my turkish delight failed to solidify overnight. so i put it in the fridge, forcing it to gel.

i cleaned the door of my refrigerator with a magic eraser. normally it'd be covered in magnets and postcards, but over the years the surface has gotten slightly moldy and rusty. it was weird seeing the door so bare, contrasted even more with the other remaining sides of the fridge that still had stuff on them.

for lunch i made this scrambled eggs with spinach and feta cheese. it wasn't pretty to look at but it got the job done.

while unlocking my bicycle to head down to haymarket, a guy in a motorcycle came around and waved to me. i waved back, even though motorcycles and bicycles don't normally mix. the man flipped open the visor on his helmet and said, "i finally got it!" turns out it was my neighbor the fireman who finally got his motorcycle. originally he told me he wanted to get a big touring bike, but the one that he got looked like a sports bike hybrid. he bought a 2011 kawasaki concours 14 ABS. he picked it up yesterday from connecticut, from a place he found online that was $1000 cheaper. he saw a used 2008 kawasaki vulcan for $6000 but decided on this new bike instead, retail value $16k. the engine size is about 1400cc, with a shaft drive (instead of a chain). it comes with heated handlebar grips and a keyless starter (he carries an RFID trigger that will only activate the bike when he's within close proximity). i personally think it's too big for him (i saw him sitting on the seat on his tiptoes) so hopefully he knows what he's doing. he had a bike when he was younger, but took the rider course anyway, now age around 55 years old.

at haymarket i picked up some more pita bread. at $1.50 it a tremendous bargain, with pita the size of a large pizza and 6 pieces per bag. the pita seller was trying to sweet talk a pair of coeds into buying his bread, and told them they were just $1 a bag. he ended up giving me the pretty lady price, so i bought 2 bags.

coming back on the charles river bike trail, i saw no less than 7 hubway bikes. most likely they're tourists going into boston from allston-brighton (where they are hubway stations as well). hubway bikes can be identified from a distance because their lights flash from the hub dynamo.

i stopped by the cafe to drop off some scallions, cherries, and grapes; i also got something to drink.

out of curiosity, i measured the seat tube length of all my bikes:

the bike i normally ride (trek 800) has a seat tube height of 18". it's okay, but the top tube is right at my crotch. i've learned to lean the bike whenever i come to a complete stop, so i don't hurt myself. occasionally i ride the trek 850 (it's the fastest bike i have) but it's on the short end at 15". even though magna is 20", the top tube is slanted so i can ride it without any problems. the yellow ross is a bit high for me at 20", but because it has a lady style frame, there's no dangerous top tube. i actually like riding a taller bike, gives me a better view. the bianchi used to be my everyday bike; i didn't realize it was so short at 15" (not to mention the 24" wheels). biggest surprise was the schwinn le tour with the missing back wheel: it has a seat tube height of 25", so that bike is probably for someone close to 6' tall.

an online bike size calculator told me that my optimal road bike size is 48cm, or 19" (with a 170mm crank). so that's the bike size i'm looking for online when i troll craig's list.

when i pulled my turkish delight from the fridge it looked solid enough, but as soon as i plopped it onto the large cutting board (i had to pull it off the plastic wrap like a fruit roll-up because it was so sticky) i saw it was still liquid. a slow oozing liquid, but liquid nonetheless. it seemed to expand on the board, growing larger and flatter. i cut a few sticky pieces and plopped them into a bowl of powdered sugar and corn starch mixture. it tasted okay but was super sweet. it was also very lumpy inside from all the starch pellets, more than i realized. the few powdered pieces i made, they would slowly loose their shape and also start sweeting and soaking up the white powder. this was a lost cause, the result was failure. i thought about maybe reboiling the mixture, but the problem is the corn starch never really congealed and no amount of heating would be able to fix it. i scraped off the mixture from the board and dumped it in a leftover plastic container. now sure what i'm going to do with it but i'll probably throw it away and start over.

tomorrow morning: zucchini bread! which is basically just a lot of mixing and then some baking.