i prefer to sleep in the cold instead of the hot. but i discovered something last night: when i'm cold apparently it makes me want to go to the bathroom more often. last night i must've gotten up 3-4 times to go. maybe i just drank a lot of water. when i finally decided to warm myself with the comforter, all thoughts of urinating disappeared. or maybe my bladder was completely empty by then. it's something to investigate further.

my nose was feeling much better today after suffering through the pains of a sinus infection yesterday. it was still a little tender, but nothing like what it was yesterday. i'm still not sure what caused it, but glad my body was able to heal itself.

the tree that was wind damaged a few weeks ago had a broken clump of overhanging leaves and branches blocking my clear view of the sidewalk. it was annoying and i secretly hoped it'd fall off on its own or maybe i could prune it somehow. so i was happy to see this morning that somebody had already cut down that branch, apparently i wasn't the only one bothered by it.

GC went with me to water my community garden plants. the last time he was there was near dark and it was hard to see everything, which wasn't the case today. i knew the hose was damaged and thought maybe it'd been replaced but it was still leaking. fortunately i bought an empty container to use as a water pitcher, but the idea of watering the garden one container at a time seemed too time consuming. leave it to GC who suggested that i could simply use a nearby hose, which was long enough to reach my plot. i also harvested a long cucumber, which had been hiding in one of my tomato cages.

there was a nepal festival in union square starting at noontime. i decided to take GC, as he'd never been to union square before, and we could stop by market basket afterwards. before we left we were talking about local house prices and on our way to union square we stopped to check out 266 beacon street, the recently built condo complex across the street from star market. i told GC earlier that new houses are getting built but they're always more expensive than old apartments. that was the case here, as each 1500 square feet units was selling for $1.1 million. each unit had a fireplace, an underground parking spot, and a shared elevator. there were 7 units today, the 7th unit being the penthouse which had already been sold. it's a nice place but very expensive. and the large plot nearby is by another developer who's turning that area into storefronts and townhouses. once that goes up it's going to unfortunately create a lot of obstructed views for these condos.

we continued on our way to union square. i was just here last night checking out the underwhelming rainy night flea market. the tents were mostly food (barbecues, momos, curries), a few handicrafts, a performance stage where currently children were dancing in traditional costumes, and a raffle table with proceeds going to a nepalese earthquake relief fund. i've always been a little confused about nepal. situated in the himalayan mountains, the people can look tibetan, indian, and somewheres in-between. i forgot that must nepalese are hindus because of the indian influence, unlike tibetans, where most follow tibetan buddhism. as i didn't have breakfast or lunch and it was already 1pm, i was looking to buy something to eat. originally i was interested in getting some momos - himalayan dumplings - but apparently it's quite popular and they were all sold out. instead i ended up getting a plate of barbecued curry chicken for $5. it wasn't that good and bits of it were charred and bitter. i shared some with GC and then quickly ate the rest.

i took GC to the top of prospect hill to get a view of boston. it was a little crowded, with 2 other groups of people already up there and who didn't seem like they were leaving anytime soon. i never noticed it before but there's a large white mulberry tree growing next to the citadel. birds hungrily ate the berries. i spotted robins but also a pair of housefinches. we tried the berries, they were okay, a bit mild, but i think only because we didn't pick any ripe ones.

walking back down the hill i could help noticing the few houses with solar panels. they seemed to be facing the wrong direction. one house had the panels on a northwestern facing roof, another pointed northeast. the conduit run was also this ugly looking pipe that ran down the side of the house into a large solar power energy conversion box. i wonder if that's actually the transformer that regulates the panels?

we went to reliable market to check out some korean groceries. they've been slowly renovating, and now they have a little dining area with freshly made korean fast food. they also expanded their alcohol selection, and we saw a girl leaving the store with a box of beers. i ended up buying a small bottle of korean plum wine (maehwasoo, $7.99) for my mother.

finally we stopped by market basket on our way home. GC didn't buy too much this time, but he did pick up some more fresh fish and another bag of shrimps. we managed to check out in the express lane.

i left for belmont around 2:45pm, arrived at 3pm. i brought back my cucumber; a part of me fears it may be the only one i get before disease overwhelms the plant. my father was in the backyard yard reducing one of the tree sizes so he could eventually cut it flush to the ground. originally we thought we could pull out the entire stump but the roots are too deeply buried so it will just have to decompose naturally in the ground. up in the attic, i noticed one of the beams was severely cracked. fortunately it's not on the side that might get solar panels. my father said the crack was there ever since they bought the house and they never bothered to get it fixed. elsewhere up in the attic, there's a mysterious source of light by the vents, makes me wonder if there's a crack in the roof somewhere. but the area seems dry, so maybe it's just light shining in from a vertical air duct.

i tasted some of the korean plum wine for dinner. there was a sweet syrupy taste to it, not sure if it evokes flavor of plum more than flavor of cough syrup. a lot of korean alcohol tastes watered down and this one was similar as well. i returned home after dinner, getting back close to 8pm.