i went with julie this morning to the michael's crafts store in everett so she could get her bead on. she'd been there before but it was her first time since her newfound jewelry making interest. just her luck that the store was having a 50% sale on beads this week. there was so much selection that i think she nearly exploded from the sensory overload. she stocked up on a lot of supplies (with a heavy focus on mother of pearl beads of most green or blue shades).

next we went to ac moore in the assembly square mall area. i was there looking for a particular yarn color for my mother but i couldn't find it. this place didn't have as large a collection of beads, but they had different selections, and since there was a 2/$5 sale, julie bought a few more strands.

returning to the car, julie played around with the loose rear bumper. it used to be held in place with a string of wire but the hole where the wire had looped through had cracked. i suggested she could get a screw with some washers for a more permanent fix. since home depot was just a few stores away, we decided to look for a DIY car bumper rear kit. the total cost of supplies (2 washers, screw, nut) was less than $1. julie tightened the screw by hand and the bumper looked as good as new.

passing through union square, we made a stop at the korean grocery store where julie picked up some vietnamese chili paste.

to was close to 3:00 when i got back home. i picked up a few things and left for belmont. nobody was home except for hailey who greeted me with barely opened eyes and a wagging tail. we were out in the back but when she heard somebody in the house she raced to the rear doorstep and whined until someone let her back inside. my parents had come back from the former super 88 in allston and where my mother also got a haircut.

despite the fact that october is nearly over, there's still a lot going on in my parents' backyard. most exciting are the radishes which i planted exactly a week have now begun to sprout. if a killing frost can keep away for a few more weeks, hopefully i'll be able to harvest some radishes. i want to return to belmont tomorrow and put some plastic cover over the seedlings to keep them a little warmer.

ever since i switched to rear button autofocus on saturday, i haven't switched back to normal shutter focus. i'm still getting the hang of it, and in a rush i still forget that focusing is now done on the rear button. i do like how now i can focus on something and then reposition the composition, without fear of losing the focus. rear button autofocus does add another layer of complexity to photography, but so far i like this new style of manual control.

i went with my mother to ben franklin in cushing square to look for that particular yarn. turns out the label she gave me was the wrong color anyway (country rose). at the store she founded the red she was looking for, but when we got back, she realized it didn't match the red she had before. unfortunately she didn't save that particular label so now we don't know what color it is.

originally i was going to swing by ac moore after dinner to look for another red yarn (bringing the hat this time so i could do a more accurate match). it was late though, and cold, so i just came home, figuring i could go to the crafts store tomorrow, no rush.