unlike yesterday, i wasn't planning on making a hasty retreat. while victor went off to work this morning (not so early apparently, since i still managed to wake up before he was gone), i'd be forced to spent the day with his girlfriend confined inside the house. it wasn't too bad. like victor, gise's breakfast consisted of a bowl of microwaved chocolate milk with cereal (in victor's case, it's goya cookies). she ate in the living room while i munched on a simple ham-mustard-wheatbread sandwich. we talked about languages and television channels. she apologized for her broken english, but i could still understand her. after breakfast, she set up her laptop on the dining table to work.

i was prepared to spend a day where we'd each be at the opposite ends of the house when my mother called me asking what i was doing. she said if i wasn't busy if i minded going to belmont to dogsit since she and my sister would be out all day taking my aunt shopping again before she returned to california tomorrow. i jumped on this legitimate excuse to be out of the house. there was also plenty of leftover barbecue in belmont, which would be better than whatever i'd make for dinner.

i stopped at the cafe briefly to see my californian aunt one last time before continuing onwards to belmont. hailey had chewed off the sock and bandage on her paw when no one was home. since her wound has mostly healed (the scab fell of a few days ago revealing tender pink flesh on her pad) i didn't bother putting back the bandages.

i went back to home depot to return a few things and to look for more parts. i bought a 24 ft long sump pump hose ($9.66); i was looking for 1-1/2" diameter, but they only had 1-1/4" (turns out the 1-1/2" size is only available online). i also found an insert fitting that's male threaded 1-1/2" on one side and 1-1/2" barbed on the other end (lasco brand, 76¢). finally, i got a 3/4" sillcock spigot ($5.36).

yesterday i was all excited about the possibility of using PVC pipe parts to fashion a crafty overflow for the rain barrel. PVC pipe segments come in all shapes and sizes that they're kind of like legos for plumbers. today's big excitement was discovering insert fittings that can attach directly to a sump pump hose, no additional pipings required.

i stayed in belmont until almost 9:00, waiting for my father to come home from the cafe so i could show him the new outflow and spigot assemblies. my sister was home briefly to feed the dog before she left for a buffet dinner with my mother and aunts. i finally left when i realized my father was waiting for my mother and my aunts to show up at the cafe first. by then, i'd already had a bowl of ramen (in the late afternoon) and a blue cheese burger for dinner.

there was nobody home when i got back. it looked like my roommates left in a hurry, because there was still food on the stove (cooked beans and rice) and gise's laptop and papers were all over the dining table. if i had to guess, i'd say they went out to see a movie. they finally came back around 10:30. i was afraid they were going to cook but they both went to bed.

elsewhere, in the closet garden front:

i put gravel on the trays and added water just to provide some ambient moisture for the plants. i set up the stripped power supply from my old SCSI device; it has a little fan which i'm hoping will provide some circulation, but i'll need to attach more CPU fans at some near date. each of the different plants have sprouted by this point, but whether all the seeds germinated is a different story. the korean cucumber has the highest germination rate, i think 100%. the tomatoes are second, with only one failing to sprout. peppers - despite their late start - are fairly good too, although i was surprised one container never germinated even though it had at least 3 seeds. basils are also pretty good, i don't have to worry about them. only half of the cypress vine containers sprouted despite multiple seeds per container. the morning glory was also a poor producer with only 2 seedlings out of 6 multi-seeded containers; fortunately i had a new 2011 seed packet. finally, with the non-germinating containers (8) i seeded some thai basil.