i made a deal with my sister last night that she'd come in this morning and help my parents with the large bento order so i didn't have to get to the cafe so early. however when i checked the webcam around 10:30am i didn't see my sister. so i called the cafe to ask if she showed up. my mother was annoyed because they were busy fulfilling the order and abruptly hung up on me. later i did see my sister helping out. apparently casey's daughter didn't contact my parents until 10:15am this morning to let them know she was coming to pick up 10 bento orders. fortunately my parents were ready so it wasn't a big deal.

the big surprise this morning was it snowed earlier this morning. just a dusting, but enough to coat the grass and cars. it all melted away later in the morning, though it was still cold enough to see few flurries throughout the day. i rode the bike to market basket to pick up some groceries. the cafe needed cilantro and cucumbers. i picked up some eggs for myself, and a few frozen meals as i'm too lazy this week to actually make dinner. out by the bike rack, another cyclist (in his 60's) asked about my rear racks. he told me he's getting a pair himself, arriving tomorrow, collapsible rear baskets. he actually lives around arlington center but rides all the way out to the somerville market basket for groceries.

i dropped off a few things at home before heading to the cafe around 11:30am. my mother told me that harvard student group finally contacted them about making a large bento order of 35 for saturday evening. their original estimate was for 50, so this was a smaller order but still substantial. this meant i needed to increase my batches of tea eggs, not only to provide for customers this week but have enough for the weekend order. there are other logistical issues. do we have enough rice cookers to make 35 servings?

the batch of tea eggs i made just yesterday were already being used today, so i had to make a new batch to cover the next few days. the other thing i needed to make today was the taiwanese paocai. i used up all 3 cabbages i bought from chinatown yesterday - about 12 lbs. i started making it at 1:30pm and didn't finish until 6:30pm, 5 hours later when we closed. it took time to reduce all that cabbage and of course every time an order came in i had to stop what i was doing to fulfill the order. i only ended up with 7 containers of paocai; when i used 12 lbs. of cabbage last time, i got 8 containers. so either these new containers are more densely packed, or i made a math error somewhere. we were just down to our final container of paocai today, from the batch i made back on november 1st. that batch lasted more than a month, but i think only because we were closed for nearly a week around thanksgiving. with this big weekend order, we'll probably use up at least 4 containers of fresh paocai, so i'll be making some more next week.

my sister's godmother came to the cafe today, after returning home from taiwan on monday from a 3-week trip including to tokyo. my sister brought esmei over a few times, when she took esmei out on a hike to and back.

my father fried some breaded pork cutlets in a pan close to closing time. my mother packed me a takeout container with some rice and cutlet for dinner, saving me from either eating ramen or something frozen. it was nearly 7pm by the time i biked home. i ate immediately, only have a small bowl of mushroom pork broth and noodles for lunch at the cafe today.

my father's aolithium battery arrived today. i watched him unbox it on the webcam, then charged it up overnight. some temu stuff also arrived but was shipped to belmont.