i spent the entire day at home waiting for the snow that wouldn't come until the evening. i slept late, didn't get out of bed until 10:30am. i kept the house at 60 degrees but i didn't feel cold at all, dressed in my sweat pants, sweater, and slippers. i think maybe because it was so dry, plus the fact that the temperature outside was a balmy 40's. it was warm enough that i saw a lot of people jogging. i was briefly tempted to go running myself, but when i had my morning weigh-in, i'd lost 2 lbs. (thanks to my week long salad diet) so didn't feel the need to exercise. it was better to stay home. did i have an irrational urge to go to the supermarket and see if they have any bread or milk? maybe for milk (suddenly wanted cereal or hot chocolate), but i could wait until tomorrow when the super market will be sure to be empty.
for lunch i heated up some old frozen honey barbecue chicken fingers. they weren't that good, and ate them with 5-year expired blue cheese dressing. surprisingly, i didn't get sick. i spent much of the day drinking various teas, must've gone through 4-5 glasses, from jasmine, to bengal spice, to sleepytime vanilla. i gave my insulated thermos a real workout.
i also spent a good chunk of the day retroactively updating old blog posts and erasing their associated photo folders from my computer. not sure of my progress, but did free up 7GB worth of storage space.
in the afternoon my neighbors came back from where ever it was they went. at least i think it was them. they will occasionally let random friends stay over while they're gone without telling me. other than some initial stomping, they were mostly quiet the rest of the day. they too were probably waiting out the storm.
i finished watching the season finale of silo. i didn't like the second season, i hate watched most of it, occasionally fast forwarding the boring parts, which was many. but there were some good parts in the finale that didn't exactly salvage the season, but offered enough good will that i'll watch season 3 when it comes out. martha - who everyone thought betrayed mechanical - actually told them she was being watched through mechanical sign language, unbeknownst to bernard. and the scene where juliette finally escapes silo 17 and comes back to silo 18? cresting over the hill, as the rioting mob sees her on the screen and everyone stops to watch her come back? that was an awesome moment, gave me goosebumps.
the day was punctuated by two NFL games: rams-eagles at 3pm and ravens-bills at 6:30pm. i had no stakes in the first game. i was rooting for the rams because they seemed like the underdog and was a feel good story, being they're from los angeles and with the recent wildfire tragedies. but the eagles won it in the end, 22-28. it started snowing as the game began, the same snowstorm that would eventually come to new england.
it started to snow around 5pm, although by 3pm the sky was already getting dark.
the second game was more interesting. i was rooting for buffalo, but i also like baltimore. it was a close game, with the bills taking a 10-21 lead going into halftime, but then in the 3rd quarter they were held to zero points while the ravens scored 9. it was a close game, with an opportunity to go into overtime, but the ravens failed a 2-point conversion and the bills ate the clock. final score 25-27. bills face the chiefs in kansas city next sunday.
for dinner i heated up a stouffer's lasagna. post-pandemic, not only did their serving sizes decrease, but they also changed the recipe. their frozen lasagna used to be my favorite, but now instead of ground beef, they use chunks of sausage instead (or is it ham?) in a cost saving measure. it's not very good now and i don't think i'll buy them again. i of course have made my own lasagna in the past, but i've always found my own recipe too bland. could be time to try again though, i'll try to find a recipe i can improve upon.
the final snow forecast seems to be a late arriving system that started with rain before transitioning to snow, and moving fast enough across new england that instead of a blockbuster, we'll probably get about 6 inches here in the greater boston area. not a bad amount, but not like a blizzard where we measure accumulation in feet. the bigger issue is how everything will flash freeze afterwards. after i shovel my sidewalk tomorrow morning, i'd heading down to my parents' place to see if i can do anything about the snow on the solar panels. if we can't clear the panels tomorrow, most likely they'll be covered all next week as the temperature is going to drop significantly.
i went online last night looking for used acrylic panels. i figured post-pandemic, there'd be a lot of businesses trying to get rid of them. i started with craig's list, followed by facebook marketplace. didn't find the plexiglass i wanted, but marketplace showed me a t-fal deep fryer somebody was selling. it'd been posted for 3 weeks with no takers so the seller reduced the price from $50 to $30. the seller was located in newton, not too far from here. so i contacted them last night before bed, said i'd be available to pickup on sunday.
unable to repair the broken deep fryer, we ended up buying another t-fal EZ clean deep fryer ($125). we never gave up on the old broken one though. if we could only find the right replacement part, it'd be an easy fix. after some research, i discovered that some other brands of deep fryers use the same reset switch. if i could source a cheap (or free) deep fryer, i could swap out the reset switch. every few weeks the past few months i'd go online looking for cheap used deep fryers. the most promising possibility was a presto profry from a revere seller for just $15. it was missing the cord, but i just needed it for parts (specifically the reset switch). whether it'd work or not i wasn't 100% sure. but now that i might be able to buy a used t-fal deep fryer, that's an easier fix, i just have to swap ou the heating element. no messy disassembly, no fingers crossed hoping it'll work.
i woke up this morning and the seller had replied (at 6am), asking what time i could come on sunday. i asked if 11am was okay. she said yes and sent me her address. she also told me she'd leave the deep fryer outside on her porch and i could either venmo her the money or leave the cash inside her mailbox. upon further though, i asked if i could come pick it up today around 4:45pm, after i get out of work. she said sure. while on facebook marketplace, i saw another seller - this one in boston - selling a t-fal EZ clean for $60 (later it dropped down to $40). that one looked to be in better condition, but like i said, all i really wanted is the heating element, i have all the other parts already.
i walked down to the cafe since i'd be going with my father to newton and would get a ride back home afterwards. i got there early - around 10:25am - but my father was already there. my mother decided to stay home. my father was cutting up the pickled mustard and roasting some charsiu pork. i was out front mopping up the salt tracks from the floor (need to do it twice to completely get rid of the salt stains).
my father brought some more led light strips he found back at home, including a strand of white leds. the lights didn't seem very bright though. the controller was a little wonky, wasn't able to adjust the light intensity. the leds were also warm white, which looked a little too yellow, but still much better than the blue hue of the RGB leds. i much rather prefer a natural white color temperature. i did a test where i compared the different between led lights shining from the top of the acrylic panel and leds shining from the top and one side. i couldn't really tell the difference. i also drew a larger taiwan island using an ipad this time for tracing.
as soon as we opened at 11am we got an online order (almost didn't see it as we were both busy in the kitchen). perhaps it was a sign today would be busy. my 2nd aunt showed up right as we were preparing the order. when the customer arrived, she said she wanted to eat here instead, saving us some takeout containers.
it did not in fact get busy. after that first customer, we hardly had any business. seems like my mother picked the right day to take off. was it the weather? temperature today was in the 40's but overcast with rain falling around 3pm and into the evening. or maybe people were busy making snow preparations, mobbing super markets for the last carton of milk or loaf of bread.
my 2nd aunt brought some frozen mozzarella balls that we heated up in the air fryer. i watched a few episodes of cheers on pluto.tv. every once in a while i'd go down to the basement and admire our glowing plexiglass signage.
it started to get busy around the afternoon. we made okay profit give the slow start. saturdays can get pretty busy sometimes, but since the start of the new year, saturday business has been slow. harvard's spring semester doesn't begin until the 27th. we'll probably get busier once that happens, when the students come back.
my 2nd aunt actually left around 3pm, after she heard we were going to newton after work to pick up a used deep fryer. the original plan was to drop her off first, but she wanted to walk home for the exercise, and left early to beat the rain. we started cleaning half an hour before closing and thankfully no new customers showed up.
it was still a bit early to leave for newton (the scheduled time was 4:45pm). but i came up with a plan where we could get some subs from the watertown center subway (using a coupon so 3 subs for the price of one) before heading to newton. i made the order online using the subway after before we left the cafe. it was already raining at this point. by the time we got there the order was ready.
the seller lived in newtonville, which was just across the watertown border. newton is so huge, i'm still discovering parts of it that i never knew existed. we followed the google maps direction but it was a tricky route, and at one point we went off-course. not a problem since we had plenty of time to spare. when we arrived i spotted the deep fryer on the porch as promised. i was offended that the seller didn't want to meet face-to-face. they were taking all the risk, putting faith that i'm an honest person and would leave the money as promised. i stuffed $30 cash inside an envelope the seller provided for me in the mailbox.
we thought heading back would be easier, but it was just as tricky, and we almost got lost again. once we got our bearing, we made our way back to my parents' place without anymore issues. passing through watertown center, we saw some amazing animated tree light display. how they managed to wrap the trees and then synchronize the lights is nothing short of amazing. everyone should go and see it in person if they have the chance.
the deep fryer was a little dirty, like they never properly cleaned it. it didn't look like it was heavily used, but the knobs felt a little sticky. once we clean it up, it'll look and work like new again. too bad we had to take the heating element. that means we actually have three t-fal deep fryers. if somehow one day i can get my hands on a broken deep fryer and strip it for parts, i might be able to find a working thermal reset switch i can install into our third t-fal.
as for the subs, i got the chicken teriyaki for myself (that's my default subway sandwich), the club sandwich for my mother, and the philly cheesesteak for my father. given the price we paid we shouldn't be complaining, but the sandwiches seemed to be a lot of bread and vegetables and hardly any meat. the cheesesteak seemed the most worthwhile option, but even that one is not real shredded steak (more like gyro slices with barely melted cheese).
after we finished eating, my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. it was raining a bit heavier now. since it's snowing tomorrow, i've opted not to go to belmont tomorrow, wait until monday morning. my mother said she wanted to go to costco tomorrow before the snowstorm, i told her it's going to be crazy busy, she said she's willing to brave it.
watched the hawks-celtics game. what can i say? celtics lost 119-115. the game went into overtime. it was an exciting matchup, but the ending wasn't the one i'd hoped for. celtics go on a 4 game road trip starting with the warriors, followed by the clippers, lakers, and mavericks.
i logged into the tiktok website tonight, because i'd heard it was already down. there was just a message saying that tiktok wasn't available right now, and that "we are fortunate that president trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate tiktok once he takes office. please stay tuned!" trump was the one who originally wanted to ban tiktok in his first term, and now he's going to get credit for bringing it back? fortunately it's easy to circumvent the block with a VPN. i signed in from toronto and was able to see tiktok just fine.
my father returned to burlington this morning for a followup doctor's appointment regarding his prostate. my mother ended up walking to the cafe which took 40 minutes. i was the first to arrive. there was a dusting of snow overnight, most noticeable on cars and trash cans. my mother arrived at the cafe a few minutes after i did. "it's so warm!" she said, even though the temperature was in the 30's. my father showed up a few minutes later.
remember those paperwhites i started back in november? i've since lost interest after they finished blooming. i tried watering with diluted alcohol but they still all grew to full size with long stems that eventually toppled. originally i thought about saving the bulbs, but it's easier just to throw them out and grow new ones, since they're too delicate to be planted outside, and it'd take a few seasons of nurturing to get them robust enough to bloom again. it's kind of a shame, because the bulbs themselves still seem very healthy and plump. my next forced bulb project is waiting for those hyacinths and daffodils to have enough time to winterize in the garage before i take them out to sprout. i stored them exactly 2 months ago, so it's already been 8 weeks. i can probably start forcing them at the start of february.
before we started getting customers, i biked to the fresh pond whole foods to return my 2nd aunt's unused unopened ipad. i'd never returned anything there before. not sure if it's holiday season only, but they had a dedicated desk to process amazon returns. i felt a little weird giving them the ipad without a receipt, but soon afterwards i got a "return received" e-mail. i looked for bean sprouts but they didn't have any. i also checked out their smoked salmon selection on sale this week. they sell the same brand of smoked white fish salad i'd had before, except it sells for $4.99 at market basket while at whole foods it's $8.99. i felt very out of place being there, besides the fact that everything is more expensive. i kept thinking at any moment an employee would come up to me and say, "sir, you can't be in here, you have to leave now."
we found the spare clear acrylic panel in the basement. it has a dimension of 29x41" with a thickness of 3/8". my father took down the RGB light strip from the panel by the checkout desk so we could create a mockup of what a potential menu board might look like. we discovered that with only a strand of led light strip on top of the panel was enough to light the whole panel (no need to go all the way around). we tried various colors of neon pens. the lighter colors worked the best - white, yellow, green - while the darker colors were barely visible - blue and purple. i also found a cool technique where i could trace something on my phone (i used the silhouette of taiwan as an example) since the board is transparent. the panel itself has a lot of scratches - acrylic is notorious for accumulating scratch marks. it might be easier just to buy a new panel, but after checking the price - a panel of similar dimension and thickness costs hundreds of dollars - we decided it'd be cheaper to buff out the scratches. fortunately that's something very doable and we can get the board looking like new again with some elbow grease.
as we were starting to get busy, the light-up menu board mockup was taking too much space so i moved it to the basement. i kept it lit and would occasionally go down to the basement just to look at it. there's just something cool about glowing fluorescent writing on a clear board.
today was much like thursday and tuesday, just the right amount of busy. in the afternoon i brought up the deep fryer so my father could make a new batch of salt & pepper chicken. i also wanted to make some french fries. i cut up 8 spuds (small to medium size) into strips, didn't bother peeling them. i then boiled the raw fries in some salt water with a tablespoon of baking soda for about 5 minutes. parboiling makes the fries more moist and the baking soda draws out the starch for crispier fries. i drained the fried them placed them on two baking trays to let them dry out a bit. we then fried them in two batches, 7 minutes at 325°F, then 3 minutes at 375°F.
the final results (tossed with some salt) were probably the best fries you could ever possibly make at home, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. my father also cut up some sweet potatoes into strips, but he didn't boil them or did he double fry them, so they were a little on the soggy side.
my aunt showed up right when were were making the fries. she had a sausage bento for lunch then sampled some fries before leaving. she also saw esmei when my sister stopped by. my sister said esmei's favorite food is fries, so we gave her some, even though my sister didn't like the fact that they were salty.
the weather forecast for this weekend doesn't look promising. rain tomorrow, followed by snow sunday, then blistering cold conditions next week. i decided i wouldn't go to belmont tomorrow but go home after work. there's also a good chance i don't go to my parents' place on sunday, but stay home instead and wait for the snow to come in the afternoon. monday looks to be a busy day, with a supply run plus i need to clear the snow off the solar panels otherwise they'll freeze solid all next week.
back at home, it was the third and final night of chicken caesar salad. i put a cover on the pan when i heated up my shredded chicken, which kept them from drying up completely. the defending champions celtics were overdue for a dominating win after so many recent loses. tonight the magic came to town. boston beat them in their last meeting, but they were without banchero, who was back tonight. celtics led for much of the game. in the first half they were flirting with double digit leads, before the proverbial dam broke in the second half and they lead by as much as 27 points. celtics win 94-121.
i got a letter from france today. i thought it was from eliza (since she's the only person i know living there) but when i opened it up i was pleasantly surprised to find it was a postcard from drew. he spent the holidays in paris and elsewhere in france, finding time to send me a card.
i've been giving it a lot of thought and i think i made a mistake recommending my 2nd aunt to buy a new ipad. what she should've gotten instead was an android tablet. ipads are okay, but this exist inside of apple's walled garden, and as such, doesn't give you the sort of flexibility android can offer like manually installing your own apps. there are comparable samsung and google brand tablets that work just as well as the newest ipad.
i brought my set of dental picks. i got these a few years ago, figured i might need them one day, though at the time it seemed like a waste of money. but that day is today! i used one of the picks to pry inside the broken charge port on my 2nd aunt's old ipad. my intention was to maybe push in the prongs, or clear any obstructions, enough so that she can attach a cable to charge her ipad. i couldn't push in the prongs, but discovered i could pull them out. but the prongs seemed to be coming out, and i managed to extract them. that can't be good. but surprisingly, when i reinserted the apple lightning apple - i thought it'd be loose - it fit perfectly.
that made me super confused. how did that little piece of metal get inside the charge port anyway? it looked like a tiny staple. not sure who figured it out - either my father or mother - but one of them said the little metal piece was actually a part of the charging cable. i'd never seen this before, but a part of the cable actually fell off and got trapped inside the charge port, preventing a lightning cable to be inserted.
so the good news is we managed to fix my 2nd aunt's ipad. bad news is now she has no use for the new ipad that arrived last night, so we're returning it. i really wanted to try out the new 10th generation ipad! the one that's all screen (no home button) and now features a usb-c charging port. i went over to my sister's place close to noontime to retrieve the ipad that was sent to her house. esmei greeted me when i opened the door to the apartment, while my sister was still asleep.
my father - an avid tiktok user - made the switch to xiaohongshu ("little red book") after learning that tiktok will stop working in the US on sunday. he said it was just like tiktok. how long before xiaohongshu also get banned by the federal government?
it was a moderate level of busy today. i cooked 6 cups of rice, we used up most of it. it never got too crazy with customers, which is what we like. we made about as much as yesterday, and more than last thursday's profit. we're on course to match last january's earnings. bento boxes were the most popular item, minced pork the most popular of the choices.
there was a leftover chinese pastry (braided bread with bit of hot dog and scallions) from yesterday that i ate for lunch in the early afternoon. later my 2nd aunt showed up to retrieve her fixed ipad. she brought with her some subway sandwiches which she split with us. while eating, i saw news of david lynch's death. he's one of my favorite directors. kind of a polite weirdo, that was one of things i loved about him. dead at 78, an unrepentant smoker, it was emphysema that took his life, not a surprise. twin peaks, mulholland drive, dune, blue velvet, all my favorites. i have an original VHS recording of weekly twin peaks episodes when it first aired on ABC in the early 90's when i was still in high school.
my 2nd aunt brought her old lightning cable. that little piece of metal that was stuck inside the charging port fit the tip of her old cable perfectly. the case of the ipad that wouldn't accept any charging cable is officially solved. we ended up throwing away the old cable.
i saw esmei a few more times today: when my sister brought her to the cafe briefly. esmei demonstrated a new trick of alternating paw shakes before receiving a treat; i saw esmei again when she was in the back seat of the car after coming back from a walk. because i rarely give her any treats, she's learned to ignore me for the most part, focusing on my parents who constantly give her treats. i don't bribe dogs for their affection!
my father and i continued to think about the lighted clear acrylic glass display board. it could turn into something really cool. we first need to get some white led light strips. he already put out the smaller aliexpress acrylic board that i casually wrote some bento choices as a test. we also discovered that we can use a sliced up boba straw to either hold an led light strip in place or to use it as a shield to prevent light leaks from acrylic glass edges.
my 2nd stayed at the cafe to knit, before finally leaving around 5pm. our last customer came at 6pm, after he left, we started cleaning and getting ready to turn everything off.
i was in no hurry to eat dinner. i took a shower before finally moseying into the kitchen to make another chicken caesar salad. i mixed some pre-cooked shredded chicken in some olive, pepper, and salt, before pan-frying them so they were slightly brown. that made the chicken taste a bit better, but also made them tough like chicken jerky.
i woke up a bit before 8am to get ready for my 9am dental appointment in allston. it was another cold day but nothing like what it was last tuesday when i biked there. having survived that day, all other cold days seem warm by comparison. i still basically wore the same thing i did last time except i skipped the flannel pants and i wore my normal puffy black winter jacket instead of the columbia interchange. riding the bike, i warmed up underneath my clothes.
when i got there the language school adjoining their office had just opened as well. a collection of international students made their way inside. international kids always seem so cool. more stylish, more confident. i personally think language schools are kind of a scam, it's an excuse for them to party in the US on their student visa.
i had to get a new mold made of my upper teeth. the one made last week, doctor huang put in the wrong implant post, so that mold was no good. it went a lot smoother this time, mostly because he'd already loosened the crown on my last visit, so no hammers were necessary to remove it. he cast a new mold and even took an x-ray to confirm the type of post needed. i offered to pay for his time and extra material cost, but he said what i paid last time was already enough (he hadn't cashed the check yet). there were no other customers so we chatted a bit more. they told me about a patient of theirs that biked all he way from lexington to allston. he was a man in his 60's and used an electric bike. it probably wasn't a good experience because the next time he came he drove. i also told them about seeing them last year during the boston marathon. they said they live right next to heartbreak hill, so the marathon basically runs by their front steps.
i was out by 9:40am. i went to yi soon bakery to get a few things for my parents and 2nd aunt. coming back, i stopped at the brighton trader joe's to get some stuff for the cafe (like baby cucumbers and garlic). crossing the charles river, i noticed for the very first time that the river was partially frozen. even though they were far away, i spotted a few hooded mergansers with their unmistakeable plumage patterns. i wish i had my telephoto lens so i could take better photos.
cutting through harvard square, i made a detour to harvard vanguard to pick up a few prescriptions for my mother. apparently they also offer free prescription mail delivery, but when you order on the phone using their automated system, you need to speak with a live pharmacist afterwards to request this service each and every time. seems like a very inefficient way of requesting this convenience.
i made my way to the cafe around 11am. my 2nd aunt hadn't even shown up yet. a few orders came in and i started working just to help out even though technically it was my day off. my father and i tested the plastic divider shielding the cashier area from customers. was it acrylic or polycarbonate? we happened to have a short led strip which was thin enough to fit the edge of the plastic. the fact that it was able to light up the entire glass meant it was acrylic, which is what we wanted. the led strip was RGB only so it couldn't properly reproduce white light. the closest it got was blue, but it was proof that we could create a light board if we wanted, maybe use it to write our menu.
my 2nd aunt eventually showed up. she brought her 6th generation ipad, said her cord was broken, wouldn't charge anymore. we found her a replacement cable but when we tried to plug it in, it wouldn't fit inside the charging port. turns out the problem wasn't the cable but the port itself. the port's been so abused, the prongs inside that hold the charge cable in place have been mashed to smithereens, preventing the cable from inserting. it's a fix beyond our DIY expertise, as it requires desoldering. we told my 2nd aunt she could try taking her ipad to chinatown to find a repair place. my father suggested he could take it with them to taiwan to fix but that's not until the end of next month. after we checked online on the price of a new ipad ($299, 10th generation, circa 2022), my 2nd aunt decided to buy a new one. i ordered it for her on amazon, it's actually going to arrive later tonight.
i got back around noontime, ate a pork floss pastry for lunch. afterwards i biked to market basket to get some groceries. there was a sale on romaine lettuce so i decided to make chicken caesar salad for dinner the rest of the week. i had some shredded chicken in the freezer which i defrosted (from my spicy mexican chicken soup recipe a few months back). i'm overdue for some light meals, seems like every morning i'm getting heavier and heavier.
i spent the rest of the afternoon rewatching jett. it's a crime that this show only got one season, but what a glorious 9-episode season it was. jett is one of the coolest character to ever appear on the small screen. did carla gugino ever win any awards or receive any nominations for her performance? maybe one reason the show didn't get as much recognition is it premiered on the eve of the global pandemic. people had more pressing concerns.
i made my chicken caesar salad for dinner. i reheated some shredded chicken in the microwave. the hardest part of the recipe was chopping up the lettuce. added to that was the readymade caesar salad dressing, some shredded parmesan cheese, and croutons. the chicken itself was kind of bland, i might try to grill it in a pan next time for a bit more flavor. while eating my salad i realized my mistake: never have something cold to eat on a cold day. fortunately i had some hot tea to keep me warm.
celtics played the raptors tonight. boston's kind of in freefall right now, losing more games than they've won, to teams they should beat (on paper at least). seems like everyone brings their A game when they play the defending champions, and the celtics are not up to the task of defending that title. of course the raptors were highly motivated, having lost to boston in a 50+ points beatdown 2 weeks ago. this was their redemption game at home.
last night i started reading the ministry of time by kaliane bradley. it's received awards for being one of the best books of 2024. that there was a scifi premise - and time traveling to boot - intrigued me enough to find a copy. it's surprisingly funny. can't wait to go to bed tonight so i can read a few more chapters.
my father was busy all day preparing all the meats we got yesterday: cutting and seasoning the boneless chicken thighs; cutting the pork butts and marinating them for charsiu; cooking the ground pork for making both minced pork sauce and zhajiang noodle sauce. he also made a new batch of beef noodle soup with the beef shank he cut up into cubes last week. the pork butts we got from the chelsea market basket was one of the better cuts we've ever bought, with amazing marbling that makes them seem like more expensive cuts of meat. of all the market baskets, chelsea has the best meats, followed by waltham. somerville is last, but because it's the closest, sometimes we have no choice but to buy from there.
i tried out the illuminated clear dry erase board. when it's lit up it looks pretty cool. we used to have one for our sushi menu back when we used to sell sushi before we stopped because obtaining the necessary permit to sell any kind of raw food was too much of a hassle. anyway, the technology for that clear dry erase board was old, it probably used something like fluorescent bulbs to light up the glass. nowadays, with led light strips, it'd be easy to build our own.
my mother reheated yesterday's leftover beef stew for lunch. i had some with rice.
today was busy during lunch and not much after that. it gave my father time to do all his meat prep work. most of our online orders were old customers, there was only one or two names i didn't recognize. it's funny, i recognize all the names, and i remember their orders, but because i work in the back kitchen, i have no idea what these customers look like when they come and pick up their orders.
in bank info update news, grubhub finally updated our bank info. my sister told me last week. when i checked the payment info today, i noticed it was now the new bank account. ubereats takes the longest, they finally sent my sister a form essentially resubmitting all our financial credentials including tax id. why can't they more like square, where i just go to bank info in the app and easily update the bank routing and account number myself, no need to jump through all these hoops? but it looks like we may finally be able to consolidate all these delivery service payments into one bank account.
end of the day we were packaging: chicken and marinated pork into boxes to be frozen until we need them; zhajiang noodle sauce into pots to be frozen as well; and the beef noodle soup portioned into single serving containers, making sure each one has enough beef chunks and soup, then frozen until ready to serve. before we knew it, it was almost closing time. every time we make a new batch of beef noodle soup, i get to take home some leftovers.
i didn't have dinner until 8pm. i cooked some noodles and reheated the beef noodle soup. there was chunks of beef, plus an assortment of tendon and sinews and fatty bits, the parts we can't serve to customers, but the tastiest bits in my opinion. once again, it seemed like i had a huge bowl of beef with a little bit of noodles, given how much meat i had.
my father said he'd be here at 10:15am so of course he showed up 10 minutes early. we were making an everett-chelsea supply run today, my mother decided to stay home instead.
the everett restaurant depot was the first stop. the final few days of boneless chicken thighs on sale. we also tried looking for beef shanks but they've never once carried it at the everett location. out of curiosity i went to check out their egg prices. they were completely out of eggs again. there was another customer there equally confused by the lack of eggs.
next we went to the chelsea market basket just next door. we got some pork butts, got some grounded for making zhajiang and minced pork sauces. market basket seems to have better suppliers because unlike star market, they did have eggs, though a 6 carton limit. we also got some mussels on sale.
we came back on a straight shot through davis square. i caught a glimpse of the new h-mart as we drove by. we stopped at the cafe by noontime to unload the supplies before continuing to belmont.
my father cooked up the mussels for lunch. compared to clams, mussels are much better. cheaper, more plentiful, and no sand. plus they're pretty easy to prepare, the way we steam them with a garlic-butter-white wine sauce.
after lunch i ran some errands. i refilled the birdfeeder. i cleaned the chain on my motorcycle with a rag before spraying some chain wax chain lube.
finally i was in the basement watering the plants. the smallest potted orchid has opened up a blossom. i pruned off most of the new tendrils from the jasmines, leaving a few that i saw had flower buds. technically all the new growth should have flower buds, but many of them are just growing then long with no flowers.
my final batch of aliexpress purchases finally arrived in the early evening. it included a stove fan that automatically runs when placed on top of anything hot. we tried it on our actual kitchen stove top (though we plan on using it eventually on our outdoor tent stove). it didn't seem to do anything at first, but once i manually turned the fan, that seemed to start it up and it keep on running, even after we turned off the stove. there was also a nano hexbug knockoff with rubber feet. it mimics a live bug that can run around on the floor and change direction when it hits an obstacle. these have been around for more than a decade but i'm only discovering them now. finally we tried the acrylic erase board that lights up anything written/drawn on it.
for dinner we had some beef stew that'd been simmering on the stovetop for hours. it was so fragrant, i could smell it when i was outside and working in the basement.
i got a ride home after dinner. after a shower i watched the vikings-rams game. was it supposed to be on during the weekend and postponed due to the LA fires? they played in los angeles but there seemed to be more minnesota fans in the stadium. i was kind of rooting for the vikings because sam darnold's resurgence is a feel good story, but minnesota ended up losing 9-27.
i thought my father and i were going on a everett-chelsea supply run this morning but i called him he postponed the trip to tomorrow. he still came to give me a ride around 10:30am. first thing i did when i got to belmont was climb the ladder to clear the snow off of the solar panels. it was supposed to be a quick job but i got distracted by the clogged gutters and ended up spending more time cleaning those instead.
i went inside briefly to have some homemade scallion pancakes for lunch before going back outside to clean the gutters and the solar panels. the gutters on the eastern southern side of the house were the worse, i don't think we even cleaned them last season. there was about a centimeter of dirt. the gutter along the sunroom also had a layer of dirt but the clog wasn't as bad. western southern side was mostly clear. gutters on the northern face of the house were frozen solid with about a centimeter of frozen water. nothing we can do for now except wait for the ice to melt naturally.
my sister brought esmei to the house today. everyone cheered when she went outside and both peed and pooped. she came back inside and while nobody was ate a pat of butter from the stovetop. my sister took her home a bit later.
three NFL games today: broncos-bills (1pm), packers-eagles (4:30pm), and commanders-buccaneers (8pm). buffalo trailed initially, which probably gave bill fans a heart attack. eventually they started scoring like everyone thought they would, won the game 7-31. i didn't pay much attention to the packers-eagles game. it seemed to have existed just so the producers can play nazareth's "love hurts" (1976) (quarterbacks jordan love and jalen hurts). eagles won 10-22.
saw a bunch of birds at the feeders. the usual: downy woodpecker, goldfinch, juncos, chickadees, house finches, possibly a song sparrow. at least one of the juncos has learned to perch on the feeder and eat directly instead of scratching for scraps like the other juncos underneath.
mike vrabel was officially announced as the new head coach of the new england patriots. wasn't a big surprise, he was the favorite going into the weeklong interview process. now everyone's asking if josh mcdaniel will come back as offensive coordinator.
we had garlic chive egg omelettes and a stirfry of ham & wood ear mushrooms & hot peppers for dinner. my father gave me a ride home soon afterwards. i wanted to get home early to make up for getting home so late yesterday.
i caught the end of the pelicans-celtics game. i was expecting it to be a blowout but new orleans played boston tough. there was a total of 21 lead changes. celtics won because the pelicans missed a final seconds layup. celtics next game is against the raptors in toronto on wednesday.
craving some ice cream, i took a quick trip to star market before they closed. just for kicks i checked out their egg selection, which was mostly empty. i got two pints of häagen-dazs caramel cone ice cream ($2.99/each) and a 5 lbs. bag of russet potatoes on sale ($2).
i watched the commanders-buccaneers game. i was rooting for tampa bay. not much to say, the two teams were equally matched, wasn't decided until the final seconds with a field goal kick. washington won 23-20.
i got an e-mail from my upstairs neighbors early this morning with a bill for $1200. the handyman they hired to caulk their leaking window, well, they think i should pay a portion of that bill ($480) because it pertains to the overall exterior area of the house. it's all bullshit but i agreed, with the stipulation that we never hire that handyman again (he did work for us before, shoddy craftsmanship, no attention to detail, i had to fix some of the stuff myself afterwards) since he probably ripped us off.
i knew it was going to snow this morning but i figured a dusting at most. i wasn't expecting to see the landscape blanketed in snow. this meant i wouldn't be able to ride the bike to the cafe today. i was prepared for that possibility, so budgeted extra time to get ready so i could leave by 10am and still get to work before 10:30am. besides, i didn't mind walking in the fresh snow. there was about an inch of accumulation, but it was supposed to snow throughout the day until the evening, so the snow wasn't done yet. along the way i picked up a blackburn rear bike rack i found a free bin. i was trying to remember how i mounted the last rack i installed, until i saw a bike parked on the street that had a similar looking rack. what was missing was the two rack stays (struts) that attaches to the seat post and some nuts and screws. cost of replacement stays is $10, while the price for a new rear bike rack (with stays) on aliexpress is only $20.
my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt at 11am. she reported on her adventure at the davis square h-mart grand opening and how she got a free thermos mug for showing her h-mart membership card and an h-mart branded bag.
not a lot of customers today, but we had a few sizable online orders and enough people came to eat in person to make it profitable. i was busy all day in the kitchen, cooking fresh batches of black soy noodles, dumplings, boba pearls, and tea eggs.
a week ago my sister asked me to babysit esmei today for 2 hours. she never said when, and i just assumed it was during business hours. but she told me she wanted me to babysit in the evening. i said she could bring esmei to belmont where we could watch her but she said i had to stay at her place to watch her dog, which didn't make sense. plus my sister never keeps her word, if she says 2 hours, it could just as well be 4-5 hours. she decided she'd only be gone for an hour and would leave esmei at home along during that time. but then when we were about to close she called and said she changed her mind and wanted us to bring esmei back with us to belmont.
my father gave my 2nd aunt a ride home a quarter before we closed at 4pm. however a customer phoned in an order and someone else came in and bought a boba drink, so my mother and i were still busy done to the final minutes. afterwards when my father came back we went to get esmei and bring her to my parents' house. my sister packed a bag with enough things to take care of her dog for a few days, not just a few hours.
i took esmei out for a walk in the backyard when we got to belmont. after she peed she came right back inside. i took her outside again after dinner at 6pm, where she peed again. later in the evening she suddenly woke up after being asleep. sensing she might want to use the bathroom again, i took her outside one last time where she pooped.
my mother never seems to want to cook on saturdays, and made us order out again. tonight it was thai chicken and rice. we got the usual, but also got the fried chicken tendons, which sounded intriguing. my father and i went to go pick up the order at 6pm, getting some gas on the way back.
i'm here to tell you don't waste your money, fried chicken tendons is a scam (and costs more money than fried chicken bones, which is a much better deal). maybe it's a delicacy in thailand, but it's nothing more than the cartilage from chicken bones, things we normally throw away when we process a chicken. otherwise everything else was very good as usual. i finished all of my roasted chicken and rice while both my parents had leftovers.
my plan was to wait for my sister to return from her party to pick up esmei so i could get a ride back to cambridge. at 6:40pm she texted me that they were having dessert, which i took to mean she was almost done. so i waited and waited, until it was after 9pm and she still wasn't back. i texted her but no reply. she must've gotten into a car accident because the other possibility is that she simply decided to stay longer after she originally said just 2 hours and that would make her a terrible person. my father decided to give me a ride home instead. my sister didn't show up to pick up esmei until 11:30pm.
after a shower i made some hot chocolate. drinking something so sweet and hot was on the top of my list, but i still have some milk that i need to finish before it spoils. this weekend marks the beginning of the NFL playoffs. football is getting more obnoxious, like selling exclusive broadcast rights to paid streaming platforms (amazon, netflix) and branching into potential other markets like kid-friendly versions of games on nickelodeon. anyway, texans beat the chargers (12-32), and the steelers were no match for the ravens (14-28). three games tomorrow: broncos-bills at 1pm, packers-eagles 4:3opm, and commanders-buccaneers at 8pm. as much as i hate the NFL, i'm still going to watch two of those games.
i started watching american primeval on netflix last night. all these influx of western themed shows seems to be a reaction to the country turning more conservative. this show reminds me of the language of deadwood mixed with the action from the revenant. i never knew mormons could be such badasses. i like the few things i've seen betty gilpin's been in (glow, the hunt). taylor kitsch's character in the series seems like a real asshole, but since he's one of the male leads, i'm sure he'll show his heroic bent sooner or later.
i got a call from doctor huang's office right before i left for the cafe this morning. his wife told me i needed to come in again because doctor huang wasn't happy with the dental mold he made tuesday morning and wants to redo it. she asked if i could come in late tuesday morning but i had to work, so we made an appointment for wednesday morning on my day off.
even though today was 16 degrees warmer than yesterday, i still dressed like it was zero degrees wind chill. better safe than sorry i say. i noticed the city had sprayed the roads with brine in preparation for a little bit of snow tomorrow. i got to the cafe before my parents did, cooked 5 cups of rice before i even had time to take off my jacket.
my parents showed up with a bunch more things from my 2nd aliexpress delivery which came yesterday: h-back aprons, chair leg silicone feet protector pads, 2025 chinese tear-off calendar, anker soundcore motion+ speaker case, food fortunes card deck. the calendar was much smaller than i thought, even though i checked the measurements before i got it. at this point i've basically given up, i am not going to spend anymore money looking for a medium-sized tear-off calendar. this tiny calendar smelled strongly of ink (to the point where i worry about it's toxicity level). it does have all the days (unlike the larger calendar, which combines the weekend days to save off), but it's very much a mainland chinese calendar, with obscure chinese communist holidays like police officer day. the aprons fit okay, but they're kind of small. it's also just a single fabric; the one i were daily is two layer, with a water resistant top layer. my mother said she'll get me more when she goes back to taiwan. a glass teapot had also arrived but they didn't bring it; my mother told me it too was on the small side.
while vacuuming the cafe today, i decided to open up the front panel of the drink refrigerator and clean the condenser fins. they were covered in dust. i used the brush attachment to clean the fins. hopefully the refrigerator runs more efficiently after that. i did the same to the food fridge we have in the kitchen. its condenser fins were also covered in dust. unfortunately the fins were hard to get to, and i could only reach so far with a manual brush, collecting the clumps of dust afterwards by hand. the space was so tight, i might've accidentally bent some of the fins so i finally stopped.
i made smoked white fish salad bagel sandwiches for my parents and myself. i managed to use up all the white fish, all the bagels, and all the dill.
a customer informed us that our charsiu bento was out of stock on the ordering website. when i checked the item inventory, it was marked as in stock. when the customer called later to order by phone because she couldn't order online, i went to the online page and checked for myself. sure enough, it showed out of stock despite what the inventory said. this must've happened for a while, because my mother had been noticing we were selling as much charsiu, which used to be our most popular bento. i finally fixed it by marking the item in the inventory as out of stock, wait for it to update, then mark it again as in stock. that finally solved the problem.
a busy day, but nothing crazy. we had a pretty good handle on all the incoming orders, whether in person, via phone, online order, or delivery. cathy even called to make an order for her grandkids. she wanted all sorts of substitution and half-and-half selection before my mother finally told her we don't usually do combos. she came by to pick up her order and left. later she called, asking if my spare bedroom was available to rent for the daughter of a family friend who was attending lesley university but didn't like living in her dorm. she needed a place for a year, and needed it right away. that was not going to happen.
we were busy around lunchtime, and busy again in the evening after 5pm. once again that chinese family showed up late - we were about to close - made an order, and stayed to eat. they didn't leave until 6:45pm, well after we were already supposed to be closed. as rude as they were, we couldn't just throw them out. i think one time they came right when we were about to close, and my father told them they could get stuff for takeout, but they said no they'd come back another time.
my aunt showed up in the afternoon. "you guys don't look very busy today," she said, right after we have a very busy stretch. she had the charsiu bento for lunch and got a chance to see esmei when my sister came back from an errand.
i didn't bring anything home, but found some leftover rice in my fridge that i used to make chinese rice porridge for dinner. it didn't look like a lot of rice, but after simmering it in water in a pot on the stove for over half an hour, it grew in volume. i had an assortment of side dishes, the same as last time: braised eel, pickled cucumbers, gluten, pickled spicy sichuan vegetables. to the rice porridge i added some chopped scallions and spicy pickled radish.
i got a chance to check out the food fortune tarot cards. maureen introduced them to me a few years ago. when i saw them i knew i had to have a set of my own. so it was kind of funny when i saw the aliexpress was selling them, and for cheap too ($4/deck). i figured they were knockoffs, but i was impressed with the print quality and the card stock. the only way you could tell it wasn't the genuine deck was it didn't include a booklet explaining the various foods. there was a QR code on the back that directed you to a dead link that supposedly had a pdf of the booklet (i didn't eventually find a copy online through search engine).
i ate dinner while watching the kings-celtics game. sacramento hasn't beaten boston at home (or maybe at all?) for a few years now. kings led by single digits in the first quarter, while the celtics led by single digits in the second and third. single digit leads are dangerous in the modern NBA, given how quickly teams can go on a run. that's what happened in the fourth quarter, kings went on a run and the celtics couldn't recover. seems like sacramento couldn't miss in that quarter, while boston was struggling to find some offense. kings win, 114-97.
for lunch i heated up some old frozen honey barbecue chicken fingers. they weren't that good, and ate them with 5-year expired blue cheese dressing. surprisingly, i didn't get sick. i spent much of the day drinking various teas, must've gone through 4-5 glasses, from jasmine, to bengal spice, to sleepytime vanilla. i gave my insulated thermos a real workout.
for dinner i heated up a stouffer's lasagna. post-pandemic, not only did their serving sizes decrease, but they also changed the recipe. their frozen lasagna used to be my favorite, but now instead of ground beef, they use chunks of sausage instead (or is it ham?) in a cost saving measure. it's not very good now and i don't think i'll buy them again. i of course have made my own lasagna in the past, but i've always found my own recipe too bland. could be time to try again though, i'll try to find a recipe i can improve upon.
the final snow forecast seems to be a late arriving system that started with rain before transitioning to snow, and moving fast enough across new england that instead of a blockbuster, we'll probably get about 6 inches here in the greater boston area. not a bad amount, but not like a blizzard where we measure accumulation in feet. the bigger issue is how everything will flash freeze afterwards. after i shovel my sidewalk tomorrow morning, i'd heading down to my parents' place to see if i can do anything about the snow on the solar panels. if we can't clear the panels tomorrow, most likely they'll be covered all next week as the temperature is going to drop significantly.
