JUL

01

2009

this was the plan: to ride up north and cross into the new hampshire border where i could procure some contrabands (rhymes with "tire clerks") for this independence day weekend. i'd been following the weather report all of yesterday and even though they forecasted rain, i figured there still might be a window for me to make a run for it. the weather this morning was cloudy and cold, not unlike most mornings for all of june. i was waiting for the temperature to warm up a bit, with one eye on the doppler radar. around noontime it started to rain and i knew there'd be no trip to new hampshire today. in a car not a problem, but riding a motorcycle in the rain on a cold day is a recipe for disaster. it's not worth it anyway, and wasn't like i was going to buy anything cool, i was going more out of curiosity, and to set a personal milestone by leaving the state via motorcycle for the very first time. maybe the weather will clear up later this week, but i have my doubts. now that june is officially over, the numbers reveal that we only had sunshine about 25% of the time.

so the rest of the day i didn't do anything productive, just basically lounged around on the couch, watching television and surfing the web. i was hoping maybe there'd be a break in the showers so that i could at least go out and do some location scouting for the weekend firework displays, but the rain wouldn't let up, and there was even some thundering. my mother dropped by briefly in the late afternoon to deliver some basil chicken she'd made.

JUN

30

2009

left the house just once today to get some gasoline for the bike. the weather was pleasant although still overcast. i couldn't be bothered with a trip to the community garden since i didn't really feel like cleaning my shoes afterwards. a pair of dark khakis i ordered from gap.com arrived later in the afternoon. it's nice to wear something other than jeans everyday! had some leftover sausages for both lunch and dinner. in between meals, i finally finished my haymarket snap peas (goes great with some ranch dipping sauce).

JUN

29

2009

i've all but given up on my community garden plot. i was pretty optimistic during the spring but once the mulberry tree started to drop berries all over my garden, i just gave up. the carpet of mulberries end up rotting and smelling and then attracting pests and diseases. every time i visit the garden, the bottom of my shoes get coated in mulberry jam which i either have to wash off when i get back home or risk tracking mulberry pulp into the house. the berries also shift the chemistry of the soil, making it more acidic. that's why i've devoted more attention to the belmont garden, where the vegetables get plenty of sunlight and i've yet to see a single pest, not even a slug. i'm seriously re-evaluating what to grow in the community garden for next year. maybe just a perennial flower garden that i never have to take care of and one that i won't mind getting stained with mulberry juice for a few weeks at the start of the summer. a plot for experimenting but not a plot for growing vegetables.

with my father slightly incapacitated due to his hand injury, i took it upon myself to help him mow the lawn back at my parents' place. lawn care is not something i'm a stranger to, as i did my fair share of mowing growing up. back then we had an electric mower that required a long extension cord. i didn't mind, and i learned to mow with the cord draped over my shoulder it wouldn't accidently get severed. after that my father got a gas-powered mulching mower. i never used it but he thought it was a great invention because no longer would we need to bag the cut grass, since it'd recirculate back into the lawn. after a few years he realized a mulching mower is the worst thing for a lawn because a thick layer of thatch had accumulated, preventing new grass from emerging. finally my father got a normal mower with a bag, which was the mower i'd be using for today. i've never used a gas-powered mower before. although a bit smelly (from the gasoline engine), a gas-powered mower allows a certain freedom of mobility i've never experienced before back in the days when i was using an electric mower. back then i had to be fairly strategic, mowing in slightly overlapping rows moving away from the cord. with this gas mower, i was doing concentric circles on the lawn, doubling back on myself if i missed a spot, something i couldn't do before.

there wasn't a lot to mow (a front lawn and a larger backyard) but it still took an hour and a half, which i remembered was the case as well with the electric mower. apart from the mowing, there's the periodic emptying of the collection bag, and then moving objects out of the way so i wouldn't have to mow around them. and every once in a while i'd spot some dog poo or a large stick and would need to pick it up. it was actually sunny for a brief moment when i started mowing, but then the weather clouded up again and started to rain. i was almost done so i kept mowing despite the precipitation. i should've brought a change of clothes knowing i'd be doing some manual labor because i was all sweaty afterwards. i took a shower and borrowed some of my father's clothes. despite the work, lawn mowing is actually pretty relaxing. you can essentially just space out, but the end result is a nicely mowed lawn. my secret dream is to one day have a large enough property that i can buy a riding mower.

after my shower i ate a barbecued corn and some buffalo wings. i spent the rest of the day watching the band of brothers marathon on the history channel. it's one of my favorite series and i can't resist whenever it's on. in the evening we had sushi along with the leftover barbecue from yesterday. my father and sister went out to buy some bandages. when they came back, i helped my father light his collection of coleman lanterns in the garage with the replacement mantles he'd just bought. of the three, we already tested one last weekend so we knew that one worked. the second one worked as well, but the third wouldn't even draw any fuel through the generator, so we ended up ruining a pair of mantles. of the two that worked, the one from last week seemed sort of dim, but after a few minutes, it got really bright (a white glow), much brighter than the second lantern (a yellow glow).

it wasn't raining when i left for cambridge (unlike last night), although my motorcycle seat was still wet from an earlier shower. it was actually warm enough that i came back in just short-sleeves and i could see a hazy fog permeating through the landscape. it made me remember an opossum sighting i had last night on madison street. opossums are creepy but pretty much harmless. about the size of a cat but looks like a giant rat that walks with all four legs extended. this one froze in the middle of the road, which is fairly typical opossum behavior, and can explain why they're often roadkill. i slowed down and high-beamed the critter. after a few seconds, it regained its senses and scurried back into the bushes.

JUN

28

2009

the rainy and overcast weather siege continues, and the next few days looks like there's going to be even more rain. this has been the gloomiest stretch of new england weather that i can recall. i keep on thinking we're due for some good weather but this stretch of bad weather continues with no end in sight. since today wasn't as rainy as yesterday (at least during the afternoon), i had a longer period to inspect the vegetables growing in the belmont garden.

the corn seem to be doing well, despite the lack of sunshine. i measured one of the tallest stalks today, about 19" tall (over 2 feet if i stretch out one of the leaves). i wonder if corn is somehow related to grass (and possibly bamboo), because they sort of look alike. with 13 plants and maybe 2 ears per stalk, we're looking at a haul of 2 dozen corncobs by season's end. seems like a lot of work to grow our own corn when this past weekend star market had a $2-for-10-ears-of-corn sale. still, it's a nice experiment if nothing else, we've never grown corn before. unlike the corn, the tomatoes seem to be stunted by the perpetually cloudy weather. they're all growing, but not as fast as in past seasons.

elsewhere in the garden - i saw this yesterday - my father has planted some sweet potatoes in the empty plot across from the old cherry tree (which we chopped down george washington style last year). sweet potatoes need a long growing season - 100 to 150 days - so we're not going to be harvesting any sweet potatoes this year. they also don't overwinter (sweet potatoes are native to the tropics) and will die once the ground freezes. my father is growing them in the hopes that at least we can get some leaves, which are edible (unlike regular potato leaves, which are poisonous). speaking of long growing seasons, the bottle gourds also require approximately 100 days to mature (the seedlings have just sprouted within this past week). that'll take us into november, but hopefully we won't get a killing frost until december.

from what i've been reading, gladiolus is a high-maintenance perennial. our new england winter will kill these plants so the corms need to be dug out before the ground freezes. in my opinion, any perennial that requires uprooting and winter storage isn't fit to be called a perennial. gladioli also require staking, otherwise they're tip over once they're top heavy with flowers. i'm curious to see how many gladiolus will actually germinate, since of the 32 i got, a few of them looked to be dead already. i counted 5 gladioli today.

caladiums are another high-maintenance bulbs. they too require winterizing indoors, at room temperature if possible (leaving them in an unheated garage will kill them). next year i plan on putting the caladiums in flower pots, which is the usually method people keep them in the northeast. i couldn't find any mention of caladiums in any of my gardening books (purchased in the 1990's), which makes me wonder whether this is a recently introduced perennial. i like the caladiums more than i do the gladioli; i respect any plant that can thrive in the shade (caladiums) and do it with such a flare for the theatrical. all 7 of my mixed assortment of caladiums have sprouted by the hostas and the ferns, and about half of the 14 mixed caladiums (john peed + white queen varieties) by the bamboo grove have sprouted as well. in fact, one of the sprouts has the hallmarks of a 'white queen' variety.

since my father's injury, my mother has been helping with his shift at the cafe. they came back home in the early evening and we had some barbecue: corn, buffalo wings, grilled shrimp, and french fries. somebody was talking about getting a new picnic table for the backyard, to replace the one that we used to have but broke apart after too many seasons of neglect. (later, after returning home, i realized instead of buying a picnic table, it wouldn't be very hard to build one from scratch, and i found a bunch of DIY plans online).

after dinner my father replaced the dressing on his burned hand. i was prepared to see a vomit-inducing wound as he unwrapped the bandage, but turned out it wasn't as bad as i'd imagined (i'd envisioned the bene gesserit pain box scene from the 1984 dune movie). nevertheless, it was still gross looking, with an area of missing skin, several large blisters, and a few dark spots where he just suffered 1st degree burns (graphic 2nd degree burn photo for those who can stomach it). his whole hand was also swollen, but he didn't seem to be in much pain. after rinsing the hand and letting it air dry, my father slathered on the antibacterial silver sulfadiazine cream with a sterilized butter knife (we cleaned it with alcohol before searing it with a lighter flame). my father is scheduled for a follow-up appointment with his doctor on tuesday.

it was raining when i left for cambridge. the constant seepage of rain into my mouth as i sped home felt like a mild form of water boarding. oh, the disadvantage of the open-faced helmet!

JUN

27

2009

a craving for snap peas drove me back to haymarket again this afternoon. the sky was all sorts of weird: in the north puffy white rain clouds, while in the south a thick fog was swallowing up the city. i stashed my bike at a visitor's parking spot on north street. afterwards i made my way through the north end, to copps hill cemetery, to take some photos. that's when my mother called me. she said my father was in a cooking accident, scalded his hand with hot oil, and had to go to the emergency room. she told me to return home.

on the outskirts of harvard square i pulled over to answer the phone once again after the constant buzzing in my pocket. my mother told me i didn't have to come back after all since my aunt and uncle were with my father at the hospital.

i went to the cafe anyway, where my mother reenacted what happened that led to my father getting burned by hot cooking oil. i went to belmont, where i gave hailey a bath (my sister had come back with her after being out in the forest and was helping my mother at the cafe so she couldn't wash the dog). i also watered the vegetables, did a load of laundry, and washed the dirty dishes in the sink. i watched the non-stop all-weekend-long michael jackson tribute on the various music channels. rewatching we are the world gave me goosebumps (the first time i saw it was in 1985 in 5th grade in the school's library; it as a special treat). one question though: is it just my imagination or is dan aykroyd amongst the crowd of all-star singers? i left when my sister came back home.

i saw my father at the cafe. he suffered 2nd degree burns on the back of his right hand, now wrapped up in gauze and bandages. the skin had peeled off, leaving the denuded pink flesh beneath. it could've been worse, could've been 3rd degrees burns with muscle and nerve damage (but it wasn't). once the new skin grows in, the hand should be back to normal - but i wonder if he'll have a scar on it the rest of his life.

JUN

26

2009

recently, weather seems to be the deciding factor in shaping my days. with forecasted thunderstorms for this afternoon, i paid a quick visit to haymarket to pick up some cheap produce before the rain arrived. today was hot (80's), a bit humid, and riding underneath the scorching sun made me yearn for autumn already. napa cabbages make their appearance this week. i didn't realize that however and bought from the first vendor i saw (when i could've shopped around), a large 3lbs. head, along with two daikon radishes, all for just $2. i have the necessary ingredients for making more kimchee! i also bought 2 bags of rainier cherries ($5), a pound of long hot peppers ($1), and a bag of plums ($2).

i went to the cafe to drop off a few items before returning home. i was feeling all smug because i beat the rain, covering my motorcycle and then watching the swath of storm clouds eclipse boston and its vicinity. the sky went dark and it rained for a little bit before the sun came out. just the calm before the real storm i thought to myself. little did i know, that would be it in terms of rain for today. once again, i stayed home anticipating a rain out when i could've been out doing stuff.

after a late lunch of toaster-oven fried kielbasa and a poached egg, i did a load of laundry, washing the bedsheets and some towels. i also set the bread machine to prepare some pizza dough for later tonight: 3 cups of flour (actually, 1.5 cups of white bread machine flour + 1.5 cups of brown whole wheat flour), 1/2 tsp of salt, 1.5 tsp of yeast, a cup of warm water, and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. after the machine kneaded the ingredients into a large dough ball slightly larger than a softball, it sat idle, waiting for the dough to rise. by the time it was finished, the dough had risen and completely filled the pan. i took out the dough and put it in the fridge sealed in syran wrap.

i made barbecue chicken pizza for dinner. i grilled 3 chicken breasts and cut them into small cubes before coating them with some barbecue sauce. 20 minutes of baking at 425 degrees later and i was done. 3 cups of flour makes too much dough for just a single pizza, i should scale it back to just 2 cups next time. i ended up with a lot of surplus crust. and 3 chicken breasts is also too much meat (although i couldn't find packaging portions smaller than that). i ate two hearty slices with a fork, saving the remaining 2/3 for tomorrow.

JUN

25

2009

eventually i did see the "thriller" video. i think it was some halloween special, that they were finally going to broadcast it on one of the regular networks. by today's standards it's not very good, but it was revolutionary for the time, a music video with such high production value, more of an event than anything else. michael jackson was just the epitome of cool back then. everything he did was awesome. the single white glove, the moonwalk, the mirror shades. everyone knew who he was, young and old, and all over the world.

i've always thought if he had died right after he made thriller he would've became a legend and his reputation would forever be untarnished. however, he managed to live another quarter century and his personal life spiraled into a circus. maybe he was just too weird. had he been busted for drugs, or punched out a reporter, or fathered an illegitimate child, people would understand, because that's what normal out-of-control celebrities do. but he became this asexual DIY project addicted to plastic surgery with a chimp for a friend and accused of being a child molester. not many people can get behind that.

when i heard the news that he had a cardiac arrest, i thought that was just a heart attack, and since he was already on his way to the hospital, i figured he'd be okay. but a cardiac arrest is not a heart attack. it's more serious, like the heart just stops. and when every single news outlet was covering this story, i started to get worried. and when the news finally broke that michael jackson was dead, i was shocked. sure, we've all made fun of him (heck, of the only 2 jokes i know, one of them is a michael jackson joke!) but i still never forgot the 1984 michael jackson, and that's the michael jackson i like to remember, and that's the michael jackson that died today. the man who introduced me to music.

JUN

25

2009

perhaps the only non-rain day this week, i went to the 640 acres breakheart reservation in saugus. i'll write more tomorrow, for now enjoy some photos.

JUN

24

2009

within the past 30 days i've had 3 different people stay at my place. roommates always leave stuff, no matter how carefully they pack. jesse left her cleansing cream, as well as some beer, some organic eggs, and a pineapple. when john return to new york last week, he left a few black safety pins and a turkey sandwich. and when my british roommate sophia went back to england, she left a lint brush underneath the bed and some pudding pops in the fridge.

maybe today would've been another great day to go running. and maybe once again i somehow rationalized myself out of exercising. i was however doing some research on the nike+. wired magazine had a great article about personal metrics being a potent running motivator. it didn't say whether the nike+ could be used with other sneakers but a quick search online revealed a resounding yes, with all sorts of 3rd party shoe-mounted carrying cases for the sensor. the kit itself isn't very expensive (around $30, including the sensor and a wireless receiver) but it does require at least an ipod nano, which i don't own (about $130 for the lowest end model). maybe when i start running again can i consider such an investment.

ate the last of my frozen lasagnas. will definitely need to do a grocery run tomorrow. fortunately i hear the sun will make a cameo appearance for a change.

JUN

23

2009

didn't do anything today, just stayed at home, waiting for the rain to end. it would've been a nice day to go running but instead i was reading the comic "y: the last man". jesse left for work in the late morning (yeah, i know, going to work on her supposed vacation) and came back later in the evening. she grab a few things and went to deliver the car to bonnie and danni and then spend the night in JP.