i made a run to market basket in the late morning to get some breakfast groceries, as i wasn't in the mood for more chicken sausage oatmeal. i stocked up on some chobani yogurt. i also bought a container of tide detergent. i'm particular about my scents, and i've been using mountain spring for many years now. but i wanted to try something new and went with spring & renewal (tide plus febreze).

the whole day i was waiting for my parents to contact me so we could go visit binbin's parents one last time in revere before they go back to china tomorrow afternoon. as her father works in government and with the current chinese political climate as it is, it might be a few more years (when he eventually retires) before they can revisit the US. but my parents couldn't get in touch with them, and later discovered they were out shopping and won't be back home until later in the evening, so we decided we'd wait in belmont, and visit them after dinner. i ended up getting a ride.

i told my parents of my plan to go to chongqing at the end of march for 1-2 months. my father seemed very happy with the idea, but my mother was leary, given the fact that i still haven't found work (she suggested i only go for one month). i checked the airfare, and a direct roundtrip flight from boston to beijing is still around $650.

after dinner we drove out to the everett costco to pick up some supplies, which closes at 8:30pm. evening costco is not as crowded as daytime costco, but still a surprisingly substantial amount of customers. maybe because it wasn't so crowded, we were done shopping in with plenty of time to spare. i discovered online that the nearby target is opened until midnight, so we drove there to pass away the time until we could get in touch with our relatives.

at some point i got separated from my parents, lost in my own shopping haze. browsing the bikes, i received a call from my mother, telling me that they got in touch with my relatives, who were just nearby, eating dinner at the texas roadhouse restaurant, and that we were leaving to go meet them there.

i'd been to texas roadhouse before, back in may 2004. i remember there were peanut shells everywhere, but i forgot the floors were also a little slippery from the steak juice condensation. bin bin and family had a table at the back of the restaurant, an additional table added onto the booth seating to accomodate more people. they'd already eaten, but i couldn't help but to sample some unfinished chicken fingers. after we chatting for a little bit, we left. it was cold and windy outside, with some light rain. i got a ride back to cambridge.