i didn't notice when ana left for her 8:30a class this morning. of course i was preparing for the long haul, not bothering to get up until forced by the call of nature. i wasn't going to be doing any sanding today, so i could afford to wake up late. when i finally did get up, i had some potato salad for breakfast. i didn't leave for belmont until sometime after 12p, not to work, but because hailey was home alone.

i managed to test the SJ4000 with the frame mount attached to the dog harness. yes, there was audio compared to the waterproof box, but the microphone on the SJ4000 is something terrible and the audio just sounds muffled at best. that's something that the gopro does a better job at. from the test footage i shot of hailey chasing bubbles, i didn't notice any wind noises though, which i suppose is a good thing. later i shot another footage with the camera mounted to my wrist as i operated the bubble gun. i got a minute of recording before the gun failed. bubble machines are notoriously unreliable and flimsy.

i also collected a ziploc bag full of dried hollyhock seeds. i noticed small holes in the seed cases but didn't think much of it. afterwards though, when i looked in the bag, i noticed a bunch of hollyhock weevils. i read online that i can put the bag into the freezer for a week to kill all the adult and larva weevils. next season i'll have to be vigilant about keeping the weevils in check (maybe with insecticidal soap).

my mother came home around 1p. normally she bikes, but took the car today because my sister asked her to pick up hailey, even though she herself dropped off the dog at the house this morning. my mother brought home some curry rice noodles for lunch.

i spent the late afternoon scrubbing the toenail fungus solution my father had spilled on the bedroom floor this morning before leaving for work. it's undecylenic acid, which leaves a sticky residue. water by itself won't get rid of it, i had to use dish detergent, a scrubbing brush, and some hot water to rinse.

for dinner my mother and i cooked a slab of ribs in the oven. i had 5 slices before i was full. she also made a cucumber hot pepper salad. my mother never believes in the potency of any of our backyard-grown hot peppers. so when she sliced into some red anaheim peppers from RB1 (not to be confused the hungarian wax from RB4), so was surprised that the cut on her finger started to hurt. later when she tried to eat one of the peppers, she kept crying that it was too hot and picked them all out of the salad. the weird thing is anaheim peppers are supposed to be mild. in fact, there was no pungent odor alerting you to the fact that this was a very hot pepper. maybe i disidentified them and they're not anaheims after all, but rather hungarian wax peppers. they both look the same, except these anaheims were growing downwards, while the hungarians grow upside down but later grow rightside up again.

i found ana at home when i got back. she had no social events planned for tonight so was spending a lowkey evening at home. she went grocery shopping and cooked for lunch. we chatted, i found out she's been to the US multiple times, from when she was a teenager, to in recent years. she has two old brothers but both are a decade older than her; that's because they were from her father's previous marriage, whom in turn divorced her mother as well. in her english class, there are a lot of russians, middle easterners, brazilians, and south koreans.

the biggest surprise i learned tonight was ana smokes!¹ that's why she was so interested about the backyard porch. maybe i should've asked before renting, but she keeps it outside, and i don't smell it when she's back inside. she did ask if i had an ashtray, that she left hers at her brother's place; i gave her a baby food jar as a temporary substitute. later she cooked dinner and finally ate around 10p. she didn't ask to share, but did ask if i had dinner already. she ate while watching some spanish sitcom on her sony laptop, indulging in some chocolates and cookies afterwards. she went to bed around 11p. the subject of rent was never brought up, i'll give her another day or two before a gentle reminder.

¹ to my recollection, i've only rented to one other smoker in the past, an older chinese astrophysicist who was only here for a month (2009). none of my previous european roommates were smokers. as for the last smoker i had, i remember he would always be out on the deck with his cigarettes. he was also a big drinker too. he really had no business coming overseas, and rarely went to work while he was here (but he wasn't a bad guy once i got to know him). i think the visit was more of a vacation for him, in particular a shopping vacation, because he returned to china with a new canon dSLR camera and a new macbook pro.