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i had lunch with my mother and sister at the kebab factory. my sister dropped us off as she went to go park the car. it took her so long to get back to the restaurant that my mother and i were already on our 2nd plate of indian buffet food. when we finished eating and my mother asked for the check, my sister said with a condescending smile to the waiter that she wasn't finished yet. maybe if she got off her damn phone this wouldn't have happened. we then waited an additional 15 minutes for her to finish feeding. i was so angry i walked home instead of riding in her car, which was her suggestion anyway when i dared to ask her when she expected to be done. i will never eat with my sister ever again.

the city (not sure whether it's cambridge or somerville or perhaps both) put up cement barricades down the center of beacon street for a few block stretch. just so happens it's right where i usually cross, so now i have to walk a bit further down the street if i want to get to the supermarkets. i also noticed they cut down all the trees along beacon street. this can only mean one thing: the beacon street reconstruction project has begun! which will include the dedicated bike lane that many neighbors were opposed to when the design was first proposed. i'm just curious when the project will be over. knowing the history of these civil constructions, i'm seriously afraid it'd take a very long time before beacon street can be easily accessible again.

i went to the cafe around 1:30pm to help my mother wrap some zongzi for her 100 zongzi order. this would give me some hands-on experience. the cafe was a hubbub of activity, with electricians installing the automatic door, cleber painting the cafe exterior, and my grand uncle's new nurse arriving.

i learned how to form the bamboo leaves into a pocket, and how to pack the pocket and wrap it up tightly without it falling apart (the trick is squeezing the packet into a t-shape). however i did not learn how to wrap up the packet with string. my mother was helping me at first, until i realized it was taking away too much of her time from wrapping additional zongzi, so i sort of gave up after a few tries, since she could work faster without having to supervise me as well. i did wrap at least 2 sweet (with dates) zongzi (but she tied up both of them).

before i left to go home around 4:30pm, we visited my sister's backyard to pick some of her strawberries.

i ended up buying that copy of "stilwell" i had in my shopping cart, after i got a message this morning saying the price had dropped. it's probably some amazon ploy to get me to buy, and i must admit, it worked. what's weird was all the other dealers dropped their prices as well.

i ate 3 zongzi for dinner, which was one zongzi too much, while watching the martian on HBO.