i forgot that last year i photographed the mid-autumn festival moon as well (harvest moon), from the mass ave bridge no less. i didn't plan well this time around. i was hoping the moon would be rising behind boston, but it was actually about 90° counterclockwise, coming up behind some large hilltop houses, after two guys told me the moon was already up. a trio of old ladies climbed up to the tower as well, hoping to take photos of the harvest moon. the moon had an orange glow to it as it was still low on the horizon, and occasionally thin bands of clouds will obscure it, even though i didn't see any clouds in the sky. i biked back home a little bit after 7pm.

i wanted to make a ham and cheese quiche tonight and went to market basket in the afternoon to pick up some ingredients. the last time i made it was back in july, and now that the weather is turning colder (not these past few days, but the cold will come soon), it's perfect for this hearty dish. they're doing some kind of road construction on properzi way, which is my usual shortcut, so it was an inconvenience getting there. the sky was doing something interesting. it was slightly grey for much of the day, but eventually the sun won out and pushed away the clouds in a ripple pattern.

later i went to the cafe. because it was such a nice day, i took the fuji bike, after oiling it up in the backyard because of some squeaky gears. but that didn't seem to help because it still squeaks when i ride. the problem can't be reproduced when i have the bike upside down. i also still don't know where the noise is coming from: is the chain rubbing up against the derailleurs? something in the pedals? or maybe something inside the crank? at this point i'm just going to consider it a lost cause and not worry too much about it. i remember i only paid $60 for the bike, not worth sending it into a shop to get it tuned-up.

i went to belmont to water the lawn and to work on the dryer, which has been running hotter than normal, to the point where clothes come out like they've been baked in an oven and very hot to touch. but i didn't feel like taking apart the machine to do some multimeter readings, so i just got the model number, figured at the very least i can go online and look for parts and prices. it's a whirlpool LER7646JQ0. i'll take a closer look at it over the weekend or sometime next week. my hope is it's a simple broken part that can be removed and replaced. my biggest fear is it's something more complicated in which case we'll either need to hire a professional to take a look or simply buy a new dryer. in recent weeks my mother has been drying her clothes outside because she's afraid the dryer is going to catch on fire or at the very least damage the clothes.

it's been a week since i've had my neon tetras. i thought i bought 10 fish but i did another count today and i definitely have 11. when i first got them i did a count and a few times i counted 11 as well, but i thought it was just my imagination. so i have a bonus fish in the aquarium. this is good because i still have a feeling that at least one of the fish will die sometime soon.

i went to the maud morgan art gallery around 6pm where susan was having a reception for her paintings. i thought it was just going to be a few people but a lot of people showed up, and i think i saw someone writing a check for one of the paintings. i didn't know most of the people there and left by 6:30pm.

li was already home, making rice porridge for dinner. i told him i was going to make quiche tonight, he asked if i could postpone it because he made enough porridge for the both of us. i agreed, then went back outside, to ride up to prospect hill to see if i can get some good photos of the harvest moon tonight. when i came back li was already eating in the living room, trying to find the channel on the roku that had battlestar galactica (syfy). i got myself a bowl of rice porridge - rice, pork spareribs, kale. later i had another bowl but added some pickled radish for some additional flavor. when li left to go videochat with his girlfriend, i switched channel to the football game which was about to start.

patriots had a thursday night game against the tampa bay buccaneers. the patriots didn't so much win as just barely survived. new england eked out a victory only because the bucs offense was so incompetent, despite an equally incompetent pats defense. tampa bay's kicker missed 3 field goal attempts. had he made them all, perhaps the bucs might've won the game. the bucs defense was something to envy however, repeatedly stopping new england and sacking tom brady multiple times, as well as an interception. hopefully the patriots can get some rest and then figure out what went wrong tonight so they can adjust for the next game.