i went to my sister's place twice to check up on esmei. both times i let her out to use the bathroom. the first time she was crying when she saw me. i took her into the backyard to play fetch. instead of a ball, she was happy running after a torn egg carton. by the end the carton was shredded to pieces. i fixed the esmei cam: turns out the reason why it wasn't getting any audio was because the protection sticker was still attached to the camera. once i ripped it off the audio started working. second time i visited esmei i also fed her some lunch. i put her back in her play pen, 
another 2-1/2 hours before we closed the cafe and my sister can go home to her dog.
we finished some salmon salad my 2nd aunt had bought a few days ago. she also found some old bagels in the freezer. i defrosted them in the microwave before toasting them in the oven. i overdid it and the bagels came out hard as rocks. i finished my bagel but it was an unpleasant experience and i hardly tasted the salmon, too preoccupied i was with digesting the hard bagel.
we started cleaning up before closing time so when 4pm came around we closed quickly and left. i went to belmont. first thing i did when i arrived was overturn the metal bird bath in the backyard. i forgot to do it weeks ago when night time temperatures dropped below freezing. freezing water is liable to crack the bird bath. i checked on the status of our raised bed seedlings. the seedlings are alive but some look like they're barely hanging in there, especially solitary seedlings. those growing in large mats seems to be doing better. i don't think they'll die, and a string of 50's weather will hopefully allow them to grow a little more.
celtics played the clippers in the late afternoon. jayson tatum returned to the lineup but porzingis was out with a twisted ankle. clippers was without kawhi leonard. despite the missing players, i was still expecting it to be a competitive game. little did i know, the game became a blowout when the celtics made 25 3-pointers. at one point boston was nearly up 40 points. final score was 145-108. celtics play the lakers on monday (christmas day), hopefully porzingis will be back by then.
my sister made a surprise saturday appearance at my parents' place. she said esmei needed some social interaction after being cooped up at home the entire day. esmei ran into the house, straight into the kitchen, looking for food scraps. smelling food on the kitchen counter, she stood up on her hind legs and nearly got ahold of some salami. i watched the whole thing, she didn't care, i got her down before she could cause anymore mischief.
later when my parents were making chinese dumplings, esmei watched from the kitchen. my sister took some dumplings home while i had dumplings for dinner with my parents. i left around 7:15pm.
there was nobody at the house, my upstairs neighbors told me this morning they wouldn't be back until wednesday. that means i have the whole house to myself. after a shower, i went to star market to get some more mandarin oranges on sale and a bag of mesquite barbecue potato chips.