i could feel it immediately on my bare legs when i stepped out of bed: it was cold again this morning. i showered, i dressed, then i left for the longy school of music again to go see another student performance featuring giovanna on the piano. here and there i could see a dusting of snow from earlier this morning. certainly not enough to be any problem but a simple reminder that there will probably be more in the near future.

when i got to the school i called alisa to ask where she was; she was still at home and probably couldn't make it. this left me in an awkward position, attending a performance where i didn't really know anybody, but since i had nothing to do anyway, i figured at least it'd be a good way to kill some time. the turnout was low (a dozen people at most in a large auditorium) and the only other person who i even remotely recognized was kenny, one of alisa's roommates who gave me a ride home a few nights ago. he wasn't much of a talker and i found myself engaging in small talk in order to not make things weird. learning from my mistake at the last performance (where i sat near the back, so i couldn't get any photos), we sat in the front row, while everybody else sat all the way in the back. we were so close to the stage we could practically touch the musicians.

all the pieces except the last one where either saxophones or saxophone accompanied by piano. i noticed many had engravings on their saxophones, and their instruments came in either glossy or matte (just like LCD screens!). with all the button pushing just to play, i wonder if they'd be good at video games? giovanna played during the final set, a quartet along with a violin, a viola, and a cello. the music this time around was far better than the cello piano duet tuesday night. (bonus: watch a short video!) i know hardly anything about classical music, but pieces played tickled something inside me, put me in a very mellow mood. longy plays host to a bunch of musical performances, most of them free. it'd be a nice change of pace to bring folks from out of town to one these, i'll add it to my "things to do" list the next time i get visitors.

i walked to harvard square afterwards to get some stamps from the post office. along the way i took out my camera and grabbed a few photos:

first church in cambridge: not really sure if it really is the first church in cambridge (11 garden street, built in 1636 though), but there's a golden rooster on the church steeple.

gaudi-esque chimney tops: some of the large mansion on ash street have really unique chimney tops. they remind me of gaudi architecture for some reason.

grey squirrel: i think we were both surprised when i turned to see a grey squirrel right next to me on a stone wall. it froze for a few seconds, then ran away when i reached for my camera.

back at home, i watched another episode of keen eddie ("the amazing larry dunn"). did anybody else watch this show when it was still on the air and loved it as much as i do? i also successfully killed my first colossus and it only took 15 minutes: stabbed it in the leg, crawled up his hairy bum up to the top of his head, and several stabs later, the monster goes down.

in the mid-afternoon i went with my father to costco to get some supplies. some ring-billed gulls huddled in the parking lot. this is significant because they're winter birds, and now having seen them, i know it's officially winter birding season. if i can see a few new birds (probably mostly ducks) this winter, i'll be happy and fulfilled my naturing quota.

back at the cafe, i had my macbook pro with my and gave my great uncle and my aunt a slideshow of my recent china trip. i also had a bowl of chicken noodle soup (chinese style) before heading back to belmont with my parents.

i was at my parents' place setting up their wireless network. after replacing the router with a netgear wireless, i fiddled with the settings before getting it to finally work. i also left my old ibook with them. even though i've outgrown that machine, it's still sad to see it go after such faithful service for the past half decade.

when i got back home, i took a bath before the rebroadcast of battlestar galactica at 11pm.