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i contacted a craig's list seller in waltham this morning looking to unload a motorola cablemodem for $20. because the postings are anonymous, you never know who's on the other end. i was expecting some crazy guy but turned out it was a nice lady. she asked if we could meet outside the roadside mcdonalds on lexington street in waltham at 11:00. google map said it'd only take about 20 minutes to drive there but i should've left earlier because i was trying out a new route. normally i'd cut through belmont to get to waltham, but this time i first went to east arlington and went down lake street which crossed underneath route 2. from there i went up belmont hill and followed concord avenue all the way to lexington street. it was a scenic ride with an expansive view of several rock meadow conservation area. unfortunately without any barriers it got pretty windy and a few times i thought the breeze was going to sweep me off the road.

i ended up arriving exactly on time. nancy (the seller) found me first, since i told her i'd be coming via motorcycle. the modem came in its original box which meant i could strap it to the back of my motorcycle. before i left i saw there was a citizens bank in the strip mall so i took the chance to deposit some checks and cash.

instead of going home i stopped by belmont along the way to pull down some row covers. the plastic sheeting i got is just your basic paint tarp, so it's not water permeable like the actual row covers, but it should still keep the radishes warm. i was going to just wrap it over the top of the wooden frame, but the rain would then collect in the middle and sag the plastic cover, so i used a mesh frame and covered that up with the plastic wrap instead. since i had some left over, i covered up the arugulas as well, this time using a few wooden stakes to keep the plastic sheet in place.

my father has been placing these metal panels throughout various southern facing windows around the house. i didn't understand what he was doing until my mother told me they were to reflect the sunlight. i got a demonstration today when i thought my sister had left the kitchen light on. when i went to go turn it off, i realized the light was being reflected from the outside. crazy bright!

after eating a sandwich for lunch, i left for ac moore to look for that elusive red yarn. it wasn't even really for my mother; she'd promised some other lady she would buy the yarn for her, but didn't realize how hard it'd be to find it. this time i brought the knitted red beret that had the color she wanted. my mother remembered it was this 100% acrylic red heart super saver yarn but just couldn't recall the exact color. there was two similar reds - wine and burgundy - but neither one was an exact match. i called my mother to let her know, she told me to buy both, since one was cheaper than the other (burgundy $3, wine $8). i also got her a few skeins of caron simply soft yarn that were on sale (2/$5). when the woman rang me up at the register, she thought the two red yarns were the same and rung me up twice at the cheaper price. to top it off, i used a 50% coupon (off one regular priced item), so i ended up only paying $1.50 for the $8 yarn.

i went to the cafe to drop off the yarn. my father and i then went to my great uncle's place to replace the cable modem. what happened next was pretty traumatic, as i spent the next 45 minutes on the phone with comcast trying to get them to switch out the modem. the operator i got put me on hold 3 times, each one about 5-7 minutes long. when she came back and told me to hold again, i got a little angry and asked her how much longer i'd have to wait. she said she could call me back when it was all done, but i knew if i did that i'd never hear back from them, so i grudgingly agreed to be put on hold once more. i was then transferred to an account person, who wouldn't talk to me about the modem unless she had authorization from my great uncle first, despite the fact that all last week i was troubleshooting the faulty cable line and nobody at comcast asked for my credentials. the account person transferred me to their tech department, and after waiting about 5 minutes, the line went dead, so i had to start all over again, go through the ladder of their automated system before reaching another live operator.

this new comcast guy was more helpful, especially after i told him i'd already been on the phone with them for more than 30 minutes. despite taking all my information the first time around, when the guy checked their database there was no record of any data entered, so i went through the process one more time with him, giving him the cable modem serial and MAC address. that's also when i realized that the cable modem i bought wasn't actually store bought but belonged to comcast since it had their brand stamped on it. nancy tricked me! not only that, but the power cable she gave me wasn't even for the cable modem. so ended up using the original power cable, and the modem itself didn't ring up on their database as being stolen, so everything worked out. it still took about 15 minutes the second time around, but at least it worked. and now my great uncle doesn't have to pay the $7/month to rent a cable modem from comcast.

i got a library reminder that one of my knitting books is due in 2 days. i could've renewed it again but i didn't want to be a book hog. i could've also waited a few more days, but since it'd be rainy wednesday and thursday, i figured i'd return the books today while the weather was dry. since it was already after school, the place was packed with high school kids, like a teenage daycare center. i ended up checking out two more knitting books.

i came home and ate the two bean paste filled sweet zongzi my mother gave me at the cafe before i left. i then caught up with a few shows i downloaded, and fell asleep on the couch after watching the evening news. i must've been pretty tired because i didn't wake up until 9:00. i fixed myself the last of the tonkatsu leftover for dinner.