i biked to belmont early in the morning so i could test out the new foscam compared to the old one. i set up both cameras facing out into the backyard. the old camera had no issues, the new camera froze up immediately. that was all the evidence i needed to package up the new camera and ship it back to adorama for an exchange (i had to open up the box after i sealed it because i forgot to include the provided ethernet cable). i sent it from the belmont post office via priority mail without insurance ($7.60, didn't think i needed insurance for something that only cost $69), due to arrive monday. i'm mildly confident that i get a new foscam sometime next week.

in the afternoon, after my mother returned home from the cafe (my 2nd aunt went to the doctor today so my parents had to work), my sister drove us to the saugus salvation army store. even though she went a circuitous route that first took us in the wrong direction via route 2, it was all highway so we arrived pretty fast. i was there searching for some long-sleeved shirts. unfortunately they only had their summer stock, which was all short-sleeved shirts and t-shirts. i did find one light blue dress shirt but the sleeve are a little long and i might get them altered in taiwan if i can find a tailor. my sister surprised us all when so told us she's been collecting china tea cups and proceeded to buy a pair of ugly cups and saucers for $16. we tried talking her out of it but she wouldn't listen. the clerk ended up either making a mistake or there was a sale because the china rang up as only $2.

returning home, we stopped by the pepperidge farm outlet on blanchard street. i've seen the place a million times, never actually been inside. it's a great place to stock up on your favorite pepperidge farm cookies for cheap, like goldfish or mint milano. my mother picked up some american cookies for binbin's family when they return to china next weekend.

when we got back home, hailey had torn up a wendy's bag on her dog bed. later when my father came home, he said the bag was empty, and he left it by the bed yesterday. after some rice porridge for dinner, i was about to return home when my mother suggested we visit home depot to buy some fencing material for the community garden. so my father and i bought 100ft of wire mesh fencing ($70), 5 steel posts ($30), and i got a new motion sensor light ($25) to replace my broken one. i used up a $20 rebate card that i had that would've expired in november.

when i returned to cambridge, i took a bath, listening to some salsa music on NPR, reading the latest issue of entertainment weekly. afterwards i disassembled john's MBP, trying to see if i can fix the broken keyboard. best case scenario is if i can replace individual keys (the spacebar and option key are both dead), but i may have to replace the whole keyboard assembly (i've seen used ones on sale for $100). i also put in the 1GB memory i took out of the dell mini since there was an empty slot; now this broken MBP has 2GB of memory.