i could've been rocking out with 250gb of hard drive space tonight, but UPS never delivered my ultra ATA/IDE card. there was no company name on the address, so they didn't even bother trying to deliver it, despite the fact that i left two sticky notes downstairs alerting them to the fact that i was awaiting a package (mysteriously, both sticky notes disappeared, so i wonder if they saw it and took it off, or perhaps it was the work of somebody else). periodically i'd track the status online, and saw that they tried to deliver around 11:30 but there was an EXCEPTION: COMPANY OR PERSON UNKNOWN, NOT DELIVERED so i had to call them and have them change the address to include the company name and have the package resent.
other than that, my time spent in the office (supposedly working) was uneventful. amy instant messaged me in the morning out of the blue, finally done with her first year of teaching. we tentatively agreed to hang out sometime. now that i think about it, that's not entirely true, there was some more drama at the end of the day, when a representative from fleet called me up about an overdue payment on my overdraft protection or some other banking nonsense like that. i had no idea what he was talking about and i was kind of suspicious but they seemed to have all my personal info, so i told them i'd go down to the bank and get it straightened out tomorrow. it's kind of a pain, and i have this feeling that fleet's going to somehow suck more money out of me for something i didn't do. big banks are one of the most wicked institutions of the modern world. remind me again why i don't withdraw all my savings and leave it underneath the mattress? not like i'm making any money from the checking account (zero interest).
instead of wandering boston, i ended up going running again, the 3rd consecutive time this week, with alex, and kristine in a surprising cameo (she hasn't ran with us in many weeks). 
82 degrees with blue skies and some spots of white clouds. not sure what it is, maybe we run slower when we're in a trio, or maybe i just feel more pumped, but after the run was over, i still had enough energy to run a few more miles. i figured at this rate, if i run tomorrow and friday, i will have set a personal record for the most number of runs within a week. i got a chicken kabob salad from one of the pushcarts in downtown crossing before returning to the office.
the train going back home was express from harvard to alewife again. a loud collective groan echoed through the cabin as almost everyone got off the subway. fortunately, getting off at harvard is just about the same distance as getting off at porter, as i slowly walked home. a woman sitting underneath a tree caught my attention. she must've never owned a dog, because trees out in public places like parks or along sidewalks are dog toilets and you couldn't pay me to sit underneath one, much less lean up against it.
out on my back porch, it looked like squirrels were having a dirt fight with my potted plants. no plants were harmed, but every other week squirrels dig out the pots and there's less and less soil remaining. i've decided: COYOTE URINE it is! that's what one woman at the cambridge secret gardens told me about dealing with squirrels. i saw my neighbor sarah out in her backyard, and asked her what she was growing in her terracotta pots. "oh, wildflowers, marigold, basil, parsley," she said. "you're growing them from seeds?" i asked, "that's hardcore." i asked if she'd been victimized by squirrels yet, and she referred to them as "our little friends" as she gestured around the backyard, and said not yet, but she was keeping an eye out for them. i didn't have the heart to tell her that it's almost guaranteed that squirrels will raid her pots sooner or later. maybe i can share some coyote pee with her when i get some of that stuff. i am so neighborly.
after a hot shower, i watched some baseball, then boiled some tsongtse for dinner. later, i caught this great documentary on PBS called "rebels and redcoats: how britain lost america," the american revolution seen through the eyes of a british historian, it's pretty interesting, i called andrew (a history buff as well) to let him know about it.
checking the UPS site again just for the heck of it, i noticed they tried to deliver the package again after i left work (and probably when nobody was left in the office), and of course they couldn't deliver, EXCEPTION: INCOMPLETE ADDRESS, NOT DELIVERED; POSTCARD HAS BEEN SENT. i guess i have to call them tomorrow morning again.