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fearing that it'd rain, i went out searching for the perfect backpack first thing in the morning. i rode to commonwealth avenue near boston university, first visiting the EMS. they had a lot of small backpacks, and a lot of large backpacks, but nothing very much in between. i went next door to city sports, which didn't carry any hiking backpacks. across the street i checked out bob smith's wilderness house. they primarily only carry two brands of bags, and both were very expensive ($200-300). i rode out to kenmore square and stopped off at REI. i'd already visited an REI a few days ago; i just wanted to see the kelty stormy 3600 again, a potential buy. the only thing i don't like about it is the lack of extra pockets.

i came back home and worked a bit. my parents dropped off some food. realizing still how early it was (2:30pm) and that it wasn't going to rain today, i got back on my bike and rode to north station to visit hilton's tent city. they actually had a pretty good selection: i checked out the kelty moraine 3600 and a mountainsmith bag. afterwards i played tourist in the north end, first visiting copp's hill burying ground, then the old north church, and finally the paul revere statue in the prado (the last time i saw this statue was over 4 years ago).

there was a good amount of tourists and i wondered if they thought i was one of them, armed with my camera. they really lucked out, because the weather today was gorgeous (a farcry from the usual serving of rain). maybe because i live in boston i take the city for granted, but it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to come here. let me fill you in on a little secret: boston is boring. if visiting graves and seeing old houses is your thing, yeah, maybe boston's for you, but how fun can that be? i see out-of-town parents with their kids, and i can't imagine how bored those poor children must be. i just want to go up to them with an understanding look of compassion on my face and tell them, "hey, at least you don't live here."

returning to cambridge, i made a trip to the garden to give my wildflowers some watering. while everyone else has plants growing in their plot, my square is still empty. it's not enough that it's the farthest plot from any water spigot, but also my garden neighbors are encrouching on my already small area. an expanding raspberry bush is slowly taking over and another neighbor has swallowed up the path in order to increase her garden size. i guess i'm feeling sort of discouraged right now. hopefully we'll get some sunny days and maybe i'll see some action finally.

this morning when i was heading out i saw a pair of cardinals flying around outside. they seemed defensive, and one of them was even faking an injury to draw my attention for some reason. i ignored them and was about to ride away when i saw a baby cardinal out on the road. it looked like a ball of feathers with a small pink crest. for a split second i was frozen, trying to decide weather to shoo it away so it wouldn't get runned over by a car. then its parents flew in for the rescue, and the baby was able to hopfly into a nearby bush.

in the evening julie came over and made chicken tikka masala. the red sox suffered a terrible loss in extra innings.