i woke up at 8am this morning, even though i set the alarm to 9am. i tried going back to sleep, but kept waking and checking the time every 10 minutes, so i finally decided to get up. besides, renee's electricians came back and had started their drilling and hammering.

i left by 9:30am and got to MGH in under 20 minutes. i checked in and waited, taking off my pullover so i'd be ready for my shot. it took a while before nurse cathy saw to me. she told me for my 3rd and last shot, i could get it anytime between 5 to 11 months from now. she suggested i make the appointment to coincide with my annual physical to save time.

when i went to the receptionist to make the appointment, apparently my next physical would be in september, but it hadn't been scheduled yet. however, i prefer my annual in february, to coincide with my birthday. unfortunately i couldn't make a nurse appointment that far in advance. so i told the receptionist to just make a vaccine appointment at the earliest possible time, which would be august. i'll schedule my physical some other time.

i left MGH by 10:20am and biked to chinatown. i used to get there by going around boston public garden then down arlington street, but ever since i discover the shortcut that cuts across boston common and down tremont street, i haven't looked back. this new way is not only shorter, but safer too, as there's a new protected bike lane down tremont.

i went to c-mart first, just to get some asian pears for the korean kimchi. it was a lot busier today compared to yesterday, when there was hardly any customers. i didn't bother wearing a mask even though at least 90% of the people there did. after that i went to ming's market to collect a bunch of vegetables that i saw yesterday but couldn't bring back due to space limitation.

finally i headed to haymarket via downtown crossing and post office square. this was actually the first time this year that i've been to haymarket. the last time was back in late december. it wasn't for lack of trying, but for the past 2 months, seems like every single friday it was raining or on a few occasions simply too cold. some stalls were empty, either i was there too early, or vendors have quit the discount produce business. my haul: a large bag of scallions ($3), 1 lbs. of ginger ($2), sleeve of garlic ($2), 5 sumo oranges ($2), 12 clementines ($2).

i left haymarket around 11:30am and biked to the cafe to drop off the supplies. i got there by 12pm.

my sister has said something about taking fridays off, but i thought that was in reaction to having to work a week in april while my parents went on vacation. but now that their vacation has been cancelled, i figured she'd come back to work. however that wasn't the case. not a big deal if the cafe isn't busy, which it was for most of the week, but today was different. it got so hectic i couldn't go home, but spent the next 2 hours fulfilling a rapid succession of orders, both online, walk-in, and phone. a friend of my parents even showed up, she ordered some stuff right during our busiest time, and stood there in the way chatting while we were all trying to work.

i was finally able to leave sometime after 2pm. i wasn't home for very long before i went out one last time to market basket for some last minute groceries. it was really busy because we have another snowstorm arriving overnight, so people were panic buying in anticipation of the bad weather.

i got home by 3:30pm. i warmed up a spicy jamaican patty, first in the microwave, then a few minutes in the toaster oven to crisp it up. it wasn't that good (should've gotten the frozen burritos), but i was hungry enough that i would've eaten anything.

lounging on the couch, i felt asleep around 5pm, just really tired from biking a total of 14 miles today. i woke up at 6pm to catch the news. by 6:30pm i was in the kitchen, trying to figure out if i should start my korean kimchi tonight. but one procrastination lead to another, and i ended up cleaning my fish tank instead. it hasn't been cleaned since my last tetra died back in late october, and about 2-3 gallons of water had already evaporated, making the aquarium look especially neglected and sad. it wasn't in too terrible shape, and the hair algae has sort of slowed down without any fish to produce natural fertilizer. there was still some hair algae though, which i cleaned with a toothbrush. i think the algae is causing my anubias leaves to lose their colors. now that no fish lives in the tank, i can treat it with all sorts of chemicals (like algae remover) and not have to worry about killing any critters.

in the evening i reheated another tonkatsu, along with some rice. i also shredded some cabbage and placed it in an ice bath. i'm kind of tonkatsu'ed out, so i wrapped up the last one and put it in the freezer for future eating. as for the sauce, today i upped the ketchup portion to 3 tbsp, which made it slightly thicker. i didn't bother adding the mirin. i finished up all the tonkatsu, but had some leftover rice and a whole heap of shredded cabbage which i ended up throwing away into the compost bin.