today was a repeat of yesterday in terms of weather, although i don't think it hit the 90's. i checked my grow closet seedlings. the long bean seedlings have all unfurled, opening their leaves to take advantage of the grow lights. i decided to turn off the heat pad because it was making the closet too warm.

i went to the cafe around 10:40am. i brought the large pruners, so i could help my sister prune some grapevines in her backyard and to cut back some overhanging evergreens from nearby neighbors. i also let hailey into the backyard. i removed the piles of dead leaves on top of the shed. they were there for so long, there was some rich compost as well.

by the time i went back to the cafe around noontime i was pretty sweaty and dirty. alex stopped by right when we were getting busy. when things started to quiet down, i helped my sister do her taxes. when i told her i'd send copies of her taxes via e-mail, she said no, that it was unsafe. when i told her i'd mail off her state taxes at the post office, she said she wanted to file them electronically, even though it meant the difference between $1 postage versus $20 electronic filing fee.

it was a stuffy 84 degrees inside the cafe today. my parents left the front door open for ventilation, but it was still hot. finally they asked me to change the wiring of the nest thermostat so we could turn on the air conditioner. it didn't work right away, the circuit breaker for the rooftop AC was turned off for some reason. i think this is just a temporary measure, and by next week i'll switch the heat back on, since daytime temperature is supposed to be in the 50-60's with 30-40's nighttime.

i left the cafe by 2pm and headed off to belmont to do more gardening stuff. i wanted to rake the backyard then apply crabgrass preventer and fertilizer on both the front and back lawn. because i'd already dethatched the backyard back in the fall, there wasn't much to be done, so i started with the herbicide/fertilizer. i did the front lawn first, before moving onto the back lawn. there was enough in a single 14lb. bag to cover the whole lawn (minus the square of reseeding front lawn).

inspecting the reseeding lawn, today i noticed a lot more grass seeds sprouting. if we do get some rain this weekend, that will really help the grass to grow even faster. the rhubarb is growing like crazy. the tough leaves are like inflating balloons. even though there looks to be some damage from the initial sprout, none of the leaves were damaged (which shows you that rabbits don't eat rhubarbs, but i'll keep it fenced in regardless). besides the baby bokchoi sprouting in the window box planters, all the baby bokchoi seeds i planted just on tuesday (3 days ago!) in plant starter cells have all germinated as well. i moved them outside so they can get more sun.

i left belmont around 3:30pm, returning to the cafe.

at the cafe i activated the google fi sim card i bought months ago. it's the unlimited plus SIM kit, which normally sells for $65 but i got it for $45. it's supposed to come with a $65 starting credit but i couldn't find any instructions on how to activate that. in the end i signed up for a google fi account using my google account and credit card. the sim didn't at first when i put it into my pixel 7 phone. i was about to contact text support when i noticed i was now getting data service. the $65 plan works internationally and is unlimited. i tried hotspot tethering, which worked as well. i then put the google fi sim card into my mother's phone, and it worked without installing the google fi app.

my father went to go pick up my 2nd aunt. her flight to europe was at 9:50pm via swiss air, and my father was going to drop her off at the airport after work. the google fi sim card was for her. when i installed it into her moto phone however, it didn't work. i was connected to google fi, but the data wouldn't activate until i downloaded the google fi app and signed in with my google account. that presents a slight issue because now my 2nd aunt has access to my google, but it's a small price to pay. once she comes back from europe in 2 weeks, she'll give the sim card to my parents so they can use it for their trip to europe.

i didn't leave the cafe until closing time. when i got back home, all i wanted to do was crash and do nothing. later in the evening my 2nd aunt called me from the airport. she thanked me for setting up her phone and said she was already at her gate, waiting for her flight. we won't know if the google fi sim card actually works until she arrives in europe and starts connecting to european data.

you know summer is here when i'm busting out my 40 oz. insulated tumbler and filling it with ice water. i've been really thirsty the past few days, must be the hot and dry weather we've been getting.

i spotted tiny ants in my living room. apparently they're coming in from a very small gap in one of the window moldings. i sprinkled some ground pepper around the windowsill because i heard ants don't like the smell. however i still found some ants. one way to solve this problem is to recaulk the molding.

originally i was going to make korean ramen for dinner, but then i remembered i still had some leftover grilled chicken. instead i made another greek salad. i watched the bulls-heats game. bulls look like they might win, but the heat pulled ahead in the final minutes to win the game. there was also a thunder-timberwolves game. i'm not familiar with either of those teams, but minnesota ended up winning.