i woke up early so i could walk down to my community garden and water my plants. i haven't been down there since thursday evening, figured the little bit of rain we got saturday morning was enough to hold them over until i could make a visit. nobody else was in the garden, but a bunch of dogs and owners were in the adjacent rear park. all my plants have survived so far, with the except of the ground planted bitter melon, but it's stem had already been snapped when i put it in the ground, so i wasn't hopeful it'd survive. even my ground planted flower seedlings - snapdragons and nigellas - seem to be doing okay, putting out new leaves. i put in some tradescantia on my last visit in two of the grow bags, they're hardier than they look, they're doing well, one of them has even grown upwards which means it's already rooted. the leaves on the hyacinth beans still seem a little yellowy, but they've always been slow growers, i wouldn't too much about them. i brought in an empty trash bin before i left.

i returned home and waited for my parents. we're making a costco-market basket supply run to everett-chelsea. my father specifically wanted to visit that market basket because he says they have the best cuts of meat.

we made it to costco a bit after 10am. i got a chance to take a look at some new macbook pro models. tax-free weekend is in just 7 weeks, and i planned on getting a new macbook pro to replace my current 15" late 2013 retina macbook pro. the question is whether to get the 14" or the 16". i've watched a tons of youtube videos and reddit discussions with various recommendations. seeing the machines in person, 16" was the obvious choice. i thought it'd be enormous, bu it's actually slightly smaller than my current 15", but with a bigger screen because of the reduced bezel. i know i want a 1TB SSD storage, so now the choice is between an older M3 or the latest M4 chip (i'm leaning towards M3 because it's cheaper).

i was happy to see the tipico truck outside the costco parking. they do the same supply run route, we see them whenever we come on a monday morning.

our next stop was the chelsea market basket. i went to go return some cans while my parents went inside to shop. an old lady was returning her cans so i waited patiently. she was taking her time, feeding the same cans multiple times until the machine finally relented and accepted them. i waited for about 10 minutes before she finally finished.

i found my parents inside the supermarket. i went to the seafood department to check out their clams. they sell steamer clams for $6.99/lbs., which is the same sale price at star market. if we ever attempt to make fried clams, i know where to get them now.

we left chelsea a bit before noontime. we had just enough room to fit everything. i got dropped off at my place before meeting up with my parents at the cafe to help unload the supplies. the parking lot was packed with contractor trucks, a total of 4, all working at the bakery. after we finished, we headed back to my parents' place by 1pm.

inspecting the garden, i noticed a bunch of blue beans in RB2 had sprouted. because the beans themselves were pretty big, the seedlings were pretty dramatic. what's interesting is we also have a blue bean trellis on RB0, but none of those beans had sprouted yet. this is all because RB2 gets more sun than RB0. RB0 is partially shaded until late morning. RB2 gets early sun, but doesn't get shaded until late afternoon. that little bit of difference is enough to sprout the blue beans in RB2 first. a few blue beans in the back row of raised beds had also sprouted. the more sun exposure it gets, the sooner it germinates.

my mother made some wonton soup for lunch. i also had some leftover wings from yesterday. my parents had pan-fried wontons instead. my mother ate some healthy salad she got at costco. we also got some costco strawberries that were unusually sweet.

my mother gave me a haircut after lunch. the last time i got it cut was back in mid-october, so 8 months ago. i can tell i need a haircut when my hair gets long enough that i can put it in ponytail. she did a pretty good job this time, normally it takes a few weeks for me to grow into it.

my sister showed up with esmei. esmei was out in the backyard, hunting for rabbits. she could smell them, she just couldn't find them. she eventually gave up and laid down in the shade, still sniffing around and raising her ears to listen.

my sister took my mother to the bank. i went out to the backyard and planted my snapdragons and nigellas into long planters. i used some leftover soil, added some osmocote slow release fertilizer pellets for nutrients. in the late afternoon when i checked RB0, i noticed a single blue bean seedling had sprouted. i also saw that one of the luffas in RB3 was already making a female flower (before any male flowers).

for dinner we grilled some corn and another pair of new york strip steaks. 30 minutes before the steaks were ready to cook, i took them out of the fridge and coated them on both sides with montreal steak seasoning. i got a new bottle from market basket, one that wasn't 25% reduce sodium. for the corn, we coated them with lee kum kee korean barbecue sauce. we found two unopened jars in the cupboard, so i applied the sauce heavily. for the steaks, we cooked them at 550 degrees, 3 minutes per side, rotating at the midway point. we took a thermometer reading after 6 minutes, the steaks were anywhere from 115-130 degrees, so we took them off the grill.

we waited 10 minutes before cutting into the steaks. in the meantime we had some corn. the barbecue sauce was delicious, but the corn was still too juicy, i like a dry grilled corn. when it came time for the steaks, the interior was medium-rare and very juicy. my parents shared a steak while i had one for myself. it was a lot of beef, i could barely finish it, felt stuffed afterwards.

i went home to get ready for game 5 between the pacers and thunder. other than the first few minutes, the pacers never led this game. indiana mounted a comeback starting in the 3rd quarter, got the score down to within 2 points, but there would be no miracle tonight, as OKC seemed to have learned from their past mistakes, and clamped down to make sure indiana would not regain the lead. final score 109-120, OKC wins. game 6 is thursday in indiana.