it was 9:50am by the time i got back to the house but my roommate had already left for the office. i used the bathroom and took a shower, out the door by 10:20am. while i was in the bathroom checked the order details. it wasn't a square order, but rather a grubhub delivery order. judging from the amount that was ordered, looked to be a party of 20. we'd make enough from a single order what we might normally make in a single day.
i got to the cafe by 10:30am. the order was scheduled for 11:45am. luckily most of the items were bento boxes, which are pretty easy to assemble. we had all the ingredients ready, the boxes prepared. once we got within 30 minutes of pickup, we started putting everything together. my sister was there too, causing more of a headache than actually helping. she wouldn't leave either, said she wanted to make sure we didn't mess up the order. we've had big orders before (usually from this one person who seems to be affiliated with harvard, never tips), so it's fairly routine by this point. grubhub drivers for some reason always like to arrive early. the driver today came 25 minutes head of schedule. my sister said they get a bigger commission for larger orders, so maybe the driver was just eager to cash in.
my mother was complaining about how there was no hot water in the sink. i went down to the basement to check, and sure enough, the light on the hot water tank was off. at first i thought maybe a circuit breaker had tripped, but they were all fine. i had no idea what happened, but then read the tiny print directions for the temperature dial. apparently the light only turns on when the pilot light is lit. for whatever reason the pilot light had flickered off. i pushed down the pilot light starter and after a few seconds a blue led started blinking, meaning the pilot light was on. i turned the dial to a temperature and could hear the "woosh" as the natural gas ignited. still don't know why the pilot light went out, hope it's not a sign of any larger issue, maybe just a fluke.
once the order went out, we could breathe a sign of relief. it wasn't even noontime yet. any additional profit we made today would be a bonus. we used up most of our tea eggs - luckily i made that batch on saturday that at the time seemed unnecessary - so i ended up making another batch. i also turned on the ice machine in the basement, occasionally going downstairs to box the ice to put into the freezer, making sure the chute wasn't clogged with falling ice.
michael called me out of the blue. afraid it was something computer related, the first thing he said was the computer was fine. he called asking if i wanted to grab some dinner tonight. we made plans to meet around 6pm back at my place.
we got to try out the pair of cuisinart-brand forged santoku knives. my mother was pretty determined to hate them so they can be returned, until she tried them, and instantly fell in love with the new knives. the 5-inch was a little small - maybe good for vegetables. the 7-inch was better for meat cutting, whether it be pork or chicken. for $25 they're not a bad deal, and i'm not a knife snob who thinks only good knives costs hundreds of dollars. they also came with plastic blade covers, which i used to retire two old stamped knives.
my father brought the two flowering orchids from the backyard to the cafe. he accidentally left an older orchid outside in the hot sun which essentially killed the plant. the leaves were wilty, and when i saw the plant today, many leaves had turned yellow as well. we'll bring it back to belmont and leave it outside, hoping it might revive, otherwise we have no choice but to throw it out. orchids do not like direct sun! as for the other orchids, i sprayed them with insecticidal soap then gave them a good watering outside before bringing them inside. something else that happened: we had a potted hyacinth on the back deck. some of its vines were eaten by rabbits a few weeks ago, so i put some chicken wire around the rest of the plant. it seemed like overkill, because the pot itself was in an elevated stand, and i was also afraid customers might scratch themselves on the chicken wire, so i removed them, thinking the plant would be safe. it was safe until yesterday, when a rabbit defoliated the whole plant, leaving just empty stalks.
i helped my father reinstall the folding tray table. he'd already placed the new toggler toggle anchors into the drywall walls, 6 total. he just needed someone to hold the table steady while he screwed in the screws. because of the metal folding mechanism, only the two screws at the very bottom were reachable by power drill (we didn't have any long screw bits). the other 4 screws we had to use manual screwdrivers, and the two screws at the very top were incredibly hard to screw in. but eventually we managed to get them all - with the exception of the upper left toggle anchor. i think i pushed it in while trying to turn the screw, and there was no way to get to grab anymore. it's not ideal, but the tray table is held in place by 5 other toggle anchors, and that should be enough, as each one is rated to hold up 143 lbs.
my parents prepared the boneless chicken thighs i brought in today, as they were all out of salt and pepper chicken. after seasoning and breading, my father fried up all of them. afterwards he got a chance to use the fry oil can i bought last week. he could pour in the hot oil without fear of shattering or melting the stainless steel container. the strainer filtered out any solids, leaving behind just fry oil for next time.
i left the cafe by 5pm. i took a shower when i got home and changed out of my fry-oil-smelling clothes. michael showed up a few minutes before 6pm and we drove out to singh's dhaba on mass ave, between harvard and central square. he had lunch takeout from there one time and said it was pretty good so wanted to come back and see what dinner was like.
we first ordered two mango lassi with a side of chili chicken wings ($10.95), while we tried to figure out what to order. i've only eaten indian food a handful of times, and many of the dishes are still a mystery to me, so i have almost zero idea what's good. sometimes i can go by spiciness level, but there was no hotness indicator, since all dishes can be hot adjusted on demand. there were a lot of vegetarian dishes - almost half the menu - but i like my dinner meaty. we got the lamb bhuna gosht ($17.95) and the malai kofta ($14.95) - a sort of potato and paneer dumplings. later we added another chicken dish - the chicken achari curry ($16.95). plus a serving of fried bread. the dumplings had the best flavor - kind of a sweet and creamy tikka masala sauce. the bhuna gosht was a mash of ingredients hard to decipher, but the lamb was definitely flavorful. the chicken curry was the weakest selection - another spice mashed curry, the best thing that can be said about it was at least the chicken was tender.
michael told me the shop is running under summer hours now, and closed sundays and mondays. his family is summering in their new hampshire cabin, and he's actually been commuting back and forth every day, doing the 1-1/2 hour drive each way. last week's rain nearly flooded their house, and very closely almost swept away their boat. now because they're doing dam repair, the town drained the lake so they went from having too much water to no water. tonight he wasn't commuting up to new hampshire, that's why he was able to get out and grab some dinner. he's actually spending the rest of the evening doing laundry at home, as they don't have a washer dryer in their cabin.
michael ended up paying for dinner, as appreciation for my occasional computer help. i took home all the leftovers. i haven't been out in a while and after we left the restaurant, i was surprised by how lively that area of cambridge was, on a weekday evening no less. michael dropped me off back at my place by 7:45pm.
around 9pm an oil recycling truck pulled up next to the nearby restaurant and started siphoning all the waste oil. why they do it at night i don't know, maybe because it smells bad? but the pump is insanely loud and vibrates the whole block, i was almost tempted to call the police and complain. instead i went out to take some photos and videos (for future evidence), which also gave me an excuse to run to the nearby liquor store to buy a powerball ticket. the jackpot tonight was over $1 billion.
the numbers i got looked promising, it even included my neighbor and my house numbers, which seemed like fate somehow. when 11pm rolled around i checked the numbers: not a single match! fortunately later i learned a single ticket in california got the jackpot, so finally we can all go back to our normal lives, and not feel obligated to play the lottery for a chance to win a $1 billion jackpot. 3 people in massachusetts were lucky enough to win $1 million, including a ticket sold at a waltham gas station convenience store.