i went to the porter square post office this morning to mail in my US passport application form and old passport. when the clerk asked me if i wanted tracking, i reflexively said no, even though afterwards i sort of regret it. i think i was still leery from the last package i sent via USPS, $5 for something the same weight and size. so i was surprised when the total this time was only 87¢. at least there's a way to check the passport status online, so i can still check if the passport application arrived or not.

i returned home by 9:30am. lauryn didn't leave for work until after 10am. she has her routines, i have mine: i went to use the bathroom before taking a shower. i left a bit before 11am.

i went to the community garden to check on my plants. i knew what was happening before i even arrived, because i could already hear the fun house music blaring from the park behind the garden. every year around mid-late-june, the school has a party full of activities and bouncy castle for the kids before they leave for summer vacation. as far as my plot goes, my nigellas were splendid, and i even saw some striped mallows that decided to join the flower party. while there, i realized my mother has already asked me a few times for some garlic chives. so instead of going to the cafe, i went home to grab some bags and a knife, and came back to the garden to cut some chives for her. because of this i didn't get to the cafe for my friday shift until 11:30am.

we had a busy day. normally when it's busy, time seems to go much faster. but today was the exact opposite: we'd have a busy period, look at the clock, and realized it was still early. i made a new batch of tea eggs. i cooked two batches of soy sauce noodles. my father let us try the aiyu jelly he made. the jelly itself is tasteless, but it's traditionally added with lemon juice and sugar for flavoring, which made it pretty good. it also had to be eaten cold. aiyu jelly tastes like a very soft jello, and if you didn't know otherwise, would've thought it was jello, except occasionally you get some leftover aiyu jelly grits. the selling point for aiyu jelly is that it's entirely vegan, unlike jello, because gelatin is made from animal by-products.

i also made a new batch of taiwanese paocai. i had 5.5 lbs. of taiwanese cabbage which i shredded by hand. my mother helped me cut the carrots into matchsticks, about 0.5 lbs. i used 5 tbsp of salt to reduce the cabbage and 1/2 tbsp to reduce the carrot. i mixed constantly (with gloves), which made the reduction go much faster, and i was ready to combine the paocai in 20-30 minutes. i used 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of white vinegar, added to which a single chopped thai chili pepper and about a tbsp of sichuan peppercorns. after rinsing the vegetables, i squeezed them to get out every drop of remaining water before adding to the pickling juice. the final result fit perfectly inside a 12 cup plastic tub.

i returned home by 5pm. since it's going to rain all day tomorrow, i covered up my motorcycle. i reheated two slices of lahmajun (armenian pizza) that my sister bought. i never had it before, i found it kind of meh. lauryn didn't get home until 7pm. when i asked her this morning if she liked the zongzi, she told me she didn't eat it yet, saving it for tomorrow morning. however, she ended up having it tonight, steaming it on the stove in a small bowl, when i explained to her yesterday that she could microwave it in the steam tray (maybe because she didn't find it since i put it away).

originally i was going to make korean rice cake for dinner, but because i didn't thaw the rice cake earlier, i decided to have some frozen meat tortellini was a simple jar of pasta sauce. i ate around 8:30pm, watching the latest episode (8) of silo i downloaded earlier. every episode ends in a cliffhanger, it's all i can do to not read the book so i can find out what happens next. once the first season is over, i'm definitely reading the book, already have it downloaded.

i repaired my xiaomi mi box S remote controller. it's been acting up for a few weeks now, like buttons not working, or worse, automatically turning on the tv by itself, or exiting shows while i'm watching them. some would say it's because there's a ghost in the house, but not believing in the supernatural, i know it's because the remote is malfunctioning. tonight the remote stopped working altogether. i ended up opening the remote to clean some battery contacts. after removing the metal parts, i dipped the rusty metal in some vinegar before cleaning it with an emery cloth. i then put everything back together and happy to report the remote is working again. should the day come when the remote finally dies, temu sells OEM replacement remotes for less than $6.