i received a phone call this morning from harvard vanguard. a doctor apologized for the scheduling mix-up as a result of a clerical error. although it wasn't necessary, it was good to finally solve the mystery. i wasn't angry until i checked the time: 8am! while most working people are probably out of bed by that time, i'm not like most working people. i still had maybe 4 more hours of beauty sleep to go!

as old as i am, i find that i still need personal validation of my adulthood. one way to do this is to run errands, since apparently only adults have those. because it was my turn to make dinner tonight, i traveled down to market basket to pick up some groceries after deciding what recipes i wanted to try (the keyword is "try" since perfection is almost never achieved). i was riding the motorcycle so i had to fit everything into my backpack, with the serendipitous benefit of not having to take anymore plastic bags.

with grocery unloaded back at home, i went out again to the fidelity office in kendall square, to close out a mutual fund. it was something i could do online from home, but i wanted to know if they'd charge me a maintenance fee (as financial institutions are wont to do, and the answer was no they wouldn't).

never noticed it the past 2 weeks, but today the motorcycle was behaving strangely. when i accelerate from a stop, sometimes the bike struggles to gain speed, like when the tank is out of fuel. however, since this was a full tank of gas, that wasn't the problem. i couldn't figure it out, and finally just attributed the stuttering sensation to a cold engine. although today's temperature was in the high 50's, the motorcycle had been sitting in the shade all day. and night time temperature can dip back into the upper 30's. i know when i open up the choke the bike starts running fine again.

from kendall square i traveled to inman square, to the saucony factory outlet store. i bought my last pair of sneakers from here, almost 6 years ago though. if i wanted to get back into running, it's important to have some new shoes. if nothing else, it'd at least spice up my relationship with running, keeping it from getting stale. i went in, asked for running shoes in my size, and the woman immediately found me several sneakers to try on. "are you running the marathon?" she asked me, not realizing how far she was from the truth. i bought a pair of white/black saucony sinisters ($50), i like them because they feel really light. can't wait to try them out!

my final errand of the day was to get my motorcycle inspected. normally it's just a simple in-and-out matter: honk the horn, blink the lights, get my $15 sticker. however, this time the mechanic/inspector pointed out my rear break light control on the handlebar wasn't working. he told me i had to get it fixed in order to pass inspection, unfortunately they don't do any work on honda bikes. i returned home, thinking about making a stop at the nearest honda motorcycle dealership in arlington. i tried the brake light one more time just for kicks when it suddenly started working again. i went back to union square (to the bike shop), testing the brake light whenever i came to a stop. i passed my inspection this time around. the guy who was writing me up looked at my registration and said, "CMX250? that you? time for an upgrade!" i told him i didn't have any money but would consider it when i did.

for dinner i made spicy orange chicken (the kind you'd get at a chinese takeout, march 2008 everyday food page 80-81) along with some cilantro lime rice (april 2008 everyday food page 120). julie arrived right when i was about to chop up the chicken breasts. the final result was good, with my favorite being the rice (even though i had a hard time pureeing the lime and cilantro). the spicy orange chicken didn't really taste like the kind i've had in american chinese restaurants; the tanginess was very strong and the orange flavor was quite evident. however, it does give me an excuse to eat some carrots and broccoli, vegetables that normally don't show up in my mostly carnivorous diet.

we watched the red sox lose to the yankees after seemingly pulling off a 6-run comeback in the 5th inning. to stave off the pain of a yankees loss, we switched to top chef, where watching cooks getting verbally abused by harsh judges is becoming a guilty pleasure.