it was snowing this morning. just some stray flakes spiraling down from a somewhat clear sky. by the time i was finished with my shower it'd already stopped. so much for a white christmas. temperature today was 30°F, and supposedly would go up to the 40's by evening time. my motorcycle started without any problems but when i pressed in the choke button, the engine sputtered dead and i had a hard time restarting the bike again. i was beginning to think i'd have to take the bicycle instead but the motorcycle finally started.

i know winter is officially here when the ground freezes solid. all my plans of doing some late season planting are now just a dream (although anyone who thinks about new england gardening with just a week away from january is probably not that realistic to begin with). i wanted to sow some milkweeds, lunaria, and chinese chives, but looks like i'll have to do that early spring when the ground thaws out.

i didn't have lunch yet so i ate some leftover hot pot scraps with some udon noodles. later i had some baked shells and a cup of keurig-brewed chai latte.

with almost all football matches played yesterday because of christmas, the only game in town was the start of the NBA season. i was planning on boycotting as a protest but i couldn't resist. first was celtics-knicks. with paul pierce out because of injury, the only people on the court that i recognized were kevin garnett, ray allen, and rajon rondo - all other players being new (still can't get over the fact that they traded big baby). one surprise for me was seeing tyson chandler playing for the knicks, formerly on the current reigning NBA champions the dallas mavericks. the celtics were trailing at first, but when i tuned into the game later i was surprised to see that had the lead. new york ended up winning in a close match, despite 2 failed attempts by boston in the final seconds to score. next was miami-dallas, and i was rooting for the mavericks who ended up losing. in the chicago-los angeles game, the bulls defeated the lakers in the final seconds, a most satisfying win.

there was also a firefly marathon on the science channel, which i switched to whenever i got sick of basketball.

around 4:00 we had some steamed mussels. these weren't the largest mussels i've ever had, but they were all alive so none were wasted.

for dinner we had some steaks that my father bought from whole foods in a pre-holiday sale. everyone was saying how tender the steaks were but i didn't really notice the difference.

the temperature was 38°F by the time i returned to cambridge. i got a piece of hair stuck in my mouth but couldn't do anything about it. it was so annoying that i tried to pull it out but only got a mouthful of fuzzy mitten.

about to enter my house, 2 neighbors that i vaguely recognize asked me about my christmas lights. they really like them, said they've been looking for something similar but couldn't find anything to match the brightness of my lights. i told them it was because they were just naked LED's and not encased in any bulbs. happy to know that at least some people appreciate my little contribution to the holiday season!