i left my house this morning kind of late because i wanted to watch the ground zero closing ceremony on television. i didn't realize it wouldn't start until 10:30am so i headed off to work on the motorcycle. just as i was about to leave, the ups truck dropped off a package on my doorstep. my nikon 950 digital camera has returned! i quickly loaded it up with a set of fresh batteries, threw in a memory card, and turned on the camera. my heart sank. it was making that exact same horrible broken rackety sound just like before! it wasn't fixed at all! so i looked over the invoice to see if they made any mistakes, and according to the invoice, it was fixed. so i sort of sat there in shock, my brain unable to process the fact that when something goes back to the manufacturer and promises to get fixed (not for free either, but for $200), that it should come back still broken. more out of fustration than anything else, i gave the camera a hard tap on my hand, and sure enough, it stopped making that horrible sound and started behaving like normal. this is how it's going to be from now on? time to really get a new digital camera.

today was a surprisingly subdued day. i didn't do any programming, but instead i just made little fixes here and there. it was a welcomed change to have an easy day, one completely free of stress. it was so laid back for me that it almost didn't feel like work.

for lunch, eliza and i went to chinatown where we had vietnamese at pho hòa (17-19 beach street, chinatown), the new restaurant that replaced to chau, my former favorite vietnamese restaurant. this was my first time at pho hòa and i didn't think it was anything special, actually disappointed that they did away with the previous lunch specials, no longer offering the tom yum guy soup with vermicelli noodles. that was good stuff, the last few times i went to to chau that's what i ordered instead of the standard pho dish. pho hòa has something like 50 different pho selection, but that's actually not entirely accurate, it's just different combination of meats. to be honest, i can't really tell them apart, they all look the same to me. i usually pick the one that has tripe in it.

today was hot and humid, a film of sweat would form on my face everytime i stepped outside. it didn't help matters much that i was dressed for biking, not for unofficial summer. the ice cream truck came again and both rebecca and eliza simultaneously aimed me to let me know. i quickly raced downstairs and got a small vanilla soft serve with chocolate sprinkles. being a slow eater definitely has its drawbacks when you're eating ice cream from a cone on a hot day, as melting ice cream dripped all over my hands along with the sprinkles. having a goatee is also a bad idea.

after work i went running with julie. i was late for our 6pm rendezvous, having gotten stuck in the office burning a last minute cd. when i ran to our meeting place, julie was already there waiting. we decided to take the 5 mile route around the science museum and across the mass ave bridge. in order to spice things up a bit, julie decided that we should go in the opposite direction. signs of summer were everywhere, people lounging by the docks, lying on the grass, topless men and spandex/lycra-wearing women running and rollerblading along the paths. for the final stretch, julie and i crossed memorial drive and out behind the marriott hotel, where we crashed rebecca's farewell party at the characters hotel bar by waving to her outside the window. julie went back to the screen house office while i returned to srm, where i took a quick shower (i really needed it, i was sweat soaked) and then went back to the characters to join up with the program, already in progress.

i left around 8:30pm, biking it back home in very little traffic. i won't be riding in tomorrow though, forecast says thunderstorms in the afternoon. commuting by t will be a good break. i need to catch up on my journal writing and my people watching.