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it took me nearly four hours to prep the bathroom and then paint it. wasn't the bathroom already painted? i didn't question it too much, i was going back to latex paint, a much easier medium than oils. i was painting white on white, hard to see, but i was roller painting and its easy to go back and reapply. jeff was out in the living room cleaning up, and when i finally came back out, the living room looked completely different, clean for a change. before i left, i rolled some benjamin moore decorator white on the walls to cover the wood stain splatters jeff created when he kicked an opened can of minwax yesterday.

last night at 2am i heard a noise outside that sounded like something breaking. after a pause, i cracked open the venetian blinds and saw that somebody had thrown a bicycle on my sidewalk. is there a "dump" sign in front of my house? i didn't bother going out and investigating further. this morning though, the bike was still there, and somebody had propped it up against the tree. it's an old style bike, with a flat back tire and the chains hanging off the gears. figuring it might be salvageable, or at the very least good enough to strip for parts, i brought the bike into the backyard. still, i'm kind of curious as to who it belongs to. i personally think it was stolen from somewhere, and when the bike got a flat tire, the thief just abandoned it, coincidentally right in front of my house.

after a shower and a lunch of rice noodles, i got dressed and went down to harvard square to get a haircut at supercuts. it's my first time going to one of these chain haircut places. in the past, i either got my haircut from my mother or the school street barber shop back home. i went in looking lost, the woman behind the reception desk (they actually have a receptionist!) took one look at me and said, "haircut, right?" i nodded, and she told me it'd be a few minutes. before i could sit down in the waiting area, one of the stylists called my name. his name was gary, a late middle aged fellow with shapely feminine eyebrows which he obviously plucked. this is definitely not a barbershop! i got the usual, short on the sides and back, long enough on the top to comb. we engaged in chit chat while gary cut my hair, i asked him about business and told him about the wedding, he asked if this was my first time and where i was coming from. when he finished cutting, i paid the receptionist $11 (there was a 20% discount if you show them your shaw's card) then tipped gary $2. it was an okay haircut, i still think it's too long on the sides and the back despite telling him to make it shorter. next time i'll either go back to my mother or the barbershop. i browsed harvard square a little bit before walking back home.

oh my legs! they feel lumpy from the multiple mosquito bites, and i got so many bites on my right ankle that it actually looks swollen and hurts when i walk. i just hope i don't contract something nasty like equine encephalitis or the west nile virus. i'm not sure which is worse, dozens of painful itchy mosquito bites or some posion ivy infection. my arms are also itchy as well, but nowhere as bad as my legs.

despite the leg pains, i went out running anyway. it was 70 degrees and slightly raining, which i figured would be perfect. i was looking forward to getting drenched. i ran the whole charles river course without stopping, but with plenty of loud groaning. despite the rain, it was still surprisingly warm, if only the temperature could be 10 degrees cooler or a cold breeze. my legs also didn't hurt when i ran but they felt a little tight. i saw something large fly from one side of the river to the other, which turned out to be a black-crowned night-heron. while walking home from the charles river, that's when it really started to rain hard, monsoon weather. if i had been slightly damp before, now i was saturated, my t-shirt transparent and sticking to my body. i was in no rush to get home, and i took my time, enjoying my rainy walk. rain water was streaming down my face, into my eyes, my mouth. i ran my hands through the leaves of bushes and trees, brushing off the cold water. by the time i got to my street, i went topless since i figured my t-shirt wasn't really keeping me dry anyway.

i washed my sneakers (after getting some tips from julie) and accidently splashed some bleach onto my blue t-shirt, which minutes later turned into white polka dots. ah, live and learn! bleach is dangerous. in combination with ammonia it produces poisonous chloramine gas which irritates the lungs and causes coughing and choking. in combination with toilet bowl cleaner (an acid) it produces deadly chlorine gas which kills through asphyxiation (used by the germans in WWI). the things you can do with household chemicals!

for dinner, i finally made something for a change instead of going out or heating something prepared. i made clam sauce linguine, had all the ingredients except parsley so i used some freshly chopped mint (which is not the same). the sauce was excellent (can't really miss), but i didn't cook the linguine long enough and they were a little hard. i ate half and saved the other half for tomorrow.