the new countertop looked really nice, better than the one before (that for some reason i forgot to photograph before it was disassembled) that had a white faux marble patterning that made it look dirty. 
what i was most curious about was the sink, which i was surprised to see was of the below countertop variety (a more elegant style in my opinion). unfortunately we were still waiting for the plumber, who was supposed to get here at 9:30am (my sister had to call to get him to come by later), so the sink wasn't functional just yet. the counter guys are also supposed to come next week to apply a layer of protective coating on the marble to prevent it from staining.
i showed my mother the universal knife holder. i couldn't gauge if she liked it or not, as she found a place for it. my father said it'd get dirty since the knives need to be inserted into the "straws". my sister saw it and said she had a spare just like it. so i decided to return it. when she finally brought her knife holder, it wasn't that good either. the best knife holder so far is still the fridge mounted magnetic strip. so we'll just use that for the time being.
next i set up the digital clock. the bug zapper died a few days ago, i think it's zapper-related and nothing to do with the two new fluorescent UV bulbs. i took it down, which gave me an open outlet to plug in the clock. i temporarily sat it on the shelf instead of mounting it onto the wall (which requires putting in 2 screws). it's easy to read, but i don't know if my mother will use it, since she said she's used to using the analog wall clock (which is currently 4 minutes slow). i'll leave it for the time being, if it seems useless i'll return it along with the universal knife holder.
i left the cafe by 11:30am, right when it was starting to get busy, as i had errands of my own to run. i returned home and had the final slice of lemon pound cake for lunch while watching the news. around noontime i saw the plumber finally showing up.
i left for boston around 1:20pm. i had a bunch of things i was tasked to get from chinatown. instead of ming's market, i went to c-mart this time, which has a larger produce selection. my mother asked me to get some baby bokchoi and these tiny crackers to gift to customers. i also got some yellow korean melons and two bags of cherry plums ($7/bag). as for myself, i wanted to get some melon seeds but they seemed more expensive here, and i didn't want to bother going to ming's market, so i figured i'd just get it next friday. i did get some indomie mi goreng though.
after chinatown i went to haymarket. to be honest, i was already carrying a lot of stuff, and didn't really have room for anything else. i came here to check to see if they had any long horn peppers; they had them in chinatown but they were 3.99/lbs. alas, none of the vendors had them, the only hot peppers i saw where some jalapenos and habaneros. a lot of vendors had cherries for sale ($3-4/lbs) but because there was a sale on cherries at star market this week, i opted not to get any (supermarket cherries are better quality, haymarket cherries can be hit or miss). i left with 4 very ripe plaintains for $1 and left by 2:45pm.
i had to go around the old state house since the road beneath the north station parking garage is still temporarily closed due to ongoing demolition and safety concerns. i got back home by 3:10pm.
after a shower, i went across the street to star market to begin hoarding cherries. i didn't read the fine print and apparently customers are limited to 1 bag (3lbs.). it wouldn't be a big deal if this was a normal sale, but it's one of those star market coupon sales, and only one coupon per account (fortunately i have 4 accounts). i kind of regret not getting cherries from haymarket, especially since i saw rainier cherries, which are much better. i'll definitely get some next friday.
after returning home yet again, i packed all the chinatown haul into my saddlebags and rode down to the cafe to drop them off. the plumber was still there, i was curious why hooking up a simple sink required half a day of work. apparently he finished with the sink (and connected the coffee machine) a while back, but was now working on the ice machine in the basement. i saw the sink, now properly plumbed, with working faucet. i like how deep the sink is, we can wash dishes here if the kitchen sink is ever in use. the only thing i'm worried about is now the sink is next to an outlet that's not GFCI-protected. it is however daisy-chained to another outlet that is GFCI-complaint, so maybe that will trip and provide downstream protection.
i tried the cherries and the cherry plums, both were super sweet. i left by 4:30pm, stopping by the porter square star market to get another bag of cherries.
i wasn't particularly hungry and didn't eat until almost 10pm, just had a salad (one of those caesar salad kits). i didn't have any meat to go with it so it felt a little "empty", might get hungry again later in the evening. i had some extra croutons and dumped them all into the salad bowl. i ate while watching the red sox-yankees game in the bronx. boston was swept by tampa ray in their recent 4-game series, and now they were down in new york for a 2-game series. red sox led at first, but then the yankees came back, and it looked like the wheels were coming off when at the bottom of the 9th new york load the bases. but boston managed to get the necessary outs to send it into extra innings. in the 10th the same thing happened again, yankees once again loaded the bases. but closer tanner houck pitched well enough to once more escape the inning unscathed. red sox finally won in the 11th inning when xander bogaerts managed to steal home from 3rd base when the ball bounced off the pitcher's face mask, giving xander just enough time to reach home.