things i did today at the cafe: made a new batch of tea eggs; made some black noodles; brews new black tea and jasmine green tea; labeled the crushed peanut jar; tore some nori seaweed into smaller pieces; portioned out the chinese noodles (150g); chopped up some scallions; check orders for mealybugs. that's on top of my usual duties, like assembling bento boxes and washing the dishes.
i got a chance to see the epoxy-glued pot handle my father fixed. that thing is so tightly bonded, if we were to ever smash that handle, the handle itself would break before the jb weld did. it can handle 5020 psi of pressure; i tried to figure out how much that is, but the closest figure i could is 5000 psi rated concrete, which is used for making bridges. i was also worried that the heat from cooking might damage the bond; the instruction said it can handle 550°F so there's no danger of it failing for the kind of cooking we do at the cafe. now i'm trying to think of what else we can epoxy-glue. we have a old broken garden sprayer wand from last season that split open; i'd like to try gluing that back.
for lunch i had some leftover rice noodles (from the catering dishes); i mixed in some hot sauce to give it more flavor.
my sister's korean friend gave her some houseplants to take care of when she went out of town a few weeks ago. she hasn't collected yet, but i've been keeping them alive at the cafe, things like not putting them next to mealybug-tainted plants, or watering with some miracle-gro. the plants - particularly the Tradescantia zebrina - seem to be doing much better than when they first arrived (when they were very dry looking). the Tradescantia looks especially pretty - shiny striped leaves on one side, magenta hue on the other - and i was curious if i could take a cutting to propagate. a long time ago i had a Tradescantia zebrina of my very own - don't remember what happened to it. that was a piece of Tradescantia that looked like it was rotting and needed to be trimmed off. i snipped it them look what was left of the cutting and put it in water. later my sister heard what i was doing and texted her friend, who said i could take more. i ended up taking two more larger cuttings. that's all i needed.
i returned home by 5pm. my mother packed me a box dinner and gave me a container of chicken soup for making noodles tomorrow night. originally i had plans to get some groceries, but figured i could do that tomorrow.
renee sent me e-mail today asking if could help her water her plants next week when she goes on vacation. the last time i did that for her, when she came back she didn't even thank me, even though i watered her garden practically everyday. so i vowed i wouldn't help her anymore. i told her i might be going out of town next week.
i spent the rest of the day doing retroactive blog updates. i have two missing posts in july (photo heavy days) and 10 left in june. if i can update everything by the end of the month it'll be a big accomplishment. after updating the blog posts, i can erase the photos from my computer. i ended up freeing 30GB worth of space today.
for dinner i heated the prepared meal in the microwave. it was rice from the new rice cooker (which my mother doesn't like, said it takes too long to cook, and the rice comes out soggy), combined with some pulled pork my sister had made, plus a meatball. there was also some sour mustard green and a few slices of pickled daikon radish.