my makeshift stay-dry outfit worked remarkably well. my pants were entirely dry, my jacket slightly damp. first thing i did when i got to the cafe was cook 7 cups of rice. thursday usually is our slowest day, and with the rainy weather, i was hoping it wouldn't be so busy so we could get a breather.
we had a bit of delivery drama when a grubhub delivery order to charlestown (a bit far) was cancelled by the driver soon after he already picked up the order. a similar thing happened two weeks ago, but in that case grubhub cancelled the order because they couldn't find any drivers. what was strange about today's cancellation was driver cancelled even though he picked up the order. how is that even possible? to make it even more confusing, the customer ordered again a few minutes later, deja vu. we weren't sure if we should remake the order, especially if it looked like we weren't going to get paid for that first order. but we remade the order anyway, while i called grubhub. they told me that when an order gets made, we get paid immediately, even if that order ends up getting cancelled. the customer gets a refund for the undelivered order. grubhub eats the cost, and the made order itself disappears into the ether, though i'm guessing the driver will somehow get penalized for cancelling the order.
business tapered off in the early afternoon such that i took esmei to belmont. i had to check up my parents' house (collect the mail) and gave esmei a chance to run around in the backyard. she'd peed and pooped, which is the best possible outcome. however i didn't see her drinking any water, not even the few containers of cold rain water in the backyard. i was teasing her by the basement staircase and she got worked up into a frenzy and got the zoomies. afterwards she tried to bite me a few times (not aggressive, more like dog play) but i held her dog to force her to submit and give her a timeout.
my sister made another batch of beef noodle soup, 20 servings this time (last time we made 18). she used leftover seasoned beef broth from before so it went much faster. i quickly cooled down the soup using the ice paddle. the temperature went from 120 degrees down to 80 degrees, before most of the ice melted. i emptied the ice paddle and refilled it with ice cubes. the temperature didn't drop too much after that, as it was fighting against room temperature, so it only got down to 70 degrees. but that was cold enough to divide up the soup into individual serving containers.
i went to see esmei again around 5pm. i turned on the lights, fed her a cabbage core. i also gave her a belly rub massage on the couch which made her nearly fall asleep. instead of putting her back in her playpen cage, i just closed the baby gate to the kitchen and left her in the living room. when i got back and told my sister what i did, she was freaking out, afraid esmei would destroy her things. we checked the camera, she was still sleeping on the couch. a bit later she disappeared, but we called her name through the webcam and saw her going into her playpen. after a minute she disappeared again, and my sister told me to go check up on her. i found her not doing anything bad, just sleeping by the front door, waiting for my sister to return. i had to put her back in her playpen, which she didn't seem to mind.
it turned out to be just as busy as last thursday, but not too bad. nothing got too crazy today, and unlike last night, we didn't get busy in our final hour. one of our cafe neighbors showed up though right when we were about to close, trying to convince my sister to switch to cafe bustelo coffee, even though we brew our coffee from freshly ground roasted beans. it was pretty random, my 2nd aunt and i were just standing in the dark kitchen with our jackets on, waiting for the neighbor to leave so we can finally close and go home.
i brought home some leftover beef noodle soup which i had for dinner around 9pm. in the meantime i took a shower and snacked while i watched tv. i waited for the celtics-nuggets game at 10pm. celtics lead in the first quarter, but it was all nuggets for the rest of the game. celtics kept it competitive at times, but could never regain the lead. denver won 109-115. at least boston didn't embarrass itself like it did against the cavaliers. i'm not too sad about the loss, even though it means the nuggets won the two games it played against the celtics. it'd only matter if boston and denver ended up having the same record going into the playoffs, but the celtics still have a sizable lead over all other NBA teams.
i tried the maguey criollo a second time. it has a distinctive smell, that's almost like berries? but also an acrid smell. the high alcohol content makes me breathe fumes after each sip. there's a sweetness like baijiu. i don't drink it to get drunk but at 50.2% alcohol it's hard not to get a little tipsy even just a few sips.
i ordered an insta360 x3 camera from costco tonight. i've been thinking about it since black friday, wanted to get one, but couldn't convince myself to buy it. i figured i could always return it if i didn't like it. it's not due to arrive until next week. i also ordered some pants: a pair of fleece joggers (a fancy way of saying sweat pants) and finally a pair of rain pants. i went with a women's size because none of the men's sizes seemed to fit me.