andrew came over today since he was in the neighborhood. i haven't seen him since back in july, when he and maura came over to show me their engagement ring. we chatted in the house, each person finishing off a can of root beer, before going out to get some lunch. our first choice, rf o'sullivan, was so packed with people we decided to go elsewhere. that someplace else turned out to be anna's taqueria, despite the fact that i am a boca grande man myself. the walk down to porter square turned out to be colder than expected, but the walk back felt warmer (thanks in part to those burritos). andrew went back to malden while i returned to my place.

by nightfall my parents came over again. my father was here to help me mount the long mirror on the living room wall but we only got as far as attaching a length of metal wire to the back of the mirror before we had to stop due to lack of wall-mounting equipment. observant visitors to my place will notice i don't have anything hanging on my walls. that's due to the fact that i spent over a month painting them (mostly) myself (back in 2002) and feel bad marking them up in any ways. the only room in the house that has nails on the walls is in the guest bedroom courtesy of my former housemate andrew when he lived here for a few months.

in the evening my family (including my 2nd aunt) went over to my aunt and uncle's house in arlington for dinner. the cuisine was predominantly thai, courtesy of my aunt lili who was still cooking when we got there. they upgraded their entertainment center with a new 30" flat-screen LCD television and a set of bose surround-sound speakers (including receiver/dvd). animal planet looks 3D in HD!

when i got back home i saw the news on television about saddam hussein's execution. am i the only one disturbed by this? politically i lean towards capital punishment, but the execution of saddam leaves a funny taste in my mouth, like maybe it wasn't necessary. does his death some how fix the mess in iraq? although the US says it doesn't have a hand in delivery the sentence, isn't this what the administration wanted in the first place? you drop a laser-guided 2000 lbs. bomb on a bunker for one reason alone, and that's to kill somebody. when did the US get involved in the business of targeting heads of foreign countries? maybe i'm naive, maybe it's always been the case, though perhaps never so directly, so blatant. i see saddam as a tragic figure. i don't deny the fact that he's killed hundreds and thousands of people and brought misery to everyday iraqis, but to be tried in a kangaroo court where the verdict of guilty was already a given, it just doesn't seem right. the administration probably would've been happier if he'd just been killed by a bomb instead of being alive and having to then stage a mock trail just so we can justify to the rest of the world when we finally kill him. and the kicker is he used to be our friend during the iran-iraq war! we sold him weapons! sent top-ranking diplomats to meet and greet in his palaces! with a friend like the US, who needs friends?