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2 reasons to take the bicycle today: the threat of possible afternoon rain and some extra weight gain according to the bathroom scale. i like the scale's sense of tough love; it tells it like sees it (or feels it as the case may be). plus or minus, i always have questions, but the scale has no answers. i'd love to see a scale that can somehow analyze what i eat and what i do and tell me when my weight fluctuates. lighter? you've been eating more vegetables and grains. heavier? blame the soda and chips.

i took the road bike, making good use of the folding bike baskets, one to hold my camera bag, one to hold a few cans of seltzer water, and my computer bag slung over my back. i timed myself, wasn't going particularly fast, but made it to belmont in 15 minutes.

i had some glutinous rice with chicken wrapped in leaves and some scallion pancakes for lunch.

my mother was engrossed with her knitting, unraveling her hat for the 3rd time. in her 4th attempt she finally managed to get the pattern right. i was online looking for other things she can knit. i came across a pattern for fiddlehead mittens that are absolutely amazing but incredibly intricate with colors. not sure if i'd ever wear those but i'd love a hat with that sort of patterning and colors.

check out the backyard bees!

in the afternoon i went to investigate the belmont-alewife bike path next to the train tracks by the high school.

the path was paved for much of the trail until a stretch of dirt road near the end. there was hardly anyone there, i saw a total of 2 cyclists and 1 pedestrian. it came out at some cambridge office park next to alewife station. i made it as far as the station before i turned back.

in the late afternoon i watched the nadal-djokovic match. i was rooting for nadal, who ended up losing after 4+ hours of play. the camera kept on pulling to djokovic's photogenic girlfriend jelena ristic to show her reaction.

starting tonight, local network WHDH channel 7 got a new evening news coanchor: reid lamberty. he'll share the desk with kim khazei. the name sounds familiar, because a long time ago he was an anchor at WFXT channel 25. he mustn't have been very memorable because i remember nothing else about him. lamberty is a cookie cut news anchor, mildly handsome, utterly bland. i'm starting to miss frances rivera (departed for greener pastures in NY) even though i never liked her before. why corporate didn't raise up one of their many other news anchors is kind of surprising. i rather see a familiar face than an outsider like reid lamberty. even his name seems false. i'd also like them to keep an all female anchor team.

today was the mid-autumn festival, where chinese traditionally eat mooncakes and go out and watch the full moon. we found out when the moonrise was supposed to happen and left the house mid-dinner to go see it over the park. we waited too long and the moon was already high on the horizon, so it didn't seem that large. it did however had still have that yellow hue of a freshly risen moon.

i raced home to see the patriots-dolphins game on monday night football. the score was already 14-7 when i got back around 8:00 (they must've started the game early). i wasn't worried even though miami came back to tie the game at least once. new england was just playing much better, with less effort. the best play was when wes welker caught the ball and ran a 99-yard touchdown. one of the cameras showed him talking to himself as he ran - i wonder what he was saying?

i ordered an mp3 player online, a refurbished sansa clip+ for $20. i've been using a sansa express for a long time. i thought the express was older, but was surprised to discover i bought it in august 2007 (in comparison, my camera and laptop are older, purchased in 2006). the express didn't have a lot of frills, but was sturdy, compact, and worked. it finally broke down tonight, won't hold a charge anymore. it's just a matter of replacing the proprietary rechargeable battery inside, but sandisk doesn't sell spare batteries. so i decided to pick up a cheap player, sticking with sansa. the clip+ has a pretty passionate fan base, a big group being people who are rebelling against the apple hegemony over mp3 players. the only thing i don't like about the clip+ is it needs a cable to sync; my old express had a built-in USB plug, no cable required.