first thing i did was to bike down to the somerville whole foods before the rain was scheduled to start by 11am. i went there in search of matcha powder. i couldn't find it at the fresh pond parkway store, but felt i'd have better luck in somerville. i went to where i saw a selection of matcha tea last time, but they didn't have the one i want, a 5oz. packet of whole foods brand ($15). but then i thought about checking their wellness aisles. among the ayurvedic supplements and holistic vitamins was where i finally found my matcha. i also bought a packet of thai basil seeds ($2).
it started to drizzle while i was riding home. that didn't stop me from admiring all the flowering kwanzan cherry trees i passed along the way, one hand on the handlebar, one hand snapping photos with my camera phone.
matcha is expensive, but at $3/ounce, the whole foods 365 brand is one of the cheapest i've seen (for culinary grade). having said that though, when i casually went on amazon to look up matcha again, suddenly i started finding organic pure matcha powder as low as $1/ounce. did amazon and whole foods scam me into buying their more expensive product? only difference was the cheaper matcha all came from china, while the whole foods one i bought was from japan. after i finish this latest batch, i might try the cheaper one to see if there's any difference. i scooped out a teaspoon of old and new matcha and compared the two. the old matcha - kiss me organics ($3.75/ounce) - was a little bit darker, but i think that's just because of oxidization. i expect the 365 matcha to turn darker over time as well.
3 more of the potted squash have germinated, so now all 10 pots have at least one seedling, some two. the seedlings feel very tough, not sure if they're naturally hard, or is it because i'm exposing them to a fan. if i had more dirt i'd try to salvage a few of the extra seedlings. i'm still waiting for the bitter melons to emerge. i spoke with maureen, she said her father and a neighbor both noticed bitter melons are slow to germinate this season. she didn't have any problems germinating hers because she used a heat pad. the ground cherries are also doing well, and very hardy too. i noticed today that they have an alternating leaf arrangement.
i called wayfair today asking about my sister's godmother's missing tv table. updates said the table was delivered on monday, but on the my orders page the item was still marked as preparing for shipping, but with an estimated delivery date of yesterday (which still hasn't been updated). nor did i ever get any notification e-mail that the item was shipped or delivered. the person i spoke with seemed to be working from home. she said to wait until monday (sometimes the carrier will scan an item as delivered when it's not), if the table still hasn't arrived yet, wayfair will either send out a new table or i can cancel the order. the bottom line is we won't be held responsible for the missing delivery.
later i called comcast to see if i could resolve the internet issue. i managed to get someone who spoke english, and steven was able to help me out. he noticed that the address had no apartment designation, so he refilled another application on his end, and was able to enter the apartment info manually. because there's no record that the address has ever had cable, they need to send a technician to do the initial install (free of charge). we scheduled an appointment for tuesday afternoon. once i agreed to the contract, their system finally created an account number. it took more than 2 months but finally my sister's godmother will be getting her internet soon!
in the afternoon i witnessed a road rage incident. initially i thought it was just a bad driver reversing his car the wrong way and hitting the car behind him with his rear bumper before driving away. but then i checked my webcam footage and realized the car in back had backed up in order to avoid the collision and ended up jumping the curb and hitting the car of my neighbor. i downloaded the video so i could give it to the driver who had parked his car and seemed to be calling either the police or his insurance company. i told him i had footage of the whole encounter, he thanked me as i texted it to him. turns out, the accident wasn't so incident, he was the victim of a road rage, and the driver of the other car (a zip rental car no less) tried to crash into him on purpose and even got out of his own car to try and fight with the other driver. i think when that driver accidentally backed into my neighbor's car, the road rage guy ran off when the neighbor ran out of her house with her camera. besides the video, i also had a clear photo of the license plate. later i went back home and sent zack (the driver) another longer video that showed the actual chase that happened beforehand. when the cambridge police finally showed up, the cop said he couldn't really do anything because the accident happened on the somerville side, and zack needed to call somerville police. but because there was hardly any damage to either cars, the police weren't going to arrest anyone, despite the incriminating footage. later zack sent me a thank you text, gave me an update and told me he contacted the somerville police, zip car, and his insurance company.
in the late afternoon i went to star market to stock up on some snacks. utz potato chips were on sale for $1.48, but when they rang me up they were still $3. so i went to customer service who told me it was actually the larger family size bags that were on sale. so i returned the chips but left with two boxes of triscuits.
i finished the last of my tuna salad for dinner, made two tuna wraps cut in halves. they were a little sloppy to eat as the day one tuna had drained and the liquids separated from the tuna. i ate while watching the NFL draft. boston picked at 15 and selected alabama quarterback mac jones, who was supposed to go at pick 3 but san francisco went with a different quarterback. i know a lot of patriots fans were hoping the 49ers would trade back jimmy garoppolo to new england, but they played hardball, despite signaling they had no confidence in jimmy by picking a new quarterback with their no.3 draft selection.