i made a cup of coffee today with the half and half (H&H). i filled the mug halfway with H&H, before pouring in the coffee and 2 teaspoon of sugar. it was definitely more mellow and i could taste the milk of the H&H. i will do it this way from now on (more because i have a big carton of H&H that i don't know what to do with). for lunch i also had the last of my italian sausage and a piece of soft pretzel. let me tell you about this soft pretzel. my sister bought it, not sure where, but it tasted heavenly. it's very chewy and has this thick dark flavorful skin that's kind of like biting into a sausage. in fact, it really does look like a strand of sausage. if it was up to me i'd have this soft pretzel everyday if i could.

i biked down to haymarket in the afternoon (after making a quick detour at the rite aid to pick up my prescriptions). before browsing the market, i went to nearby north end to look for suitable motorcycle parking spots. these are any places along the curb that's too small to fit a car so it's not metered but just big enough to stash a motorcycle. it's kind of risky because you have to watch out for signs, and sometimes an over aggressive meter person might ticket you anyway. might be something i try for next time, but nothing beats the convenience of a bicycle that i can just park anywhere. sure, it's a little more work, but i don't mind the exercise.

i stopped by the cafe by 3pm. much of what i bought wasn't actually for the cafe, but rather a sangria recipe i want to try this weekend, including an assortment of oranges, lemons, limes, apples, and plums. my 2nd aunt showed up as well, just returning from chinatown with moon cakes, including ones with black dense date fillings i love so much. she was originally going to give me most of them but i only wanted one.

i returned home to drop off a few things. my ESP8266 boards arrived (3) as well as my apple thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet adapter (this was supposed to arrive last week but the ebay seller sent me the wrong one and i'm finally now receiving the correct version).

i went out again, this time to the new allston trader joe's, just across the charles river on north harvard street, about 2 miles away. it's actually the closest trader joe's but what's great about it is ever since the memorial drive trader joe's lost it's liquor license, this is the closest TJ that sells alcohol. i was there to find alcohol for the sangria. online recipes recommended burgundy and brandy. a wine expert there told me that burgundy was too expensive for making sangria (it's just pinot noir from the french burgundy region), and that i could just go with any old red wine. they did have cheap brandy ($7) but the expert recommended an even cheaper alternative, the triple sec ($5), which already has an orange flavor. i also left with 2 bottles of TJ merlot (for the sangria), 2 bottles of TJ cabernet sauvignon (for my father), a bottle of moscato d'asti ($8.99, a sparkling sweet wine i discovered last september on this exact same day), and a bottle of sparkling spring water. all this for just $27.

i finally got a chance to make a guacamole dip from the 4 avocados i bought last friday from haymarket. when i cut them open they seemed a little spoiled, and i sliced off some moldy spots and used the rest. it didn't look very pretty, but after i mashed it and began adding the other ingredients (onion, jalapeño, lime juice, tomato, cilantro, garlic) it started to look a whole lot better.

a guacamole dip feels like a pico de gallo recipe with just the addition of avocados. there's something about it that tastes very mexican. in fact, it took me a while to find the chinese word for "guacamole": 墨西哥鰐梨醬, which translated to "mexican alligator pear sauce." i ended up "planting" 3 of the seeds, hoping to grow some avocado plants for fun and science.

i had dinner late, around 9pm, just made some ramen. it wasn't that there wasn't anything else to eat in the house, i just had a craving for instant noodles. i ate while surf watching pluto tv. later i finished the last of the soft pretzel as a dessert along with a few plums.