i woke up with a dry throat, must've got my nose stuffed up and started breathing through my mouth while i was sleeping. the fatigue is mostly gone, but i still hav a cough which i control with cough drops.

it didn't seem like we were that busy today but our sales summary shows otherwise. we weren't so busy around lunchtime but got pretty busy in the early afternoon (1pm), then again in the early evening (5pm).

my father steamed the leftover corned beef we made from two weekends again and i made reuben sandwiches for everyone again. i still have two packages of corned beef, the next time i make it, hopefully it'll be with some fresh homemade sauerkraut.

a guy came in with a strange request: not sure how he heard about it, but someone (a contractor?) told him we had an old restaurant sign in the basement. he said he's a local signs collector and asked if we were willing to sell it. people come in all the time looking to buy the strangest things. ever once in a while we'll get a developer who wants to buy the property, but this was a first. we said it wasn't for sale and he asked if he could see it.

in the afternoon a mother came in with two young children. she's a regular, and always insists on moving the chairs and tables so everyone can face out when they eat. i always know it's hear because i hear the scraping of furniture legs on the wooden floors. after she left today, she left a complete mess. i don't understand how people can go out and doing something like this, like it's somehow okay, like it's our job to clean up after them. her two kids had the buns and it looked like they basically exploded their food all over the floor. my mother said one time they cam and spilled smoothie all over the floor and then left. next time she comes we're going to tell her we're out of certain foods that her children are more likely to make a mess of.

a lot of bento sales today, as well as a few individual tea eggs sale, depleted our tea egg supply. i counted 27 this morning, we were down to just 5 by the end of the day. i don't trust anyone else to make the tea eggs so it looks like tomorrow on my day off i'm still going to come in and prepare a new batch.

after i got home, i didn't do anything but lounge around on the couch and watch youtube videos while i ate some snacks. finally able to relax, my cough seemed to be getting worse as i didn't to suppress it like when i'm at work. after 2 hours i finally decided to make some dinner. i wanted something convenience and quick, so decided to go with luxury korean ramen. in hindsight i sort of regret the decision; maybe in my sick state my body is craving more nutritious fares, but the ramen tastes way too salty, i ate quickly just so i could be done with it.

i called doctor huang this morning to let him know i was cancelling my dentist appointment for tomorrow because i contracted a cold over the weekend. his wife answered, thanked me for letting them know. they leave for vacation next week and won't be back until 3 weeks later. hopefully by that time my cold is cured and i can get my chipped teeth fixed.

my parents were getting their biannual physical and i was waiting for them to finish so i could get a ride to belmont. i went to star market to get some lamb loin chops on sale ($7.99/lbs.). they only had one package, so i rang the buzzer for the butcher department and i asked the young man if they had any more. seems like he was cutting to order but it took him a while before he came back out with one new package of lamb chops.

instead of calling, my parents just showed up outside my place around 12:30pm. i quickly grabbed my things and we left for belmont. my mother made some weird noodles for lunch, with a combination of ham, eggs, and tomatoes.

the rest of the afternoon my father and i spent outside doing yard work. i dethatched the lawn in preparation for the crabgrass preventer. total was the perfect day to do that since a forecast of overnight rain will wash the herbicide into the soil. my father finished connecting all the rain barrels together. i raked some dead leaves and chopped off some migrating honeysuckle vines. after that we applied the crabgrass preventer granules with a drop spreader. a 10 lbs. bag supposedly can cover 5000 square feet; we used up the whole bag.

birds were clamoring the feeder today, but what caught my eye was a chipmunk gathering fallen seeds underneath. later in the yard i saw a new chipmunk hole. that's when i made the realization that when we had all those vegetables disappear last season - tomatoes, eggplants, even a few peppers - what i thought were squirrels (which had never been a problem) was most likely the work of chipmunks. so i've decided to kill them all using a bucket trap. it's not very humane but it's the only way i know to get rid of chipmunks from the yard.

we went back inside at 4pm, but i was still wasn't finished yet, as i went down to the basement to water the plants. i did a thorough soil drench last weekend and replaced all the yellow sticky traps. so imagine my shock when on some of those traps i saw a few hundred fungus gnats. my strategy of presoaking the water with Bti pellets just isn't working. anyway, i decided not to water this weekend, let the soil dry out a bit befor doing another drench next weekend. i did water the gardenia - giving it some fertilizer in the process. the yellowing leaves have stopped and i see fresh new leaves, but still no flower buds. i also watered the orchids. another orchid has flowered - the one with the spindly flower spike. it was a surprise, because the orchid next to it has much larger flower buds but still hasn't flowered yet.

we were grilling lamb loin chops for dinner. my father tested the grill earlier to make sure it was working. i took out the lamb and left it to defrost on a baking sheet. i sprinkled kosher salt onto both sides, and some garlic powder. before we took it out to grill, i also sprinkled cumin on both sides.

even though the grill did fire up earlier, there were still some issues. for one thing the thermometer wasn't working. fortunately we had a magnetic thermometer for the tent stove, plus we had our infrared thermometer. the other issue was one of the crossover tubes had completely fallen apart. i checked my records, and it seems like we buy replacement barbecue parts every 2 years. anyway, because one of the crossover tubes was damaged, one of the burners wouldn't ignite, so we were cooking for just 3 burners.

we tried a grilling technique where we only turned on two of the four burners, so one side was hot while the other side was warm. we cooked the lamb on the indirect side first, until it reached an internal temperature of 110°F. then we moved the lamb onto the hot half and grill each side for a few minutes so it has a nice sear and reach an internal temperature of 130°F. that's the idea anyway. unfortunately for some reason the grill couldn't get any hotter than 350°F. the indirect cooking side was only supposed to be 8 minutes, but we went 16 minutes. and the direct cooking side was 2 minutes per side, but we ended up going 4 minutes per side. the lamb was cooked, but more medium than medium-rare.

i ate 4 pieces of grilled lamb loin chops. i went a little heavy on the salt. the smaller pieces were saltier and more well done, while the thicker pieces were more medium-rare and less salty.

i got a ride home after dinner. we stopped at the cafe so i could take the trash out (recycle and compost). my mother gave me a covid test and that was the first thing i did when i got back. it showed negative, which disproved my mother's theory that i contracted the virus on my own and instead of the more logical choice that she gave me the cold.

i ordered some new crossover tubes for the barbecue, as well as a replacement thermometer. they should arrive on wednesday, i might go back to belmont to install them and do some more yard work.

my original plan was to ride to belmont this sunday morning, even after my mother called telling me my father could give me a ride because i had a cold. but then i thought about it - the weather wasn't too nice, barely in the 40's, with chances of showers - so i opted for the ride. we stopped briefly at the cafe so i could put away the tea eggs and freeze the leftover rice.

my mother made chicken noodle soup for lunch. i got a second pair of chopsticks so i wouldn't contaminate the food with my germs. i still had a cough (which i control through cough drops) and my body still aches. but the symptom i've never experienced before is chest congestion.

after lunch my father and i were out in the backyard pruning the maple tree. we pruned the half that faces the yard - the easy half. the other half faces the southwestern corner and harder to cut branches because it might crash into the fences or other trees and plants. we used all our tools: loppers, pruners, cordless pole saw, and corded electric chainsaw. we also removed a large split tree branch by chainsawing as much as we could before we used some rope to yank the rest down. we spent half the time cutting and the other half cleaning all the fallen branches. smaller branches we cut and places into garbage refuse bins, while longer larger branches we cut down to size and tied them up with twine.

i planted a handful of red eye daffodil bulbs that never germinated, as well as the two hyacinths. i put back the rain barrels and my father reconnected most of the downspouts and joined a few barrels, with the rest waiting to be connected. i fixed a loose picket on the western street-facing fence. rabbits were using it to get into the backyard, i nailed and screwed a replacement board. a rabbit was hiding in the backyard, it couldn't get out and i chased it around the yard before it escaped through a snap gap in the southwestern corner. the entire backyard is littered with rabbit droppings.

we went back inside by 4:30pm. i still had a cough and decided to try some japanese cold medicine my parents got on their recent trip. i google translated the ingredients: guaifenesin (6omg), dihydrocodeine phosphate (8mg), dl-methylephedrine hydrochloride (20mg), acetaminophen (basically tylenol, 300mg), chlorpheniramine maleate (2.5mg), riboflavin (vitamin B2 4mg), and anhydrous caffeine (25mg). i was reluctant to take any medication for my cold because i already taken more than half a dozen other prescription drugs for high blood pressure and cholesterol, but i figured it couldn't hurt.

my father tried to fix the broken electric kettle my sister's godmother brought over on friday. the contact switch at the bottom of the kettle seems to be broken. we found the replacement part online but it seems to be only available via russian aliexpress and they're out of stock. he tried to fix it by filing off some melted plastic, but sure if he succeeded.

my mother in a rare instance of cooking made fried rice for dinner. we ate early, my father able to drive me back home a bit after 6pm. it never did rain, despite the dreary day.

it's only 8pm but i'm going to go to bed early. i figured the more rest i can get, the better it'll be for my recovery.

i was just thinking the other day that i haven't been sick in a while. either i've just been really lucky at contracting viruses, or i have a pretty strong immune system. so of course after thinking like that, i finally get sick today. symptoms are a phlegmy cough, slight runny nose, chest congestion, stomach queasiness, and a general feeling of being run down, like my joints are achy and i don't have any energy. of course i know exactly how i contracted this virus: from my mother. she'd been cough all this week, and often times without covering up her mouth. i didn't think she was contagious because i'm been working with her all week and nobody has gotten sick - that is until today.

first thing i did when i got the cafe today was cook the rice (4 cups) and make some black soy noodles (2 batches). i also heated up the backup batch of tea eggs and made a new batch. even though i was busy, today was another slow day. i blame the weather: barely above freezing temperature, overcast, then transitioning to cold rain.

i made my 2nd aunt a small smoked sprat sandwich with some leftover ingredients. she ate it in her slow methodically way but said she liked it. my father made a batch of dumplings with what he thought was ground pork that turned out to be ground beef. we also divided up a batch of ramen noodle soup.

we were about to close when somebody called the cafe to make a chinese sausage bento order. i thought it was a random person but turns out to be a longtime customer (i didn't recognize the phone number nor the voice). that gave us just a little more profit to find not only the week but the month of march. next week is april.

it was misting by the time i left for home. even though it was wet, my pants barely got damp, and my rain jacket kept my upper body completely dry. i changed out of my work clothes and took a hot shower.

i watched 2 march madness basketball games: texas tech vs florida, and alabama vs duke. i reheated some pan-fried beef dumplings during the halftime of the duke game. i also opened up a bag of instant caesar salad (i added some more croutons, the ones it came with were crushed to bread crumbs). because of college basketball, i totally forgot there was a celtics game against the spurs today. fortunately boston won, 121-111. celtics is now just 4 games behind the cavaliers.

it didn't feel like it, but we made well above our daily profit average today, in this penultimate work day for the month of march. once again, it seems unlikely we'll be able to beat our profit for march of last year. we've been down every month 2025 compared to 2024. not sure the reason, maybe weather, maybe calendar quirks. i also kind of think that the fact that the little gift store next door is gone might also be a good reason with reduced foot traffic.

i helped my father deep fry two batches of salt & pepper chicken this morning. it was better to do it early and get it out of the way instead of waiting in the afternoon when we might be too tired to go through the hassle. besides, we barely had any S&P chicken left, so it was vital we fry some before it got busy. we closed the kitchen door this time so the fry oil smell won't permeate through the rest of the cafe. that seemed to work well, but our clothes smelled like oil for the rest of the day.

i had time today to do two recipes both involving a large bag of dill i bought from market basket on wednesday: a greek tzatziki dip and a smoked sprat sandwich.

i like tzatziki in that you have just a few simple ingredients but combined together to make something delicious. it also gives me a good reason to use dill, an herb i don't often get to use. cucumber, salt, greek yogurt, garlic, dill, and a dash of lemon juice - creates something pretty savory. sour, salty, with the garlic adding some spicy note, and the dill giving a subtle crunch (like chives). my aunt got to try some when she showed up in the afternoon, followed by my sister's godmother. she came with her broken electric kettle, which i helped her order from amazon just 2 years ago. it seemed to be leaking from the bottom which caused the plastic to melt. my father got it sort of working again, but it's too risky to continue using, so she ordered a new one (arriving tomorrow). my sister's godmother was also there as an emissary for my sister, who once again had an episode putting her on bad terms with everyone.

the second recipe i made was a smoked sprat sandwich. having recently discovered smoked sprats, i've wondered how people eat it besides just consuming it as-is from the jar/can. i watched a youtube video of man making smoked sprats, and he used the fish in a sandwich with sliced onions and dill. it looked delicious and i wanted to try it myself. the can of latvian smoked sprats i got from OSJL is belveder brand. there was three layers of sprats in the can, a surprisingly generous amount. i layered the sprats on some rye bread, followed by a layer of onion then dill. i added some capers to give it more salty flavor. it tasted pretty good, but the sprat was so oily, it soaked through the bottom layer of bread so it was a messy eat. i made two more sandwiches in the early evening (5:30pm) which became my dinner.

my mother cooked 5 cups of rice this morning, but by lunchtime we were running out so i cooked another 3 cups. that didn't seem like enough especially if we got busy in the evening, so in the late afternoon i cooked 4 more cups. we got some early evening orders but unfortunately none of them involved rice, so we had 4 leftover boxes by the end of the day. those will be our backup rice, in case we run out tomorrow.

i called doctor huang in the afternoon, scheduled an appointment next tuesday to fix my chipped lower front teeth. worst case scenario, he polishes the teeth so it's not as sharp. i'm hoping maybe he'll do some bonding, apply some resin to restore their natural shape.

a new avenue of pain has recently opened up. i noticed it yesterday: my left index finger (the one that was crushed in the garage store, and sort of aches like arthritis) now hurts when exposed to cold water. it's never been like this before, just a brand new way my body is reminding me of the passage of time.

i returned home. i thought there was a celtics game today but it's actually tomorrow night (i was checking online all day to see if jayson tatum would be playing, so far still unknown). i wasn't feeling hungry so i didn't have dinner tonight, besides the sprat sandwich i had earlier at the cafe.

i discovered a treasure trove of italian fumetti comics. they're a popular form of adult comics in the 60's and 70's that never really caught on here in the US (where comics were considered for children). the art is fantastic, from the garishly sleazy covers to the black & white art inside with a heavy emphasis on sex and violence. though originally italian, the ones i've found are the dutch-translated versions. i have no idea what i'm reading, but from the art i can sort of figure out the plot. there's wallestein het monster about a handsome playboy millionaire who metes out justice when he reveals himself actually to be a monster masking as a man. there's also playcolt, which follows the exploits of a debonair man-of-action who's a dead ringer for french actor alain delon (the character's name in the comic is even alain velon). once again, i don't understand the dutch translation, but i can sort of keep up with the gist from the art. what's interesting is the artist will often times draw real life celebrities as characters in the story. i saw one with frank sinatra and raquel welch, and another story featured lookalikes of aristotle onassis and jackie kennedy.

because i didn't go to sleep until 2am last night, i only got 6 hours of sleep. i didn't feel it at work today, but i'm feeling it now in the evening, as i begin to nod off while using the computer. i'm just going to make a quick post before getting ready for bed.

today was another slow day. seems like all our regulars customers ordered on tuesday and then never bothered to order again yesterday and today. i was still busy in the back kitchen, making a new batch of boba pearls and roasting some charsiu pork. for lunch i reheated the other half of the leftover steak & cheese sub. i heated it in the microwave this time instead of the air fryer. the bread came out soft instead of hard and crispy, and the steak & cheese filling was moist instead of dry. it tasted so much this time. we also tried the smoked oysters i got from OSJL. they were okay, but i thought i got mussels instead.

the contractors came back today after no-shows all this week. they installed a large grease trap in the basement. they happened to working downstairs when my father and sister had a screaming fight upstairs, probably scared them.

after work i came home with some meigancai on rice. i spent an hour decompressing before finally reheating the bento. afterwards i ate a white nectarine. my lower front teeth felt funny until i looked in the mirror and realized i chipped my teeth from biting into the hard pit. looks like i need to make another visit to doctor huang.

i biked down to the cafe this morning at 10am to borrow the car so i could do a supply run. yes, even on my one day off i'm still working.

dom's sausages (malden): this was my first stop. dom's is famous locally for its steak tips, and i've always wanted to stop by their deli store and get some sandwiches. it seems like a popular spot for firefighters, police, construction workers, and ambulance drivers. i got the italian sub ($11) and steak & cheese ($15).

malden 88 supermarket: since it was right next door, i decided to stop by and check out their prices on taiwanese cabbage. at $1.19/lbs., it was a little too pricey compared to chinatown. not wanting to leave empty-handed, i got some thai noodles and a box of chinese cough drops for my mother.

bianco & sons sausages (medford): this was the main reason why i made a supply run today, to stock up on chinese sausages. they only had one box in the fridge, i asked the cashier if they had any more. while we waited for them to restock, i asked the cashier if she liked credit card payment or cash. she said she didn't have a preference, but we did agree that the credit card companies make way too much money from all the transactions.

ocean state job lot (medford): on my way to aldi's, i paid OSJL a visit. i checked out their seed collection, which seemed to be a popular spot. i got some flower seeds and a packet of tomato seeds. i also checked out their canned fish selection. bought a UK smoked sprats, latvia smoked sprats, germany smoked herring, and chinese smoked oysters.

aldi's (medford): baby cucumbers ($1.69 bag, about 6 cucumbers), scallions (for myself, we have plenty at the cafe), and chicken drumsticks. aldi has a system where you insert a quarter to get a shopping cart. however when i went outside to return my cart, it didn't give me back my quarter.

home depot (somerville): this was my final stop. by then it was already 12:20pm. i came here to get some miraclo-gro potting mix on sale ($8/bag/25qt). costco has the better deal but they didn't carry any when my father and i went on monday. i ended up getting 4 bags, two for myself, two for belmont. home depot didn't have any plants yet, other than a few planted bulbs.

i didn't make it back to the cafe until 12:50pm. they were still busy, so i stuck around to help out my parents and my 2nd aunt. i also started a new batch of tea eggs after noticing the slow cooker only had 7 eggs left.

my mother saw me working and said if i was going to work today she was going to go home and rest as she was still coughing. i told her i'd leave after i finished making the tea eggs.

my parents already ate lunch but my 2nd aunt didn't so she grabbed half an italian sub. i had a bite myself, it was pretty good. it took my 2nd aunt a long time to finish her half, and afterwards she said she still prefers subway subs. as for me, i ate half of the steak & cheese. it was okay, but in hindsight i should've paid a few dollars more to get the steak tips sub.

i didn't leave the cafe until almost 3pm, biking back home. i didn't stick around too long though before i went out again, this time to market basket. here i got some eggs (2 18-packs, $6.49 each). i returned home for good by 3:30pm.

i gave myself an hour to unwind before embarking on my next endeavor: making some sauerkraut with the 2 heads of cabbage i bought last monday (st.patrick's day sale).

i had about 7 lbs. of cabbage, which was done to just 6 lbs. after i removed the core and peeled off some of the tough other leaves. it took me an hour to shred the two cabbages by hand. i did some math and 2% of 6 lbs. is 55g of salt. i used coarse kosher salt which isn't the best because the grains are very large, but once the cabbage started reducing, the liquids melted the salt anyway, so it still worked out.

i mixed the cabbage, left it to reduce for 10 minutes, before coming back and mixing again. i mixed a total of 3 times, to the point where i could pick up a clump of wet cabbage and squeeze out the liquid by hand. i added the garlic-mustard-caraway and mixed again. it smelled really good at that point.

i had those two 1.5L clamp jars which i was going to use, but i had so much shredded cabbage, it seemed impossible i could fit all of it in those two jars alone. so i found a third smaller clamp jar just in case. when i packed the sauerkraut into the jars, i made sure to press down firmly to really compact everything. like a magic trick, i managed to fit everything into just those two jars. i actually had a little bit of space left in the second jar.

i put the two jars in a lasagna dish, in case it starts to leak. the raw sauerkraut looks pretty green for now, but will turn pale once it matures. that means waiting 2-3 weeks before it's ready to eat. i'll probably give one jar to my sister, because she loves sauerkraut. i always tell her she can make her own but she prefers to buy the expensive fresh kind from the store. unfortunately my house now smells of cabbage juice.

a few things i didn't get to do today: i didn't go on a run like i did last wednesday, i didn't do any bike repairs, i wasn't able to make my jiuniang (fermented glutinous rice), and i didn't do any retroactive blog updating.

i finally used up that roll of toilet paper i got from the cafe back at the end of february when i ran out of my home supply. that was more than a month ago. i wasn't kidding when i said i go through about a roll of toiler paper per month. my secret is i've trained myself to poop when i wake up in the morning. afterwards i take a shower. when you do that, you don't need to use that much toilet paper.

speaking of the bathroom, i had quite a scare tonight. i took a poop before a shower (didn't shower last night), and when i turned around, the toilet bowl was splattered in blood. i didn't experience any discomfort, nor was my poop out of the ordinary. i kept trying to think if i ate anything to cause it, then i remembered i've been snacking on some utz red hot potato chips the past few days. it was just red food coloring.

for dinner i reheated the leftover pizza from yesterday, using the pan heating method where i first heat on medium to crisp up the crust, before adding some water and heating on low with the lid on to melt the cheese.

celtics played the suns tonight in another late (10pm) game. jayson tatum was out, recovering from his ankle sprain. he did some pregame warmups where he looked pretty mobile. he could've played if we really needed him, but better to rest him. everyone else played, and boston started with a double big line-up of porzingis and horford. celtics completely dominated game, the suns never led. at one point boston was up by 34 points. phoenix is at the bottom of the play-in window with a losing record. despite having durant and booker, they're just a bad team. celtics ended up winning, 132-102.

i had a feeling it was going to be a busy day when we started getting multiple delivery and online orders beginning in the early morning. i counted 14 tea eggs in the slow cooker, but by lunchtime we'd already used them all up while i started making a new batch. i cooked dumplings twice and made black soy noodles three times. i cooked 6 cups of rice this morning but that wasn't enough, so we used up 3 containers of leftover frozen rice, while i cooked 4 more cups in the backup rice cooker.

we sold a bit of everything today, but bento boxes were the most popular. we actually ran out of rice with 30 minutes still left in the day, as my father cooked 2 emergency cups. it was the first day since being back from vacation that my mother admitted we were pretty busy. i barely had any time to rest much less to eat, though i did steal a few minutes to eat half a leftover reuben sandwich from last night.

we used up so many tea eggs, i may have to come back tomorrow on my day off to start yet another batch. if i had to guess, i think we were so busy today because all the harvard students are back from their spring break, and likewise all the other schools (public, private) are done with their vacation week as well. it couldn't have been because of the weather: though the temperature was in the lower 50's, it was a cloudy day. we also got a bunch of ubereats delivery orders which i hate, because we make less on those since ubereats takes a 30% cut.

my mother has a hacking cough ever since she returned from vacation. today was the worst, i imagine it probably scared off some customers. it reminds me of last spring, when my parents came back from vacation, both of them were sick, my mother even had covid, yet my sister never bothered to help out at the cafe, and i was forced to work every day until i couldn't stand it anymore, and i'm still bearing the effects of what happened last year, when i went from working just twice a week to every day except for one.

i biked home after work. my rear 7-speed shifter is sort of working again after i sprayed the inside with 1-step cleaner/lubricant, but it still has a tendency to get stuck around gears 3-4. i need to rewatch a youtube video and do a rear shifting overhaul at some point (maybe tomorrow). i noticed something about 2 weeks ago: the police detail in front of senator warren's house appears to be gone. i wonder if this was a city decision or a federal one (maybe trump cut off her protection funds).

for dinner i threw a market basket supreme pizza into the oven. it was okay for this variety, but i kind of like the star market brand (signature) a little better. i only ate half (3 slices), leaving the rest for tomorrow. there was nothing good on television, so i watched the latest episode (4) of celtics city.

in the late evening i threw out the trash. i ended up tossing out about a third of the food in my freezer. some of the stuff has been in there for years (like frozen vegetables) and it's cheaper just to buy new stock instead of treating myself to freezer burnt foods. i also tossed out some frozen pozole and frozen leftover rice. my fridge could also use a spring cleaning (like my collection of expired salad dressings and oils) but i'll save that for some other time.

i woke up at 8:30am after checking the weather forecast and seeing that precipitation would be starting around 9am. it was still dry by the time i left for belmont around 9:10am, but after a few blocks, i started getting pelted with tiny ice pellets. there was no turning back as i pressed forward. by the time i made it to my parents' place, there was a light drizzle.

today was supply run monday. waltham was our destination, visiting costco and market basket. my mother decided she wasn't coming with us, but gave us a grocery list of things to buy. before we left, we put two corned beef in the slow cooker on high, planning on having some reuben sandwiches for dinner. having had some bad experiences with star market corned beef, i anxiously opened the packages. i was relieved to find no foul odors, both briskets smelled fresh.

we went to costco first. the rain must've kept a lot of people indoors because it was as empty as i've ever seen it. there was still a limit on egg, we grabbed 3 24-packs of organic brown eggs at 50¢/egg. these eggs are too good for making tea eggs, only for individual eating. i was hoping to score some potting soil, but all they had was raised bed garden soil (i still ended up getting two, to replenish my grow bags).

next we went to market basket. like costco, the place was empty as well. while my father waited for the butcher department to ground several packages of pork butts, i hit the various aisles collecting items from the shopping list. i got two 18-pack of eggs. the employee restocking the eggs said there wasn't a limit, but i didn't feel right getting more than two.

we left waltham by 11:30am. coming back via route 2, we stopped by the fresh pond trader joe's (TJ) so i could get some baby cucumbers. we get them here because they're the cheapest, but apparently not anymore, as regular baby cucumbers and organic ones were the same price ($2.99). TJ also selling potted gardenias again; i feel like people grow them as annuals and throw them out after they finish flowering, because to get them to rebloom again the following season is very difficult.

we got to the cafe by noontime. after unloading the supplies, we returned to belmont.

for lunch i had one of the leftover burger king chicken sandwiches from last night. we turned the slow cooker down to low. periodically i'd flip the corned beef to make sure they cooked evenly.

i went to the basement to water the plants. i did a total soil drench after leaving most of the plants to dry out last weekend. i also replaced all the yellow sticky traps. ever since i started watering the gardenia with acidic fertilizer, i haven't seen any new yellowing leaves. i pulled those off as they weren't going to turn green again. hopefully i see some flower buds soon. the one orchid with the large purple flower buds has dropped another bud. not sure why it hasn't done as well as the peach-colored orchids. maybe not enough light?

my father went to go take a nap while my mother continued watching her asian dramas on the imac. my mother had to tell my father to wake up around 6pm to carve up the corned beef. my father used the bazaar sauerkraut (which i found a little soft) on his sandwich while my mother and i used the sauerkraut i made from back in november (crispier but dry). the sandwiches were good, but it's good we only eat them once a year, because i could see us getting jaded with it.

i didn't leave until after 7pm, waiting for the rain to stop. i put on my rain pants anyway, just to keep my lower half dry from puddles. not only was it wet outside, but also cold with temperature in the upper 30's.

i got home by 7:30pm. after i took a shower, i waited for the celtics-kings game to start at 10pm. not sure if i'm going to watch the whole game, might have to go to bed early so i can wake up tomorrow for work.

even though i love to sleep, i woke up around 7am this morning and had to force myself to sleep another 2 hours. the scheduled heating finally roused me out of bed.

i left around 11am. it was cold this morning, temperature only in the upper 30's.i had to put on an extra wool layer for warmth. i stopped at the cafe to put away the tea eggs before continuing to belmont.

i found my father still asleep while my mother was wandering around the house. she made me some chicken noodle soup for lunch.

i was hoping to do some pruning today, but after my father got up briefly, he went back to bed. i decided to let him rest since he hadn't had a break since returning from vacation. it was cold and windy outside anyway, not the most pleasant day to be out despite the sunshine.

my sister stopped by briefly with esmei. i let her outside and we tossed a ball and a stick for a little bit before she got bored and went back inside.

i found myself watching some march madness college basketball on television. lounging on the zero gravity chair, i fell asleep.

in the early evening i ordered some takeout online from burger king. i got the el trio bundle, which was 3 whoppers, 3 chicken sandwiches, and 3 small fries for $27. the app told me my order was ready the moment i sent it in. i forgot that burger is fast food. if i had the choice, and health wasn't a consideration, i'd eat fast food every day. not only does it taste it, it's also prepared fast, and the cheapest compared to most other takeout options. so i guess it's a good thing that we only have a couple of fast food options close to my parents' place (burger king, domino's), otherwise we'd be ordering from them all the time. when i got there, my sandwiches were ready, they just needed to be bagged, along with the fries. when i returned to my parents' place, the fries were still hot but the sandwiches were barely warm.

i went home shortly after dinner, around 6pm. it was still light out so i didn't need my bike lights. i did turn on my led-reflective blue strip attached to my backpack. i started watching the blazers-celtics game as soon as i got home. boston was without a few of their starters: porzingis, holiday, brown. but that was still enough to beat portland, which is near the bottom of the western conference. cavaliers beat the jazz, so celtics didn't gain on them, still 5 games behind cleveland. the cavs would have to tank significantly for the celtics to catch them and gain the number 1 seed.

i started watching cleaner, which i read was like die hard but with daisy ridley. i was sold on that premise alone and managed to track down the movie. right from the beginning i didn't like it, her character saddled with an autistic brother whom she has to take care of.