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i don't remember ever watching a world cup final game before on tv, but today i made it to belmont to catch the last match in HD with my mother. despite not understand the language (not entirely true, i took 4 years of spanish in high school), we ended up watching most of the world cup on spanish univision because they had the more colorful announcers. univision was ahead of ABC in bonus coverage, showing the pregame presentation (featuring shakira shaking her hips and singing her calculated world cup anthem as well as a cameo by nelson mandela) and the extended postgame celebration (spanish players mugging for the photographers; by then the local ABC affiliate was already broadcasting their late afternoon infomercial loops).

the game itself was kind of boring, as is the nature of international football. i realized today that these world cup teams aren't actually the best, since normally the best players would be abroad playing professional football, and only during the world cup would they return to their country to represent the homeland. how long did these newly-assembled teammates have to play with one another before entering the world cup? as predicted by the octopus, spain eventually won in overtime, made easier by the fact that one of the dutch player was red-carded.

all was calm until my sister came home from a day working at the cafe. today's fight was about how she wanted the house to be dark in order to keep it cooler while i wanted some more diffuse sunlight. there was a brief tug-of-war with the blinds and curtains. she made dinner which was a terrible fishy pasta dish with shrimps and mussels. i declined to eat it, and forced myself to pick around the seafood to get to the noodle bits. she made another pasta dish with just asparagus and prosciutto, but by that point i'd already decided i would never eat another bite of her cooking and ended up having very little for dinner. for my principles, i was willing to go hungry for the evening.

earlier i helped my mother set up her credit card so she could play bills online (especially if they're going to be raising postage prices again). later i helped my father order a spare hard drive along with a dual port docking station. i feel like i'm the computer guy who comes around once week to resolve any computer-related problems, whether it be hardware or internet questions.

i left for cambridge later in the evening. i wasn't even done the street yet before i felt large rain drops. that seemed odd, because it wasn't supposed to rain the rest of the day. there were clouds, but i could also see the dusky blue of the night time sky. 2 more blocks down and the sky suddenly opened up. my immediate thought was to turn back and wait our the rain at my parents' place. but figuring this was just a spotted shower and would end soon, i continued onwards on my bicycle. 5 minutes later and about a mile out, it began to pour, and i took shelter underneath a tree by the sidewalk. it was definitely more than a quick shower by that point. i was essentially trapped, and didn't want to get anymore soaked, not with my cargo of camera equipment, computer, electric fan, and a box of dried noodles. i had no choice but to wait it out. about a minute later i made out the glare of head lights through the wall of rain parking next to me. it was my father to the rescue. i threw my bike into the back of the honda element and got a ride to my place.

the noodles made it back intact (not a single soggy strand), but during the initial jostling in the milk crate on the bike, it revealed some stowaways: flour beetles! normally one would just toss the whole box, but the noodles were too precious to go to waste, and i thought i could salvage them. i sifted the noodles and got rid of the few beetles that fell out. if there are anymore, i not one to mind, since i'm perfectly okay with eating insects. a little extra protein with my carbohydrate.