my father was mentioning how he cleaned out the sur la table air fryer. that thing is a workhorse and that's why we have two. but the one we used the most is starting to show some wear. occasionally the fan would make a wobbling sound. so periodically i'd check online to see if i can score a cheap used sur lab table air fryer. sure enough, i scored a hit today on facebook marketplace. someone was selling a 13qt sur la table air fryer for just $20. unfortunately the seller lives in roslindale, which is a haul. but i contacted the seller anyway, hoping i could go buy the air fryer over the weekend. i was surprised when the seller replied immediately. she was a little curt, said i could have the air fryer if it was still available and if i could pick it up immediately. i did some thinking and the earlier i could do is probably tomorrow morning at 10am if i borrowed my parents' car and left cambridge around 9am. she agreed to sell it to me. later i realized the reason why she was in a hurry to sell is because she's moving: if she doesn't get rid of her stuff by the end of the month, she's just going to toss everything out. she also made sure i could pay in cash.
is the bakery opening tomorrow? who knows. my sister said they were postponing their grand opening again. in the meantime, we continue to get free treats from them. they must be experimenting with recipes. today somebody delivered some basque cheesecake. like the spicy dark chocolate brownies last week, these cheesecakes were amazing. they almost taste like flan in how soft they were, yet with just a hint of sugar, and no crust. it felt more like eating a custard pie than a cheesecake.
it was busy again today. we ran out of indoor eating space, so one unlucky customer had to sit in the back in 90 degrees temperature. he quickly ate under the umbrella shade and left for cooler conditions. little moustache came today with his girlfriend. don't know where he lives but they take the bus to get here. ponytail guy came too. he always phones in his order, i've learned to recognize his number. he got his usual, chinese sausage bento. we actually ran out of sausages and was just about finish roasting a new batch just in time for his order. his sausage came right out of the oven after a 45 minute bake.
we had a lull in the afternoon so i changed into some clothes i didn't mind getting dirty and went over to my sister's place to treat her scale infested rhododendron. i saw esmei in the backyard, once again she was very friendly, unlike when my sister brings her to the cafe, and which case she willfully ignores me and gives my parents all the attention because they give her treats. i had clippers today - both short and long. i pruned back some overgrowth so i could access the inner infected branches. i brushed off the scales with a brush and a bucket of water. it was a dirty job. that level of infestation, the scales clump together like silky white cobwebs. they also release a dust when i hit them with the scrubbing brush. i dumped out the bucket and refilled it a few more times with clean water. i crawled behind the rhododendron and did more pruning. i also scrubbed off as much scales as i could, but i could only remove what i could see. there's some more i can't reach - too deep in the tangle of branches - that i'm going to try washing away with a hose and sprayer that my father will bring from belmont tomorrow. after that i'll spray everything with some horticulture oil to smother any surviving scales. all and all, it's not a difficult problem to treat.
i returned to the cafe completely covered in grime around 4pm. i changed back into my clean clothes, and washed all the branch bits and scale guts off my face.
my father deep fried the chicken feet yesterday. that was only step one. step two is to steam them in some sauce, which he didn't for 1-1/2 hours. he split the batch, this one is traditional dim-sum style flavor. it was actually pretty good and i quickly ate about half a dozen chicken feet. my father didn't think they were tender enough and left it to steam cook for another hour.
we thought the day was pretty much over but after 6pm we got two big orders. one was customer C, who accused us swindling her a few months back when she said never got her vegetarian bun to-go but video showed she actually ate it before she left. she went on a tirade about how she spends tens of thousands of dollars at our cafe but not sure if she wants to come back anymore. a few weeks later she was back. she has a habit of coming right when we're close to closing, and overstays so we end up waiting for her to leave before we can close. so while my mother and i were grumbling about her, a surprise online order came in. that late in the day orders shouldn't be processed, so when we checked the pick-up time, it was for tomorrow. i was about to call the customer to ask if she made a mistake when she showed up at the cafe. we figured out the problem and started making her order. the weird thing is she also order almost identical to customer C: pad thai, sesame noodles, dumplings. those two orders gave us a boost. customer C didn't leave until 6:40pm, shambled out of the cafe, left a mess of food on the floor. she said good bye to my father and purposely left my mother and me out because she hates us for some reason.
my mother packed me a bento even though i told her i had gyudon waiting for me back at home. i guess i'm having gyudon tomorrow night then. the temperature was still hot and humid by the time i left, but it was comforting in some strange way, like the air itself was hugging my tightly. the trick is to take things slow, as i slow peddled my way back home.
tonight was game 6 between the thunder and pacers. it was a must-win for indiana or their miracle season ends tonight with a loss. first half was competitive, OKC jumped out with a lead, only for the pacers to get it back midway in the quarter. OKC made a push to almost regain the lead in the second quarter, but the pacers pushed their lead to 20 points going into halftime. in the second half it was all pacers. beginning of the 4th they pushed the lead to 31 points. final minutes was played with just bench players, as both coaches sat their starters in anticipation of game 7 sunday night. indiana wins 91-108. there will be one final game of basketball left to cap off this season.