oh obama - you sure can give a speech! i just finished watching the president's speech to end the democratic national convention. how could he top bill clinton? but he did, especially towards the end, he finished strong.

drew left around 8:30 to meet up with a french friend at a fancy restaurant (neptune oyster) in boston. he came home from his first official day of teaching at around 1:30. after lunch, he promptly took a nap, exhausted from his efforts.

my order from drugstore.com arrived today; the delivery person left the package on the backyard porch so i didn't see it right away. the only thing that was mine was a package of mrs.meyer liquid hand soap refill (basil). i rode to the cafe (via unpaved linnaean street) to deliver the rest to my mother (including several containers of burt bee's res-q ointment).

i spent most of the day researching arduino devices and basic electronic wiring. i've always wanted to get into arduino (combining my love of programming and tinkering with electronics) and i think now is a good time to pick up a new hobby. i'm thinking about building a bike helmet with gyroscopically controlled led's that can change to different signals depending on riding conditions (sort of like the lumahelm, my inspiration).

i also went to vote in the primary today. i wasn't planning on it originally, but traveling around town i saw a lot of folks canvassing for their respective candidates on street corners. i wasn't doing anything special anyway so i headed down to the nearby elementary school to cast my dozen. in the unpleasantly warm basement gym was about a dozen senior citizens. i didn't see any other voters besides myself. a lot of candidates ran unopposed, including elizabeth warren. i was surprised to learn that she not only lives in cambridge, but on linnaean street no less. for the other candidates i used subjective logic to pick the best one. in one instance, i didn't vote for a kennedy because i knew he wasn't a real and was using his name recognition to garner unsuspecting votes.

returning home i talked with ed, who was hanging out with a german shepherd named lucky. despite a menacing look, she was a very friendly and docile dog, growling only when she saw something suspicious (perhaps a squirrel).

i have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning to get ready for the 3:30 taxi that'll take me to the airport for my 6:00 flight to chicago. earlier this morning i called the taxi company to make the reservation. the person on the phone didn't seem to really understand english so i'm a little worried that something might go amiss, but i have plenty of time to call another cab company should something happen. i also printed out my boarding passes.