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i woke up early this morning to pick up an undelivered package at the porter square post office then went to belmont to see the squash flowers. since they bloom in the mornings, i've only ever seen them in their wilted state. along the way i ran into my mother who was walking to work. she told me to turn on the air conditioner for hailey, who was the only one home.

there were two flowers, a female and a male. i didn't see any flying insects but there were some ants hanging around inside the flowers. not confident that the bees have done their job, i ended up working some hand-pollination magic by plucking off the male squash flower and rubbing the two flowers together.

afterwards i watered the garden. one of the corns have already formed an immature ear (the female part of the plant). that means the plant is only halfway to maturity; it'll need to double in size before the male tassels will show up. once that's done and the silks have been properly pollinated, it'll take another while for the ears to mature. we're probably not going to eat homegrown corn until october. update 090801: what i saw were actually male tassels.

returning to cambridge, something flew into my helmet. thinking it might be a stinging insect, i instinctively reached in to grab it and then throw it out. when i flicked my left hand i accidently hit the handlebar, cutting the tip of my index finger. i ended up having to put some neosporin on this latest injury and covering it up with a bandaid. so now not only is my right hand damaged, but so is my left hand. the summer of fun!

i went to the korean supermarket to get a package of mung bean sprouts and brought it to my mother at the cafe. i had a bagel for lunch. later my father and i went to chinatown for a supply run. haven't seen it in a while, but they were selling north sea fishnacks, one of my favorite foods. returning home, i made a pitstop at the community garden to water my vegetables. i managed to harvest a single cucumber. for dinner i had some leftover barbecued corn and chinese sausages.