i left haymarket by 8:40am and made it back by 9am. there was also a cambridge bike ride event starting from the public library at 9:30am. originally i was going to go, but the ride would take 2 hours, and wouldn't end up 11:30am, and i had to be at the cafe by 10:30am. i could've left early, but who knows where i'll be in cambridge around at that, and it might be a long trek to get back to the cafe. better to play it safe. instead i relaxed a bit, used the bathroom, took a shower, made myself a bagel sandwich. i packed up my things in my saddlebags and rode to the cafe by 10:30am. like an idiot i forgot to bring the sandwich that i'd made, and i was hungry too.
i'd asked my sister to cook 8 cups of rice, which is the most we've ever cooked with the cooker. when i got there though, the rice wasn't cooking, but for some reason she'd already turned up the air conditioner, like that was the most important thing. when i told her cooking the rice was the most important thing, she got angry.
my 2nd aunt actually scoffed when she saw my sister had taken out two servings of beef noodle soup. "nobody's going to buy beef noodles today," the thinking being that it was too hot for said noodles. those turned out to be famous last words, as we ended up selling at least 7 beef noodle soups, including a grubhub order that was just 3 beef noodles, as if the beef noodle gods were making a joke. at one point we preparing 5 beef noodles, which turned into a complete mess. the bottle neck is the beef noodle broth, which we freeze for storage. we were heating them in the microwave when we should've dumped them into a large pot and heated them all together on the induction stove. that created a logjam that affected a few additional orders that came after that. customers were forced to wait, and the grubhub driver seemed especially disgruntled that she had to wait 15 more minutes.
i also made ice cubes today, 6 containers. i turned on the ice maker remotely via app at 10am, i should've turned it on even earlier but forgot. it churned dutifully in the basement, and i didn't close it down until 2:30pm, figuring we had enough ice to last us for the rest of the day.
while getting something from the basement upright freezers, an 8lbs. frozen lump of chicken thigh fell on my 2nd aunt's foot. she came back up wincing in pain, and asked us what she should do. it was painful but wasn't serious, and eventually she managed to walk it off. i didn't think anything was broken, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to use that foot at all. she was wearing soft shoes which were essentially just glorified slippers.
my sister's korean friend came to help at the cafe today. her presence wasn't necessary, but had a calming effect on my sister, even though she still took the time to come into the kitchen and chastise both my aunt and i for supposedly getting orders wrong or not helping her out enough. her korean friend tried my daikon radish kimchi, said it was good, but didn't finish all the kimchi, so i have my doubt. i don't have any korean friends myself, so i was able to pick her brain about various other types of kimchi.
the daikon radish kimchi came out because both my 2nd aunt and i made indomie instant noodles for lunch. she had her chicken soup indomie, while i had the classic spicy soupless indomie. i don't know if my sister ate any lunch today, but she was going with her korean friend after work to an asian food night market at boston city hall.
we made good business today. i was afraid 8 cups of rice was too much, but in the end we were left with just 4 servings left, so our estimate was correct. why beef noodle soup was the most popular item of the day is a complete mystery. somehow it's in the cultural zeitgeist, making complete strangers wander into the cafe in search of it.
a group of millennial customers suddenly came into the cafe right when were about to close. it looked like they were coming back from a beach day. fortunately they were ordering mostly drinks and a few simple noodle dishes, so nothing too bad, but that prevented me from leaving until 4:30pm.
these past week has been super busy for me. i've had to wake up early to run errands, like buy chicken thighs from star market or ride down to haymarket and chinatown. and after work often times i have to either go to the community garden or my parents' place to do garden work. today was no exception. i rode to belmont to water the backyard plants. i was also there to swap the motorcycle for the car, so i could move those u-posts to the community garden. i didn't see any rabbits in the backyard, but i did see a large rabbit loitering in the front yard, maybe that's the mother rabbit searching for her babies still. while walking around the driveway, i noticed the camry was a little lopsided. sure enough, when i checked the tires, one of them was nearly completely flat. i managed to pump it back up with the air compressor (35psi), but i'm not sure how long that's going to last, so the tire will need to be taken somewhere to be repaired at some point.
i bought my parents a stainless steel tubshroom and installed it into their bathtub, a perfect fit. i have one at my place and it seems to trap 100% of the hairs that would otherwise go down the drain. it also created a safety barrier, so things don't just fall down into the drain. it came with a universal stopper, but it didn't seem to work in the bathroom sink. probably wouldn't use it anyway, it's really big, almost looks like it's sticking out of the sink when installed (even though it wasn't working).
i left belmont and got back to cambridge by 6pm. i stopped by the community garden to drop off the u-post, park the car outside my house, then walk back down to the garden to work. i bumped into jeff, who was finally moving in. he said he might stop by the garden later. lynn was there earlier, and was still in the garden. we always have nice garden chats, each admiring one another's gardens. she made a hasty retreat when one of the other gardeners (whom apparently not many people like) came to talk to her. i quickly installed my new u-posts, replacing the 4ft ones with these new 7ft posts. they're only supposed to be 5ft tall and you're supposed to drive the posts underground 2 feet, but the deepest i could get still exposed 1/2 ft worth of post. those posts also seem really tall, and i think i might get a talking-to from the garden coordinator for violating garden rules. another garden - evelyn - came to ask me what i was growing. she though i was growing loofahs last season before i told her they were bitter melons. she said she started some bitter melon seeds herself, and already have seedlings, but was afraid to plant them for fear of cold damage. i told her i already planted some (at my parents' place) last week and they survived the cold nights just fine. finally, jeff did come to the garden. i showed him my plot, before he left to find some dinner.
i finally left the garden by 7pm. tomorrow i'm coming back to plant some seedlings.
for dinner it was simple: i just ate the breakfast bagel sandwich i made for lunch but forgot to bring to the cafe. i ate it cold, it was still good. with no basketball until tomorrow, there was nothing else good on tv tonight.
i ordered yet another tablet for the cafe (lenovo tab M8 (3rd gen) 8 inches) for $69 from walmart, the same one i ordered back in january for our square online orders station. this one will be for uber eats. my sister signed up an account for the cafe months ago, but we've never activated it, and uber eats has since given up on us after calling repeatedly every day to get use to start using them.