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went to harvard square this afternoon to pick up my drug prescription, then took the subway to central square and walked all the way to 238 broadway street, the cambridge traffic office, to get my visitor parking permit. although today was mild compared to the past 4 days, all that walking made me feel hot nevertheless. i should've known, but when i finally arrived at the office, they were closed due to the fact that yesterday was the 4th of july (get that nice four day weekend action). i went to the dunkin' donuts a few blocks down to get some lunch, but not before two little boys on bicycles went by me, one of them touching my arm (as if on a dare) and asking, "what the f* are you doing here?" i turned around to give them a you got me smile, then realized seconds later that i should've used the old "i'm here to visit your mom" comeback. next time! dunkin' donuts was a relaxing lunch in a cozy air conditioned room, eating my raisin creme cheese bagel, drinking my medium orange mango fruit coolatta (less than $5 total), and reading the latest issue of entertainment weekly (the one with will smith and tommy lee jones on the cover). afterwards i walked to kendall square and took the subway to porter square, where i spent the rest of the afternoon in my house, helping my father do some more wiring work, watching 200 channels cable, surfing the web, and waiting for alex wong to drop by so he can see the place and we can go out for dinner. i discovered that the web access port on my cablemodem isn't blocked by at&t which means i can serve pages from my machine at home. this is very good news! expect to see my digital photography up within the next few weeks. my father also solved the problem where there were a lot of flies congregating by the cement steps leading into the basement. he sprayed some of that bug spray with DEET and like a miracle the flies are gone. not sure how long it'll last though, i guess as long as it doesn't range, the chemicals should still be effective. we alex finally arrived at 6:30pm he became visitor 11. we walked to the porter exchange, he riding on his kickscooter several yards ahead. i guess normal walking is too strenuous for him apparently. this was my 3rd meal at the porter exchange within the past few days, and i was reluctant to come back were it not for the fact that we'd be eating at a new booth that i've never tried before. we ate at cafe mami, where there was a 15 minute wait before we got a table. being surrounded by so many asian people makes me feel self-conscious for some reason. i saw an asian boy with a really hot asian girlfriend waiting for a table and i had to laugh because he had a goatee as well, but he had something like 3 hairs in his goatee, a baby's goatee. when we finally got out table, i ordered this sizzling beef dish served on a hot metal plate. it was surprisingly good, the best food i've had at the porter exchange, and normally i'm sort of disappointed with the selections there. alex paid for my dinner ($9.50, which was the most expensive thing on the menu, i didn't think he'd be paying) as thanks for helping him move last week. after dinner, we went to a local japanese convenience store, where alex told me that he'd be reading magazines for the next 30 minutes before he could leave, this being a part of his weekly ritual. a little bit shocked but understanding that he has special needs, i took my leave, t'ing my way back to belmont. after checking my e-mail, i got some results back from professor julie's investigation as to the true nature of the crustacean claws i found at walden beach two days ago. freshwater crabs are rare and we have none in the new england area, which would make those crayfish claws instead. mystery solved!