here are all the things i did within the first 20 minutes before my even sister arrived: cook 4 cups of rice, brew a fresh pot of coffee, turn on the ice machine, air fry some charsiu pork, cook a new batch of black soy noodles, reheat the second batch of tea eggs from the fridge, and put a new bag in the compost bucket.
today was another busy day though nothing crazy. we had a bit of delivery drama when a grubhub order was cancelled by grubhub because they couldn't find any drivers. that's because the address was out in newton, a drive of nearly 30 minutes. my sister called grubhub to ask what happened, they said we'd be reimbursed for the undelivered order (likewise the customer would also get reimbursed).
i went to go see esmei around 2pm. i didn't bring her to belmont today, but instead just let her out in the backyard so she could pee. i managed to get her back inside by coaxing her with treats. just as soon as she was ready to back to her playpen, i heard the doorbell ring. i thought maybe it was just the delivery person so i ignored it, but whoever it was kept banging on the door. then i heard someone say, "it's me!" in chinese. i thought it was my 2nd aunt and thought maybe some crisis happened at the cafe (like a kitchen accident). turns out it was my other aunt, here to see esmei. i told her to go around the back. when i called esmei to go out a second time, she got confused and went to her playpen.
after esmei came back inside for the second time, she seemed ready to sleep, laying down on the kitchen floor. i got her inside her playpen before finally leaving.
my aunt was back at the cafe. she said she wanted to walk esmei but i told her i'd already been playing with esmei for the past hour and she was too tired to go out a 3rd time. besides, my aunt had never walked a dog before, and esmei is a challenge, because she needs to sniff everything, so it takes forever just to walk a very short distance.
i had a small leftover portion of fried rice for lunch when i could feel myself getting weaker because i hadn't eaten anything all day. that wasn't enough so in the late afternoon i air fried some frozen spanakopitas in the breville oven.
the final few hours at the cafe was a long stretch as there was hardly any customers. we started cleaning up so could close right at 6:30pm. 6:15pm we got our last customer, an order of sausage bento. with that we finally closed.
i drove my 2nd aunt home before heading home myself. i took the undelivered sausage bento for dinner. it's funny, but i've never had the cafe bento before. yes, i'd eaten all the items in parts, but never all together as a single meal. so it was educational experiencing what our customers experience. i ate as soon as i got home.
later i had some chicken feet.
my parents videochatted with me via line. i gave them an update on the week so far, got some instructions on preparing a few cafe items we would need for next week.
tomorrow is saturday so i get to sleep a little late before heading to the cafe around 10:30am. i thought about biking down to chinatown or driving to everett-chelsea-malden-medford for supplies. it's too cold tomorrow morning for biking (20 degrees wind chill) and i don't have time to do a multi-location supply run. i'll do that sunday morning instead. so it looks like i've got no choice but to sleep a bit late.
i used the neck hanging phone holder last night to watch an episode of wild cards. it works well even though at first it felt a little awkward. i'm glad nobody could see me because it looks pretty embarrassing. but the good thing is no more tired hand holding up my phone in bed.