while my mother and sister were at the cafe opening it up on the abbreviated saturday schedule, i went with my father on a supply run beginning at 10:40am. we cut through central square onto storrow drive then back bay west to connect to mass ave down to the newly named newmarket industrial district to arrive at food-pak.

while sitting in the car, i noticed a wireless earbud in the dashboard compartment. this was my father's missing earbud that'd been missing for weeks, finally found. what it was doing in the car he can't remember but the mystery has finally been solved.

i hadn't been to baifu since late march, so i hadn't seen there newly expanded bubble ice tea section. besides a range of new flavors, they also sell an assortment of toppings, as well as the latest rage - bursting boba! we were looking for mango flavoring but could only find the powder instead of the syrup until my father asked one of the workers to find some for him.

leaving boston, my father asked me to set up the phone on the dash board mount so we could document the going-ons of methadone mile, which is right next to food-pak. because of all the rainy weather we'd had, there were tents in the fenced off area. but all the junkies seemed to be out in the streets, congregating, trash everywhere, mixed with the handful of volunteers everyone was relatively okay and dispensing free food and supplies.

from there we go onto route 93 north, getting off at exit 99 to the restaurant depot in everett. 93 southbound was bumper to bumper traffic on a saturday, my father guessed maybe it was people trying to get to cape cod, the the weather this weekend is grey for the most part. we also hit a bit of traffic inside the boston tunnels, and then again on route 16. it took us over half an hour to finally arrive. driving up route 99, it was our first time seeing the entrance to the encore casino, like a big adult amusement.

restaurant depot had a supply shortage on clear cups, which was the thing my father came here specifically to buy since they were running out at the cafe. he asked one of the workers, who said the manufacturer aren't even making them anyway (not sure if it's true or not). we ended up getting 20oz. opaque cold beverage cups instead just to have something for the drinks.

next we went to the chelsea market basket. we found a new shortcut using 3rd street. the place was very busy (not surprising on a weekend), especially the produce department, where everyone seemed to be gathering. my mother called a few times while we were there, adding items to the grocery list. she told us to return to the cafe quickly, as they were out of beverage cups.

we left market basket at 2:20pm, and because of traffic, took us 40 minutes to get back to cambridge, finally arriving at the cafe by 3pm. after unloading the supplies, i was going to simply walk back home, but my father offered to give me a ride.

i took a shower, gathered up my things, and left for belmont by 4pm.

first thing i did was to take a tour of the backyard. not a lot of changes, no new squashes, and all the second batch that were possibly developing last week had all rotted, leaving just the squashes from the initial batch. because it'd be a cloudy day, most of the jasmine flowers were still intact and i got to sniff some nice fragrance. the only plants that seemed to be getting bigger were the bitter melons (many vines, no melons yet) and the cucumbers. i see a few spots that might be bacterial wilt, but i haven't found any cucumber beetles on the cucumbers (although i have seem them on the buttercup squashes, hiding in the flowers). if they grow fast enough, they can outgrow the wilt and we can at least get a few cucumbers before they eventually succumb to disease.

my parents returned home shortly afterwards. my father hadn't eaten anything all day so my mother made some noodles for an early dinner.

after dinner i did some research on a new refrigerator. my mother wants to get rid of the one we currently have and get a new one. not sure why, our current one works pretty well. unlike my own fridge back at home, which has problems keeping cool. we're probably going to get the whirlpool WRT318FZDW 18.2 cu.ft. ($700) because of the shelf space above the fridge, it can't be over 65.5 inches. the whirlpool model fits perfectly. there's also a stainless steel energy star model with the same specs but $280 more expensive ($980).

before i left, my father and i were examining a new hole dug in the front lawn by a rabbit. a neighbor who we'd never met before started chatting with us about the rabbits. apparently he hates the rabbits as much as we do. he told us he saw the neighborhood cat (black and white with a red bow, the one that hailey tried to attack that one time) catch rabbits on at least 3 occasions. it doesn't eat the rabbits, just bring it back to its owner as a present. he's also seen the neighborhood woodchuck, now on FV avenue.