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once again i was stuck at home for most of the day, waiting for my camera lens delivery to arrive via fedex. originally they provided me a two hour window between 11:30am to 1:30pm but when 2pm arrived and still no sign of the fedex truck, the window quietly disappeared from the fedex website, all it said was it'd be delivered by the end of the day.

i submitted the restaurant license renewal form online for the cafe, it'd due at the end of the month. the city of cambridge still needs to approve it and let us know how much to pay, but the paperwork has been submitted before the deadline so hopefully the licensing is retroactive.

the lens finally came at 3:15pm. though there was no mention online of what was repaired, the lens came with a note explaining the fix: "your product has been examined and it was found that the lens image stabilizer assembly was broken causing the focus to operate improperly. the lens image stabilizer assembly was replaced and calibrated. product functions were confirmed." even i knew it was an IS issue, that was the reason why i sent it in the first place. there were some additional notes: "do not remove the lens while the stabilizer is in operation. turn the IS OFF, after then remove the lens if desired. failing to do so will cause a malfunction." i've never heard that before, turning off the IS before removing the lens. i looked it up online, there's some controversy about that practice, with some people believing it while others think it's not true. the part that was replaced was the lens assembly, 4th group, part number CY3-2223-000.

i tried the 18-200mm. the thing i noticed right away was how heavy it was when attached to the camera. the IS was fixed, i could sense it immediately as images stabilized. however, the focus seemed a little soft, photos were less sharp compared to the 18-55mm or the 55-250mm lenses. i'll have to do some more tests to know for sure. is this fixable, or has it always been like this? maybe the newer lenses are just sharper.

my parents' electricity bill came out today. they made a credit of $51.30 this month, adding to their rolling tally of $275.32 total credit. that's the most amount of credit we've ever made in a month, thanks in part to a mild june where we never ran the air conditioners and longer days. the previous single billing month credit record was $48 back in may 2018.

today we made a run for 50kWh. even though it was sunny, production was still off-peak, must've been the wispy clouds turning the sky a milky blue. by around 2pm we already hit the 1MWh mark for the month, the first time this year. by day's end we actually got pretty close to what i was hoping we'd produce, 49kWh. we now need a total of 57kWh within the next 3 days to beat june 2018's production record. i think tomorrow we have another good chance to make 50kWh again, which leaves us with a target of 7kWh for the two day weekend. at this rate, not only will be beat june 2018 for sure, we might even beat may 2018's record (1120kWh), which was the 2nd highest monthly production of all times (we'd need to make 89kWh within the next 3 days).

i started my lasagna at 5:30pm, figured it'd be ready by the time annie came home. the lasagna went into the oven at 6:45pm and was done by 7:30pm. i'd just taken it out when annie finally got back. i asked her if she wanted a slice, she seemed hesitant, like she was still determined to make her own dinner. i ended up giving her half a slice while she cooked up some vegetables. later she told me the lasagna was good, but by that point i sort of didn't care anymore, and i'd already decided i wasn't going to cook anything else for her.

i finally finished watching the first season of NOS4A2. i mostly just finished it because the files were taking up space on my laptop and i wanted to erase them. it's not a good show and i wouldn't be sad if they cancelled it. i also watched it to pick up the boston accent, judging who was pulling it off and who was forcing into it too much. for the most part the accents were okay, but it was used in such a way to denote status (boston accent = blue collar local).

i was surprised steve didn't leave today. he was in and out, and even did some gardening, pulled up all the colorful pansies growing in the wine barrel out front and replaced them with ugly coleuses. hopefully he'll be gone by tomorrow so i can a week of peace before the next tenants arrive (he said july 7th).

i went out around sunset to take some photos when i noticed the brilliance of colors peeking through my blinds. it's just too bad there's no convenient high grounds around here, the closest was prospect park and that's under renovation for who knows how long. one of these days, i'm going to ride out to the charles river by MIT during one of these amazing sunsets and get some good photos.