i didn't fall asleep until 5:00 last night. maybe i drank too much tea, maybe it was the short nap i took in the early evening. whatever it was, it kept me awake. not that i minded, since i had all of saturday morning to sleep in. i didn't wake up until 11:00, when my mother called. she said because it was so cold today, she'd come by and pick me up after work in the afternoon, instead of having me bike to belmont.

for lunch i just had a bowl of cereal. i put on my brown wool trenchcoat and went outside briefly to drop off a piece of wrongly-delivered mail. i came across several boxes of discarded books and picked a few hard covers (including a 17th edition 1999 merck manual) to be converted into book safes.

it was my father we came to pick me up in the afternoon. he stopped in to check out my sichuan paocai. i opened a jar to show him how much carbonation was being created during the fermentation. he ate a piece of daikon radish and said my paocai was ready to eat. i kind of like to see it get a bit more sour.

we stopped briefly at the cafe before i left for belmont with my mother. she was busy knitting while i surfed the web and watched television. the house seemed a bit emptier without hailey the dog sleeping on the couch or pestering us to be fed around dinnertime. my father came home around 7:30, we heard the garage door opening. i took one of the cars and drove myself back to cambridge. the night sky was clear and brisk and i could smell chimney smoke.