t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i continue to read my history of the battle of stalingrad late last night (10 more pages to go, what's going to happen to paulus?), then fell asleep with my ibook on my bed doing a long install of the latest system update. i woke up this morning, fixed myself a pair of hot dogs and a smoothie, watched the guy ritchie movie mean machine on cable (your standard prison soccer film), then got dressed to go to the head of the charles in harvard square. the weather was cold and wet, temperature in the 40's with an overcasted sky that promised more freezing rain to come.

given the chance, who would pass up the opportunity to watch spandex clad athletic hotties strain and groan on the charles river? from memorial drive i could already see the boats (they're not called boats, but i don't know crew lingo so it's "boat" to me) racing on the river. i got a good vantage point on the jfk street bridge and watched the boats go by down below. i had to open up the umbrella because it was drizzling slightly and i didn't want to get the camera wet. because of the overcast, lighting condition was terrible and most of the photos i took turned out to be blurry. later i moved along the banks of the river to get sideview photos of the boats. most of the women teams dressed in matching outfits while the male crew teams often times paid little attention to what they were wearing.


woman single

men rowing

coxswain

women rowing

more coxswain

radcliffe

stanford,
bucknell

lifting boat

garaging boat

after i had enough of the head of the charles, i walked back home. autumn is the season of dying, but there were still some colorful flowers blooming in the rain. i took their photos before they could wilt, thereby preserving their beautiful forever.

i met dennis and susan on their way to the video store ("we're going to the movies," they told me). they informed me about doug's open house on our street and i went to take a look. doug is selling the 1st and 3rd floor, each unit is 790 square feet, just like my place, but it feels a lot bigger because of the layout. dennis and susan also told me that my other neighbor jeff, the one i helped paint for this summer, is selling his place as well. with so many units up for sale, i wonder what kind of people will move into the neighborhood?

i was going to do some cleaning but the only thing i cleaned was myself. i took a shower yesterday but it felt like i haven't been clean since forever. i got a chance to use one of my soap samples, unlabeled, so i don't know what scent it is. if i had to guess, chamomile & sage. smells so good, i sort of want to melt the soap and drink it as a tea. i did a load of laundry including bath towels and kitchen washclothes. for dinner, i cooked up a salmon steak in the toaster oven, sprinkled with sea salt and fresh ground peppers as well as a teaspoon of spicy chinese hot pot paste. 30 minutes it was ready, i ate it while watching the first few innings of the world series, just enough to see the yankees get the lead before i quickly changed the channel. later in the evening, my parents dropped by briefly on their way back from new york city to deliver some food.


japanese usb-powered fan

although i didn't go to the head of the charles last year, i wrote about it the year before, entries 011020 and 011021.