afterwards i went down to the community garden to water my plants. naturally ann was there. for once i'd like to go to the garden where she's not there, but apparently she lives in the garden now. she gave me a prized strawberry - of which there were only a few. i quickly soaked all my plants before leaving.
i threw the last of my chicken bake in the oven before i left, and it was ready by the time i got back home. i ate while watching the news, trying to figure out if i can get to haymarket and back before the impending thunderstorms arrive in the boston area. even though my mother told me not to go, i decided to go to haymarket anyway. if nothing else, for the exercise alone.
i stopped by michael's shop along the way, to check on his e-mail issue, which wasn't working yesterday (he ended up using an alternative e-mail). it's fine today, so probably it was just a temporary mail server glitch, that happens to everyone from time to time. i told him how i had blurry peripheral vision with these new progressive glasses, and he did something ("facing" i think he called it?) where he bent the frame a little bit to get clearer peripheral vision.
i left michael's store by 1:30pm. it'd already started to rain, a few worrying drops, but that was actually the extent of it, and boston never got anymore rain after that. i headed to haymarket via mass ave, then through kendall square across the longfellow bridge up to beacon hill. i got to haymarket by 2pm.
i fished my mask out of my pocket but decided not to wear it because i was so hot and sweaty from the bike ride. despite the crowd, only a handful of people had masks on, they were either senior citizens or asian people. so many people have gotten the omicron variant that i almost want to get it just to get it out of the way. 
the pakistani stand where i typically get my baby cucumbers were all out of them today. instead i found a vendor that sold them pre-packaged in bundles of 6 cucumbers and i bought two packages ($1 each). my other haul: 5 fuyu persimmons ($1), 2 5lbs. bags of clementines ($5 for 2 bags), long-horn hot peppers ($2 for 2lbs.), 9 black plums ($1), 2 boxes of strawberries and 1 box of blackberries ($3), 2 bundles of parsley ($2), bag of cherries (2lbs. $5).
i wasn't at haymarket for very long, left a little over 10 minutes later. i was still trying to outrun the race, but the weather was already clearing, so i was too worried. the worst that i could is i get soaked, which wouldn't be a bad thing, considering how hot it was today (upper 70's and humid).
i got back home by 2:30pm. i was too tired to try and ride down to the cafe (although i could've taken the motorcycle). i weighed myself first (lost nearly 2lbs. in water weight) before taking a shower.
later in the afternoon i walked down to star market to buy some boneless chicken thighs, they're having a sale again. i also picked up some bacon on sale and a package of steaks. it took me a long time to pick the steaks i wanted, weighing the price and quality. i also wasn't sure what items were on sale, star market has the most confusing price labels, all designed to trick you into buying the wrong (more expensive) item.
i snacked on some pepperoni with gouda cheese, but that wasn't enough, my body was somehow craving more starch, not proteins. i ended up having a tonkotsu instant ramen bowl.
when evening came, i started making a chimichurri sauce i saw online. the main ingredient is parsley, which i got from haymarket. the recipe also called for oregano but i was nearly out. so i took a quick trip to the dollar store, where they had all sorts of cheap spices. they had dried parsley and dried basil, but no oregano. i did notice they had onion powder, which i paid $4 this week at market basket. i left with a half gallon pitcher (for my excess homemade lemonade) and some candy.
back at home, i started making the chimichurri. it's basically chopped up parlsey with garlic and oregano and chili flakes doused with a 3:1 ratio of olive oil to red wine vinegar, with some salt and pepper added to taste. i don't think i've ever had chimichurri before, but it's some argentinians and uruguayans swear by, and i'm willing to try it (besides, it's a fun word to say).
next up was homemade lemonade. i bought 8 lemons last friday from haymarket, and wanted to use them up before they go bad. i had a sugar syrup with 1-3/4 cups of sugar with 1 cup of water slow boiled on the stove. while that was happening, i halved the lemons and squeezed them with my electric juicer. 3-1/2 lemons yield 1 cup of juice. i ended up with 2-1/3 cups of lemon juice. the original recipe calls for 7 additional cups of water, which would make approximately 2 quart of lemonade (assuming 1-1/2 cups of juice), but because i had way more juice, i decided to add enough water to give me a gallon of lemonade, or two 2qt. containers. i filled my fancy glass pitcher, then filled the cheap plastic one i got from the dollar store. once again, the only normal reason to make lemonade is you have a lemon tree. all other reasons seem like a waste of time, and fresh lemonade tastes exactly the same as store bought lemonade.
finally i made dinner - around 9:30pm. i had a package of korean mak-guksoo (thin) noodles and some mala noodle sauce packets. i portioned out about 150g of noodles, cooked it, then mixed the noodles with the sauce packet along with chopped scallions and some minced garlic. my noodles ended up getting stuck together a little bit, maybe these thin noodles are not designed for "dry" eating but prefer a soup-base. the end result was still delicious though, and quick, and easy meal for lazy times.