it took us 25 minutes to get to the new hei la moon restaurant now on essex street. we locked our bikes to a signpost right outside. instead of waiting for PX to show up, we went inside first to get a table. the place wasn't crowded yet, and we first ordered some charsiu pork buns and tripe while waiting for PX to show up.
the new space was bright and color, with windows looking outside, compared to their old space, which was downright dank especially if you had one of the basement tables (like the last time li and i had dim sum back in april 2018). i was surprised to see that they had some upstairs seatings as well. eventually PX showed up, getting here by uber (which he confirmed was expensive). he had never had dim sum before so this was a new experience for him.
we ordered some chicken feet (2 servings), radish cakes, sumai, glutinous rice with chicken (wrapped in lotus leaves), tofu pudding, and beef stew. the cost of 9 dishes was $72, i treated. the waitress came back with my card and an ipad, and basically pressured me to tip 18% (despite so-so to terrible service) with no receipt ($85). we stayed a long time, leaving at almost noontime after 2 hours. the early morning crowd had already left and the place was packed with the new later morning crowd. li felt they didn't have as many dishes this time which i agreed; for instance, they didn't have any rice rolls.
we parted ways afterwards: PX returning home from south station (where he'll withdraw another $700 for li), while li and i ran some errands in chinatown. we biked to ming's market where i got some bokchoi and rice vinegar. i also picked up some lousifen on sale ($2.50/package). li bought some dried seaweed and mushroom, and picked up half a dozen lousifen for his wife.
after that we returned to chinatown proper to get some takeout from hong kong eatery (harrison avenue). li got the 3-treasure rice, while i got half a braised duck for my mother. his favorite place place for cantonese takeout - quic pic BBQ - was no longer there, replaced by a jibei chuan rice noodle restaurant. so li was trying out hong kong eatery to see if it was any good. we waited a long time for our food to be ready, over 20 minutes, despite more than half a dozen masked employees behind the counter, not including the head butcher who's only job was to chop all the barbecued meats.
with that we were finally ready to leave chinatown by 12:45pm. we headed to the arthur fiedler footbridge to get on the esplanade, then crossing the frances appleton bridge to get onto the longfellow bridge heading westbound into cambridge.
we had one last stop to make, to the cambridgeside galleria mall apple store. i haven't been in this mall in years, couldn't remember the reason the last time i came, more likely to visit the apple store. i think if the apple store were to ever close, that would be the final nail in the life of this mall. the apple store was the most crowded store in the entire place. we came here to pick up the ipad pro and pencil i ordered for li. i used my credit card, that's why i had to be the one to pick up the order, though in hindsight, li could've used his german-issued mastercard instead, saving him the trouble of having to repay me back in cash. we had to wait a few minutes for them to get the items, so li and i checked out their selection of macbook laptops. once we had our order, we left. i took a quick spin through the food court to see what they had; half of the place were asian restaurants, whether it was panda express (chinese), sakura (japanese), gongfu boba tea (taiwanese), or mochi (korean?).
as we passed by the cheesecake factory, li checked out the menu and said he wanted to sample a slice. he got the coconut creme cheesecake. we packed everything into our bike baskets then headed back home, getting back by 1:45pm. li complained about his sore ass after the many miles of biking.
it was the last day of the head of the charles and i wanted to go and get some photos, but decided against it, figured i had enough excitement for the day. instead i gathered up my things and left for belmont. i stopped by the cafe to drop off the bokchoi and vinegar. i passed by a book somebody had left on the sidewalk - i thought it said "cheers primer" (i love that show) - so when i went back to pick it up, i discovered it actually said "cheese primer". i took it regardless, always could learn more about cheeses (though the author - steven jenkins - sounds very pretentious).
it was warm inside the house, ever since my father decided to turn on the heat last night. he thought i was coming home for lunch so there was a bowl of rice porridge, salted eggs, and a glass of orange juice waiting for me on the dining table. i presented the braised duck to my mother, who dug right in and said how delicious it was. she also said they gave us a large portion this time, unlike the last time.
i came to belmont to do some gardening - in particular to move a bunch of houseplants into the sunroom - but the new weather forecast for the next few days showed night time temperatures of only 40's at the lowest, with a warm stretch later in the week with daytime/nightime temperatures of 75/55 degrees. so i held off on moving the plants for the time being.
my sister brought home esmei again. her coat is getting shaggier, and the black fur around the scruff of her neck now has some tan fur as well. because she's a mixed breed of unknown parentage, it's hard to tell what her final coat color will be. she continues to eat the fallen grapes underneath the grapevines even though they're poisonous for dogs (something to do with kidney failure). maybe she's one of the lucky ones who's immune to grape poisoning. she'll basically put anything in her mouth, from fallen leaves, to dead worms, to rocks. she also gets the zoomies, especially if someone chases her, the backyard doesn't seem big enough when she goes on a berserk run, as she crashed into the fences. a bit later esmei puked out all the crap she'd been eating around the backyard, including the treats my sister fed her. that seemed to calm her down a bit, as i brought her inside, before my sister took her home. she did not pee inside the house today but did chew on some wires (no damage, i caught her in time).
there was a patriots game in the early afternoon. i turned it on out of habit, even though it seemed like nothing good would come of it, with the team having lost 5 of their last 6 games. facing the buffalo bills (4-2), the stage seemed set for a massive new england defeat. so i was startled to discover in the 2nd quarter the score was 13-3 with the patriots in the lead. from that point on i was engaged.
buffalo scored a touchdown in the 3rd, while new england kicked a field goal, putting the score at 16-10. in the 4th the pats managed to score another touchdown, 22-10 but with more than 7 minutes left in the game. safe, right? but then the wheels seemed to inevitably come off, as the bills scored 2 touchdowns (including one resulting from a patriots fumble) and a 2-point conversion, suddenly giving them a 25-22 lead, with only 2 minutes on the clock.
the god of football was smiling on new england today though, said we suffered enough, as the offensive advanced the ball and embattled qb mac jones threw to mike gesicki (who?) for a touchdown (followed by a griddy dance that's all the rage these days). there was just 12 seconds left on the clock and the bills couldn't salvage a miracle. final score was 29-25, patriots victory.
here's the funny thing though: despite being last in our division in terms of total win-loss, the patriots are currently 1st place in the divison with a 2-1 record (season still early though, with 5 division games remaining). if the playoffs started today, patriots would be the 4th seed.
it was fun watching the team win for a change, especially a seemingly come-from-behind win (though that wouldn't have happened if the patriots didn't let things slip up in the 4th quarter), felt like the team of old. what's going on with the bills though, losing to teams they should be dominating, like the jets and the patriots? divison rivals no less.
after dinner i showed my father results from my smart BMS research. besides daly, the two other popular chinese smart BMS's are JK (jikong) and JBD (jiabaida). the JBD BMS isn't very expensive, just $44 (we paid $78/each for our daly BMS), but it doesn't come with cables (not a problem, we have the materials and equipment to make our own).
i left by 7:25pm, needed to be home before 8pm, when eliza was showing up with some boxes of journals to leave in my basement. li was working in the living room. he told me the 3-treasure rice was okay, but not as good as quic pic BBQ.
eliza came exactly at 8pm. i wasn't even sure it was her when i saw a car pull up in front of the house until she waved. she had two boxes of journals in plastic storage tubs. we brought them down into the basement, me using a flashlight and eliza using her phone to light the way. i apologized for the musty smell, eliza said she actually liked it, classic basement odor. she said she'd come back for them in a year, i told her there was no rush, since i still have all of alex's stuff in my basement after he left for tokyo 20 years ago.
eliza gifted me a moka pot and an adjustable combination disc lock (extraspace storage branded) that formerly secured her storage space. she told me she came to boston with only a vest and a raincoat, not realizing it was going to turn so cold, and had to buy a sweater. she's returning her avis-rental honda to the airport tomorrow morning at 9am before her noontime flight to chicago to rendezvous with theo arriving from paris to see her mother and brother.