at 10am i shouted at lauryn through her bedroom door that i was leaving and wouldn't come back until 7-8pm. today was supposed to be a dry day so i was surprised that there was a misty drizzle as i rode the motorcycle to the cafe.

since my 2nd aunt is still in new york city for another 2 weeks, my father came to help out at the cafe today. wasn't sure what kind of day it'd be: you'd think the rainy conditions would keep customers away, but we'd had busy days despite bad weather. throughout the day we kept a running list of things to buy when we do a supply run. not only do we need to hit baifu this weekend, but restaurant depot as well, which are both in different directions.

i pruned some of the neighbor's mulberry tree that overhangs into the cafe parking lot. the neighbor's had the tree pruned recently, but they didn't bother pruning any branches that fell onto our property, only bothered to prune their's. some branches are so long, they risk breaking in stormy weather, so we did some preemptive pruning. a few more branches could use some pruning, but those are too high, and we may need to use the polesaw.

my father grilled up some extra firm tofu for lunch. i made a new batch of tea eggs for next week, as well as some black soy sauce noodles. i was afraid we'd run out of rice but we had just enough to make it to the end of the day without needing to cook any more. i still had some spicy taiwanese paocai left at the cafe and would occasionally add some to bento boxes depending on whether or not i thought the customer would appreciate it. today actually turned out to be a busy day, with the busiest period around 3-4pm.

after months of delay, my sister finally logged into the uber eats account. no sooner did she do that, we ended up getting an actual order an hour later. i'm always amazed when people choose to their food delivered instead of picking up in person, since it's more expensive. but when you have disposable income and can't be bothered with picking up an order yourself, these food delivery services are for them. uber eats is a little weird in that drivers don't vie to deliver these orders. uber is still essentially a ride share service, but i guess uber eats will alert nearby drivers about food delivery opportunities, and drivers can choose to make these deliveries enroute (and make a little extra cash) when they're not actively ferrying passengers around.

i thought it'd stop raining but it continued to precipitate. i was hoping for a lull after work so i could ride the motorcycle to belmont, but the rain actually picked up by that point, so i ended up going to belmont with my father via car instead, leaving the motorcycle behind so i could retrieve it later.

my father told me all the rain barrels were filled when he checked them this morning. i hate it that when we do get rain, it rains so much we can't capture it all. then we have a long stretch where there's zero rain, before we get another big rainstorm. ideally we'd want a bit of rain everyday preferably at nights, so i can still have the daytime to do stuff without getting wet. but i went out into the backyard and did a check anyway.

plants all seem happy to be getting so much rain, more than i could ever provide with my occasionally watering. i noticed some of our giant red mustards are starting to get holes in the leaves. when i dug around the base, i noticed a few tiny slugs, which must be the culprit. with the wet weather, there's nothing i can do about them, except to pick them off by hand, which is a gross task, like picking off boogers.

we never repotted the spanish lavender we bought from costco last season. its soil is so porous, it can't hold any water, so the lavender seems dry all the time, to the point of wilting, and the pot always feel light because its so dry. but when i do some research online, sandy fast-draining soil is exactly the kind of conditions spanish lavenders like. the jasmines are flowering more. being outside has dramatically decreased any mealybug issues. once we get more natural predators, that should clear up any mealybugs completely.

we have two caged hollyhocks and they're already developed flower buds. they're actually pretty easy to grow, but we've had terrible luck because rabbits love to eat them, even the higher leaves, so they need to be protected if they have any chance of surviving in our backyard.

another concern i have are the pileas and prayer plants. temperature tonight will drop into the 40's, and i'm wondering if they can survive such cold temperatures. but they're already been outside for nearly a week now, and underneath the protective canopy of the maple tree, they don't get too hot or too cold. i haven't seen any signs of cold temperature damage yet, so i think they'll be fine. besides, i have so many, if i lose a few, it won't be a big deal.

because of the overcast weather, the magenta spiderwort flowers stayed open throughout the day. the honeysuckles are also beginning to bloom, so many flower buds, the western bed will be super fragrant in another week or so. and we noticed this about a week or two ago, but some of the long beans have already started to flower (pink). the plants are still low to the ground, and any developing beans will not have ample room to grow. maybe me wonder if i could remove the flowers for the time being, so they can focus on climbing before they flower.

my mother cooked up some ground beef with fermented long beans for dinner. these beans were sealed in an airtight jar and even though they're almost a year old, they didn't have that weird antiseptic flavor of those last batch of fermented long beans, and these beans were still crunchy. we also had some of my father's salt-reduced flavored radish leaves, which also had a crunchy texture. my mother also brought out the leftover pasta salad from last week.

after dinner i was looking out the window into the backyard when i saw something scurrying on the ground. at first i thought it was a squirrel, but it seemed too large to be a squirrel. maybe a rabbit? but after a few seconds more of watching, i realized what it was: a large rat! that a rat would be out during the "daylight" is troubling. it also didn't look too healthy, could've just been wet, but its fur looked a bit mangy. my father saw it too, before it disappeared. i went outside to see where it went but couldn't find it anymore. we've never had rats before, even though one time a while back i did see one but it died soon afterwards, must've ate too much rat poison. there has also been one or two mysterious holes in the lawn that suddenly appeared, but they were out in the open, and more likely made by rabbits. anyway, something to keep an eye on. war against rabbits and chipmunks and squirrels is one thing, but rats are a different thing altogether. my hope is it too ate some rat poison, and was just wandering the backyard to find a quiet place to die.

my father give me a ride back to cambridge around 6:30pm. it was raining a little bit, a very light drizzle, so he dropped me off back at the cafe so i could ride my motorcycle home. i found lauryn putting away groceries in the fridge. she went to the fresh pond trader joe's today, said it only took 30 minutes to walk down there. she bought some dumplings (gyoza) from trader joe's, and was probably adamant on going because she had some favorite foods she wanted to get since last summer.

lauryn did try to contact fei fei but she her she was a bit under the weather today so they didn't get to meet. lauryn was in the middle of making dinner, and asked if i had any soy sauce (she'd already searched the cupboards, and was surprised i kept my soy sauce in the fridge). she used my rice cooker to make a single serving's worth of rice, and earlier had already cooked some pork strips. i told her she didn't have to eat in her bedroom, and that she was free to use all areas of the house. so she ate dinner from the dining table while watching videos on her phone.

i went to use the bathroom and take a shower while lauryn was cooking. i found myself having a bit of performance anxiety, because i didn't want to make any embarrassing sounds while i was in the bathroom (i have thin walls). the things you take for granted when you live alone!

there was nothing on tv and game 2 of the NBA finals isn't until tomorrow night. i just watched some youtube videos, and found myself dozing off in my chair. these past few months i've been really tired and feeling weak. is it not enough sleep? or maybe a potassium deficiency? i used to eat bananas all the time (when i made my summer smoothies), maybe i should get back to that practice. i'm going to try and use the bathroom one last time before going to bed early.