i was shaking afterwards. i couldn't believe the celtics had won, after being down 24 points in the first quarter. kobe bryant wasn't even scoring and the lakers were still destroying the celtics. what would happen once he started his offense? it'd be catastrophic. the first 12 minutes were so painfully ugly that i instinctively wanted to change the channel, but decided to endure the endurable. i figured if the lakers could come back from a 20+ deficit in game 2 and almost win the game, maybe through some miracle the celtics could do the same thing. besides, if they really did come back and i missed the game, i could never forgive myself. so then began one of the greatest NBA final comebacks in recent history, as the celtics started chipping away at the lakers' lead. boston managed to get the lead down to single digits, and then they tied, and after a prolonged struggle, they took the lead for the first time in the entire game. and that was it. los angeles never got it back. and the celtics won. i was so happy i could've screamed but earlier i already heard my upstairs neighbors frantically running to their windows when i was loudly cheering the celtics comeback. 3-1. no team in NBA finals history has come back from such a deficit. a lot of credit will probably go to paul FIERCE for hustling both offensively and defensively, but a big hand should be given to ray allen - team workhouse - for play all 48 minutes, including some nifty baskets. posey also injected a lot of life back into the team with his consistent 3-point shooting. the celtics have 3 opportunities to win a single game and take the championship. they can do it sunday night in los angeles, or do it next week when they return to boston. i don't want to jinx the team but i'm already thinking about the p-word.

i had such a great sleep last night. with the end of humidity and a cool gentle breeze blowing through an open window, it was perfect sleeping weather. i heard some strange crackling noises in the middle of the night that made me suspicious enough to check it out. with the recent slew of property theft in the neighborhood, i wanted to make sure nobody was messing with my motorcycle parked outside. when i looked out the window though, there was nothing. unless i saw the bright sparkling lights down on beacon street. at first i thought it was an exploding transformer, but then i realized somebody had lit some fireworks in the middle of the street. weird. i went back to bed.

for those who are curious (probably nobody), here are more photos from my garden. i have a hard time watering my plants wearing my frankenboot. since i have to wear it indoors as well, i don't want to get it all muddy and then track all that mess back into the house. when i came back home i had to clean the rubber sole of my aircast with a wet sponge. i think i might change into a normal flat-bottom boot when i visit my garden. i can't be doing this for the next month. if only they had a removable outdoor sole for the cast that i can take off when i'm in the house.

my parents finally got high speed internet at the cafe. they were supposed to get it yesterday, but the verizon people never showed up. turned out it was a self-install job and nobody told them. so my father picked me up and brought me to the cafe so i could help him with the the initial setup. they ended up going with DSL, not as fast as cablemodem, but not as expensive either. activation wasn't very difficult but took a while; the first time it crashed because of some windows vista security conflict. the second time was the charm but a few times i thought the installer had froze up because it'd just sort of hang there.

even after activation it took a few minutes for the combination dsl modem/wireless router to be able to access the internet (the LED light went from red to green). there were just too many occasions for the average user to get frustrated and call up verizon tech support. for instance, they told me what the admin address to the router was, but they never provided the username and password (i had to guess; fortunately i got it after my 3rd try). the initial speed for regular DSL is just 768Kbps, which is good enough for basic surfing. but my father decided to get the upgrade for an extra $10/month, which bumped it up to 3Mbps. i did a speed test and it was still slow, but hopefully verizon will increase the throughput by tomorrow. right now wifi access is locked but eventually my parents hope to provide free wireless for the customers. heck, i might even visit more than usual now that i can access the internet from there.

my father gave me a ride back to my place. he left the car (i have a client meeting tomorrow) and took the motorcycle (i couldn't ride it anyway, and better to keep it in storage rather than left out on the streets). we saw some townie character checking out the motorcycle. "what is that? 450?" he asked. "nah, it's only a 250," i told him. just like that, i made yet another motorcycle friend. never got his name, but he used to ride as well, some 1100cc virago, before the place where he stored his bike burned down. "i'm in between bikes right now," he said.

bruce dropped by in the early evening to get my help in installing some more memory in his thinkpad laptop. later (during the second half of the game) i had some leftover curry rice noodles for dinner.