my appointment with the furnace replacement company was this noontime. the guy actually called around 11:00 and asked if i was available so he could come over. 20 minutes later he was here. i was surprised when i found out it wasn't the company i dealt with last time (GEM plumbing) but a different company. i took the guy downstairs to see the furnace, he just sort of glanced at it without any additional inspection. i found out soon afterwards that he was just a salesman, not any sort of actual repairman. back in the house, he gave me his pitch. i could tell it was going to be expensive, because he kept on pushing the more high-tech heating technology, kept reminding me i could finance it (installments paid over the course of 7 years), and kept bringing up the annual maintenance program i should up for ("for your peace of mind"). the quotes me gave me were in the $8000-12,000 range, far more expensive than i planned. the quote GEM plumbing gave me last year was around $3000 for an 80% efficiency furnace. when i told him this, he said there would be additional cost like lining the chimney ("which will cost you $2000") and i'd pay about the same as his quotes when everything was done. he also admitted that there was pricing gouging, as i found GEM the middle of last summer, while now - with winter fast approaching - it's more expensive to replace a furnace.

so i think now i'll live with my busted furnace. it still works, albeit not as efficiently, and it does generate a little bit of CO (which is safely removed through the chimney as long as the chimney isn't blocked up). i just have to make sure that CO detector is working. and once the winter is over, i'll look to replace in either in the spring or summer, whenever prices are at their lowest. i called my parents to let them know my decision, but my father happens to know a local chinese HVAC repairman, and he said next week he'll come over to my place and take a look and give me a second opinion.

once that was over, i made lunch in the form of my apple chicken sausage oatmeal. i had an old mango in the fridge i wanted to use up, along with some old blueberries. i added some leftover yogurt and blended myself a smoothie. what would've been a mango lassi turned out to be something different with the addition of blueberries. whatever it was, it must've been healthy at least.

the rest of my day until the evening was uneventful. the rainstorm finally arrived so there was no point in going outside. i did however go to star market and pick up a few more grocery items. but most of the day was spent watching television ("good guys" on netflix) and surfing the web. the new version of OS X came out (yosemite) and i patiently pinged the app store until the free update became available so i could upgrade my system. i don't like the subtle font change but i do approve of the new flatter UI. i think the use of transparencies but every once in a while i think there's something wrong with my LCD screen when it's just a weird transparency bruising. regardless, i can navigate the new OS X just fine, but it still feels a little alien for me. the last system i fully embraced was probably 10.6, and now we're 4 times removed from that OS and i feel like there are a lot of hidden functions about 10.10 that i just don't know or even have a use for if i knew how it worked.

around 7:00 i walked to upper somerville to buy a used DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem for $50. i passed by wings over somerville and decided to give them another try, now that they're the only wings place within my vicinity. besides, the patriots were playing a thursday night game against the jets which called for some wings action. i ordered the 10 piece gourmet parmesan for about $10. i think continued up the hill while my order was being made. i was to meet my seller at the front of the somerville senior citizen home on summer street at 7:30. i got there 10 minutes early and awkwardly stood on the sidewalk trying to not act too suspicious. my seller didn't want to at his house and i didn't have his phone number, so i was really afraid of being stood up. i even went inside the home to look around, thinking that maybe my seller was waiting there, but all i found were a group of old ladies smoking. looking back out on the street i saw a silhouette and waved to it. my seller arrived right on time and i made the buy. back at home i inspected the merchandise. the modem is actually a lot smaller than i realized, but practically new with all the plastic stickers still intact. i'll take it to my sister's place tomorrow and swap out her old DOCSIS 2.0 old with this new one, hopefully it'll improve her internet speed.

i came down the hill and retrieved my order, which took another 10 minutes before it was finally ready. by then the rain had started. one hand holding the umbrella while the other held my wings order, i didn't have a spare hand to work my camera to take any photos. it was a long walk home and i couldn't wait to get back. i took a quick shower before settling down for dinner in front of the HDTV with the game turned on. the box was smaller than wing works but the wings were about the same size, not as small as i remembered them to be. however, where was the sauce? wing works drown their wings in sauce, while wings over had virtually no sauce. they tasted more like the fried wings you'd get in a chinese restaurant than from a specialty wings restaurant. if i was grading them, i'd give them a C. not so terrible that i couldn't eat them, but made me yearn for the days of wing works.

the patriots jets game was a close one, with multiple lead changes. but i wasn't particularly worried, even when the patriots were down by 2 points in the final seconds and the jets had a chance to win if they could complete a long field goal kick. i'm not sure, but i think the jets might be eliminated from the playoffs following this loss, barring some sort of miracle. i kind of wish they won a little bit, so that the next time these two teams meet it might mean something.