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a boring monday punctuated by a lovely topless run in the warm weather (78 degrees) on the first official day of summer, made that much better when i came home and found presents waiting for me on the doorstep. my contact lenses order arrived, as well as my amazon.com shipment (two books and a 512MB compact flash memory), and my belated father's day present. the "rough guide chronicle: china" is a great little history book that covers 4000 years of chinese history, arranged in an easy to follow chronological order. the other book was "peaceable kingdom" by jack ketchum, a collection of 30 horror stories from an author purported to be one of the best in the business (can't wait to read it later tonight).

i never do anything fun on mondays, it's usually a quiet night for me. i washed the pile of dishes in the sink (they were starting to smell, hence the urgency) and had a yearning to clean the tub for some reason, afterwards feeling somewhat faint from the strong chlorine odor in the cleaning solution. besides the tub, i also cleaned the fish tank, washing off the food flakes from the plastic lid, replanting the elodea that've floated to the surface, and added more water (a few days old, to allow any chemicals to dissipate). i think i want to get more elodea plants for the tank, give my cherry barbs better places to hide, or at the very least have an underwater foliage garden. i didn't bother watering the plants in the backyard since i already did that this morning. from the window i just checked that no vegetables were dug up by squirrels during the time i was at work. my tomatoes are spindly; they'll produce fruit, but tomatoes really do better in full sun, and my backyard is partial shade. back in belmont, the same tomato plants have thick roots and lots of branches. my peppers however are doing very well, very leafy, although still sort of dwarfed. the moonflowers i set out on friday have already sprouted. i also paid some bills and filled out some rebate forms, as well as finally writing that letter to citimortgage about reducing my monthly payments now that i qualify for residential exemption on my real estate tax. i had spicy dumpling for dinner, dipped in a special spicy sauce made for dumplings, it was pretty good (likewise with my lunch today, the angus burger from burger king, delicious as well). my father dropped by around 10pm to pick up his father's day present: the collector's edition of once upon a time in america on dvd, one of the few movies i know he likes. we talked computers, about ibook prices, ibook upgrades, g4 upgrades, and the flashtrax.