they weren't home when i got to belmont, only my mother and sister. my father had taken them to see about a future apartment and to open up a bank account for the daughter. when they got back in the early afternoon, they brought home some burger king takeout. i managed to down a whopper, even though the patty looked suspiciously artificial. if we could do it again, i'd roll my own garlic and blue cheese burgers on the barbecue. that would taste much better than any fast food burgers.
the daughter asked about my hair, which tends to get wavier the longer i grow it out. she asked if i had it permed; i told her it was all natural, just the way my hair gets when i let it grow crazy. i'll probably get it cut after i get my passport photo taken.
later in the day my mother and sister took them to wrentham mall for some outlet shopping. i think my mother and sister just wanted an excuse to go. my father and i stayed home, he taking a nap in the bedroom, while i fell asleep on the living room floor next to the dog. by 6:00 she made sure everyone was awake to let us know it was her feeding time.
my father and i went to the cafe to wait. lili and matthew showed up. by 7:00 everyone arrived and we to house of chang for dinner. as per chinese tradition, we ate until we nearly burst. it felt like thanksgiving but without the turkey.
after dinner (9:00) we (my mother, sister, and i) took the daughter to the watertown target for one final run to pick up a few more dorm supplies. the fathers went back to belmont, most likely to smoke. later i found out they made a surprise visit to my aunt lili's house.
for the most part hailey was calm, but she suddenly started barking and chasing the daughter around for a few seconds. i think hailey was probably startled, because earlier i was petting her, then the daughter took a turn and that's when hailey turned around and saw it wasn't me and got scared and reacted. my sister and father yelled at hailey, who became very submissive the rest of the night, even though it really wasn't her fault. don't blame the dog!
the motorcycle battery went dead again when i tried to leave later in the evening. it started the first time, but then went dead. subsequent tries couldn't start the engine, and by the 4th attempt the starter began clicking. the weird thing is the lights were still on and bright. we pushed the bike to the side of the house with a piece of slate underneath the kickstand so it wouldn't topple into the soft dirt of the lawn.
my father and our relative ended up driving me home. surprisingly, my roommate had already gone to sleep. it wasn't even midnight yet.
i spent the rest of the night online searching for a brand new motorcycle battery. the problem may be something else entirely, but so far the main culprit seems to be an aging battery that can't hold a charge anymore. unfortunately motorcycle batteries (at least the one i needed) are super expensive. a japanese-manufactured yuasa YTZ14S retails for $200. i'm willing to risk going with a cheaper ($68) chinese model. it has a 1 year warranty, so i figured it can't be all bad.