where's the snow? i was expecting as much as 5" but all i got this morning was some rain then later a few flakes. i ate my chinese sponge cake and left my place by noontime.

when i got to my parents' place the first thing they asked me was, "have you heard of this jeremy lin?" my father was especially obsessed, finding everything he could about the chinese-american basketball player online. i've heard this jeremy lin story, but apparently it's taking the asian community by storm.

my sister kept on wanting to demonstrate the bubble machine i bought for the dog. she wanted to run the machine in the living room but i told her no. she wanted to run it outside but i said it was still muddy from the morning rain. she wouldn't let up so finally she put on her jacket and went into the backyard.

hailey loves the bubbles. normally my sister uses a bubble gun, but having a bubble machine lets the dog play unsupervised. at first she put it on the picnic table but that seemed too low. i got the ladder and put the machine on top which was a better height, giving the dog more jumping room. the only bad thing is the machine tends to vibrate, so it'd slowly rattle itself to the edge; dampening the vibration with a towel seemed to help.

in skyrim, i continued exploring the eastern edge of the map. at this point the only 2 large cities i've yet to visit are solitude and morthal. windhelm, winterhold, and markarth i've only visited once so those cities are also relatively unexplored. from refuge's rest i went west passed windhelm to anga's mill where i found ennodius papius sleeping in a tent by the stream. the dark brotherhood had a contract out on him. when i woke him up, he freaked out and began running. i chased him down and silenced him, not before he uttered something funny to the effect of, "this is seriously over-rated." never did find out why anybody would want him dead.

after that i fast-traveled to dawnstar, where i had another contract to kill beitild, one of the mining forewomen. i tried assassinating her before but it was during the daytime and there were civilian witnesses not to mention guards. on this particular visit it was early morning. just my luck it seemed to coincide with a dragon attack. while i thought everyone was distracted by the dragon, i took the opportunity to take out beitild. that was a big mistake, because not only did i have to fight the dragon, but also all the guards coming to arrest me for murder. my 2nd time around i thought maybe the dragon could kill beitild for me, but then i accidentally killed it. 3rd attempt, i lured the dragon to beitild, but instead of attacking her, the dragon frosted me to death. 4th attempt, the dragon was gone this time around, so i followed beitild to her house. hoping to pickpocket her house key so i could sneak into her place and fulfill the contract while she slept, i tried to get close to her but she noticed every time. she sat on a bench outside her house and began eating breakfast. i climbed onto a nearby rock and made sure nobody could see me and shot her with a flaming arrow. assassination successful!

after dinner i returned to cambridge. it wasn't that chilly (37°F) but i wasn't looking forward to the first few minutes of biking where i would be fighting off the cold. when i got back my roommate had just finished making dinner, some seaweed noodle soup with spinach. she asked if i wanted some. i wasn't very hungry but i had a small bowl anyway just so we could chat at the dining table. she told me she'd be meeting somebody in boston tomorrow morning to buy a used mattress for $100 (without frame); the person would even deliver it (free?) provided my roommate meet the seller first.

finally, i couldn't believe it when i saw the breaking news online: whitney houston was dead. much like michael jackson before he died, whitney had been the butt of jokes in recent years. but it seemed like she was finally getting her life together and ready for a comeback. whitney had a slew of hits in the 80's. i considered them "girly music" so at the time i would've never admitted to like any of her songs but they were all very good and catchy and provided the soundtrack for my formative years.