i set out for my thursday morning run at 10am. i was listening to the strike force five podcast (episode 4), good enough that i hardly noticed i was running. at the exit to radcliffe college i noticed two chinese people collecting nuts from the female gingko tree that grows there (something i first spotted last year). the grounds crew didn't drive them away, figured they were doing them a free service, as the nuts have a foul smell (like vomit). they were going hard, one of them even got a chair and was beating the gingko nuts off the tree (along with a bunch of leaves). when i came back from my run, they were still there, collecting several bags of nuts, each the size of large cherry. in case you didn't know, gingko nuts are a delicacy in chinese cuisine. where ever there are female gingko trees, you can be sure some chinese will be there in the fall to collect the nuts.

i got back by 11am, showered, them left for the cafe by 11:20am. i went via motorcycle today, as i planned on going to belmont afterwards to mow the lawn and water the garden (easier to get there via motorcycle, as the renovated bike lanes are still under construction, so there are currently zero bike lanes).

it wasn't very busy while i was at the cafe. since all the things i usually make were already made (tea eggs, taiwanese paocai), i waited in the kitchen for incoming orders. my father had already used the t-fal deep fryer and fried a fresh batch of salt & pepper chicken. also before i arrived casey's daughter made a big order for her kids and classmates at BB&N, which represented the bulk of business for the time i was there. my mother scorched one of our pots when she boiled water until it ran dry (probably damaged the induction cooker as well). i said it was time to buy a new pot but she said not to waste money, that the old pot was still good despite severe warping.

it was so quiet that around 12:30pm my mother told me i could leave. i hung around a bit longer, just in case it got busy. since the deep fryer was still out and my father hadn't drained the oil yet, he used it again to fry some pork cutlets, using a flour-egg-panko breading. so i ended up having some tonkatsu for lunch, and left for belmont afterwards around 2pm.

today was another hot day, temperature in the 70's. i'm enjoying these warm days while they last, starting this weekend the daytime temperatures drop into the more seasonal 60's, with night time temperatures dipping into the 40's. i brought a pair shorts but didn't bother changing into them, kept wearing my stained jeans instead.

after mowing the front and back lawn, i turned the fresh grass clippings in the compost heap, then watered the garden. with all the recent rain, most of my grass patches have come in thick and healthy. there's a few small bare spots that i might think about reseeding, but at this stage of the season, it may be too late. the last thing we have to do for the lawn is to apply some fall fertilizer following the day of the first frost, which is mid-to-late october.

the strands of nasturtiums that i pulled out of RB0 (to make way for mustard and cilantro seedlings) and replanted in the southern beds have miraculously survived the rushed transplanting. they've also survived the rabbits which i occasionally see the backyard. that one orchid that was severely sun-scorched had already made two new leaves. because it gets so much dappled sunlight, the leaves have a reddish tinge to them.

before i left belmont, i took some photos of the two charging lithium iron phosphate batteries, one in the living room, one in my parents' bedroom. the one in the living room (with the new battery monitor) was already charged to full capacity (100Ah), while the one in the bedroom was only 75% charged.

my mother got a temu package (some yarn) so i grabbed it and dropped it off back at the cafe before returning home. i switched to my bicycle and rode down to whole foods to return some socks. back at home, i made two glasses of watermelon smoothie before taking a shower to clean off some yard work sweat. i started reading another comic by daniel warren johnson called extremity. this one also was very good, about the cost of revenge nd ending the vicious cycle of violence between warring post-apocalyptic tribes.

it ended up being very busy at the cafe after i left. i only saw this at the end of the day, when i noticed sales for today had doubled since early this afternoon. they sold out all their beef noodle soup.

my new CO2 bubble counter ($8) from aliexpress arrived today. it's the latest design from ZRDR (the same company that makes my CO2 generator kit), that allows water to be added to the counter without having to open up the counter (and allow the pressurized CO2 to escape). this is actually their 3rd version; there was a 2nd version that allowed water to be added but it was made entirely from plastic. this one was a combination of plastic and metal. it also came with a syringe that you use to inject the water into the counter through a small hole. the new counter was a lot larger than i'd imagined. but after i took off the old counter, i saw it was only slightly longer. i also thought it'd be glass, but discovered the old counter was plastic/metal as well. it was easy to fill - provided you use the syringe. if you lost the syringe, you could still fill it up the old-fashion way by opening the counter. since i had to disconnect the CO2 tubing to remove the old counter, i ended up releasing all the built-up CO2 pressure in the tube. so i had to turn on the needle valve to prime the diffuser before turning back the valve to a bubble every 2 seconds. i like the design of this new bubble counter, it makes using the CO2 generator even easier.

for dinner i made 2 peppered ham sandwiches. this time i added a slice of american cheese to each. i always seem to have american cheese in the fridge. i buy a pack and i can use it forever, it never goes bad. i ate while watching the thursday night bears-commanders game on amazon prime. it was pretty boring, and i didn't recognize any of the players.