i woke up at 9am this morning and decided there was enough time for me to take a quick trip to haymarket before going to work. this was something i toyed about yesterday, but figured it'd be too cold this morning. but i saw the temperature was 44 degrees and the sun was out, which inspired me to give it a try.

i didn't leave until 9:40am. with the ebike via cambridge street i got to haymarket in about 20 minutes. the last time i was here was exactly 5 months ago in november, when i came in search of cheap berries for my dehydrated fruit rollups. the place was buzzing with activity, helped in part by an influx of tourists here for the st.patrick's day parade (they're the ones wearing green). a lot of vendors were selling carambola and right now is orange season so there were various citrus (though no gold nuggets yet). my haul: 8 carambola ($4), 15 large mandarin oranges ($5), 2 bags of cotton candy grapes ($3), 6 sumo oranges ($5), 2 sleeves of garlic ($4), 1 fyffes gold pineapple ($2), 1 box of cherry tomatoes ($1), 2 boxes of strawberries ($2).

returning home i went down boston's cambridge street to cross the longfellow bridge. not so much earlier, but it got really windy. so much so that the wind would push the bicycle sideways, the faster i went, the stronger the push. without the ebike, i would be struggling to ride against the wind. at one point i heard what sounded like somebody honking repeatedly behind me but when i turned around i saw nothing. i went directly to the cafe, skirting by harvard square. i didn't get there until 10:45am. my mother was there, my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt because she'd bought a bunch of stuff for us. when i rummaged through my grocery bags, i realized the box of cherry tomatoes was missing, must've popped out of my rear basket during the bumping ride. this happens fairly frequently to the point where i should secure a bungie netting over the cart to prevent things from flying out.

my father had vented out all the bottled makgeolli again, afraid of them exploding. i told him it wasn't necessary anymore since we put them in the fridge, the cold temperature greatly reducing fermentation. my father went home in the early afternoon, bringing with him a 1L bottle of makgeolli he was going to drop off at my aunt's place. we gave some makgeolli for my 2nd aunt to try, she loved it immediately.

we were busy for the first two hours today, with a smaller steady stream of customers the rest of the day. it was so busy that i ended up cooking 4 more cups of rice on top of the 6 cups my mother cooked this morning, but as soon as i did that, we hardly had anymore rice orders, more noodles. we made above our daily average, and was nearly the most profitable day this week, off by a tiny amount.

my heavy duty retractable hanging planter attachments arrived today. i got it for our cafe fern, which we take down every saturday to water, but it makes a big mess of dead fern leaves. it'd be better if we can just pull it down to water then push it back up afterwards. the hook attachment works and seems plenty strong (supposedly can hold 44 lbs) but the actual attachment points - small carabiners - aren't the right shape for our wall hook or the planter hook. i jerryrigged some keychains to hold everything in place for the time being, but we'll need to figure out a better solution.

my father showed up around closing time even though my mother told him she was going to walk home today. my 2nd aunt ended up walking home, and so did my mother. my father ended up taking home some trash and some foods. i went home with a frozen bag of dill dumplings.

when i came home i spent an hour writing the blog entry for last night. once that was finished, i played some cyberpunk until 8:30pm. i didn't realize in the black sapphire mission you can talk with lizzy wizzy after her performance and she'll gift you the crown she was wearing. i so badly wanted this crown that i ended up replaying 2 days worth of gigs just so i could redo the black sapphire mission. i didn't mind though, it's actually kind of fun trying out alternative solutions and hearing different dialogue.

i boiled 18 dumplings for dinner. i accidentally boiled a large pot of water when i only needed half.

i returned to cyberpunk and finally got the crown from lizzy wizzy. turns out it's pretty ugly and i'll probably never wear it, so it was all for naught.

i found myself dozing off again on the computer. i've been average 6 hours or less of sleep a night, it's taking a toll. i won't be able to get sleep late tonight, need to wake up early tomorrow for a supply run. this is a big one, taking us from everett (costco) to boston (foodpak, chinatown). we're doing it sunday because it's going to be rainy and windy on monday and i'll probably just stay home instead.

temperature this morning was in the 30's, with a high of lower 40's by the afternoon. my father deep fried a new batch of salt & pepper chicken this morning. we had to keep the back door open to ventilate the oil smell, so it was freezing in the kitchen until we finally finished frying.

my mother stewed some chicken soup. we added half a cup of pearl barley for texture. it turned out pretty well, good enough that it won my parents over and they were thinking up other dishes where they could add pearl barley.

your typical friday, busy around lunch time, not so much by early evening. it seemed to be making up for yesterday, when we only had a trickle of business. many of usual friday customers never showed up (old guy who always order two bentos by phone, the lady who doesn't want any pickled mustard greens with her bentos). my aunt cam around 12:30pm - had a bowl of wonton soup - but left once we started getting busy.

after 2pm, when things quieted down, was when we filtered out the makgeolli. it was still bubbling like crazy, as dissolved sweet rice grains floated up and down inside the jar. it felt warm inside the jar from all the fermentation, but we took a measurement and it was only 67 degrees about room temperature.

into a large stainless steel bowl we poured out the entire container of the makgeolli jar into a large nut milk bag (that we got a while back for making soy milk before we bought a soy milk machine that doesn't require manual filtering). i moved the bag into another bowl to wring out while my father poured the liquid into a glass swing-top bottle using a funnel.

we did a quick taste test to make sure the makgeolli hasn't gone bad. it tasted pretty good, a combination of slightly sour with sweet in a milky carbonated drink. it has a similar flavor to jiuniang (or any kind of rice wine for that matter), which isn't a surprise, since they're both made with sweet rice and share similar molds/bacteria/yeast. however we produced far more liquid with makgeolli than we normally make with jiuniang. there was also an unknown amount of alcohol because i was already feeling tipsy just after that one sip.

after passing the crucial taste test, we continued bottling up the rest. we ended up with about 5L worth of makgeolli: 2 glass wine bottles, 1L plastic bottle, and 4 16 oz. plastic bottles. my bare hands hurt a little bit from squeeze the nut milk bag: not sure if it's because of the sour flavor or because of the alcohol content.

we squeezed the nut milk bag until it was pretty much dry. out of curiosity i measured the left lees. there was about 2 lbs. worth from an initial 5 lbs. bag of sweet glutinous rice. so definitely something ate up a lot of the rice!

we poured a small cup of makgeolli for my mother. she loved it, kept going back for refills. we told her to take it easy because it has an unknown amount of alcohol, but she said she didn't taste any (mostly because the sweetness covers up the alcohol taste). she said it reminded her of the milky rice alcohol they have in rural taiwan, served in rustic bamboo containers. our makgeolli was such a success, i immediately thought about making another batch. my father found out that makgeolli tastes better when cold, whether that's refrigerated or on ice. that sweet and sour cold carbonation really hits the spot.

in the late afternoon my parents made some dill-flavored chinese dumplings. they planned on eating at the cafe after work, while i took home some leftovers (i'd get my share of frozen dumplings tomorrow).

we left the bottled makgeolli outside. my father had already noticed the plastic bottles were now solid, meaning there was a lot of trapped CO2 inside. we didn't think much of it at the time. one of the smaller 16 oz. plastic bottle couldn't stand up anymore, a defective bulge in the base my father said might've occurred when he used hot water to sanitize the inside. but a short time later i noticed the entire bottom of that bottle had bulged out. that's not a defect, the bottles were ready to burst! so we quickly vented all the bottles. it took a while, there was an insane amount of carbonation happening inside. each bottle had to be opened slowly, and quickly closed up if it looks like it might spurt out. the glass bottles were the scariest, because we couldn't tell how much pressure was building up inside. in the future, safer to go with plastic bottles. after releasing all that CO2, we finally put the bottled makgeolli into the fridge, to slow down the fermentation.

after we closed, i went home with my leftover bento and a small bottle of makgeolli. i didn't have dinner until 8:30pm.

after dinner i played some more cyberpunk. since it was saturday tomorrow and i didn't need to wake up early for work, i played until 12:30am. i played the black sapphire mission. it first involved sneaking into the building by diving underwater in a claustrophobic submerged urban environment laced with deadly mines. then i had to help reed get into the building by tracking his progression through a sniper rifle. i played that section twice because i failed the first time, alerting the guards and causing a big scene. in my second playthrough it happend again, so i figured this part was designed to fail. then there was the actual black sapphire party. it involved mingling with VIP guests: i saw mr.hands the fixer as well as maiko maeda (clouds manager, i thought i killed her but apparently she lives, though trying very hard to ignore me). i met up with songbird and discovered she's actually working in cahoots with kurt hansen, leader of dogtown and host of the party. that was followed by an amazing stage performance by fully-chromed musician lizzy wizzy. talking with reed, he figured out she was the one who crashed president myers plane into dogtown. next i played roulette with a pair of french netrunner twins, aurore and aymeric cassel. the objective wasn't to actually gamble, but to buy time to copy their personalities for a future mission. i was then confronted by kurt hansen who found out who i was and kicked both me and reed out of the party. escorted out by security, one of them got a little mouthy and started to attack us. that triggered an avalanche of more security attacks, until we finally busted out of the building.

i finished watching good luck, have fun, don't die last night. what an amazing movie, i loved it. had no idea where it was going, surprise every turn, funny as well. reminded me of so many other different movies: everything everywhere all at once (also another ridiculous title), terminator, time bandit (band of time traveling ruffians), twelve monkeys (going back in time and nobody believes you), brazil, pulp fiction (non-linear timeline).

i woke up this morning with very achy thighs but my legs were still working after a half-year run hiatus. i bumped into my upstairs neighbors while i was heading out, they were taking an uber to the airport, didn't tell me where, didn't tell me when they'd come back, paul just said he'd send me their schedule.

weather today was going to get weird. it was still 55 degrees this morning - relatively warm - but the temperature will drop throughout the day, the 40's by the afternoon, starting with some rain that will transition to snow in the early evening. nothing that's going to stick around, but it'll be quite the surprise when the temperature drops so quickly.

i showed up at the cafe with all the stuff i bought at market basket yesterday. first thing i did was to start a new batch of tea eggs. the makgeolli doesn't have 3 separate layers anymore, just a single mass of dissolved sweet rice. it looked to be over-fermented so my father and i were ready to filter it and extract the liquid. however when we opened the lid, it didn't smell sour like we'd had feared, but rather a sweet smell, kind of fruity, reminded me of apples. this is a good sign, so we decided to let it ferment for one more day, wait until tomorrow before we strain the liquid, when i'll be officially day 7.

our online order square tickets changed format just yesterday. it now includes a new recipient info block, which is just the customer's name repeated and their phone number. it's not really necessary since we can get the phone number from looking at the ordering app, plus it's a waste of print paper. i tried to find out how to change it but didn't get anywhere.

not sure what to expect for today, but it turned out to be a slow day. we got a small lunchtime bump and a small early bump, but it still wasn't enough to make our daily average. i blame the weather: we lose customers when the weather is too nice (like tuesday) and we lose customers when the weather is lousy (lke today). hopefully we'll make some profit back tomorrow, we have a few friday regulars, hopefully we can depend on them to show up.

my 2nd aunt showed up in the afternoon, specifically to talk with me about the replacement sofa recommendations i sent her via e-mail. she didn't realize she was supposed to click on the links. however for some reason the wayfair website seemed to be down, or at least we couldn't pull up any detailed pages on any of the sofas. my 2nd aunt was still able to decide on the serta 78" copenhagen instead of the perdue 81.5" velvet convertible couch. the cheapest option was brown at a little over $400, with a few color options we still weren't able to see. i almost bought it but my 2nd aunt didn't like the color. i told her we could wait until saturday, hopefully the wayfair website will be fixed by then. however i was searching elsewhere online and found the exact same couch on walmart in a dark grey (my 2nd aunt's preferred color choice) for about $100 less plus free shipping. so we ended up buying from walmart (too bad for wayfair). the sofa's due to arrive on tuesday.

my 2nd aunt also brought some hunter sausages she purchased at the russian supermarket on cambridge street in allston. she went home soon after i helped her order the new sofa, before the weather turned too cold. she was barely dressed for the cold, not realizing the dropping temperature. after she left, i air fried some hot italian sausages from market basket. i really love to make my own one of these days, maybe this will be the year. the sausages were okay, but i still prefer the italian with fennel or kielbasa.

still getting used to the time change. one side effect is the time seems to be so much later when it still feels early. so once again without realizing it, it was closing time. my mother made some wontons and my parents stayed to eat them. she packed me a dozen and half to go. it felt a little weird riding home when there was still daylight.

i put the wontons in the fridge while i went to go take a shower. i cooked them afterwards, mixing up a soup base of white ground pepper, salt, MSG, sesame oil, soy sauce, scallions, cilantro, and pickled radish. i scooped out the wontons once they finished cooking and poured some water into the bowl for the broth. i added some hot chili sauce. it was pretty good, but i wished i used a bigger bowl, as the wontons were too crowded.

i finished the talent academy gig in cyberpunk dog town. i didn't kill fiona vargas but i did get her to give me her client list so i could give it to mr.hands. not sure if fiona called it in, but after i left her office, i was confronted with a gang outside. it gave me a chance to use my new favorite weapon, the iconic double-barrel dezerter shotgun. it shoots explosive rounds that sets everything on fire, including myself. it's such a weird weapon, i'll have to do some more research on it. what's the point if i'm taking damage myself? but it seems to be very power, and loads quickly despite the chamber only holding two shots.

there was a celtics-thunders game at 9:30pm. boston was without tatum and white, but still managed to be competitive against the reigning champions. the game was decided in the final seconds with a score of 102-104 in another celtics loss. with that boston is now 4-1/2 games behind the pistons, when they were at 2-1/2 just a few days ago. boston has to watch out for the knicks which are just 1-1/2 games back, or cleveland, at 2-1/2 games.

i slept until 9:30am in the guest bedroom. it's my vacation bed, the one i use when i can afford to sleep late, when i won't be awaken by the morning sun, like it does in the main bedroom. the heat didn't kick in this morning, why should it? it was still 67 degrees inside my house, courtesy of yesterday's record warmth.

i had a morning appointment with my upstairs neighbors. neighbor singular since steve decided not to show and it was just paul and me at 10:30am. it was not warm this morning, temperature in the 50's, cool enough to warrant a jacket. we went around the outside of the house looking at things that needed fixing: alleyway, backdoor door, basement door, rotting shingles, and of course the leaking gutters. it actually wasn't too much, but i'm not going to celebrate until i see some prices and know how much it's going to cost me even after we split the amount.

it was a productive meeting though, and i got a piece of neighborhood gossip: the old lady who lives behind us - jane - she died last year (i didn't know this). her surviving children sold the house to a middle eastern man who bought it but has so far not moved in. paul was afraid he's a developer and looking to build a condo (currently it's a single family house), and might decide to cut down the massive oak tree in their backyard that provides us with welcomed shade during the hot summers. paul also told me jeff will once again move back in come may. he'll split his time between cambridge and san francisco because he wife michelle has cancer. i wonder if she had it last year when i had the barbecue, because she was very careful about not drinking anything with citrus, for fear it might affect her medication.

it was still 11am after our meeting was over, still time for me to go on my first run of 2026. but i had to use the bathroom, and find a cracked android app that can play spotify (spotif++), and one thing led to another so i decided to go after i had my lunch, after i watched a little bit of noontime news. i finished the last of yogurt mixed with some leftover expired granola.

i run with my wireless earbuds, but i wanted to try my hearing aids this time, which can stream audio via bluetooth. the quality isn't that great, but if i can kill two birds with one stone (hearing aids that also function as earbuds), it's worth a try. getting my resound vivia to play nice with my pixel 7 was a challenge. i connected the hearing aid to my phone, but only the left one worked. i had to repeatedly put the hearing aids back into the recharge cradle to reset it then make sure the hearing aid app was connecting to the devices before i can then connect it via bluetooth. sometimes it didn't work, sometimes only one connected, sometimes one of them would drop after being connected. only when i finally got it working did i finally leave by 1:20pm.

temperature outside was in the 50's, a little chilly but i warmed up after a few minutes of running. i wore my running shorts and a black turtleneck pullover. running also gives me a chance to catch some nature, but there was hardly any nature to be seen, still too early. of the flowers i saw, most of them were snowdrops. on one street i did spot some crocuses and aconites. daffodils and tulips are also emerging, possibly hyacinths as well, though none of flowers yet, just the tips.

i did my usual barely 2 miles route around the river. halfway through i took off my pullover because i was too hot. there weren't too many people on the trail this time of day, only a handful. the condo building on mt.auburn street that forced the months-long detour has finally been torn down, but construction vehicles were still busy raking through the mountain of debris. hoses continuously spray the area with water to keep the dust (asbestos) from spreading too much.

i made it back home by 2:30pm. a successful run, i didn't cramp up, still have my endurance despite having not run for nearly half a year. the big question is will i feel it tomorrow?

i took my first shower of the day, taking the opportunity to clean the shower curtains as well. with my near-sightedness, i can barely see, but i can still detect colors and shapes and can spot mold or discoloration.

i also did a load of laundry, got a chance to wash my wet bath towel.

with my hair still wet, i went outside again, this time to market basket to get a few things for the cafe and some snacks for myself. i was admiring all the st.patrick's day related foods, especially intrigued by the non-alcoholic guinness.

i couldn't wait to get back home, so i could get back to my cyberpunk. i played until 6:30pm, when the game crashed, which was my cue to stop and get some dinner. i warmed up a packet of bibigo spicy mushroom soup that we bought from costco. it's not bad, has actual non-dehydrated mushrooms and bean sprouts and leek in the soup. it's spicy but not overwhelmingly so, with a strong leek flavor. it'd be a nice base for a ramen. it seems so simple, it got my mind thinking how i could recreate it and be even tastier. i paired it with a jar of kimchi i bought. i haven't made kimchi in a while. i made so much at one point, nobody ate it, sat in the fridge until it turned to sludge. but i'm starting to get that craving again. store bought kimchi is okay, but homemade kimchi is way better, especially the way i make it, with something like a dozen ingredients. kimchi was my first foray into fermented foods. it's worth a revisit.

i played cyberpunk a bit more until 9pm. i finished the mission where i met angie the dog town leader of the animals. i ran 3 different action sequences, one where i agree to help angie for money, one where i kill her and her gang members, and finally one where i threaten her and she leaves the boxer guy alone (for now). i followed that with another mission where i infiltrate a child trafficking ring. i accidentally got spotted and triggered a whole building wide manhunt for me. i could've taken out everyone but decided to quit, come back another time and do it stealth style.

i noticed tonight that good luck, have fun, don't die is now available for streaming. i watched about 20 minutes of it, was already hooked. i knew from the moment i saw the trailer a month ago that i wanted to see this movie. i'm going to finish up for tonight and watch the rest from bed.

with temperature today soaring into the 70's, i was prepared for a very busy day at the cafe. ongoing road repairs on linnaean street made me take a short detour onto the sidewalk, which is something i can do on a bicycle. there was so much melting within the past few days that the sidewalk snow mound were completely gone, and i could lock my bike to my usual street sign again, something i haven't been able to do for weeks.

there was nothing to prepare, we were fully stocked today. i just had to cook up a new batch of dumplings and some black noodles. there was still a snow snowbank in the parking lot, so i went outside and shoveled some snow out onto the black asphalt to melt them faster. i went down to the basement to inspect the forced hyacinths. two of them had sprouted big enough to bring upstairs. i replaced one of the blue jacket bulbs because it hadn't been growing. after that i took a quick trip to trader joe's to get a few things (baby cucumbers, cilantro).

we then waited for the eventual rush of business. lunchtime came and there was little action. then early afternoon. still nothing. what happened? where were the customers? maybe the weather was too nice. my sister came and said the private school was having their spring vacation, but that wouldn't affect us that much.

in the afternoon i went outside to clear more snow from the snow bank. the snow i'd previously shoveled onto the parking lot surface had completely melted. my sister came back from walking emsei, who climbed onto the snow bank to cool off. with her winter coat still intact, this warm weather was too hot for her. she stayed on the snow bank while we all went back inside. later my sister came to retrieve her.

my sister took my father back to the car mechanic to pick up the honda he left there yesterday for an oil change. when he came back he brought the makgeolli.

my mother's ipad suddenly died. no matter what we did, we couldn't get it to boot up again. the screen seemed to be flashing (from black to near black), but no image. maybe the battery was dead, but i managed to connect it to the macbook pro, which meant the ipad was still working, just not the screen. this was an ipad air 3rd generation from 2019 (A2152) with a 10.5" retina display and A12 chip.

so i went online to find a replacement. a brand new 2025 ipad with A16 chip and 11 inch screen sells for $329 brand new. a brand new M4 chip ipad air sells for $559. a refurbished A14 chip ipad air 2020 10.9 inch goes for $274, but that's only a year older than the broken ipad air. a more recent refurbished M1 chip ipad air 2022 goes for $297. i ended up selecting the 2022 ipad air. no sooner did i make the order, i tried turning on the broken ipad air again, and this time it worked, sprung back to life, with 100% battery. so i quickly cancelled the order. there's a good chance the old ipad air will fail eventually, but it's working now.

today ended up beating the boston record for warmest day of the year, which was 71 degrees. not sure the exact number, but probably around 74 degrees and above. it definitely felt warm, almost summery.

with the day about the end, we were preparing to close up for the day. but in that final hour, we suddenly got busy. orders after orders, delivery, online, walk-ins. this was the rush that i thought would happen during lunchtime but was happening now. maybe the time change got everyone mixed up, and they forgot to eat - thinking it was still early - but realized by evening they were hungry, and suddenly everyone wanted to order.

closing time came as a surprise, it didn't feel that late. it was still daylight outside! we stuck around to clean up. my parents ate dinner at the cafe, while i made a reuben sandwich with the leftover ingredients to take home. now that most of the snow has melted, i went home via my usual shorter route, riding the wrong way down one way streets.

after a shower, i played some cyberpunk until 8pm before heating up the sandwich wrapped in tin foil for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. it didn't come out all that bad, the swiss cheese melted, and the sandwich was warm (i was ready to eat it cold). i went back to cyberpunk and played so long, i didn't have time to do a blog entry.

i woke up at 9:30am to run errands. i could've slept more though - my body still thinks it's 8:30am. i poured drain-o down the tub last night but it's still slow draining. with stubborn clogs drain-o alone won't work, you need to plunge as well. so during my shower i also worked two plungers - one for the drain and one for the overflow. i plunged the tub violently, splashing water everywhere, until i heard that satisfying gurgle and the drain cleared up, forming a whirlpool.

i was taking my trek utility bike to run errands but the chain was seriously rusted again. just spraying it with lubricant and cleaner will only work for short stretches, but i'm also hoping with more snow melt, all that road salt will be washed away. i sprayed the chain and gears with finish line and wiped it down.

the amount of snow melting is quite amazing. there's only a tiny amount of snow left in my alleyway, the rest of it has already melted. with temperature today expected to reach 68 degrees, i don't expect to see anymore snow in the alleyway when i get home.

first stop was walgreens to pick up a prescription. i then went to harvard vanguard to pick up a prescription for my mother. finally i rode to market basket to get a few things. milk and half & half for the cafe, plus some reuben sandwich ingredients (pickling spices, swiss cheese, rye bread).

i returned home and switched to my ebike before heading to the cafe to drop off the supplies and to take out some items to defrost in the fridge. i was running late today and didn't get to belmont until after 12:30pm. my father made an egg pancake with pork floss for lunch. i opened up one of the packaged corned beef and submerged it in the slow cooker on high heat. we stirred the makgeolli again, even though it didn't need it. the instructions said it only needs stirring for the first 2-3 days, today was day 4. we gave it a taste test, it still tasted sour, with just a hint of sweetness, no alcohol yet. now is the time where the yeast starts producing alcohol. later after it settled, there was definitely 3 distinctive layer: a bottom layer of rice sediment, a middle layer of slightly opaque liquid, and a larger top layer of floating rice. we can see bubbles in the topmost rice layer.

after lunch we went out for a walk. my father sent the car to the mechanic before joining us enroute. he ended up appearing behind us, as we traveled in opposite directions. it was warm enough that i only wore a t-shirt. we walked all the way to mt.auburn street and visited arax market. my mother got some ginger, some sugarbee apples, and some carambola. we kept walking until we winsor avenue before we walked up the hill back to belmont. we were only half done, as my mother wanted to see the witch hazel tree we saw yesterday. we walked down to oakley road, to the benton library, then saw the tree on preble gardens road. walking down old middlesex, a black cat without a collar started following us. it's own opened the door to call it back inside but it ignored her command and continued to follow us until payson park. my father was worried and thought about bringing the cat back to its owner, but the cat seemed like an outdoor cat, just as quickly cut through a neighbor's backyard to return home.

we got back home by 3pm. we ate some carambola (sweet and crispy) and a tin of nuts (mostly peanuts and some salty shelled sunflower seeds) from lebanon.

i went down to the basement to do another soil drench with gnatrol powder. to the 5 gallon bucket i added 3 tsp like last time. i made sure to soak every single potted plant, make sure i thoroughly saturate the soil. for the gardenia i made a special bucket of water mixed with a tsp of gnatrol and 1/2 tsp of miracle grow fertilizer for acid loving plants. now is the time to feed it with the hopes that it might produce at few flower buds at least. i had plenty left over, so i fertilized the osmanthus cuttings. every week another hot pepper plant dies, we're now up to 3, maybe 4 by next week. at this rate, definitely one will survive, and maybe a second plant, but all the rest have died. is it because i used crappy leftover soil? i'll need to retool my pepper winterizing strategy for next year. sort of baffled why it didn't do very well, when it survived most of the winter seemingly thriving.

i finished watering by 4:30pm and came back upstairs. my father made some pan-fried shrimps using some leftover frozen shrimps we needed to get rid of. they were really fishy, i only had two before i quit. with nothing much else going on, i was watching the news on television and fell asleep on the zero gravity chair right during a breaking news trump news conference where he was spewing lies about the iran war. i was too lazy to get up and find the remote to change the channel (or turn off the tv).

we didn't have dinner until around 6:30pm, fished out the corned beef from the slow cooker. while my father sliced the beef, i was in charge of toasting the rye bread with butter and melting some swiss cheese on it. we had some year old homemade sauerkraut in the fridge: the color was off but it still tasted sour and crispy. the reuben sandwiches were okay, could've used even more corned beef, but we have enough left over to make 3 more sandwiches.

i returned home after dinner. fumbling with my ebike in the dark, trying to push it through the backyard fence out onto the street, i managed to dump it for the very first dark. it was too dark to check for damaged, but i think the rear basket saved it from even more damage. two blocks away i noticed something weird with the bike: the control switches had been twisted on the handlebar so i could no longer see the buttons anymore. i stopped to twist it back before continuing. i got home by 8:20pm. by the clock it seemed late, but it still felt really early.

i took a leisurely shower, no longer having to worry about standing in a pool of dirty bath water. last night i also scrubbed clean the tub while waiting for the drain-o to work its magic. i still need to clean the shower curtains though, a lot of soap residue and pink soap scum. i'm going to check online to see how much it'd cost just to buy a new one though, i think around $20 (i checked: $20 exactly, purchased almost 3 years ago).

it was already well past 9pm by the time i settled down in my living room seat. i played an hour of cyberpunk, but stopped after it crashed on me during a car heist where i was both chased by police and gang members. i also reached my goal (which involved driving across night city out into the desert) before the crash.

my body feels a little achy. not sure whether it's because of all the walking i did yesterday and today, or maybe i'm coming down with something. my mother had another shingles outbreak this weekend, some blisters on the corner of her lips.

i didn't get up until 10:30am, which would've been still 9:30am a day ago. if i slept any more, my morning would be gone. temperature was already in the mid-50's. close to noontime, i packed up my things and pulled the ebike out from the basement. i noticed the snow banks in my alleyway were practically gone, will probably be completely gone by the end of the day. it was so surprisingly warm that i hesitated about even wearing a jacket, but i knew it'd be chilly coming back, so i wore one anyway. i stopped by the cafe briefly to put away the tea eggs, before continuing to belmont.

while my mother was making lunch, i refilled the birdfeeder and straightened the shepherd's poles. i also removed the battery on my ebike so i could recharge it with the anker power station. i also went down to the basement to check on the plants. i won't water until tomorrow, but there didn't seem to be too many fungus gnats on the yellow sticky traps. a thorough soil drench with concentrated Bti-infused water will further break the gnat life cycle. i set up the wifi thermometer in the basement next to the hybrid water heater so we can see how cold the basement gets.

my mother made jiuniang soup (using my birthday jiuniang which was very sweet) and radish cakes. she told me about the makgeolli, which she tried tasting a little bit yesterday and was very sweet. there was deep layer of liquid with the rice floating above. after my father mixed everything up with a sanitized spoon, he scooped out some rice to taste test. it wasn't so sweet, and there was a stronger sour note. plus the nuruk made from crushed wheat left solid bits on the disintegrating rice. later i found out he added two more cups of water because he thought the rice was too dry. i hope the water addition won't ruin the batch, as previously everything was carefully measured.

my mother and i went out for a walk at 1:30pm. my mother asked my father to come along as well - especially since they'll be doing a lot of walking when they're in turkey next month - but my father decided to stay home and sleep instead. we walked uphill towards watertown, ended up hitting oakley country club, before taking a detour that took us almost to cushing square, before turning back. temperature was in the upper 50's with a breeze, a light jacket was all that was needed, even though i went out in just a long-sleeved pullover. i saw some daffodils poking through the soil (just the green tips), but the only flowers i saw were some snowdrops. we also saw a large orange-colored witch hazel with fragrant blossoms. everywhere we could hear the sound of melting snow flushing into the storm drains, like babbling brooks.

we got back an hour later.

there was a celtics-cavaliers game which started at 1pm. i managed to watch the second half when we got back. tatum performed even better in his second outing, scored 20 points 3 rebounds and 2 assists. celtics won 109-98. the pistons continue to struggle, losing 4 games in a row. because of their loss to the heat, the celtics are now just 2-1/2 games back and could potential claim the first seed in the eastern conference.

for dinner my mother made egg salad while my father pan-seared some lamb loin chops. lamb tastes best grilled on the barbecue, but these weren't too bad either. my mother also made a seaweed meatball soup.

my sister showed up with esmei as i was about to leave. esmei had a wet dog smell after being out and playing with some other dogs. after she got some treats, my sister took her home.

i biked back to cambridge. after a shower, i poured some drain-o down the tub because it'd been slow draining for a few weeks now. i waited half an hour before pouring a pot of boiling water down the drain followed by a hot water rinse. the obstruction still isn't cleared, i might have to plunge it tomorrow, or pour down some drain-o.

temperature today will reach the 50's. so i did some shoveling this morning, threw some snow onto the street to help it melt faster. yes the snow will eventually melt on its own, but can't hurt to help it along.

before i left, i ran into my opposite door neighbor. he asked me to wait while he got something from inside his house. he took a photo of me with his phone during the last snowstorm while i was out shoveling and he managed to get it published when he sent it to the cambridge day newspaper. it didn't have my name and you really couldn't tell it was me anyway because you can't see my face, but nice to have a little claim to fame.

i went to star market in the morning before going to the cafe to see if they had any corned beef on sale. it's my st.patrick's day tradition. to my surprise, they had plenty of packages, so i grabbed two. price has gone up this year, it's now $1.99/lbs. for point cut (the fattier but more flavorful cut) which is still cheaper than what it normally costs ($7.99/lbs).

i thought i got there early, but my parents were already at the cafe by the time i arrived. they brought a box filled with my latest aliexpress purchases. it includes a plastic scraper i'm going to use to remove the pandemic-era "6-feet-apart" stickers on the cafe floors, and some new reflectors for my bike wheel.

my father left a short time later, he only came here to drop off my mother. because today was such a nice day (albeit grey, no sun), my mother was thinking about walking home after work, but told my father to come pick her up because she had things to take home.

we got busy today around noontime, and then it gradually tapered off, all the way until we closed. we had a big order this morning, a chinese man ordered a bunch of things including beef noodle soup. in the rush to fulfill the order, we forgot to add the container of chopped scallions and cilantro. so we decided in the future to add the scallions/cilantro directly to the noodles instead of having it be a separate container. this has happened a few times already.

i made one last prosciutto sandwich with the final piece of baguette and last remaining slices of prosciutto. i still have plenty of arugula left, a a bit of sliced mozzarella cheese. my 2nd aunt was laughing because the sandwich i made looked ridiculous - half a feet tall. but i managed to not only squeeze it down to size but finish the whole sandwich (along with a goya passion fruit juice box).

after coming home, i was out in the alleyway installing the new wheel reflectors. my old ones still work, but the little plastic "nut" that holds the reflector onto the spoke broken when i took them off. i only really bought the new reflectors for these missing pieces, but ended up installing the new reflectors because i had them. i also replaced my broken handlebar-mounted bottle cage. unfortunately the replacement one i got won't fit because the mount was too shallow and the M5 screw (which takes a 3mm hex wrench) can't hold the cage in place. it did fit the cage holder braces on my bike frame though. the solution is to get some shorter M5 screws, i'll need to do some measuring.

all the snow i shoveled out onto the street this morning had melted. so i went ahead and shoveled more, taking larger chunks out of a big pile at the end of the street, to create more room for a parking spot. i made a mess of the street - full of snow - but a few hours later when i looked outside, all that snow was gone.

i delved in cyberpunk for a few hours, starting at 6pm. i finished the panam side quests "queen of the highway", got to test drive a basilisk, then used the basilisk to shoot up a bunch of raffen raiders. i ended up passing out (due to the relic), got relocated to a new aldecaldos camp, and witnessed panam being made the new leader of her nomad gang. i also returned to dogtown, where i looted a few more drops and helped el capitan pilfer some more cars. equipped myself with two new weapons: the alabai power shotgun and the borzaya power sniper rifle. i ran into some trouble with some barghest, but gave me an opportunity to test out my new guns. barghest are no joke, they're mostly equipped with smart weapons. if i wasn't already such a high level character that i'm basically impervious, i wouldn't be able to take them on.

i finally stopped playing by 9pm to make some dinner. a few days ago i came home with leftover beef noodle soup, so i warmed that up on the stove while boiling some noodles. afterwards i was in a food coma.

there was a new episode of saturday night live with ryan gosling, out promoting his new film project hail mary. gosling seems incapable of not breaking character, and the cast finds gleeful satisfaction in making him break sketches after sketches.

tonight was also the start of daylight saving time - where we lose an hour of sleep (spring forward). at 2am all the clocks changed to 3am and that was my cue to go to bed. i watched two episodes of stumble before finally drifting off to sleep in the guest bedroom.

i decided to make korean makgeolli today, after researching and figuring out a recipe last night. first step was to soak 5 lbs. worth of long grain glutinous rice. a lot of recipes called for short grain glutinous rice, but i think they're practically the same. they say short grain makes a sweeter wine, but i've used both short and long grain glutinous rice in making jiuniang, and i've never noticed any difference. maybe the texture might be dissimilar, but the point of makgeolli is to extract the liquid, so texture doesn't matter. while soaking i also washed the rice, trying to get it so the water was clear, but after rinsing a few times, i didn't bother.

i also boiled 2 liter of water and allowed it to cool down. this would be water i add to the makgeolli. regular tap water has chloramine in it, so boiling it will hopefully cleanse the water.

the hyacinths i forced last thursday (2/26) continue to grow in the dark. the jan bos is getting so big it's probably time for it to move upstairs into the sun. the gypsy queen has also sprouted. the splendid cornellia and blue jacket are still waiting. it's growing roots so the bulbs aren't dead, but they're not growing as fast. i'll give it a little more time, if they don't show more progress, i might pick some new bulbs. as for the 2 hyacinth bulbs in forced on tuesday (3/3), they've started to sprout and forming some roots.

i had some seaweed and pork bone broth in the morning. i was so busy doing other things that the soup was cold by the time i was ready to eat so i warmed it up in the microwave.

watching the news, we saw oil prices steadily increasing because of trump's war against iran, which reminded us to get some more heating oil. i called fireman's fuel and the price per gallon is now at $4.49. i thought it was expensive last time, when it was around $3.60! we only got 100 gallons. oil prices will only increase. i actually welcome this news, because it means more people will consider getting an electric car versus a gasoline car.

around 11am - after the rice had been soaking for 1-1/2 hours - decided to steam them. steaming is the traditional way of preparing glutinous rice. however for my jiuniang recipe, i've just been cooking the glutinous rice in the pressure cooker. i could probably do the same with this batch, but since i had access to large steamers, i went the steaming route. after layering cheesecloth on the bottom of two steaming trays, i poured the drain glutinous rice into the trays. there was a lot of rice, and the layer was about 1-1/2 inches tall each. we made holes in the rice to allow steam to penetrate through, before stacking them onto the pot of boiling water. we steamed for 40 minutes total, rotating the trays after the 20 minute mark.

once the rice finished cooking, we inverted the trays into a large stainless steel bowl that i'd earlier sanitized with 70% alcohol. we removed the cheesecloth, then mixed the rice to cool it, creating a hole in the center (a donut). periodically i'd go back and stir up the rice. once the rice was cool enough to touch, i broke them apart by hand, to allow more air to penetrate, decreasing the cooling time. after about an hour, the rice was finally down to 75 degrees - cool enough to work with.

the ratio of makgeolli is this: 10:10:1. i had 5lbs. of sweet rice, which is 2.268kg. i add to that 2.268L of water. finally the fermentation activator - nuruk - i measured out 227g, or half the bag.

in the same mixing bowl that i used to cool the rice, i added the water. using my hands, mixed the two together, breaking apart any rice clumps. i then added the nuruk powder, mixing it thorough with the rice and water.

i bought my 5L fido jar this morning, but it seemed too small. it could fit the makgeolli mixture, but there would be zero head room for expansion. we also had a glass bottle that my grandfather used for making flavored wine. it's pretty large, and probably 6-7L in volume. but the vessel we ended up using was a large glass beverage dispenser with a spigot. it has a large 2 gallon capacity, which is 7.57L, the perfect size. i saw a video last night that said the proper volume is 3x the amount of rice used. since i'm using 2.27kg of rice, i should be using a container that's about 7L.

using a sanitized stainless steel ladle, i started scooping the makgeolli mixture into the large glass bottle. it fit perfectly, with just enough head room. we put a plastic wrap over the opening before lightly screwing on the lid. now we'll stir daily for the first few days, before leaving it alone. in the initial fermentation, mold converts the starch into sugar (requires oxygen). once enough sugar gets made, yeast will convert the sugar into alcohol (no oxygen needed).

we were busy today around lunchtime, but not so much after that. it was still the busiest day this week so far, with just saturday tomorrow left to go. my father made a mistake with a bento as my mother and i prepared a minced pork when the customer wanted salt & pepper chicken. so we made it again, and i had the leftover minced pork over rice for lunch. i sliced up some of the carambola i bought on wednesday; it had that carambola fragrance and crunchy texture but it wasn't very sweet.

at the end of the day my parents made jiucai hezi (韭菜盒子 chive box) for dinner. they ate at the cafe once we closed, while i took home a bunch. i loaded the makgeolli in a box and put it in the car for my father to take home.

i wasn't expecting it but there was a little drizzle when i biked home. actually, more like a mist, but it didn't seem all that foggy. i didn't get soaked but i did get a little damp, and the rain droplets on my glasses made it hard to see. i was also worried about potential black ice, but the temperature was still a few degrees above freezing.

i thought i had enough time to use the bathroom and shower before the game began. tonight marks the return of jayson tatum, in a home game against the dallas mavericks, and maine native cooper flagg's first time playing at the boston garden. however i found out the game was starting at 7pm, so after using the bathroom i parked myself in front of the television to watch tatum's comeback.

tatum was probably nervous and didn't score for much of the first half. his leg seemed okay though. he missed shots and had a failed monster dunk that missed the mark and hit the rim. besides nerves, he was also a little rusty, which is no surprise, since he hasn't played in a game in 10 months.

after the first quarter i went to the kitchen and grabbed the jiucai hezi. they were still warm so i didn't need to heat them up. i ate them with som hot bean paste sauce.

only in the final minutes before halftime did tatum finally score, a dunk and a three pointer. second half he played much better. he finished the game with 15 points 12 rebounds 7 assists and 1 steal. boston won the game 100-120.

frances sent me a cache of taiwanese food videos in the middle of the night. i didn't know it was her at the time, i just knew my phone was buzzing off the hook with notifications. i only peeked at it in the early morning when checking the time to see how much more sleep i had.

it took me a while to pack up all the thing i was bringing to the cafe, including some supplies i go from market basket yesterday (bananas, bean sprouts), plus all the ingredients for making prosciutto sandwiches. the forecast said today would be similar to tuesday's weather, sleeting by the evening commute, so i brought my rain pants just in case.

snow continues to melt. one weird side effect are the smells that get released, previously trapped in the ice. i noticed it last week on a day where there was significant melting. it smelled like baking bread, but with a slight acrid odor. i thought nothing of it at first, but read some local comments of other people noticing a strange smell in the air. today the odor was back. it's not everywhere, but most prevalent in the city, with a lot of car pollution. when i asked my parents if they smelled anything odd, they said no.

my sister's car was missing from the parking lot. turns out she took it to the dealership to get her windshield replaced. she came back with a loaner hybrid lexus. later she took esmei out in the car. esmei didn't seem to like the unfamiliar interior, especially since she couldn't lie down in the center console.

for an early afternoon lunch i made two prosciutto sandwiches. i reconstituted the baguette in the oven after rinsing it with cold water first. the ends were a little soggy, i think it works best if i wrap the bread up in tin foil before baking. my parents split one sandwich while i had a full one. prosciutto slices were thin, but i stacked them up to a dozen layer, which made them thick. i made sure to slather plenty of pesto and my mother suggested i add some onion slices as well.

good news of the day: kristi noem was fired as homeland security secretary. this doesn't undo all the damage she's done with her draconian immigration enforcement, but it's a start. next on the chopping block is probably labor secretary lori chavez-deremer, accused of everything from having an affair with a staff member, to abusing travel funds, to throwing herself a birthday party using federal money. her husband is also banned from the premises for allegations of sexual harassment.

i made a new batch of tea eggs while my father made a new batch of beef noodle soup (39 servings). it took just one dip in a large canning pot to reduce the temperature of the beef stock from 107 degrees to 74 degrees, using the pot-in-pot method and plenty of stirring to help cool down faster. 74 degrees was cool enough to begin portioning out before storing them away in the basement freezers.

today was a slow day after a pretty decent day yesterday. not much action during lunchtime, but we did have a spike after 5pm, when we got a sizable phone order and our old customer crystal came to eat with her brother. i lost track of time and didn't realize it was time to go home, thought i had another hour left.

i went home with a bento box of chicken stirfry my mother made. i also brought back some leftover beef noodle soup which i'll have for dinner tomorrow night.

the sleet that was forecasted for the evening commute was delayed, so i managed to get home dry. it did start raining afterwards though, and supposed to last until after tomorrow morning's commute. i was going to walk to the cafe, but i might risk riding the bike if the rain isn't too bad. i also need to pick up a prescription for my mother.

after i finished dinner, i played a few hours of cyberpunk. i finished the "with a little help from my friends" quest with panam. i also traveled to dogtown to meet the fixer mr. hands a the heavy hearts club. it's a weird location, the club has an egyptian theme, and all the employees wear egyptian-inspired uniforms. i then stole a car for el capitan, managed to get chased by police (2 stars) because earlier i was riding a motorcycle and smashed into a van at high speed killing both passengers, which triggered the police bulletin. i evaded them by hiding in the stolen car on a highway access road. unfortunately i was then pursued by gang members, which i had to dispatch by using cyberhacks to render their vehicles inoperative or target the gang members. i'm getting better and better at boosting vehicles, it's opened up a new avenue of game play.