i woke up this morning and went to work on removing the last remaining screw from the loosen front step. the screw extractor wasn't working at all on account that the screw had been driven in at an angle. i could understand why the handyman did this - since the original screw hole wasn't providing any purchase after he put the screw back in place - but it made a simple extraction of the screw nearly impossible. i ended up digging out the edge of the screw head with a small screwdriver to give it some clearance. i then turned the screw from the exposed screw end until it started coming out the other side. once enough of the screw was exposed, i continued turning it with a pair of pliers from the top side until the screw finally came out. i need to get some supplies from home depot tomorrow and hopefully fix the loose step before jeff returns on tuesday.

i then went to the community garden to water my plants. it was 11am and the day was already getting hot.

i found a hair tie on the ground and tied up my hair - which by now is plenty long - into a ponytail. a neighbor tossed out a bunch of unused 16 oz. plastic solo cups which i took so i can use them next season as pots.

i made it to belmont by 11:30am with a container of pasta salad strapped to the back seat with bungie netting. i had a cold leftover burger king cheese burger for lunch. after i finished, my mother hurried me to help her buy a pair of comfortable shoes online. since she tried a few pairs of brooks yesterday, she knew what to expect from them. she was adamant she buys them from amazon because of their free return policy, but we ended up getting a pair from footlocker of all places - brooks ghost 14 in black/pearl/peach ($100) - because they had the style she wanted (amazon didn't) and we could always return them at the nearest footlocker store.

the day was gearing up to 4pm, when my aunt and uncle would come over for a memorial day weekend barbecue. my parents did not hold any barbecue events last year. seems like we were the only household having a barbecue today, the neighborhood was unusually quiet, like everyone else had left town for the weekend. the weather was pleasant - hot but dry (temperature in the 80's). my sister left hailey at home while she went back to her place to continue cleaning. my father earlier had moved all the remaining houseplants (mostly pileas) back outside. i contacte temu about returning a cracked clear orchid pot and they told me to keep it plus refund. the pot was still usable though, so i repotted our smallest orchid into this clear container.

i also moved out the gardenia - the last remaining plant still growing indoors - after discovering mealybugs on the flower buds. i sprayed it with neem oil before rinsing it with water. i also watered it with fertilizer-spiked rain water, with what remained i used to water the jasmines. i planted the two columbines and a lavender underneath the grapevines, added compost to the holes before sprinkling some slow release fertilizer pellets.

my father moved out his stainless steel camping stove and fired it up in the backyard underneath the shade of the maple tree. later he burned some wood matthew gave him and something smelled really nice, either hawthorn or spruce, but it had a fragrance reminiscent of chinese temple incense (my guess is the spruce). we took the collapsible picnic table from the garage and set it up in the backyard underneath the maple tree as well. this was actually our first time using this table after getting it last year.

around 3:30pm we started grilling the first of our meats: 鹽酥雞 marinated drumsticks. my aunt and uncle arrived promptly at 4pm, right when the drumsticks were about to finish cooking. that was followed by italian sausages, then blue cheese burgers. my father was also prepared to make salt & pepper shrimps on the outdoor wok but by that point everyone was pretty full.

my aunt and uncle left after 8pm, after helping with the clean up by bringing everything into the kitchen. about to drive off, we noticed the special audi door lights. matthew was looking at our reseeded front lawn and suggested mixing the grass seeds with soil before broadcasting, for a more even distribution. he also said he'd drop off a dethatching rake.

i left belmont by around 8:30pm. along the way home i saw a discarded plant stand on garden street. after getting home, i switched to my bicycle and rode back to get the plant stand. i was prepared, had a towel to rest the stand on so it wouldn't get marred from my rear baskets, and used my bungie netting to secure the item. i rode home carefully, since i was more wider on either sides, making sure not to hit any passing signs or scratch any parked cars. i was finally able to inspect the stand more carefully when i got home. the item has some surface rust and the white paint was coming off as powder. it's pretty sturdy though, and came hold two plants. i think it'd clean up nicely, repaint it with some spray enamel for a glossy finish.

no basketball tonight but i spent the rest of the evening digging up anything videos related to last night's game between the celtics and heat.

later in the evening i made some homemade lemonade with the 10 lemons i bought from haymarket two weeks ago. the recipe went much faster this time. using my juicer, i was able to extract 2-1/2 cups of lemon juice. i divided the juice into 2 portions, so i could make two pitchers of lemonade. i also made some sugar syrup - 1-3/4 cups of sugar heated with 1 cup of water. i had two 2 qt pitchers. i filled each one with 1qt of water (4 cups each). i then added roughly 1-1/2 cups of lemon juice to each pitcher. i divided the syrup, about a cup each. finally i added another 1 cup of water to each pitcher.