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my roommate left the house late this morning, said he was going out to play some soccer. i've known about these not-so-clandestine astrophysicist "football" games for a while, and have even been invited to participate a few times in the past. i just think it's funny to find some of the smartest people in the world kicking a ball around on the outskirts of harvard square.

a day after the start of daylight saving time and my body has yet to adjust. i woke up at 11:00, an hour later than my usual wake up time. the day still felt early even though the clock said it was late.

after some cereal for lunch i got on my bike and made my way to the assembly square mall. figuring i wanted something that wasn't going to give me problems, i took my trek mountain bike. first stop was home depot to pick up some additional seeds (i'll go into more details tomorrow when i finally plant them). one cool thing i noticed was burpee's had a whole line of asian vegetables (i got some thai basil and long asparagus beans).

next i crossed the wellington bridge and slowly moseyed my way to the wellington circle shopping plaza. the pedestrian walkway across the bridge is so narrow that my bike pretty much took up the entire lane; fortunately there was no pedestrians on the bridge. i crossed the fellsway (route 28) at the presidents landing traffic light. the hardest part to navigate was crossing mystic valley parkway (route 16) since there were no lights and i had to cross this medium speed highway.

apparently not many people arrive at the wellington circle shopping plaza by bicycle because there weren't any bike stands. after a brief search, i ended up lashing my bike to a tree. i came here to return my container of activated carbon at pet supplies plus (decided i'd save more money by purchasing my carbon online through ebay). i did buy a package of rawhide chew for hailey (cigar-sized, $10).

after returning home, i stashed the trek back into the basement and switched to my ross road bike. i went to belmont where my sister was making some beef stew. i went by the harvard-smithsonian office and i could've sworn i saw my roommate's bike parked there. i ate while watching the celtics-lakers game on ABC (boston lost barely) before returning home. it was still light out, with 40 minutes before sundown, but i had my lights on away just in case.

my roommate wasn't home and wouldn't come back until 10:00. he ended up going with friends down to quincy after soccer to do some shopping at a chinese supermarket. he did a very small load of laundry, just some dirty gym clothes. i finally asked him about the rent, which he hasn't paid yet (it's been a week already). he said something about next week (waiting for his funds to come through from china), and would write me a check.

i ended the evening watching an ESPN documentary about magic johnson's HIV announcement.

a few random notes: 1) i've got my solar LED lights running outside, adds a festive touch to an otherwise drab backyard deck. i do notice however that when i go to bed the lights are significantly dimmer, which means it only has enough charge for about 8 hours of brightness. 2) does my roommate even shower? in the week that he's lived here, i think he's only showered twice. how do i know this? because he likes playing with the shower head. he likes it pointing downwards (weird for a tall guy) and the water set to a compact stream instead of a wide spray. he's also a spitter, i can hear him in the bathroom clearing his throat. i think he clears his nose in a similar manner, into the sink, and i've had to clean up after him a few times. he also occasionally drips around the toilet; it's not bad enough that i have to warn him but it will deduct from his final roommate score. 3) speaking of roommates, i've secured a new one for the final 4 months of the year, a friend of bruce, here in town doing something for MIT. hopefully that will leave my summer free of roommates.