steve sent me e-mail, said they'd be back around 3-4pm today. my quiet summer will be over once they return. i was hoping i'd have a few more weeks of solo living but alas that wasn't meant to be. it felt a little weird to be at home in the morning with nothing to do. i felt maybe i should be at the cafe, but my sister was already there helping out. for lunch i heated up a can of soup.
i contacted amazon customer support. i bought some 128GB memory cards and a case of good earth cinnamon tea during the 2nd amazon prime event in early october but they still haven't arrived yet. tracking said the package might be lost and gave me the option of cancelling the order for a refund. but i'd rather get replacements instead, as those were sale prices that i can't get again if i simply reordered. plus the time period for returns was almost about to expire. the customer service representative was very helpful - i had a guy named gil with a thick spanish accent. i had to wait a little while as he worked on each replacement, but eventually he took care of everything. my new package will arrive tomorrow.
by the afternoon the temperature had warmed up to the lower 40's, so i decided to go to chinatown after all. i called my mother to see if she wanted to add anything to the grocery list before i left around 2pm.
the ride wasn't too bad. i wore my standard navy hoodie with black windbreaker jacket combo along with gloves. i would've worn a hat as well but had on my bike helmet instead. it definitely felt nicer in the sun, and the more i cycled the warmer i got (to the point where i was sweating underneath my layers). passing by kendall square, the bicycle tracker said around 750 cyclists had gone through the area today, not bad for a cold day.
i went to c-mart first to see if they had anything on sale. i ended up buying the bulk of my stuff there (scallion, napa cabbage, bokchoi, fried bean curds, indomie noodles). while perusing for bokchoi, i noticed a tall elderly chinese man standing really close to me. annoyed, i gave him more space to pick his bokchoi. turns out he just wanted to warm me about the c-mart pricing. they have these sales but there's always some fine print that says "friday-saturday-sunday". i asked about this in the past, and one of the workers told me the sale price always applies, doesn't matter the day. but the old man told me that's what they always say, but his wife had been tricked twice already, and warmed me to watch out, "this is illegal," he added. that left me paranoid, to the point where i was watching the prices ring up for each item, making sure they weren't overcharging me for things that were supposed to be on sale. all the sale items rang up as sale items though (even the ones with dates), there was nothing shady. there food scales being slightly off? that's a different story.
next i went to ming's market. i got some more luosifen, as well as a package of short grain glutinous rice for making winter jiuniang. at both places i tried to find some beni shoga (japanese red pickled ginger) for my gyudon recipe, but neither place had them. i'll try market basket next time, and the reliable market in union square next time. i got some taiwanese cabbage and raw ginger before finally leaving.
it took me a while to pack my bicycle, once again i bought way more than i could carry. google maps told me the quickest way home was via mass ave. i left chinatown around 2:40pm. i ended up getting a bit lost (i've only ever done the mass ave route 2-3 times), and instead of taking a left on route 28, i kept riding down dartmouth until i found my way to copley square and newbury street. from that point on i knew where i was going, got onto mass ave, crossed the MIT bridge, continued through central and harvard square, and finally to the cafe. that whole ride took 35 minutes. despite not running, i think i more than made up for it by biking.
my mother wasn't expecting to see me (i think i even asked her on the phone if she needed these supplies today, she said no). after dropping off the supplies, i return home around 4pm.
my upstairs neighbors' car was already parked outside, that's how i knew they were back. steve sent me an accusatory e-mail asking about the missing new bush they planted in the backyard. honestly, i totally forgot about it. i had nothing to do with it, even though i wasn't a part of the decision when they originally cut down a mountain laurel and replaced it with a new bush. i told him maybe the rabbits ate it, as they ate most of our hostas.
i cut up the last of my leftover baguette, after reconstituting it in the oven (i rinsed the dried bread under the sink and baked it at 300 degrees for 7 minutes). i then used up my remaining brie and some homemade grape jelly for some late afternoon snack. i ate while scouring youtube for any celtics related videos.
for dinner i heated up a brick of frozen lasagna.