considering all the angles, the only way i can go to haymarket this week is if i go early before work. apparently haymarket opens early - like 7am - and i'd about to find out for myself. i woke up at 7am and left the house around 7:30am. there was hardly any bike traffic this early in the morning. i got to haymarket by 8am. 2/3rd of the vendors were already there, but some were still setting up. a few vendors still hadn't arrived yet. the seller who had the maroc oranges was one of the missing vendors. i ended up getting a dozen sunkist ojai pixie oranges for $6; they resembled gold nuggets but with a rounder shape and less lumpy. i also got some persian cucumbers, 2 lbs. for $3. i would've bought more (like hot peppers, cilantro), but i was all out of dollar bills and the only other cash i had on hand was a $50.

i was prepared to go home but because it was still early, i figured i'd have time to visit ming's market in chinatown which opens at 8am, and still have time to get to the cafe by 9am. so i biked by the old state house to get onto tremont street, which was then a straight shot to ming's.

what did i need to get at ming's? tea egg spices. we only had 2 boxes left, and considering how fast tea eggs are selling these days, i wasn't sure if we'd have enough for next week.

i started cycling back to cambridge by 8:30am. i texted my sister, said i might not get there at exactly 9am, she said it was okay.

i got to my place by 9am, because i decided i needed the motorcycle after work so i could get to belmont. i also changed out of my sweaty clothes and put all my houseplants and grow closet plants into the backyard.

i got to the cafe by 9:20am. my sister's godmother showed up around 10am, my 2nd aunt showed up sometime after 11am. for the next 9+ hours it was a battle. once again, it didn't get crazy busy, nor was it slow, just a steady stream of business. the hot weather wasn't a motivating factor to get people to come out and have lunch. nobody sat in the back patio except for one couple who came in the morning when the weather was still pleasant. it was also windy, and i had to take down the umbrella because it was swinging dangerously.

i made a new batch of tea eggs, as my 2nd aunt ridiculed me because there was still a lot of eggs in the slow cooker. but by the end of the day we sold at least 15 eggs, and she admitted i was right for starting a new batch. i cooked black noodles twice, cooked some dumplings, and also cooked some boba. i made ice cubes - 6 containers - but by the end of the day we'd already used 4 of them.

the indian guy who used to come to the cafe all the time and basically camp out here but then disappeared for a few weeks finally returned today. he gifted us a box of tea, thanking us for giving him a place to stay while he worked on his graduate school applications. he also got into stanford, though my sister failed to ask in what subject.

my mother called me from prague. they're leaving for frankfurt tomorrow before taking a flight back to boston, arriving early sunday afternoon. my 2nd aunt was clamoring to talk with her, to let her know her airline charged her a $100 baggage fee when she came back from europe.

i gave some ojai pixie oranges to my aunt and sister. we tried one, it's sweet and juicy with a different flavor unlike other oranges. i like it enough that i'm going to wake up early again tomorrow morning and make another trip to haymarket to get some more.

i saved the leftover water from boiling the boba balls. it smells very sweet and fragrant, but when i tasted it last time, it was mostly bland. this time i added it to a bowl of ice and sugar. the taste reminded me of chinese white ear mushroom soup. my aunt tried some, she said it tasted mostly like a brown sugar drink (after adding sugar to sweeten it). it could be something we might sell, since it still tastes very much like boba without any actual bobas.

after we closed at 6:30pm, i motorcycled to belmont to water my plants. going into the house, i noticed the front faucet was dripping. when i went to fix it by tightening the bonnet nut, it seemed to make it worse, so i ended up having to remove the entire assembly and repack it with graphite valve stem packing. i think the problem is we leaving the faucet turned on after replacing the packing. at first it works fine, but over time, the water pressure works its way through the packing, creating a leak. what i ended up doing was water the front lawn one last time before replacing the packing. i'm going to leave the faucet in the closed position, and hopefully being in this closed position for an extended period of time we help the packing form a tighter seal.

only then was i able to water the plants. but the drama wasn't over. while turning on the pump, i saw a rabbit scurrying out from the corner. i looked to where it was hiding a saw a group of bunnies. two of the bunnies scurried away, leaving the rest behind. bunnies instinctively remain still when they sense danger, until they're forced to flee. when i got closer to examine them, they all ran away. two of them fell into the stairwell. i thought they'd plunged to their deaths, but they were fine, just still in the stairwell. using a bucket, i fished them out and released them out into the front yard. will they survive without their mother? who knows, but they're big enough that they were about to leave the nest soon anyway.

i'm sad to report that despite putting up chickenwire fencing this season, something still managed to kill at least two of the seedlings, a blue bean and a squash. i guess the strategy is to plant so many that if a few gets sacrificed, there's still plenty left over.

i left belmont by 7:30pm. my sister texted me saying she wasn't home and hailey was barking. so instead of going home, i made another detour, this time to check up on my sister's dog. sure enough, she was still barking. i took her into the backyard where she used the bathroom before calmly returning to the house.

i finally returned home by 8pm. since 7am this morning i've basically been running non-stop. i throw a frozen chicken alfredo into the oven while i watched the knicks-heats game. i snacked on some adobaba potato chips, which don't tasted very good, but i finished the whole bag regardless. i wasn't able to have dinner until after 9pm.