even though i had some work to do, the weather was just too good to let it go to waste. so bruce and i took the subway this morning to the arnold arboretum to check out the blooming lilacs. i figured it'd be a short excursion, and then i could be back at home in a few hours to continue coding. it took us an hour to get to jamaica plain. the temperature hit the 70's underneath a canopy of clear blue sky. we could smell the arboretum before we even walked through the entrance. the place was actually more crowded than i thought. a lot of day care groups, noisy litters of toddlers accompanied by their chaperones. that group however was eclipsed by the senior citizens who were out in force, whether pushing strollers with attached oxygen tanks, or touring in mini buses. in fact, the road next to the lilac garden was almost like a parking lot for these senior citizen shuttle transports.

after the lilacs we wandered the arboretum some more, on the lookout for other flowering trees and bushes. of the noteworthy birds we saw, orioles were pretty common, although normally we'd just see them flying overhead, a flash of bright orange. there were these other birds, noisy, robin-sized: i thought they were some kind of thrush but turned out they were catbirds (they didn't sound like cats though).

the most interesting tree i saw was on the chinese path: a dove tree. i'd never seen one before but i knew they were very rare. their strange asymmetrical white flowers either resemble fluttering doves or handkerchiefs. another thing i learned: they flower biannually, so if you don't go see them within the next few weeks, you're going to have to wait until 2010. i'll probably go back again next week and get some better photos.

we walked to the eastern edge of the arboretum, across south street onto blackwell path. a sign informed us that we were entering an "urban wild" area. this side was less manicured and trees didn't have identification tags. people probably only used it as a route on their bike path or a jogging circuit. in the sky we spotted a red-tailed hawk being mobbed by two aggressive starlings.

julie forgot to tell me she wasn't coming over for dinner tonight. earlier i'd gone to the supermarket and gotten ingredients to make some blue cheese burgers. it was for the best though: it meant i could work a little bit more (gasp!), didn't have to clean up the house, and get to watch the celtics-cavaliers game uninterrupted. a great game 5: celtics trailed throughout the first half, at one point down 13 points, hushing the fans at boston garden. when they came back out on the court in the second half though, they played with more intensity, attacking the basket, getting rebounds, and more importantly, finally making their shots. once the celtics got the lead, they never trailed again, although it got a little scary in the final few minutes when cleveland were just 2 possessions away from either tying it up or regaining the lead. celtics win, and now back to cleveland for game 6, where hopefully boston can finish the series.

although i had the burger patties ready, i wasn't very hungry tonight. could be because i had a filling late lunch of italian sausages on onion bagel. later i had more of the leftover sausages. i cook some burgers tomorrow night.