as i was getting ready to leave for the cafe this morning, i looked outside and saw a pile of discarded furniture left on the sidewalk. normally i wouldn't care, but my psycho neighbor seemed to have piled everything in front of my house for some strange reason, and hardly any in front of his. there were two sofas, a table, a dresser, a few chairs, a box spring out on the road just left leaning up against a tree, pieces of a bedframe. there was so much stuff you couldn't even walk on the sidewalk. i sent renee an e-mail to complain about her tenant, she never replied back.
i went outside to move some of the furniture, pile some in front of renee's house instead. there was nothing worth keeping, a lot of stuff looked used and worn, no wonder the neighbor tossed them out. i did take a large glass pot lid from a pile of unwanted kitchen supplies, and an ikea high chair. i also took a 6ft long wooden plank, not sure what i'd use it for, but there's always a need for that sort of material in the garden.
as i left the house, i saw a man and woman pulled up in front of renee's place and go inside. they were moving some of the discarded furniture back into the house, maybe they saw a few things they could use, including the dresser and the table. the woman was inside so i spoke with the man, asked him if he was moving in. will said he was just helping to move.
i arrived at the cafe around 10:45am. i brought the strainer i found on my run from last thursday, and the large glass pot lid from this morning. my father brought the set of hex wrenches and we used it to open up the automatic door button outside. it's been acting finicky recently, and we thought maybe the batteries needed to be replaced. so imagine our surprise when we opened it up and saw that it was hardwired, no battery-operated. there was something that was obviously a switch for the button, then something else that might be a transmitter communicating with the actual door opening mechanism. wired like this, it should never have any problems, unless either the transmitter or the switch was broken. i also couldn't see any brands so hard to figure out how to get replacement parts. nevertheless, the button seems to be working again for the time being.
i made a new batch of tea eggs using my own spice blend. the spice packet broke up from all the boiling, but it shouldn't affect the flavor of the eggs. when i smelled the aroma of the tea eggs simmering in the brine, there was a strong hint of cinnamon. honestly, i think all those spice flavors fuse together eventually, it's hard to figure out any individual flavors from the final product, other than salty and a strong tea flavor.
i had some chicken curry for lunch. we sell it all the time, but this was my first time eating it (i typically don't eat anything that we intend to sell). later i ate a golden kiwi fruit.
our panasonic kitchen microwave died today. my mother discovered it when something she was heating remained cold even after a few minutes. it did a strange thing were the turntable wouldn't spin and it wouldn't heat anything either, but the light inside was still working. it's a fairly new microwave too (NN-SC668S), manufactured in may 2020. our microwave out front (NN-SA651S) was manufactured in march 2017 and that one is still working fine. a new one of a similar model (NN-SN686S) currently costs $150 off of amazon. later i learned that sometimes it's just a simple switch that's broken (sort of like what happened to my washing machine a while back). the symptom of that is exactly what we're seeing, the turntable not turning and the microwave not heating, but the light still works. just so happens i removed all the switches from my old microwave before i threw it out, so i have a suitable replacement part; i just need to find it.
since my sister wouldn't be home for a while, i went to her replace and borrowed her microwave for the cafe. she had a fancy LG microwave with buttons hidden behind the door of the microwave, i'd never seen a design like that before. it actually looks pretty nice, if it works well, maybe we'll get one as a replacement for the cafe.
my godmother was at the cafe for much of the day. she spent some time organizing some of her things in the basement. in the late afternoon my aunt showed up.
around 4:30pm i returned home. a large moving semi was parked outside of renee's place. the new tenants seem like seasoned renters, with the amount of things they were moving in. what else was amazing was a lot of the furniture and junk that was left on the sidewalk from this morning were now mostly gone, other than the two sofas, the bed frame, and the box spring. reviewing my street facing webcam, i saw a torrent of people taking bits and pieces of stuff. i even saw a girl carefully examining the box spring, and wanted to take it for herself except she was on a bike and the item was too heavy for just on person to carry.
i changed into a pair of jeans before walking down to the community garden to check on my plot. i saw a woman who looked familiar walking down the street, and she suddenly started talking about my garden, like it was some amazing thing of beauty, when i think it's rather plain and overgrown. in the garden itself, i was intercepted by maureen, who talked while i tended to all the rampant hyacinth bean vines, trying very hard to avoid mosquito bites. i didn't bother watering, the plants looked lush enough as it is. i collected some long beans, both green (probably not enough to eat) and brown (for seed collecting).
i didn't start making dinner until 9:30pm. i had enough of congee and put the last serving in the freezer for future eating. instead i made some more tteokbokki, because i had to use up the last of my fried tofu wedges. i followed the same recipe from last friday.
i think my new neighbors have moved in most of their stuff but aren't living in the apartment just yet, as the place is completely dark tonight. looks like another good night of sleeping.