i made it to the cafe around 10:30am - before my sister even arrived. i started by moving out all the chairs and tables. then i cooked up 4 cups of rice, followed two pots of noodles. my parents showed up around 11am right when we were about to open the cafe, after they went to baifu for a supply run. i asked my mother about the homeless drug addicts along methadone mile, she said it's gotten even worse, despite the city removing the tent city. my parents returned home soon after dropping off the supplies.
we had a big 4-bento-plus-noodles order that was phoned in this morning but the customer wouldn't pick it up until 4pm right when we closed. so whatever the case my be regarding business for the day, we knew at the very least there was this one big order waiting for us. we had a bunch of phone orders, one online order, and one grubhub order for delivery.
i didn't eat anything all day. the most i had was some leftover milk that i squirted some chocolate syrup to make it taste better. i did have some free time to water some plants with miracle-gro fertilizer and finally added the circular polarizer to the parking lot webcam facing the patio deck; it did remove some window glare, but the difference is so small, it wasn't worth the effort.
when 3:30pm arrived we started making the big order. i recognized the customer and i had a feeling they would arrive early. sure enough, the woman showed up at 3:40pm, when we were just starting to make the order, and waited 15 minutes before we were finally done. word of advice from someone in the restaurant business to any customers who decide to arrive early: your order will not be made any faster, and if anything, it stresses us out while you wait impatiently for your order. once that order was out the door, it was closing time as i started bringing in the deck furnitures.
my 2nd aunt left soon after we closed, and i left around 4:30pm.
when i arrived at my parents' place, the new dyson vacuum was waiting on the doorstep. i brought it inside and assembled it for my mother to try out.
the dyson was definitely lighter than the levoit vacuum. but as soon as we used it, we noticed the different immediately, and it wasn't for the better.
the problem with the dyson V8 is it doesn't have a motorized vacuum head. it's completely manual, which means you have to physically push the brush roller inside the head to get it working. its fine on bare floors, but you go push the dyson V8 on any sort of carpeting, it feels like its stuck and you have to exert some force in order to get the head going. compare that to the levoit, which has a motorized head. sure, the main body of the levoit vacuum is heavier, but the motorized head makes up for it and it's so much easier to vacuum.
the dyson vacuum head doesn't have led lights like the levoit vacuum head. you don't think something like that would be useful until you try vacuuming underneath a dark table or in a dark hallway, it's practically essential on a modern day vacuum.
the dyson vacuum head is supposed to be able to pivot in 360 degrees, but in practice the ball joint fells tight and the head has a tendency to flip over when you try to maneuver the head. the levoit is the exact opposite: the ball joint in the vacuum head is smooth like butter, as it glides effortlessly, whether you're vacuuming normal, or turning the stick sideways to get underneath furnitures, it's all so easy.
to use the dyson V8, you need to hold down the power button. the vacuum turns off the moment you release the button. on the levoit it's different, the button is a normal toggle switch. it does take a split second for the vacuum to start up though, not sure the reason, but given the choice between always holding the button or a delayed startup toggle button, i prefer the toggle switch.
the dyson V8 has a unique way of opening the dust canister. i thought you just open the bottom of the canister, but it opened by a pull tab on the top of the vacuum that pops open the vacuum assembly before it opens the dust canister. i'm sure there was a reason for this design, but it's a bit counterintuitive.
so after this vacuum "taste test" the levoit is the clear winner and we decided to return the dyson. the ebay description said "free shipping and return" so hopefully they'll honor that. the levoit is such a good vacuum, my mother wanted to keep it to use at home while relegating the dyson to the cafe. but the dyson V8 performed so inadequately compared to the levoit vacuum, it's not worth keeping and the only sensible option is to return it.
the only thing about the levoit that i don't like is it doesn't come with a flexible hose attachment (neither did the dyson for that matter), for cleaning those hard to reach places. although to be fair, the only cordless vacuum i saw that had this attachment was the eufy vacuum (and i didn't like the placement of its dust canister).
no steaks for dinner; instead we had some blue bean stew with pork and a tofu stirfry. none of the crops we had last year are doing well this season - like the buttercup squashes, long beans, or bitter melons - but the only thing that seems to be growing despite the bad weather are the nonna agnes blue beans, which was something my mother stole from that time we visited a watertown community garden. thank goodness for sticky fingers otherwise we wouldn't have anything to eat from the garden this time of the year. the beans had a greyish purple color, not blue, but maybe because they were cooked (though apparently they only turn blue once the weather turns colder). the beans are also easy to dissolve once cooked, and impart a sweet taste to the dish.
i returned home after dinner. despite the heat, it was actually very comfortable because the humidity was so low. when i got to the house it was 85 degrees room temperature. normally i wouldn't care but i have my lone surviving tetra fish to worry about, i don't want it boiling to death inside the house, like leaving a pet inside of a hot car. i turned on the AC and vornado air circulator fan while i went to go take a shower.
before i went to bed, i was casually surfing amazon, looking for some deals on nothing in particular. i came across the levoit VortexIQ 40 page, and saw there was now an $80 coupon on the vacuum. that takes it down to $120 (from $200), compared to the $180 we paid for it originally. unfortunately amazon doesn't do price matching, so my only recourse is to return the levoit and buy it again at the cheaper price. what i'll end up doing is returning the new vacuum as soon as it arrives without even opening it, simply because it's the exact same model. in return for this little acquisition game, i'll be able to get the cheaper price. but what's to stop levoit from dropping the price even further? would it surprise me next week to see it being sold for $100? is levoit trying to phase out their vacuum business? the really weird thing is elsewhere on amazon, the LSV-VF401-AUS (which is just the VortexIQ 40) sells for $260.