i left the house by 9:30am, before GC even woke up, just to beat the oncoming rainstorm. i stopped by the cafe to help my 2nd aunt sign in to her xiaomi account so she could sync the data on her mi fit 2. afterwards i raced to belmont, already feeling a few raindrops. it wasn't long after i stashed the fuji bike in the garage that it began to rain. not only that, but all the local channels were breaking with news of tornados in webster, and a tornado warning for middlesex county.

while my sister and mother went out to saturday brunch at thai amarin in watertown/newton, my father and i stayed home and had chicken noodles for lunch.

john got in touch with me today, wants to do a white mountains hike as early as tomorrow (sunday). we settled on early monday morning, meeting at the white mountains information center in lincoln, NH, which each of us driving there separately. i'll only be there monday and tuesday, while john plans on staying an extra day on wednesday. i might stick around as well, but the reason why i'm leaving early is because the forecast says it's going to be rainy on wednesday. as for monday and tuesday, they're both heat wave days in boston, but hopefully cooler up in new hampshire.

steve contacted me, said he was back in town for one day to check up on the condo after their tenants dave and christine left yesterday. he told me as if i didn't know, as if i didn't say goodbye to them myself when they left late yesterday afternoon.

the rain would eventually stop, as i went outside to inspect the backyard garden. we have a profusion of cucumber flowers this season, but i spotted some cucumber beetles, which i destroyed whenever i could. there hasn't been a lot of damage but one tomato and one cucumber plant in RB2 show signs of bacterial wilt. we already harvested 2 cucumbers, it's just a race against time to see how many more cukes we can get before the plants die from beetle-transmitted bacterial disease.

for dinner my father grilled the italian sausages i brought over today, along with the asparagus i got from haymarket. i biked home afterwards, racing against some ominous clouds in the sky that looked like there might be another bout of rain.

i ended up watching john wick with GC, streaming from my MBP because my HDTV media player wouldn't support subtitle files.

wangyan contacted me out of the blue, asking me when i was coming to china. not this year, i told her. i thought maybe she missed me, but she was asking because she wanted a furla bag and wanted me to get it for her if i was coming; she saw one at an airport duty free shop. i asked her if she was doing anything fun this weekend, and she told me she just came back from hong kong - not for vacation - but rather to get the HPV vaccine.