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APR

15

2010

breakfast came in the form of turkey ham with country dijon mustard between 2 slices of wheat bread. what is turkey ham, exactly? is it turkey plus ham, or is it turkey cooked like ham? too many questions, not enough time1 to find the answers, as i packed away my sandwich and pedaled to belmont again, day 2 of dogsitting. 

i'd barely eaten before my sister came home to ask me to go with her to the toyota dealership to pick up her fixed vehicle. behind me was a woman tailgating in a black jeep. i performed the counteract by driving as slowly as possible, thereby driving her even crazier. at one point she nearly crashed into the back of the car because i'd stopped to let another car leave an exit. i saw her gesticulating and swearing wildly in my rear view mirror, you're welcome. 

after dropping off my sister, i got a call from the honda mechanic letting me know the fixed honda was ready for pick up. i bicycled to fresh pond and went to the service counter with my papers. i guess they're busy enough that everybody was eating at their desks (however, to be honest, there isn't a lot of eating places nearby, not within walking distance anyway). there was a moment of confusion when they couldn't find the car key. a young woman asked if my father already left for his trip. i loaded the bicycle into the back of the element and returned to belmont.

there must be hundreds of dandelions spread across the lawn. they're mostly on the western side of the house, but only because it's probably the most neglected area. elsewhere, dandelions were popping up, but years of weeding have made it so it's still a lawn with some dandelions instead of the reverse dandelions with a bit of lawn. i weeded for a little bit before deciding to come in for some rest. 

i watched an episode of the latest season of doctor who, featuring the 11th regeneration of the eponymous time lord, played by matt smith, who looks like a time traveling frankenstein. and what's doctor who without a young and inquisitive companion (often times female): introducing amy pond played by karen gillan. in this new season amy seems more of an intriguing character than the doctor himself. in a plot seemingly borrowed from the time traveler's wife, amy as a girl meets the doctor one night, who promises her he'd come back in 5 minutes after entering the TARDIS, and doesn't come back until 12 years later, when amy is now a young woman who apparently suffered all sorts of local ridicule and psychological trauma because nobody believed her story about this "imaginary" friend.

by afternoon i was out in the backyard again, determined to pull up every yellow dandelion that i saw. at one point the backyard neighbor's chickens was putting up quite a racket. about 20 minutes later a head poked up from the other side of the fence. a man asked me, "you haven't seen a chicken, have you?" hailey barked at the intruder a few times. "apparently we have one missing. i think a falcon might've taken it." i told him no, but let him that i saw a hawk a few weeks ago eyeballing his birds. moments later i heard him talking with somebody about finding the missing chicken by the side of the house. alive or dead, i don't know. red-tailed hawks don't usually eat chickens. even if they killed one it'd be too heavy to carry away.

i was surprised to see my sister back at home in the late afternoon. she was supposed to work at the cafe for the entire day. another scheduling mix-up? no, apparently she had a big fight with my 2nd aunt and stormed out of the cafe. i told her she couldn't do that, that she had a responsibility to work, that our parents were depending on her, and my mother had already paid her (money she probably already spent). she left soon afterwards and i thought maybe for once she did the right thing and returned to work, but came back again and said she was at the mechanic getting something else fixed with her car. i asked her if she was going to work tomorrow and she reluctantly said yes. later i called my 2nd aunt to let her know my sister would working tomorrow. i could care less about all this drama.

eventually i did pull out all the visible dandelions. towards the end i cheated a bit, plucking a few flowers only instead of digging out the entire plants. i was just too tired and knew that by tomorrow, there'd be more to uproot.

i drove the element back to my place, in anticipation of the rainstorm scheduled for tomorrow (easier to travel with a car when it rains). i brought back my bicycle too, figuring i might need it the one day this weekend where i don't have to dogsit.

i had a cup of spicy korean ramen before leaving belmont, so i wasn't very hungry when i got back home. i had the rest of my leftover tonkatsu for dinner while watching the latest episode of fringe.

today's tax day and i'm not paying! i'm actually taking the federal emergency extension due to all the flooding that happened in eastern massachusetts. i'm still waiting for a final work check from client N so i can pay for both my taxes and my mortgage. sucks to be poor!


1 actually not entirely true. apparently i had enough time this morning to do a water change in my guppy tank (now down to 4 fish) when i noticed my java ferns were looking rather ragged and covered in hair algae.