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it started snowing today, as soon as i rolled out of bed. the most disconcerting thing about snow is that it falls silently. with rain, you can listen to it and figure out whether it's a downpour or a drizzle. with snow, you could turn away, and when you look back, there's already inches on the ground. it started falling at a pretty good clip, about an inch or so every hour. my upstairs neighbor beat me to the punch and shoveled the sidewalk first. 2 hours later i went out to shovel, and then again 2 more hours later. my upstairs neighbor shoveled one more time, before i did one last round. by then it was 10pm and the snow had pretty much stopped.

i grabbed zhu lei and told him he should go out and get some photos. back in beijing, he said it snows, but rarely to this level. the best part? there's another snowstorm coming this weekend! so this is all new to him, like his very first new england snowstorm. we ran into my neighbor jeff walking his dog. i introduced zhu lei and heard him speak english for the very first time.

the other big news of the day is the release of the explosive mitchell report. roger clemens? andy pettitte? eric gagne? mo vaughn? brendan donnelly? it was big one "oh snap" moment after another. i mean, is anabolic steroids and human growth hormones really so bad? isn't it just like taking vitamins, except instead of fortifying your diet with essential minerals, it just increase muscle mass? okay, it screw up your organs and there are other side effects, but that's only because usually players medicate themselves without a doctor's supervision, so they get the dosages all wrong. wouldn't baseball - and any sport for that matter - be that much more fun to watch when everyone's jacked up on steroids? the most damning thing in the report are the actual signed copies of the checks players wrote to these drug companies. it's one thing to talk about a player using steroids, but to see their actual signature on a personal check, that's a smoking gun. i'm relieved no current red sox players were named, nor any from the 2004 world series team. although if you to ask me to finger one player who might be using, it has to be kevin youkilis: big body, sweaty, bald, a tendency to get angry - what more clues do you need? the biggest fish has to be clemens. does this ruin his chances of being in the hall of fames like it did with mark mcguire? numerically, you can't deny the fact that clemens belongs in cooperstown, but i think it should be asterisked. with that in mind, when the patriots go a perfect season and eventually win the superbowl, that too should be asterisked as well. but when they go a perfect season again next year and win that superbowl, you can't asterisked that. sunday, baby!

zhu lei went to the cafe today and saw his eventual apartment. earlier tonight he was asking me about places like target to buy some household items. after tomorrow night, he's gone. i can't believe it's really happening! in some ways, i'm sort of sad. i know i've said a lot of bad things about him, but i'll miss him when he's gone. it's nice to have somebody else in the house, even if that somebody else drives me crazy sometimes. contrary to some of the stuff i wrote, he's not a bad guy. i've just lived alone for too long, any little thing can set me off.