to get out of bed. on weekends when i can afford to sleep a little late, it becomes a futile task.

i noticed it was usually quiet upstairs this morning, after two weeks of noises. i checked my webcam and sure enough, jeff and michelle grabbed an uber this morning, left with their suitcases, what i'm assuming home on the west coast. so it looks like i have the house to myself again.

procrastination is a great motivator. this morning i was supposed to work on my bike and do a bit of weeding around the house. i didn't want to do either of those things, so suddenly i had all this energy to do anything but. i ended up finally taking apart my grow closet and filling it back up with my storage bins which have been sitting in the guest bedroom since late march. i wonder if this was my final year of the grow closet. when i want to start seedlings next season, i'll probably do it at my parents' place, with their free solar electricity, i can run as many grow lights as i want.

in the basement, i attached the two folding rear bike baskets (wald 582 black) onto my trek allant using p-clamps. now all i need is some test rides to figure out exactly how much i can carry with those things. i installed a pair on my old ross road bike, but i rarely rode that bike, so never really used those baskets. the manufacturing specs says each basket can hold 2 bags of groceries (i doubt it, maybe a bag each), can hold 10-15 lbs. per basket. one test i always use is, "can it hold a 12-pack of soda?" the folding baskets don't pass this test, they're not long enough.

i did some weeding in the small garden in front of the house. i cleared up space so i could sprinkle some foxglove seeds. since it's going to rain later, it will water the seeds into the soil.

i finally left a bit after 11am. i was riding my fuji bike which does have any rear baskets so i had to carry everything including a large watermelon that i put inside a messenger bag. the bag kept hiding me in the stomach and leg, to the point where my leg started feeling numb.

i went to the cafe to get a few things for my mother (marinated pork chops, frozen wontons). i also took out some foods from the freezer to thaw in the fridge for tomorrow. despite the fact that it's going to rain later, the passion vine looked a little dry so i gave it some water. once again, it didn't flower today. a lot of flower buds, no blossoms.

i started riding but got as far as 2 blocks before i pulled over. for some reason the pedals wouldn't turn, like something was stuck. i wheeled the bike back to the cafe and flipped it upside down so i could fix it. at first i thought it was a gummed up rear derailleur, but the problem was actually the chain getting stuck between two front cogs. it was jammed pretty tightly, it actually ruined a screwdriver i tried to use to pry out the chain. finally a crescent wrench was the trick to get the chain loose. i continued to belmont.

when i got to my parents' place, i went out to the backyard to see what my father was doing. looking in the raised beds, i was shocked to see a bunch of swiss chards had been entirely defoliated, eaten down to the stems. did a rabbit manage to get inside the pen? how could this have happened? but then my father said my mother probably came out and harvested some chards. nobody told her you're supposed to cut no more than a third, so there's enough leaves left to continue growing so we can harvest the rest of the summer. i went inside to yell at my mother for killing our swiss chard plants.

i planted a single leftover kabocha squash in RB1, RB2, and RB4. i'm growing them as ground cover, with the hopes that maybe we'll get a squash or two. i still have a bunch of leftover orphaned seedlings and we're already a week away from july. i'm looking to plant them where ever, regardless if they'll do well, just so they don't die in their pots.

for lunch i had wonton soup. as soon as i finished eating, i went outside to mow the lawn. rain was expected in 30 minutes. the front lawn has turned mostly yellow and hasn't really grown much, but there's still patches of thick grass in the backyard that could use some mowing. my father mowed the front while i did the back. we felt rain drops but the drizzle didn't start until after we finished.

my sister showed up briefly with esmei in the afternoon. i let esmei outside to look for rabbits, her favorite pasttime even though she's never actually caught one. while my mother was the kitchen, i gave her a tiny piece of stevia leaf to sample. she was amazed how sweet it was.

since it was raining outside, there was nothing to do but stay indoors and watch world cup coverage. argentina beat austria 2-0. france beat iraq 3-0 after a long rain delay after halftime.

my father and i adjusted the hybrid hot water tank so it uses the heat pump to heat up the water. we did this because we noticed the basement was still humid - 60% - because the heat pump wasn't running long enough. now it'll run basically the whole day, cooling the basement and drawing out the moisture. activating the heat pump means more condensation. that means we'll need to install our condensate pump soon. to do that, we have to do some wiring to install a plug inside a nearby junction box. we opened it up today to try and figure out how to wire everything. my father also showed me a rheem leakguard shut-off valve that came with the hybrid heater but xiaowu forgot to install it. we don't really need it, but if he ever comes back to do any HVAC work, we'll ask him to install it.

we had breaded porkchop for dinner. my father also cooked the swiss chard my mother harvested. yesterday's chard was very crunchy and juicy; today's chard was overcooked so mushy with a stronger earthy beet flavor.

after dinner i went outside to collect half a dozen foxglove plants i plan on bringing back to cambridge so i can plant them around the house. earlier during the day i put my fuji bike in the back of the car. looking at the raised beds, i noticed a few long bean seedlings had been decapitated from RB0. now i'm starting to wonder if birds aren't the culprit. that's why we started putting mesh barriers on top of the seeds. once they get a few things, birds won't be tempted to eat them anymore.

my father gave me a ride home. i unloaded the foxgloves as well as the bike. i checked the gutters: the one on renee's side is still leaking, i don't think the gutter guys fixed it yet even though i thought they came by with ladders and caulking gun last week. it's not a big deal, but for $1600, we shouldn't expect them to keep on coming back.

this soft rain will continue until early tomorrow afternoon. i don't know how badly it'll be raining tomorrow morning when i go to the cafe. will i need my rain gear?

i went down to the basement this morning to try installing the collapsible rear baskets on my trek allent. looks like the rubberize 1/2" p-clamps will work. i wasn't able to tighten the screws (stainless steel #10-32 1/2" with stainless steel washer and locknut) because i didn't have the right tools, so i'll come back again tomorrow morning. there also seems to be enough clearance for me to attach another basket on the rear rack.

i stopped by the cafe to put away the tea eggs and leftover rice. i was disappointed that none of the passion vine flower buds have bloomed yet. i read last night that buds typically are 1-1/2" to 3" in length - the ones we have are the smaller end of that spectrum, so maybe they still need more growing.

my father was working in the backyard, fixing the broken trellises by RB4 and RB3. most of the long bean seeds i planted have sprouted. however, a handful of them seem to have been decapitated by chipmunks. i read that sprinkling cayenne pepper powder around the plants can deter chipmunks. we didn't have any cayenne powder, but we did have some korean gochugaru, which i took outside and sprinkled around the bean seedlings. gochugaru surprisingly is not as hot as cayenne: 4500 versus 30,000-50,000 scoville. i'm starting to wonder though if birds aren't the cause of the seedling damage, because i saw some birds hopping in the raised beds. we did put chicken wire on some of the seedlings. i also replanted a bunch more long bean seedlings. blue beans are slower to germinate (thankfully), but there were a few that had sprouted as well.

i had two oil rice zongzi for lunch.

back outside, we planted the trio of butterfly peas in a large plastic pot. i dug up some milkweed and transplanted them into a pot. i transplanted all the remaining stevia seedlings into larger pots. my father and i tried some stevia leaves - super sweet with a slight bitterness. we set up a third saw horse table in the middle of the lawn for potted flowering plants like jasmines and gardenia, so they don't interfere with our two main sawhorse tables which hold climbing plants like luffas, kabocha squashes, and bitter melons.

my mother was busy cleaning up the house for my taiwanese aunt visit during the 4th of july weekend in two weeks.

my sister showed up with esmei in the late afternoon. esmei ran around the backyard smelling everything, chasing phantom rabbits, and eating the grass. they left soon afterwards.

my father harvested some swiss chards for dinner. he used a hand pruner to cut the outer leaves, but i showed him the leaves are crisp enough that you can just break them off by hand. despite their rainbow colors, chards turn green once cooked. they're still delicious though, retaining their juicy crispiness. my mother made an eggplant stirfry and a smoked ham and hot pepper stirfry.

i rode the ebike back home. the all day rain event forecasted for tomorrow now looks like it won't begin until 1pm. and the inches of rain? less than half an inch at most. i think i'm going to take one of my smaller bikes to belmont and either leave it in the garage or bring it with me in the car when i get a ride home.

the first match of the day was between spain-saudi arabia. spain had a poor showing against cape verde in their first game, 0-0. today was different however, they trounced saudi arabia 4-0. second match was between belgium-iran. a boring affair, 0-0. despite belgium getting a red card late in the game, iran couldn't capitalize. third game uruguay-cape verde, 2-2 draw. the final game was between new zealand-egypt. i figured new zealand would win, wasn't expecting egypt to score 3 points. final score 1-3 egypt wins.

i had a simple saturday in that i didn't need to wake up early to do a haymarket supply run. i didn't get out of bed until 9am. i had an hour to get ready before i left the house. i rode the trek allant to the community garden to do some watering. all my plants still look good, no pest damage, no diseases.

i made it to the cafe by 10:30am. i was hoping to see some passion flower blooms, but the buds are still closed. maybe tomorrow will be the day, as they feel very swollen and ready to burst. the flowers should be big enough that i can spot them from the parking lot webcam. they would also draw the attention of passerbys.

i had an oil rice zongzi for breakfast. since yesterday wasn't too busy, we only cooked 4 cups of rice. that ended up being not enough, and we had to use up 5 containers of leftover rice. today ended up being the busiest day this week. it was just a constant stream of costumers, the only time we weren't too busy was around 2pm. we even got some scottish customers, having lunch before they left with their suitcases. i was curious if they were going home or heading to miami for the scotland-brazil match next week.

i came home after 4pm. i was trying to set up my thermacell mosquito repellent device so i could do some bike repair work outside but it turned out to be a hassle and i wasn't in the mood anyway. instead i spent some time in the basement fishing out the spare collapsible rear baskets. i want to attach them to my trek allant, but i'm trying to decide whether i should use hose clamps or rubber-coated p-clamps. i've used hose clamps the last time i installed these rear baskets, and they're super secure and reliable. i also found some mix-tapes i made when i was in high school. these were made the old-school way, cassette to cassette.

while i was at it, i moved my old sharp-brand air conditioner back into the basement now that i have a fancier hisense inverter air conditioner.

i came back inside and discovered a mosquito had bit me through my pants. how is that even possible? i took a shower and used the mosquito pen to neutralize some of the itching.

i settled down with some thai-style chicken feet and a can of unfiltered hard cider to watch the germany-ivory coast game. that match was starting to look like an upset when ivory coast scored first in the first half. germany managed to tie the game in the second half before scoring another goal in extra time to win the match. ivory coast can still advance if they win their next game.

i almost took a nap on the couch around 7pm but didn't. somebody was ringing my doorbell. when i peeked through the window, i saw it was renee. she probably wants me to water her garden while she goes on vacation. i decided not to answer the door. when i got up my body hurt all over, which is how i normally feel when i wake up in the morning.

i didn't have dinner until late, almost 10pm. i steamed 2 zongzi. i only cooked them for 10 minutes before i noticed a weird smell coming from the kitchen. the water in my makeshift steamer had completely dried up. that smell was some of the zongzi bamboo leaves getting scorched. the pot seemed okay, it must've just happened.

i waited until midnight to watch the japan-tunisia game. japan managed to score 2 goals in the first half, putting them in a good spot to win and advance in their group. (japan would later score 2 more goals, winning the game 4-0.)

i went to market basket this morning before work to get some pork butt for my mother's zongzi recipe. i also got some frozen strawberries and cilantro. i took my trek allant bike since my trek utility bike is temporarily out of commission. i used to think the allant was the best bike i had, now i think it's just an okay bike. for one thing, it doesn't have disc brakes. after getting used to the disc brakes on the ebike, i find rim brakes old-fashion and doesn't give me the same stopping power. the allant rides a little faster than my trek utility thanks to 700c wheels, but it still doesn't ride as fast as the velotric ebike. the allant also doesn't have any rear baskets, so i brought my large backpack to carry everything.

my father had some leftover indomethacin his doctor prescribed him for gout that he took last night. the swelling in his hand immediately subsided. the nurse who saw him yesterday prescribed him a combination of cephalexin and colchicine. after i finished making a batch of black soy noodles, i biked to atrius health to pick up the prescriptions after the pharmacy told him they were ready. it was actually pretty quick, i simply had to cut through cambridge common to get onto cambridge street.

cephalexin is an antibiotic to treat bacterial infections. it can't be taken with indomethacin since their interactions might cause kidney strain and stomach irritation. my father did take colchicine though, which has no interactions with either drugs. colchicine works by inhibiting white blood cells which in turn decreases their attacks on uric acid crystals. it has a weird dosage: two tablets initially (1.2mg), followed by another tablet (0.6mg) an hour later, then a dose everyday as needed.

my mother made ham-bone broth today along with daikon radishes. i had a bowl of soup in the late morning, along with some homemade sauerkraut, hot sauce, and cilantro. in the late afternoon i had another bowl of ham soup, this time with rice noodles.

we barely had any business today. i knew today was juneteenth, but i didn't realize it's now a federal holiday. that means no trash pickup, no school, no mail delivery. it would've been a good day to have off. we were busy the last juneteeth, but maybe because today was a friday, so folks took advantage of the long weekend opportunity to get away. however, we did have a few big orders today that saved us and we still managed to break the daily average profit. a taiwanese family originally from kaohsiung bought some bentos. later a kid came in and ordered 5 zhajiang noodles.

the lack of customers gave my mother plenty of time to make more zongzi. we went from barely having enough for ourselves (because a woman called late yesterday to order 10 zongzi) to having way too much. i told my mother we could always sell the surplus we can't eat ourselves, but she said nobody would want any zongzi after duanwu festival (which was today). she ended up making at least 60 more savory zongzi. most were the normal kind, but a select few were the oily rice variety, which took twice as long to make. we left them hanging in pots after work, to be stored away in the freezers tomorrow.

at 3pm there was a USA-australia game in seattle. US won 2-0, partly helped by an own-goal from an australian player. at 6pm there was a scotland-morocco game here in "boston" stadium. by the time we tuned it, morocco was already up by 1. i continued watching when i got back home. neither team scored anymore points, morocco won 0-1. 9pm was the brazil-haiti match. that morocco managed to draw with brazil 1-1 was a shock. brazil took it out on haiti, winning the game 3-0. haiti was also knocked out of the world cup with this loss. the remaining teams in group C - brazil, morocco, scotland - all have a chance to advance. scotland will need to beat brazil, a daunting task. brazil can advance either with a win or a draw. the same goes for morocco, they advance with a win or a draw.

i didn't have dinner until almost 10pm, when i steamed two zongzi in a makeshift steamer. i had some leftover blood oranges afterwards. i ran out of zongzi sauce, so i'm thinking about a quick chinatown/haymarket run tomorrow morning.

the crankset on my bike felt wobbly this morning. it either an easy fix - retightening the crank bolt - or a more complicated fix - replacing the crank since the square taper might be rounded out. i don't have time to diagnosis the problem until late saturday afternoon after work. it's not something i'm looking forward to because there's so many mosquitoes in the backyard. it'll give me a chance to test and see if my thermacell is still working. i might also have some mosquito coils as a backup.

my mother was at the cafe by herself this morning while my father went to the doctor to check on his swollen right hand. he took an x-ray but the hand doesn't seem to be broken. the doctor told him it's either gout (most likely) or lyme disease (not sure how he'd get a tick bite on his arm and not notice it). they did a blood test and will get back to him with the result.

i was still sending supporting documents to the city of cambridge in order to renew the food establishment permit for the cafe. today i uploaded our allergen awareness training certificate and a copy of the menu. however i didn't realize the permit had already been processed, just waiting for payment before printing out the permit.

it rained a little bit overnight and was supposed to rain intermittently throughout the day, that's why we didn't bother setting up the back deck. but it didn't rain until the evening, though it was very windy at times (kept blowing open the cafe door).

we were busy today from noontime all the way to 3pm, despite the threatening weather. i figured customers would stay away, so it was a surprise. in the mid-afternoon my mother cut up some more costco watermelon, which was very sweet (unlike the star market melon which was bland). we also cut up an easter ham that'd been thawing for a few days in the fridge. we actually wanted the bone to make delicious ham broth. the ham we cut up into cubes for our fried rice. i put them in the freezer to harden before putting them into containers.

we got a little busy again in the evening, but i was on my way out. the doppler radar showed a band of heavy rain approaching boston and i wanted to get home before i got stranded, so i left befor 6pm. i tried to tighten up crank bolt with an 8mm allen wrench but it didn't seem to fix the wobble nor the creaking sound. this may be the perfect time to upgrade by bike. i'm not sentimental, but mostly because i can probably strip a lot of the hardware and move it to a new bike.

there seemed to be plenty of daylight while i pedaled home. only when i looked back did i see the dark looming clouds behind me coming from the west. no sooner did i get home before it started raining. i was mesmerized by the storm and sat by the living room window with my camera, hoping to catch somebody getting caught in the downpour (makes for dramatic photos).

by 6:30pm the rain had diminished. out of curiosity i went outside to check the gutters. front and our alley side seemed okay, but the gutter on the neighbor's side was leaking and splashing like crazy. i'll need to send a video to paul so he can get the gutter guys to come by and fix it. it hasn't rained like this in a while, so it was refreshing to see. the plants will certainly appreciate this free watering.

i went to go take a shower. later for dinner i had some leftover scallion bread from last week, even though my mother gave me a few savory zongzi to eat. i spent the rest of the evening watching the mexico-south korean match. what seemed to be an exciting contest ended up being pretty boring, with mexico winning with a score of 1-0. south korea still has a chance to advance if they can beat south africa next wednesday. with two wins, mexico punched its ticket for the next round.

i turned on the dry mode on my inverter AC for a little while tonight, just to lessen the humidity. the hisense app told me i used 230Wh tonight for a runtime of 1 hour. during the storm, the rain beat noisily on the side of the air conditioner. no water got inside which is promising, means i installed the AC correctly.

i went to bed last night at 1am and woke up at 9am, got almost 8 hours of sleep. my plan today was to mosey down to chinatown to buy a few things, maybe take the motorcycle to belmont to do an overdue oil change, do some work in the community garden, maybe have time to get some bike maintenance done.

i didn't dally too much as i wanted to maximize my time so i left by 9:30am via ebike. there were other bike commuters. i purposely rode slow but whenever i got the chance, i'd overtake them (by riding out in the middle of the road) and speed along ahead.

my first stop in chinatown was sun wing LLC, a very much hidden asian market that sells mostly dried goods. i've been here once before when they first opened, out of curiosity; since then they'd greatly increased their stock. i came here to get the qu feng huo luo dan joint pain pills for my mother, who ate the last of her supply yesterday. here they sell them for $15 a bottle, which is probably as cheap as it gets. i bought two bottles. i searched for zongzi string and leaves but they didn't seem to carry them.

next i went to hong kong eatery just a block down the street. i got two boxes of thai-style chicken feet ($6/each) and half a braised duck ($20) for my mother. they packaged everything in a very fancy red customized hong kong eatery bag. i thought it was for free but later when i looked at my receipt they charged me an extra 25¢. had i known i would've used my own bag.

i went next door to top bread to get some pastries. next to that there used to be a chinese medicine store that went out of business during the pandemic. looks like it's going to be a hey tea store, i'm guessing a boba chain. out on the sidewalk was a vendor selling produce, haymarket style. i bought 4 long japanese eggplants for $2.

my final stop was ming's market, where i was buying the remaining items on my grocery list. unfortunately i seemed to have lost the list during transit, so i had to do everything by memory. i called my mother to see if she could give me some hints. she told me my father had terrible pain in his right hand and was all swollen and couldn't work.

later after i finished i found the list. i ended up getting pretty much everything (yellow daikon, squash seeds, bean sprouts, pad thai noodles, bokchoi, zongzi string, zongzi leaves) except for pickled ginger slices.

the phone call with my mother basically meant i needed to get to the cafe and help out since my father was out of commission. i then proceded to ride the nearly 6 miles to the cafe. at one point i was following a cyclist who cut into the bike lane in front of me. he was riding pretty fast - i was doing 20mph and he was still ahead of me. we must've traveled for 2 miles before he pulled over and started swearing. i sped past him, but i think he was angry that i was able to follow him no matter how fast he was going. when it comes to raw speed, a manual bike can't challenge an ebike.

i got to the cafe by 11:30am. i ended up working for nearly 4 hours. my father could hardly use his right hand. he took the orders, my 2nd aunt made the drinks, while my mother and i worked the kitchen. my mother was also making more zongzi so that used up a lot of her time. once more, we were exactly super busy, but just a slow and steady steam of customers. by day's end we made the daily average, not counting a big cash order that came in the morning before i arrived. my godmother showed up during our busiest stretch. she had time to pretend to make some zongzi before leaving with 2 dozen zongzi. every year i only eat about 2-3 zongzi since my mother gives the rest away so we never have enough for ourselves.

i finally made it back home by 3:15pm. i took a quick shower before eating some pastries for a late lunch. i went out to move my motorcycle and noticed somebody had left a note on the dash, "this is not a parking spot". i've lived in this neighborhood for 24 years, i've always parked there. i could very easily take up a whole parking spot, but out of consideration, i only take up a small space. i don't know who put the note there, but i know a few neighbors i can ask around.

at 4:30pm i headed to the community garden to water my plants. david was there, selfishly using two hoses to water his plot. my plants seemed fine for the most part, except the two grow bags with striped mallows seem a little wilty. my tomatoes have grown big enough that i can start pruning the suckers. my one kabocha squash has also flowered, though i think it's better to remove the flowers so it spends more of its energy growing leaves. i ended up staying in the garden and chatting with david for over an hour. we toured some of the the other plots. he told me molly left town for a month to take care of her sick father. he told me anne has back pains so won't be gardening for the second season in a row. we admired the one gardener who grows nothing but garlic in his plot. we admired another plot that seems to have a bunch of jungle plants. we went to the surplus garden material area and grabbed some tomato cages and plastic mesh. i didn't get back home until 5:50pm.

i wheeled the raleigh bicycle into the basement. i did some research, raleigh handlebars are not interchangeable with free spirit bikes. the only component that is cross-compatible are the sturmey archer 3-speed hubs. this raleigh has a front basket that has a handle so it looks like you could go shopping with it and then clip it onto the bicycle. unfortunately i couldn't figure out how to remove the basket.

the one big thing i wanted to take care of today was installing the new hisense inverter air conditioner. it was a little late so i figured i'd do it over the weekend, but i had a sudden burst of inspirational energy, and decided to go ahead and install the new AC.

i first uninstalled the old AC. i then took the new AC out of the box. comparing the AC's, they both have similar "back ends" but the hisense is way longer "front end" that sticks out. i adjusted the metal mounting plate so it was pitched slightly outwards, so when the AC accumulates water it can drain properly. once the mounting plate was installed, i put on the AC. it didn't have a satisfying click on when my father and i installed the midea inverter AC. the hisense AC basically just sits on top of the mount, and can still be moved around to make adjustments. i moved the AC so i could close the window at its midsection. i thought maybe you could still use the window with the AC installed: that's partially true in that since the AC sits on a mounting plate, you could open the window if you wanted, but there's not enough gap space for the screen window, only the main window. finally i installed the side curtains. the curtains are hollow, and they require thick foam boards to be cut to size in order to give them some volume. there were a few gaps where i could see outside, so i covered them up with blue tape.

i plugged in the hisense AC and turned it on. it gave out that fresh AC smell. today wasn't a hot day - temperature outside was 76 degrees - so i set the AC to 70 degrees. i tried to connect to the app - connectlife - it took a few tries before i got it to connect. it kept trying to sign me up for matter which was unsuccessful. when i returned to the app though, the air conditioner was already detected and connected. the usability isn't as polished as midea. i already knew about how there's only 3 buttons and a numbers display on the AC unit itself. you either have to use the remote to change the settings or the phone app. the remote has an LCD screen but it's unlit and hard to see. the buttons also aren't very responsive, occasionally i have to press more than once to register. you can also make changes with the app but the changes won't reflect on the remote LCD screen, which is disconcerting.

so one of the main reasons why i got this inverter AC is it uses less electricity. according to the app i only used 0.40kWh today. however my smart plug - which also has energy monitoring - said i used 0.52kWh. it could just be because the AC was already running before i established connection with the hisense app. i'll run it again over the next few days and check the app usage numbers with the smart plug numbers.

a second reason why i got the inverter AC is it can function as a dehumidifier. normal AC's naturally dehumidify when they're cooling. but a problem i have is sometimes it's not about the temperature; occasionally it gets a little soupy inside my house. if i can just lower the humidity, it'd feel a lot more comfortable. so that's what i did; instead of cooling (it was already cool inside the house), i set the AC to dry mode. it gently blew air around, and before too long, it started feeling comfortable as the humidity decreased. i also noticed the temperature dropped a few degrees as well, not sure if it's because of the fan circulating the air, or dehumidify function also lowers the temperature as a side effect.

the third reason i got the inverter AC is it's quiet. running on dry mode, i barely notice it. hard to say which unit is quieter - this hisense or my father's midea. i feel like we're only first at the forefront of the AC revolution. i predict all future AC's will be inverter models: uses less electricity, more functions, quieter.

one thing i worry about is the AC makes an easy entry point for home invading thieves, especially since i live on the first floor. i'm elevated, but a thief could simply climb on top of a garbage bin. the manual instructs you to screw the mounting bracket into place, but i don't know if you can safely drill into vinyl windows. i did find a window locking bracket i bought a while back and screwed it onto the window side. it kind of works, but if a thief simply pushed the window up with force, they could easily break the lock. in the past i've used thin pieces of wood jammed between the panes. i'll probably do that again, though it's going to be two long pieces of wood. i could also get a window alarm that plays a siren noise if the window gets opened.

another cool thing: eversource will give me a $40 rebate for installing an energy star air conditioner. that brings the price down from $240 to just $200. i don't think you can buy a regular 8000 BTU AC for that price, much less an inverter AC.

while installing the new AC, i must've let a mosquito inside the house. i couldn't see it, but it kept biting my legs. later on when i went to the bedroom, i saw it following me. i tried to kill it a few times, but each time i missed, like it has the ability to magically teleport away. this mosquito seemed to be very hungry as it was super persistent in trying to bite me. that ended up being it's downfall, as i waited in the kitchen with the lights on so i could see it. once i spotted it, i was finally able to smash it to death. i only grazed it though, never found the body, but there was a smeared mosquito leg on my palm.

after soaking my dirty cafe apron for about 2 hours in oxi-clean (the water was filthy brown), i did a load of laundry.

i wasn't too hungry tonight, so i just had some thai-flavored chicken feet for dinner, followed by a saturnine peach.

after making a batch of dumplings and black soy noodles this morning, i drove the car back to my place to drop off the hisense inverter air conditioner i bought yesterday. thankfully there was street cleaning, so i simply parked right in front of my house. i'll install it sometime tomorrow.

we were busy around noontime but not much profit since it was a lot of single orders. i made a total of 3 batches of black soy noodles. most popular items today were the salmon bento and pad thai. slow and steady was the order of the day, with pleasant 70's weather. we had customers throughout the whole day, and by day's end, we made more than our daily average, which is a win.

my mother made some zongzi today, to coincide with the duanwu festival which is this friday. she made a batch of sweet zongzi (with jujubes) and will make some savory zongzi tomorrow. she used to make a whole lot more that we well at the cafe but this year she's only making enough for us to eat.

at 3pm there was a france-senegal game. france dominated, with 2 goals from mbappe. senegal did score a goal in extra time, but france still won 3-1.

the passion flower is making a lot of new flower buds on new growth, but will they blossom? if not, we may seriously have to move the plant to a new sunnier location, since it only gets about half a day's worth of sunshine.

i came home with a leftover market basket sub for dinner. i was outside briefly chatting with my neighbor don (he's still a red sox watcher). when i finally came inside, i had three mosquito bites on my arms. i used my heated mosquito bite pen on the welts, it seemed to stop the itching.

i watched the argentina-algeria game that started at 9pm. argentina won 3-0, with messi scoring all three goals.

i showed up to belmont at 10am this morning for a waltham supply run. easiest trip in a while, just costco and market basket before returning to the cafe to drop off the supplies. costco wasn't too busy, neither was market basket. i got a new hisense inverter window conditioner. online it was $260 after an $80 instant rebate, but it was $20 cheaper in store, so i got it for $240. that's still pretty heavy, but not as heavy as the midea smart inverter air conditioner ($400) which weighs 57 lbs. they still have stocks of both models, but not as much a few weeks ago, before the heat wave, when there was a stack of air conditioners right when you came into the warehouse. checking out, a woman spilled a box of blueberries all over the floor.

after we finished with market basket, my mother and i went to the MB liquor store next door while my father went to load up the car. she was in search of zero gravity buck buck juice double IPA. they didn't have it. instead we got a case of modelo negra (munich dunkel-style lager). my father came in to join us. we also got a case of market basket branded zero gravity produced "more for your dollar" lager as well as a bottle of chinese baijiu.

coming back via route 95/2, we decided to stop at the fresh pond mall so my parents could deposit some money while i went to trader joe's to get some baby cucumbers and bananas. just as i walked in, a man dropped a container of blueberries all over the floor. one of the workers turned around to see the mess and let out a big sigh.

after dropping off the supplies at the cafe, we returned to belmont. i had some leftover jiucaihezi for lunch.

today wasn't as hot as yesterday, so we started our yard work earlier. we built 2 large bean trellis with the dozen wooden furring strips i bought a few months ago. they're not the best quality, half of them were warped. we used one to repair a broken trellis from last season, replaced the top beam. to build 2 trellises we needed 11 strips. the four legs are each 70 inches long, the top beam is 42 inches, while two leg braces are 44 inches. we used 3 inch deck screws to secure the top beam to the legs (the screws act as a hinge), and 1-1/4" screws to attach the leg braces at the bottom. it was a quick and dirty built, made more challenging by the fact that some of the strips don't line up properly due to warping.

we had enough bean trellises minus one, which my father will built using bamboo poles and some rope tying tricks he learned from tiktok videos. this bamboo trellis will be in RB4.

i tilled the soil in the raised beds, as well as pulling up any remaining plants, to make room for the beans. i then planted beans in RB0, RB1, RB2, and RB4. each raised beds had a combination of long beans and blue beans. the two tent trellises in RB4 will both have long beans, while the entire back trellis will just be blue beans.

for RB4, i used beans from an unknown vintage, most likely 2025. i don't think we collected too many beans last season because the year before (2024) we collected way too much. also we removed the protective cage fencing around the raised beds thinking it was now safe from rabbits, but they came and ate up all the bean stalks, so all the pods we were hoping to collect withered on the vines. i can't vouch for the viability of this unknown vintage seeds, so that's why i only planted them in RB4. all the other raised beds i used 2024 blue beans (excellent quality, just 2 seasons old) and 2022 long beans (also good quality, but 6 seasons old).

is it late to be planting beans mid-june? yes, but compared to last season, we're only a week behind (last summer (2025) we didn't fully plant everything until june 9th). the year before that (2024), our big planting day was may 27th. there's no definite date. some seasons - like this year - we had a really cold spring and i didn't want to plant anything until it warmed up (that's my excuse at least). it also depends on when my indoor seedlings reach maturity. this year and last year i started them too late, so even if i wanted to plant early, i didn't have anything yet.

my father watered after i planted. a few of the other seedlings i planted on thursday have died. one of the eggplants, a handful of peppers, including the only surviving corkscrew pepper seedling i had this season. it was a combination of searing heat plus chipmunks. too late this season, but next year i want to get some squirrel mace, which i read is also effective on chipmunks. i'm not too sad about it, i grew extra seedlings exactly for this reason, knowing that some of them will die from either weather or critters.

all my okras (9) have survived. okra leaves are weird, they remind me of maple leaves. the swiss chards are also doing very well. chimpunks/squirrels don't seem to bother with them, despite the big juicy leaves. some of leaves are ready for harvesting.

my sister showed up with esmei again. she said esmei got a piece of glass in her tail. it took forever to wrangle her dog, who didn't want anyone touching her tail. not sure what my sister will decided to do. she took esmei to the emergency room last time for an ear infection that turned out to be nothing. i think the visit alone was a few hundred dollars.

a bunch of world cups game today. cape verde drew spain to a standstill, the game ending with 0-0. it's not an upset, but definitely shocking for a spanish team that's favored to win this year along with france. in their same group saudi arabia and uruguay had a match. that game also ended up in a draw, 1-1. basically all the games today ended up draws: iran-new zealand 2-2, belgium-egypt 1-1. some marquee games happening tomorrow: france-senegal (3pm), iraq-norway (6pm), and argentina-algeria (9pm).

for dinner my made kimchi fried rice. i had a huge bowl that i couldn't really eat but managed to finish it all eventually. i tried the modelo negra which had a roasted taste that's not my style. the market basket lager tasted like a light beer. we also opened up a vintage brand soda i bought from a chinese supermarket. it tasted like a quirky root beer. my father liked it so much he finished it after i just had one sip.

i got back home around 8:30pm. i attached my smart plug to my window AC and ran it for 2 hours. it was much cooler outside and i probably could've just opened a few windows to ventilate the house, but i wanted to see how much electricity the AC uses, so i can compare it with the new inverter AC. in just 2 hours, it used 0.5kWh. i set it to 75 degrees but i've never ran it long enough to see it reach that temperature. i got it down as far as 77 degrees before i turned it off. after a short while, the room temperature went up to 79 degrees.

while the AC was running in my house, i walked a few blocks down the street to check out a bike i saw somebody had left out on the curb. it was an old raleigh 3-speed. it was in fair condition, very dusty, with flat creaky wheels. i pushed it home. i don't plan on restoring the bike, i'm going to strip it for parts. i could use the 3-speed gearing on my red raleigh 3-speed, as well as the handlebar, which is still in pretty good condition. this bike also came with a front basket and a plushy saddle i might use to replacement my current trek utility bike saddle. something else to put on my long list of to-do items for wednesday.