we definitely made more than last saturday, especially after a big grub hub order came in. in fact, every day this week we managed to do better than last week, with the exception of friday. today there was a lot of beef noodle soup orders, and surprisingly a lot of chinese sausage bento. we ran out of jasmine green tea at one point, and i had to quickly chill a fresh hot batch by going down to the basement and quenching the tea with ice cubes from the ice machine. that's actually a great shortcut to get some cold tea in a short amount of time.
during a lull period in the afternoon, i was in the basement reorganizing the shelves: i moved all the drinks away from under the stairs and moved all the kitchen appliances there instead.
the weather was so hot and humid, nobody sat outside today, to do so would've been insane, especially since it was all nice and air conditioned inside the cafe.
after the cafe closed i went to my parents' place. they were making chinese dumplings for dinner. there was also bitter melon salad, longans, and rainier cherries. i returned to cambridge around 7pm.
instead of going home, i made a stop at the community garden to water my plants. at one point i was taking photos with my phone when i could feel a mosquito about to bite my neck. i was holding onto something with my other hand so didn't have a free hand, 
so i grabbed the phone with my mouth so i could slap the mosquito. that's when i felt a crunching sensation and when i look at the phone, there was a crack in the tempered glass screen protector from where i bit into it. so those protectors are not very bite proof! coming back, i picked up a beefy bike rack with rear basket a neighbor had thrown out: it'll look good on a future bike.
there was a midnight boston architectural ride happening tonight. i haven't been to one of these since 2017, and because it was a good night for a ride, i decided to go. i was deciding what to bring: some ice cold water in an insulated bottle, my gopro camera to some riding footage, and just my phone for a camera, keeping it light. i went down to the basement to inflate the tires on my trek allant - the bike i only ride on special occasions. i recharged the batteries on the wheel lights but only the front light lit up, the back one seems to be broken. i left for boston around 11:30pm.
the meeting spot was copley square. it was warm and humid and surprisingly windy. there were about 100 cyclists in total, i didn't know any of them. i noticed this on my last ride, but ever since there's been these monthly boston bike parties, the turnout for the architectural ride has been very low, much smaller than in past years. and the demographics seem to run older, since most younger bikers would rather go to a bike party instead, and the architectural ride is definitely not one of them.
we headed out by midnight. first stop was the reflecting pool by the christian science building. i haven't been there since they built one dalton luxury condos behind it.
from there we headed into roxbury, but got lost, as our tour leaders had to look on a map to get our bearing. the theme this year was water, and it seemed like we were going to visit all the nearby ponds and reservoirs, riding the emerald necklace to jamaica pond, then to brookline reservoir. i gave them credit for effort, but they didn't plan the route better, because riding in the dark along the ponds and reservoirs seemed awfully dangerous and a recipe for crashes and drownings (thankfully none of that happened). midway between jamaica pond and brookline reservoir, we stopped by the frederick law olmsted national historical site, which was nice because there were no cars, but it was mostly uphills, and not everyone could make it, some cyclists stopping instead to push their bikes. it was kind of a mess.
i kept checking the clock and looking at the map, realizing it was getting later and later and we were getting farther and farther away from cambridge. in year's past, we'd be in cambridge by 2am, which was my cue to then go home. but it was already 2am and were still in brookline, so i was looking to bail the first chance i got. next stop was the chestnut hill reservoir, which was taking me even farther away from home.
when we go to cleveland circle, i took a detour and went down beacon street heading east, in the direction of coolidge corner. cleveland circle where a lot of green line trolleys converge, and a few cyclists got their bikes stuck in the tracks, crashing onto the pavement. i didn't mean to be insensitive, as this was all happening behind me, so i didn't bother stopping, and kept riding to freedom.
in hindsight i should've kept going to commonwealth avenue to get to allston center, instead of taking the longer route of beacon then harvard street. but that was the route i was more familiar with, so i went with what i knew. it was late enough that there was hardly any cars, i was just really tired from biking all night. once i hit coolidge corner i was on familiar ground, and was an easy trip getting back home.
it was nearly 3am by the time i finally got back. i didn't have the energy to stow my bike in the basement, i just leaned it against my utility bike and went inside. i'm pretty sure this is my last boston architectural bike ride. google map timeline said i biked for 3 solid hours, for a total of 20 miles. my gopro battery lasted long enough for 3 hours of recording in timewarp mode, but i should've bumped up the ISO (default was 1600) to 6400, as most of the footage was very blurry.