my parents' bermuda cruise check-in time was 10:30am to 11am, so last night they said they'd come pick me up at 9:30am. but i waited and waited and saw they were still at the cafe so i called them. turns out they weren't going to come pick me up first, and that we'd leave directly from my house. when they finally arrived at 10am, my mother gave me a bag of frozen chinese dumplings to eat for next week. my father drove us down to the black falcon cruise terminal where they disembarked and i drove the car back to belmont. i got a little lost navigating the seaport district but once i was on the turnpike it was smooth sailing, though i also had problems navigating the off-ramp exit from the turnpike into cambridge near the doubletree hotel, finally making a left turn from the far right lane. i arrived in belmont by 10:55am.

i watered the backyard garden. last night GC finally sent me his itinerary, told me he'd be back in boston 12:30pm, and asked if we coud have lunch or dinner. i could do lunch, leaving the evening open so i can enjoy some cable television at my parents' place. i drove to cambridge around 12:30pm, figuring it'd take GC half an hour minimum to get to my place, but more likely it'd be later.

he finally showed up close to 2pm because his bus ran late. i gave him 3 food options: the burger joint around the corner, IHOP in harvard square (he'd never been to one before), or the gyu-kaku japanese barbecue place, where we could order the cheap lunch special. i was pushing for barbecue and that's the place we ended up going.

not sure what it was, but gyu-kaku was much more crowded than the last (and first) time i was here with eliza a month ago. maybe it's because now we're closer to the start of the school year and more students are back. also, most of customers were asian for some reason. we sat on the other side of the restaurant this time but still got a booth table. learning a lesson from my last visit, i didn't get the huromon (intestines) nor the beef tongue. instead, i just got what i knew would be delicious, yaki shabu and hanger steak. i figured GC would at least go with the only seafood option of garlic shrimp, but he copied me and got the same thing that i did. it was a good experience, and i don't think GC has ever had japanese/korean barbecue here in the US (although he has had barbecue buffet back in china, as i have as well on several occasions).

GC ended up treating, the least he could do for shorting me a quarter of the rent and then staying at my place for one more night before his flight back to alabama tomorrow morning. we walked back to the house by 3:30pm. i asked if he was meeting any of his coworker friends for dinner tonight, which he was not, because they already had a farewell dinner for him last weekend and it'd be awkward for him to show up again. he did have some leftover seafood in the freezer, and i knew he was probably going to cook them up. in fact, i encouraged him, this way when he stinks up the house it will be my idea and i won't feel as bad. after 15 minutes i finally left, returning to belmont to dogsit hailey.

after feeding hailey at 6pm, i heated up some beef paomo for dinner, along with some leftover watermelon in the fridge, washed down with some la croix pamplemousse sparkling water my sister left me. i surfed the web from the living room while surfing the myriad of cable channels, from sports to MSNBC to all the movie channels (both HBO and showtime). i finished the evening catching the tail end of tiffany haddish's special on showtime.