i actually woke up at 9am but just lying in bed, trying to see if i could hear anything outside my bedroom door. i knew karen and her friend came back home late last night around 2am, and i figured they'd sleep late today, but i've never known karen to sleep beyond 9am, and her friend told us yesterday she loves to wake up early. close to 10am i finally got out of bed, only to realize they were still asleep. i also didn't know where her canadian friend would be sleeping, but apparently squeezed in her room (she'd brought a mat). she did take some of the extra pillows, sheets, and blankets i'd left outside in the living room (since i assumed she'd take the couch).

i left for belmont around 11:30am. it was supposed to snow today until 6pm, but it seemed to be sleeting instead, covering the landscape in slush. i went to harvard square to take the bus, my attention fixed on my phone as i tried to replenish my exhausted supplies of pokeballs. bad weather like a rain or snow always makes me want to get out my camera and take photos, while at the same time go someplace warm and dry. i almost got killed when i arrived in belmont, as a large SUV didn't see me walking on the sidewalk as it backed out of the driveway. i managed to dodge the back of the car as it headed in my direction, and it seemed to freak out the driver, who only then saw me.

i helped my mother find a new favorite show to watch, to catch a smuggler on the national geographic channel, about US customs agents at JFK airport apprehending people suspected of bringing drugs into the US. the episodes we watched heavily featured guyanan drug mules.

after dinner i was ready to walk to the bus stop and grab the 73 back to cambridge, when my sister called my parents, said the basement ceiling to the cafe was leaking and told my father to come immediately. since my father was heading in that direction, he managed to give me a ride. we stopped at the cafe first. my sister has a habit of speaking in hyperboles and the way she described the leak sounded like the whole building was about to collapse. in fact it was just a little leak, and had more to do with the poorly paved driveway next door, with an incline not to code which pooled a little bit of water into the basement. there was nothing left to do but to let the ceiling leak run its course, leaving it to my sister to complain to the tenants next door. we gave my 2nd aunt a ride home before i got dropped off.

i got home around 8pm. i knew karen and her friend had been home since 7pm. they were in the kitchen chatting and eating, drinking hard cider. karen offered me a bottle while i was making some tea. i asked them where they went today, karen said they were at the prudential mall. as far as being a tour guide, i think karen is not very good. in her defense, boston is not really her city, but still, they hardly went anywhere today. again, in her defense, the weather was crap, but still, the boston cambridge library was right next door and she didn't take her friend. she told me tomorrow they plan on driving to the town of concord, because karen had seen it once along the way during her central massachusetts conference. i didn't bother telling her that there wasn't that much to see there unless you're a fan of early american history. it's not my problem.

karen and her friend went to bed early, maybe to make up for being out so late last night, and also to get an early start tomorrow (i hope so).

"there is something wrong with your itinerary," i told wangyang tonight, as she was just 6 hours away from flying out of china to the US. "HPN airport westchester county is not in pennsylvania," i informed her, "it is in new york state." "the town you are going to is west chester, pennsylvania," i continued, "not westchester county, new york." the the closest airport to west chester, pennsylvania is actually philadelphia international airport. it's a honest mistake, and one that people not familiar with the area make all the time.

i finally updated to OS X 10.12.4 yesterday. i didn't notice the bug fix until today: the image capture app is working again. ever since i began using OS sierra, i've had a problem where the app would give me an error saying it couldn't erase the photos on my memory card even when in fact they were erased by the app. it was annoying but wasn't a deal breaker, and i figured it was something i broke, since i didn't see many others complaining about it online. but apparently it wasn't me, because apple managed to finally fix this bug. and then tonight i updated the system on my iphone to 10.3. i wasn't able to before because i didn't have enough space, but i found and erased a cache of old tv episodes i didn't want to watch anymore, clearing up an additional 30GB of space on my hard drive.