i woke up late last night because of the smell coming from the garbage can. i forgot about the bits of raw meat i'd thrown away in the trash. if anything, i was surprised it took this long to rot. i tossed the offending refuse in the trash bin outside and went back to bed. i could still smell it! i got up and washed the kitchen garbage can. that was the only way to get rid of the smell. finally i could fall asleep.

i put the rain cover on the motorcycle before heading to belmont this morning via bicycle. the forecast said it'd rain later in the evening. the weather was still humid and i had to take my 2nd shower of the day when i arrived.

i showed my mother a few knitting books i downloaded last night. i was browsing them before going to bed (this was prior to the trash drama), falling deeper into the world of knitting. i'm putting it out there: i'd like to learn to knit. being a contrarian, anything i'm not supposed to do has tremendous attraction for me. like when i was all excited about sewing. now my new pursuit is knitting. sewing for me is about repairing clothes; knitting seems more about creating them (from balls of yarn).

with the weather starting to get colder (although you wouldn't be able to tell judging from today's weather), now is the perfect time to get into knitting and create a million wool garments. once again, my mother is the perfect resource. i knew she was crafty, but there's all this knowledge i never knew she knew. besides sewing, she also knows crochet, as well as knitting. if i can learn how to unclog the sink or change the engine oil from my father, i should be able to learn how to knit a scarf from my mother.

my father's been trying to replace an old andersen casement window in the sunroom. the glass cracked at some point but he got someone to replace the pane. the problem is it was a special vacuum-sealed two-pane glass, and now during the winter the window doesn't insulate anymore (instead gets covered in frost). i found the model number (andersen M-EX) but can't get a match from the andersen replacement parts catalog. i don't think the window is that old - maybe from the 70's or 80's. my father was thinking about removing it from the window frame, but the hinges don't seem to come off too easily (for good reason, you don't want windows just falling out).

the whole family left for everett, to see a refrigerator at costco and to buy more yarn at michael's. my sister was driving her car. just a block away we realized that was a terrible mistake. my sister can never admit when she's wrong, which isn't really an issue with her since she always thinks she's right. she wanted to take route 93 to get to everett from belmont, which everyone else knew that was the wrong way to go. no, my sister said, this is the faster way, this is the way she goes to her friend's house. after some initial disagreement, my parents decided to keep quiet instead of incurring my sister's wrath even more, while i still grumbled in the back seat, making the occasional comments how this was the longer route. the more direct route would've been to cut across cambridge and somerville, the way we usually go. for some reason my sister though it'd be quicker (although she herself knew it was actually longer, but wouldn't admit it) to take storrow drive, going in a big circle into boston before taking the zakim bridge into somerville then everett. if nothing else, at least my parents got to see some hubway bikes in action along the charles river. we counted close to a dozen hubways on the trail, recognizable by their flashing headlights.

we went to michael's first, where my mother elected our services to use some more 50% off coupons to stock up on wool yarn. we were also looking for a stitch counter, a little gadget that keeps track the number of stitches. i didn't even realize such a thing existed. we saw some that looked like little plastic drums that supposedly you put on your knitting needles and turn a dial to advance the numbers. we also saw some more expensive digital counters that looked like stopwatches. the one we wanted was by japanese (?) brand clover that looked like a green kermit-the-frog head (also called a kacha-kacha). unfortunately they didn't have it. as for the yarn, most of the ones she bought were already on sale, so the coupons didn't apply. my mother got a skein of green patons classic wool yarn and said she'd knit me a hat.

went we next went to costco, we thought it was suspicious that the parking lot was so empty. that's when we realized costco wasn't opened today on labor day monday. so we made our way home. we stopped at the burger king by mcgrath highway to use up some more coupons (it was a day of couponing). service was slow and there was a crowd of people by the counter, either waiting for their food or waiting to order. when we finally got our orders, we left. everything was fine until i caught my sister texting and driving so i screamed from the backseat, which then started a shouting match.

after dinner i biked back home before the rain arrived. the rest of the evening i was watching the us open. first a come-from-behind victory of wozniacki over kuznetsova. then approaching midnight a quick match between federer and monaco. federer so completely dismantled his opponent that the commentators were more busy joking around (for instance, a late middle-aged "ball boy"). federer - possibly wanting to get this late match over with - was super-aggressive, playing close to the net as if he couldn't even wait for the ball to cross over before hitting it back with amazing precision.

while casually browsing craig's list looking for another $20 bike deal, i came across an ad for a pair of wald rear folding baskets for $20 (in silver). normally they sell for $20 a piece. i've always wanted these, but was always reluctant to spend so much for baskets when there are plenty of other cheaper (milk crate) options.

unfortunately the posting was made almost a week ago, and the chance of the items still being available was slim. nevertheless, i had to try, so i wrote the seller. moments later i got a response from a woman in brookline named grace. she said they were still available, a few people expressed some interest last week but then never responded back, maybe due to the labor day weekend shuffle. grace told me she was available tomorrow morning for pick-up.

even when i finally went to sleep, it still didn't rain yet. some storm!