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i went to market basket this morning via motorcycle to get some supplies for the cafe: cubed ham (i wanted diced but they didn't carry any), baby cucumbers, scallions. i then rode to the cafe to drop them off, stopping briefly to get some gas. it was right around noontime and the cafe got busy so i ended up staying for about 45 minutes to help out before leaving around 12:30pm.

there was a croatia-brazil world cup quarter-finals game that started at 10am so i was surprised it was still on the air. turns out the game went into overtime and had to be settled by penalty kicks, in which case croatia actually beat the odds favorite brazil 4-2.

i made a quick bagel sandwich for lunch, with a self-imposed departure time of 1pm to head into chinatown haymarket. i didn't leave until 1:30pm.

i went to chase bank first, to ask about their chinese new year calendars. last time they gave me a whole box, but that was at the end of january, when they had a surplus. i'm hoping if i come back again at the end of january, i can score another box of free calendars. 2023 is the year of the rabbit, so the calendar was all rabbit themed. i ended up leaving with 3 calendars.

i only went to ming's market for my chinese groceries. i wanted to make sichuan chili oil sauce so i got a bag of crushed red pepper flakes (i read it's better to use chinese pepper flakes instead of korean pepper flakes because the chinese is hotter, not sure if that's true or not) and a package of bay leaves. i also got some baby bokchoi for the cafe. they had plenty of chestnuts - both the peeled and shelled kinds. my sister ended up buy chestnuts from whole foods at $12/lbs., when she could've come to chinatown and gotten them for $4/lbs.

cutting through post office square on my way to haymarket, i stopped to take advantage of the wide angle lens on my pixel 7 phone, which is good for scenery. the next phone i get - hopefully in another 3-4 years - i definitely want a zoom lens.

there was nothing too exciting at haymarket. the only thing i got was 14 large clementine oranges for $4.

i got back home by around 3pm. i was too tired to try and ride down to the cafe and drop off the supplies, figured i'd do that tomorrow. it was getting dark anyway, and i try not to ride at night if i can help it. besides, the world cup game between netherlands and argentina was still going on. at haymarket i heard someone yell out the score, 1-0 in argentina's favor. the score was still the same when i got back, but when i checked again it was 2-1 still in argentina's favor. netherlands to their credit scored another goal in the final seconds of regulation to tie the game and go into extra time. when nobody scored in 30 minutes, it went into penalty kicks. once again netherlands pushed argentina to the brink, but argentina managed to score on their last penalty kick, advancing them into the semi-finals where they'll meet croatia. tomorrow morning morocco faces off against portugal, and england versus france in the afternoon.

i went to star market to stock up on sale items: dorito chips, frozen pizza, and some asparagus.

my latest youtube obsession are miniature figure paintings. i learned that miniature these days come in either polystyrene or resin, no more metal figures. paints have come a long way, and there are these new fast paints that can do mid-range, shadow, and highlight all with one wash. some people also airbrush their figurines for a more professional coating. and just today i learned you can add magnets to miniature parts so they can be interchangeable.

for dinner i baked one of the frozen pizzas. for some reason while i was preheating the oven there was a strong gas odor in my kitchen which i've never experienced before. hopefully it's a fluke and not related to any gas line issue. as for the pizza, it was a pepperoni pizza which felt a little generic; in hindsight i should've added some anchovies to make the pizza for flavorful. i did chop up some spicy banana peppers and added them as a topping.