sometime during the night, while we all slept, the heat and humidity left the city, replaced with mild and cool weather. the siege is finally over! if anything, it was a little bit too cold. first thing i did was to go water my plants. it takes me longer to uncoil the hose and put it back again than it does to actually water my garden. after that i went to the cafe briefly to drop off my gps and pick up some tea eggs. out in the parking lot, i finally realized what that mystery plant is: it's tomatillos! they're in the nightshade family, along with tomatoes, hot peppers, and even my chinese lantern plant. i recognized the tomatillo from the green husk, which resembles the flowers from the chinese lantern. i've never seen tomatillos grown before, and this particular plant was a present for my father from my aunt, who has a whole bunch more in their backyard garden.

since it was still early (before noon), i decided to take care of my motorcycle registration business. i went to chinatown to meet with the insurance company my parents use. the agent filled out all the necessary paper work, but i still needed to get a replacement title which could take another week. he pulled up my record and saw i had a violation. "yeah, i didn't stop for an old lady on a crosswalk," i explained. "oh, that's no problem," the agent told me. and in fact, it wasn't a problem, because it didn't even affect my points. naturally registering the motorcycle in cambridge instead of belmont means a premium increase, but not by too much (motorcycle insurance is relatively cheap anyway, a little more than $200 a year). however, there will probably be about $100 in fees: title transfer, registration, new license plate, and new inspection. all this - just so i can park in cambridge without getting a ticket. coming back home, i got some chinese takeout (spicy pork chop) but realized when i got back that they gave me the wrong order, some awful bokchoi with squids. i ate half anyway just because i was so hungry, but it was pretty jopless.

there's a lot of commotion happening on my street, as students move back home and new tenants arrive. up and down the street there are city signs taped to trees reserving parking spots for certain days so people can move. occasionally a big pile of junk will suddenly appear out on the curb. it never fails to amaze me how quickly trash can be cannibalized. first a box of greasy pots and pans disappeared. then a carton of old books. then a full-length mirror. followed by some milk crates. even i was eying the box fan, but it looked to be broken.