when i got to the cafe this morning, my mother asked me to stay with hailey while my sister goes out and picks up a prescription for her dog. earlier the vet came by for a home visit as hailey has a hard time walking. the tumor on her back leg has grown bigger, and the vet said to keep her from licking it, otherwise it might get infected. so while my sister was gone, i stayed with her dog. for the most part she was okay, but she doesn't hear or see so well now, so occasionally she'd think she was alone and start barking. even her barks barely make any sound new, more like a hoarse rasp. at one point she did get up from and dog bed to move closer to the front door where she plopped back down again. so she can walk, just very slowly, and without the use of one of her hind legs.

my sister finally came back close to noontime, as i quickly returned to the cafe to help out right during the lunchtime busy period. a neighbor had thrown out a box of led light bulbs, i grabbed them all. many of them are bright white; the few that are warm only have 800 lumens, a little dim.

i made a new batch of tea eggs. i have all the ingredients to make my own tea egg spice packet, but i don't have my micro scale that can weigh items a hundredth of a gram. so instead i still used the store-bought spice packets, which is what i normally use. there were a few individual orders of tea eggs, so the amount we currently have might only last another day or two. that means on friday i'll need to make another fresh batch, in preparation for the weekend, in case we use up all the tea eggs.

i had a late lunch around 3pm, made some indomie mi goreng. just when i was able to eat, it got busy again, and i had to put off my noodles until a few minutes later. i also made two batches of soy sauce noodles. that neighbor continues to throw out stuff, this time a large bag of potting soil, which i took.

after speaking with my father, we bought a 10A MMPT solar charge controller. it's a new design, and sits in-line between the solar panel and the battery. it's only rated for 12v batteries, but LiFePO4 is one of its battery choices. originally we bought one for $39 (including two SAE connectors) that had a 20% coupon, but immediately afterwards i saw the exact same device for $40 with a 20% coupon that included two SAE connectors and a pair of MC4 solar connectors. so i cancelled the first order and got that one instead for $32 (not including taxes). i also ordered a pair of 10AWG 2ft SAE extension cables (SAE one end, ring terminals on the other end) for $12, and a 5-pack of SAE polarity reverse adapters for $8. this should be enough for us to easily charge our LiFePO4 batteries. they also had one that was just $16 after coupon, but it didn't have an LCD screen, zero reviews, in the description mentioned something about PWM when it's supposed to be MPPT, so it was very suspicious.

i returned home around 5:30pm. first thing i did was to throw out the old twin mattress along with the box spring. i left them on the curb leaning up against a tree. the city of cambridge will come tomorrow and remove it for free. mattressfirm also contacted me, both through automated voice message and e-mail. they confirmed that my new mattress and box spring will be delivered tomorrow, and the window will be from 10:30am to 12:30pm. that means after they deliver it, i still have the rest of the day to run errands, even work in a run if i'm not biking into boston and back.

for dinner i just heated a frozen brick of chicken alfredo in the oven. i kept thinking it was friday even though it's only wednesday. i plan on getting some groceries tomorrow, and like i said earlier, maybe even a quick trip to chinatown to get some cafe supplies.