i was up until 3:00, letting the usb tv tuner scan my comcast cable for clear QAM channels. after more than 30 minutes it still had only scanned about 1/5th of the entire spectrum but did manage to find a cache of local channels in the 100's. still nothing i can't get over the airwaves; i was hoping for some community access channels or NECN. if i had more time i'd let it run in the background but my guess is it'd take hours before it finished a complete scan.

i woke up just in time to catch the announcement of the supreme court ruling on obama's health care law. the first few minutes were confusing, as reporters quickly skimmed through the documents to determine whether the law would be upheld or struck down. at first it seemed like bad news for the administration, but then it turned out to be good news. when they announced the split, i was surprised (like many people) that supposedly conservative chief justice john roberts was the deciding vote that sided for the health care law.

although i'm impressed and happy with the SCOTUS ruling, i still have an unfavorable opinion of the SCOTUS for striking down montana's supreme court ruling to prohibit corporate spending in elections. ever since citizens united vs. federal election commission (2010), i feel like politics have become even more divisive now that corporations (and unions) have unlimited spending power when it comes to creating things like attack ads (through super PACs). but the problem of corporate personhood didn't just start recently; it's been an ongoing problem throughout US history, which only seems to get worse during an election year, particularly a presidential one.

i must not have had enough of the assembly square because i returned again early this afternoon via motorcycle. ac moore to get some black yarn for my godmother (who called me up at 11:30 last night to tell me to get some for her), k-mart some plastic hose attachments and seed packets, and home depot for landscaping fabric and wooden stakes.

after stopping by the cafe i went to belmont to await the return of my parents; my father said we might go to the victory garden to continue our raised bed construction work. when they got back though, it was just too hot to be outside so we postponed the trip until later this weekend.

i was outside watering the plants and doing some weeding. my father created a short male-to-male hose adapter so we could attach 2 50 ft long hoses together so i could water all areas of the backyard.

my new kenda kwest K193 (26 x 1.5) tire arrived today. funny story: i finally got in touch with aawyeah.com regarding the wrong order sent. maybe i had to use a different e-mail address because i did i got a reply the very next morning. anyway, the woman told me that they had already sent out the replacement tire earlier this week and i should expect to see it today. i wrote her back asking how i can return the wrong tire; she told to just keep it. how's that for awesome? my faith in aawyeah.com has been completely restored. the K193 that i did order is actually still the wrong one: i picked the 65 psi tire but must've accidentally selected the higher pressre 100psi version. not a big deal. now all that's left to arrive is the actual rear wheel, which was also back-ordered but scheduled to arrive on wednesday. when that happens i can finally install a new rear wheel on my trek grocery getter.