kevin paid the rent this morning, a day ahead of schedule. i transferred the money from my paypal account directly into my bank account.

arriving in belmont i saw yesterday's orchid flower had completely opened. it wasn't like our usual orchids (which are pink), this one had a deep peach color, almost red. turns out it was a rescue from binbin's house, when my father realized they had some dried orchid plants in the house. my parents thought it as funny that the flower was so flat ("like a korean face," my mother said), but i think that's what normal orchids look like.

there was a lot of backyard activities on this memorial day. we moved out the wooden swing chair so my father could clean it up with the pressure washer before applying some sealant. we pruned the flowering plum tree, gave it a more rounded shape. while finding a place to plant the rosemary from last year, i accidentally discovered a bamboo rhizome by the grapevines and ended up digging out a root 3x3ft wide with several emerging bamboo shoots. even after all these years, we still continue to find escaped bamboos. we moved out all our houseplants again, now that it doesn't look like it's going to get cold anymore. my father removed some cold-damaged dead cactuses and consolidated them into fewer pots. i dug up some spiderworts creeping onto the lawn and my father planted them in boxes so they can bloom underneath the windowsill. i planted some more buttercup seeds after most of the ones i planted earlier had been dug up by critters. our zucchini seedlings have emerged, i put some chickenwire around one of the mounds to keep the animals out.

it took 3 days but my mother finally finished binging all 4 seasons (52 episodes) of kim's convenience. fortunately CBC renewed the show for 2 more seasons, but i can't imagine it coming back until early 2021 at the earliest, most likely delayed due to the coronavirus.

we had a barbecue: ribs, drumsticks, corn. what was missing were sausages. we ran out of korean barbecue sauce and i forgot to get more when i was at super 88, so i used plum sauce on the corn instead. it's okay, but not savory enough, made it sweeter. we also took out two bottles of moscato wine. my mother preferred the yellow tail pink moscato, tasted less of wine, more like a sparkling fruit drink. the barefoot moscato had a stronger wine taste, which isn't what we like. my father also barbecued some of the bamboo shoots. they tasted like bamboo, had a rough skin on the outside that you couldn't eat, but tender inside.