we went to cambridge inspectional services first. the secretary point to side so we thought she meant the permitting department. the secretary there took a look at the form and asked if we wanted her to amend the certificate. turns out we were at the wrong place, and that the place for certifications was next door at city hall proper. it's the same office were folks get their marriage license, so there were a few dressed up brides and grooms ready to get married. the clerk there took our form. she said according to the city record, we don't have an existing certificate, or if we did, it was so long ago that it has long since expired. so we needed to apply for a new certificate for $50. turns out the certificate was actually just the certification form with a new cambridge notarized stamp.
my father dropped me off at my place around 10am while he headed to the cafe. along the way we picked up a dress form mannequin somebody had thrown out onto the sidewalk. i sent a photo of the business certificate to the department of industrial accidents (DIA) via e-mail and then called them up to confirm. the person i spoke with yesterday - luis - wasn't in the office just yet, so i left him a voicemail. i went to cafe by 11am for my friday shift.
i hadn't heard back from luis so i called DIA again. i asked for luis but a different agent - debbie - was familiar with our case. she said they received the business certificate and would send us some forms to sign before i needed to call back again to pay the fine, which would be $200. we waited for nearly half an hour before debbie sent the forms. i printed them out for my father to sign before taking photos of them and sending them back to debbie. i then called her back. i asked if the fine was based on a 24-hour cycle, she said no, that it was daily, which didn't seem fair (the inspectors came just yesterday afternoon, not even 24 hours ago), but i didn't try to fight it. DIA feels like a scam, or one of those mobster protection money shakedown. we paid the $200 fine to "fix" the problem.
my sister brought esmei to the cafe a few times. her fur has started to get longer, covering up the scars on her head. overall she's a very well-rounded dog, almost never barks, isn't clingy (doesn't try to follow my sister when she leaves), does understand to chase squirrels (just yet), likes to just sit there and watch.
we got super busy today around lunchtime, right when my aunt decided to visit. it was orders after orders - online, deliveries, walk-ins, phone - just a non-stop stream. my sister took her car to get inspected so she wasn't around to help. in the flurry of activities, i managed to scald myself a few times from moving around boiling pots of water.
my 2nd aunt showed up at the cafe later in the afternoon. i helped my sister turn down the temperature on her hot water tank since she doesn't have cold water in her shower. my father fried a new batch of breaded chicken with a whole container of new cooking oil. i made a new batch of tea eggs. xiaowu's 26-year old son came to the cafe to fix our sandwich fridge. he's also an HVAC repairman like his father. turns out the problem was the fridge needed to replenish the freon in its coils. the cost for the repair was $150. so basically all the money we made today we spent paying off one thing or another.
i finally left the cafe around 5:20pm. soon after i got home, i walked down to the community garden to collect the rest of my hyacinth beans. there was a young man sitting in front of my garden, painting a watercolor of my hyacinth flowers. i chatted with him while he worked, and while i was clipping off beans. i never did see what his painting, before he left, while i continued with my harvest. next week the night time temperature will drop down to freezing - the first hard frost of fall. when that happens, all the beans will die overnight, so i needed to collect them before they get frost damaged. there was also two young guys hanging around the garden. why they'd want to be here at this hour was a mystery, as there were still plenty of mosquitoes (though i escaped without getting bitten). i ended up filling a paper bag with about 10 lbs. worth of beans, a few hot peppers, a small tomato, and surprisingly a buttercup squash, before walking back home. by then it was 6pm.
in the evening i started watching the heat-celtics game, the first home game of the season. i reheated my leftover gyudon for dinner during halftime. the game was a real battle. boston always seem to have a problem with miami. porzingis was tasked with defending bam adebayo, but adebayo seemed to be able to get foul calls off of porzingis at will, to the point where kristaps fouled out of the game in the 4th quarter. jaylen brown finally earned his keep, putting up 27 points tonight. but the celtics star was derrick white, with 28 points. jrue holiday also contributed, with timely defensive plays, and 17 points of his own, same as porzingis. tatum had 22 points. holiday has a sweet midrange that he shoots with a high percentage, the more i see of him, the more i like him, having been sort of ambivalent about his acquisition. the game went back and forth, not sure how many lead changes. the heat won 2 quarters, the celtics won 2 quarters, but boston managed to gut it out for the win, 119-111. it's only the 2nd game of the season! can we get a few easy games where the celtics beat their opponents by a wide margin? next game isn't until monday against the wizards, porzingis' old team.