it started when we got two online orders. my 2nd aunt and i were fulfilling the orders in the kitchen, while my sister was chatting with some customers, paying no attention to us. i was also making a new batch of tea eggs, boiling the eggs on one stove, preparing the brine on another. it was just the first hour but already i was so busy, i'd already soaked my t-shirt with sweat. we finally fulfilled orders, but i realized i packed the beef noodle soup into a single container. i even told my 2nd aunt that my sister will probably get mad. that turned out to be pretty prophetic.
for some reason my sister has to pack online delivery noodle orders separately: a container for noodles, a container for soup. she said the reason is because the driver might take a long time to deliver the orders, and the noodle will turn soggy by the time the customer receives the order. this logic does make sense, but it assumes the driver might take close to an hour to drop off the delivery, not just within minutes. of course my sister also added that all other restaurants do this, and we don't know this because we never order takeouts, unlike her, so she's the expert here. but the problem was we already packed the order. had my sister been paying attention, she would've caught it, or at least remind us so we wouldn't forget. instead she told us to remake the order. that was the moment i got triggered.
there was zero way i was going to remake the order. i was so mad, i rather see the cafe burn down to the ground that to do what my sister asked. the fact that there was no customers also meant nobody had to keep their voices down, no need to be polite. we got into a shoving match, with my 2nd aunt trying to get in between us. i told my sister i could no longer work with her, she said fine and told me to leave. i told her to leave instead, and that whatever medication she's been taking isn't working. then i threatened to close the cafe, and she threatened to call the police. at one point i grabbed her phone and threw it against the screen door. my sister finally did make the call, but to my parents, asking them to come to the cafe. luckily there were coming back from a morning supply run, and were minutes away anyway.
when my parents arrived, my sister told them i hit her (more like mutual shoving), and that i threatened her with a knife (i picked up a butter knife for a second while looking for something to throw). in all the confusion, a second beef noodle soup order was made, and given to the driver, with the first order simply abandoned. my sister got angry that my parents and my 2nd aunt all sided with me. so she stormed off, leaving us to work the cafe.
one reason why my parents sided with me was the exact same thing happened wednesday morning. a beef noodle soup order came in, my parents packed everything into one container, until my sister found out, and told them to redo it. that case was even worse because the driver was already waiting for the order. my mother said my father became so livid his face turned red. i came in at the tail end of that fight, and even though i didn't witness it, i could feel the tension.
it's such a trivial thing, but it's the way my sister deals with it that makes her unbearable to work with. like i said, i understand the logic of splitting the order (even if i don't agree to it), and if it's so important to her (like, comanche style making enemies out of everyone crazy important), why doesn't she make sure delivery orders are always split? or, be more diplomatic, okay we made a mistake, tell us to just be careful next time. instead, first blame us for the "mistake" then ask us to redo it?
anyway, after she left, the rest of the day - all 4 hours of it - was blissfully peaceful. yes it got busy, but with my parents and my 2nd aunt and myself at the cafe, there was no strife, we worked together like a well-oiled machine. we found out later that my sister called her godmother and asked her to come. why her godmother has to be inconvenienced with her going crazy i don't understand, but if more people wants to know what a psycho my sister can be, i'm happy to oblige.
today was the second busiest day this week. ironically, beef noodle soup was a popular item, along with the always popular bento box. i started adding my taiwanese paocai to the bento, so now there's even more food for the same price. for some reason there was a bunch of taiwanese customers today, our cafe has become quite the taiwanese epicenter when it comes to food. of course we always make sure to give a little extra if you're taiwanese, whether it's some complimentary suancai or a bigger serving of taiwanese paocai.
i think my mother only agreed to stay and work at the cafe today so she could go to the cambridge crossing REI afterwards. she basically pushed us to close at 4pm, turning off the lights with just a few minutes to spare. after my 2nd aunt left, my parents and i drove to lechmere via cambridge street, to the REI. i've only passed through here, never stopped before. there was plenty of curbside parking, which was something that i was worried about. i thought the place would be like arsenal yard, but there's hardly any businesses, a cafe, a brewery, a bakery, and REI. this REI wasn't even a full store, more a satellite store, with limited selection. my mother came her to try out some hoka shoes. she tried the clifton 9, which they only had in a size 6. she didn't like it, said there was a bulge in the arch support, and at best, it was similar in feeling to her size 6 brooks ghost 13. she did try a trail runner hoka in size 5.5. it was tighter along the sides, but she said felt about the same as size 6. she also said her heels had a tendency to lift out when wearing the hoka shoes, like they were too loose. so after having tried the hokas, my mother finally decided to keep her brooks, which only had a few days left before it was no longer eligible for return. while my mother was looking at shoes, my father and i admired some expensive e-bikes. apparently they qualify for renewal energy tax credits?
we took a tour of cambridge crossing before we left. so many new buildings! yet the place seemed pretty dead. who works here? who lives here? i still remember when this area used to be a place to store trains. given how crazy expensive it must be to live here (we even saw a pool a few stories up), what sort of community could ever develop here? we did see the new somerville bike path, which was getting some heavy usage.
we got back to the cafe around 5:15pm. we grabbed our things before heading to belmont, my parents in their car, me following behind them in my motorcycle.
my parents went to costco on this supply run this morning and bought a slab of ribs to cook on the barbecue. we still haven't replaced the broken parts yet, so each time we use the grill can be a little risky. everything was going smoothly at first. my father and i stepped away to inspect our garden. that's when i looked back and saw smoke and flames shooting out from the sides of the barbecue. before i could hear my father shout out not to open the lid, i did so, which i realized was a mistake when it comes to grease fires. i turned off the propane and ran inside to grab some plates, as we tried to save the ribs. the thing that struck me the most was the temperature gauge on the grill was off the charts, more than 700 degrees, closer to 1000. so talk about your flame searing! the ribs were black on one side, and very crispy on the other side. my father managed to scrape off much of the black deposit before putting the ribs back on the grill, this time cooking on low flame. it didn't need any additional charring, just some gentle heat to cook the ribs all the way through. i checked it with a meat thermometer: 160 degrees. the instructions said to wait until 175 degrees, but at 160 degrees the ribs were still very moist and tender.
while we waited for the ribs to slow cook, my father did some more grapevine pruning. our grapes are actually producing additional baby grapes, which we decided to remove, so they wouldn't interfere with the existing grapes. my father left a few as an experiment, to see how big they can get. he also trimmed some new tendrils. i did find a few shriveled grapes, which i promptly removed. hard to say if we'll get any grapes this season. so far no mature disease outbreak after all the spraying i did in the spring. i inspected the squash vines for insect eggs, found some more squash bug deposits. i even found a premature squash bug, which is not a good sign, but i've removed so many eggs at this point, i'm not worried about any infestations. squashes from last week? having many matured into grapefruit-sized squash fruits. because we have so many vines, and they can only get so much nutrients from the stems, i'm thinking about doing a foliar treatment to juice the plants with fertilizer via the leaves. i seem to recall it has to be done early in the morning, and sprayed at the underside of leaves where their stomatas are.
my mother came out at one point, to see what all the crying was about after we experienced the barbecue grease fire that blackened our ribs. she wore her brooks outside, which she's only worn indoors since she might return them, but now she's decided to keep them. she harvested some fruits from RB4, including a few tomatoes and several long screw peppers.
i didn't leave belmont until almost 9pm. i was thankful there was no grease smell when i got back inside the house, but i knew there was cooking because 1) the stovetop was sprayed with oil, 2) the carpet by the stove felt oily, 3) my spice cabinets were all opened (for some strange reason lauryn has a habit of leaving them open whenever she uses them, it's the strangest thing), and 4) greasy fingerprints on my stainless steel fridge that won't come off even with 90% alcohol. i was on my hands and knees trying to clean the oil off the carpet when lauryn came out of the bathroom. i didn't even realize she was in there. she grunted a hello as she quickly retreated to her bedroom. i noticed she had a tote bag with her. so she showers with a tote bag? and puts her dirty clothes in there afterwards?
usually when i get back home i take a shower, but i didn't do that tonight. instead i filled my insulated 40oz. tumbler with some ice water and then ate a bit of vanilla ice cream (need to finish all of my long expired ice creams). it was 78 degrees inside the house - warmish, but not enough to warrant turning on the AC or the fan. the weather last night was great for sleeping: 60's outside after the rain, i didn't even have to open the window, it was so cool in my bedroom. i'm hoping it's the same tonight.