i got out of bed to go to my painting job this morning and accidently walked into andrew using the bathroom (he was brushing his teeth in a towel). "woops," i said, then closed the bathroom door. just a force of habit, i never made the connection that there might be somebody else using the bathroom in the mornings, kind of one of things you take for granted when you've been living by yourself.

i didn't actually paint today but spent 4 hours prepping some windows, shelves, and baseboards, sanding them smooth and filling any holes with ready patch. i noticed there was a large flatbed tow truck parked outside. "street cleaning?" i thought to myself, but i remember monthly street cleanings are on tuesdays. a little while later i thought to myself, "tuesday for my side of the street...but what about the other side? what day is that?" that's when i realized that andrew's car, parked somewhere on the street, could potentially be in jeopardy. i went out to verify that it was indeed street cleaning, and saw a fleet of smaller tow trucks at the end of my street, getting ready to tow. i quickly called andrew's cellphone, leaving a message asking him if he remembered which side of the street he parked on. i went back to work. minutes later, from the 2nd story window, i saw a car with new hampshire license plates getting towed, and i just knew it was andrew's car. i decided to call him after i finished work to let him know the bad news. i didn't get that far before andrew called asking what was up, and i told him that his car got towed because of street cleaning. welcome to cambridge!

after work, i showered and ate another chicken pot pie, before alex wong dropped by my place to go to the mt.auburn cemetery, my second time in less than a week. while i was still eating, he fell asleep in the sofa chair. it's one of my pet peeves, but one key criteria when i'm hanging out with someone is that they don't fall asleep. am i that boring? or if they're really that tired, maybe they should just stay home and sleep. i don't mind it happening at nights, but i find it unacceptable when it happens during the day.

there would be no sleeping however when we drove down to the mt.auburn cemetery. today's weather was gorgeous, the best i've seen in a while, blue skies with temperature in the 70's. i got dressed in my shortest shorts and t-shirt, to maximize the amount of skin exposure and hasten my arrival into the land of golden brown tanned skin. immediately upon our arrival in the cemetery i saw my first new bird, a cow bird (basically a black bird with a brown head), infamous for being a brood parasite. our first destination was to the tower, where we got an expansive view of the local towns including boston in the near distance. next, we walked downhill to the consecration dell, the secret place that i rediscovered a few mt.auburn visits prior, hidden from casual visitors because it can't be reached by roads but rather only by footpaths. here, i saw another new bird, the scarlet tanager, high in the treetops. at first i thought it was a cardinal, but it's body was too sleek, a red bird with black wings. i desperately tried to get a photo but by the time i had my zoom lense set up, i couldn't find it anymore. at the consecration dell we saw painted turtles sunnin themselves on a floating log. despite the supposed secretive of the dell, the place was surprisingly abundant with cemetery patrons, i counted no less than 4-5 pairs/trios.

we went back up the hill, got into the car, and attempted to drive to auburn lake, the site of last week's very successful mt.auburn nature tour, but ended up getting lost and going to halcyon lake. a few noisy red-winged blackbirds seem to have established their territory around the lake. a large beech tree stood by one of its shores, beech flowers littering the surface of the lake nearby.

i saw damselflies and one large dragonfly hovering in the middle of the lake, too far to photograph. water striders skated on the lake surface, while whriligig beetles chased each other around in circles. beneath the water's surface, large tadpoles (their heads the size of cadbury creme eggs) swarmed about, trashing when they ate or when they fled. alex kept on sneezing loudly from his allergies, and occasionally the explosive noise would scare away all the tadpoles. i have very low opinion of frogs: i think they lack "morality" and will not hestitate to resort to cannibalism. alex reminded me on several occasions that most of these tadpoles probably won't make it, either from pedators, from each other, or maybe lack of food. before we left halcyon lake though, three brazilian girls came by and asked if we could help take their photos. they had asked alex first, but he shot them a dirty look, so they asked me instead. i suggested where to shot from and the three girls huddled into a pose. "cheese!" i said, as i took two photos, one with each of their cameras. "are you brazilian?" one of the girls asked me. it must be my dark tan, they think i'm a southern native! turns out they didn't ask because of that, it was because i said "cheese," which apparently is also done in brazil. later i discovered these girls were students at the perkins school for the blind.

alex and i finally found auburn lake. i didn't see the exotic birds i saw last week, however there were plenty of frogs. i saw the two large bullfrogs from last time, and overheard a woman walking by saying to her friend that there's a large bullfrog that has lived in the lake for many years now, apparently the king of all the frogs.

we came back to my place, where alex conveniently camped out in my living room and said he couldn't leave until after the rush hour traffic had died down. i proudly showed him my seedlings, the basils opening up a little bit more, while the pepper plants within the span of a single day sent out a long green tendril. alex drifted in and out of consciousness in the living room and then finally left at 6pm. a little bit later, bruce and jack knocked on my door, asking if i wanted to join them at red bones. i took a raincheck, but i showed jack my place, which he hasn't seen before.

i regret not going to red bones, because my dinner was anything but inspiring, i just reheated the leftover red curry from last thursday night and cooked up a cup of rice. the meal had that less-than-fresh taste of old leftovers. andrew and maura came back while i was eating in the living room,. he got his car back after paying the $60 tow fee (i personally thought it'd be higher, like $100 at least). later, maura went back home, while andrew went up to vermont for work.

finally, today marks my 2nd full year of weblog. that's approximately 730 days of continuous entries, give and take a few days. unfortunately, for those who want to wax nostalgic and revisit the posts from my first year, you're going to have to wait, they currently haven't been entered into the database yet (the entire 2nd year is up though). the first year will be up soon though. how does it feel to have two years of my life meticulously documented? not only documented, but made public for everyone to see? sometimes i wish i had started weblogging much earlier, or maybe as soon as i was born, so that i can recall every single moment and not a day goes by that doesn't get documented, immortalized forever, with photos of course.