i went to c-mart first, but there was nothing there worth getting, so i left and went to ming's market instead. besides, c-mart was super crowded after a fleet of shuttles dropped off several dozen chinese seniors. i was buying heads of taiwanese cabbages to make taiwanese paocai for the month of december. i wanted the biggest heads i could get but they wouldn't fit inside the produce bags, so i ended up getting two small and one large.
leaving chinatown by around noontime, i noticed police had cordoned off the entirety of the theater district. earlier i noticed they were towing cars. reason: president biden was visiting boston for a campaign fundraiser headlined by a private james taylor concert. later i learned the concert wouldn't be until this evening but they have to secure the area in advance before the president arrives.
i got to the cafe a bit after 12:30pm soaked in sweat. i helped out with some orders before making a new batch of tea eggs. my parents were also making a new batch of beef noodle soup so we got a chance to use the new san jamar rapi-kool cold paddle. i filled the bottom with water and put it in the freezer on monday when we dropped off supplies. the frozen paddle is used for stirring the hot liquid and cooling it down in the process, before they can be portioned out and placed in the freezer. you don't want to put anything hot in the freezer because it'll thaw the frozen food and could potentially damage the freezer. typically my parents will make hot soupy ingredients in the morning and wait until the end of the day to divide and put into the freezer. but even then, often times the liquid is still warm. besides, cooling slowly instead of flash cooling gives bacteria a chance to grow, so it's a lot safer to quickly cool for storage. in the span of 30 minutes, the beef broth dropped from 145° to 113°F.
at 2:30pm i left the cafe and went to the mt.auburn star market to buy some glass anchor hocking 6oz. ramekins. a set of 4 with lids cost just $5.50. compare that to pyrex 6oz. ramekins which cost twice the amount at $12 for a set of 4. 
a funny story: i was buying sticky trap stakes ($6) last night from walmart, and decided to add a google tv streaming box ($20) and a set of 8 anchor hocking ramekins for $18. i was able to qualify for free shipping because my total cost was above $35. but something didn't sit right, and i found out star market actually sells the same anchor hocking ramekins for just $5.50 for 4. so i quickly cancelled the ramekins. 
but since that would drop me below $35, i also cancelled the streaming box. walmart immediately notified me that they cancelled the streaming box, but the ramekins were still pending. later i found they weren't able to cancel the items, but it looks like they didn't charge me for shipping. so anyway, the mt.auburn star market was the only one that still carried the ramekins. they only had one set which i bought. i also picked up some boneless chicken thighs on sale.
returning to the cafe, i biked the cambridge-watertown trail along fresh pond. the ice inside the cooling paddle had melted, and my father had already added more ice into the container. an hour since we added the paddle, the beef broth temperature was now down to 100°F. so it looks like the paddle is useful after all. i wanted to get one a while back (a lot of restaurants use them for rapid cooling) but both my parents were against the idea, didn't think we needed it. i'm curious to hear their opinion tomorrow.
my day wasn't done yet. my sister was going out to dinner tonight and asked me to babysit esmei from 6:30pm to "no later than 8pm" which i already recognized was a gross miscalculation. she assumed i would do it even though i didn't agree to anything, but i decided to watch esmei after all. so i went home first, only to come back a few hours later.
i brought out the trash when i got home. i noticed my upstairs neighbors had put wreaths on our doors. in the past it was these enormous monstrosity that eclipsed the window of my front door so that it was near pitch black inside my foyer. last year they got themselves a big wreath while i got a smaller one. this year it was two small wreaths the size of dinner plates. honestly, i wish they'd save their money. i don't celebrate christmas, and if it was up to me, i would never buy a wreath. i have however put up christmas lights in my windows, and i may do that again if i'm feeling festive and it isn't already too late.
i hadn't eaten all day so i heated up some canned soup. i then returned to the cafe around 6pm, for the third time today. my mother told me to go to my sister's place, since she was waiting for me to arrive. she'd already fed esmei, but i might have to let her out to use the bathroom and after that she should be getting ready to sleep the rest of the night.
i brought my laptop but ended up not using it. my sister has youtube tv on my HDTV, so i was able to watch the knicks-bucks IST game. esmei was busy exploring areas of the house. at one point i saw her heading to the back door so i let her out to pee. it was pitch dark outside other than the led light on her collar. she wanted to play chase but it was cold (and dark) so i managed to coax her back inside the house by pretending to run inside. afterwards she spent most of the night chewing on one of the many bully sticks littering the floor. she spent at least an hour chewing on it. not sure what it's made of (rawhide?) but it gave her the worst breath. i remember from hailey's experience that eating too much bully stick can cause diarrhea. eventually esmei got tired and went in front of the mirror to lay down and go to sleep. what a little weirdo!
my sister said she'd be back at 8pm but 8pm went by and she didn't show up. at 9:30pm she texted saying she was on her way back. my mother must've been watching on the webcam and called me to say she couldn't see esmei. i told her esmei was sleeping by the mirror and went to pick her up and put her on the coach. my mother suggested i could put sleeping esmei inside her playpen and leave. however since i already waited this long, i figured i'd stay until my sister got back.
my sister didn't get back until 10pm. so from when i first arrived at 6pm, i spent a total of 4 hours babysitting her dog. before leaving, i told her there might be a big pickup bento order and asked her to cover for me so i don't have to get to the cafe so early.
my stomach was grumbling the whole time i was at my sister's place. to make matters worse, she had nothing to eat in the fridge, nor anything to drink. i thought about all the different foods i'd make when i got back home, but it was already so late, i ended up just heating a spicy jamaican beef patty for dinner, quick and easy. i also took out the trash afterwards.
the bucks ended up beating the knicks, by a lot too, 146-122. that means the knicks will come to boston and face the celtics friday night. i wonder if porzingis will be back by that time. there was also a suns-lakers game which i didn't watch. lakers won, 106-103. so the IST semi-finals will be pacers at bucks, and pelicans at lakers. for the NBA sake, here's hoping the bucks and lakers win out, because nobody wants to watch the pacers or pelicans.