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6:30 was the time my upstairs neighbors woke me up this morning. they even started playing music but thankfully turned it off before i had time to run up and murder them while they ate breakfast. could i have more inconsiderate neighbors? this after they left me a note last weekend to water their outdoor houseplants while they were away on vacation, like i didn't have anything better to do. they were lucky it rained a few times because there was zero chance i was going to take care of their plants. anyway, i couldn't fall back asleep so instead i continued reading a storm of swords (i'm almost finished).

it was another late start for my roommate. since i was already up so early, it was futile to wait for him to leave before starting my own day. i went to the basement and stripped off the front caliper brakes from the old raleigh. unfortunately they're not compatible, as the raleigh brakes have longer arms and a different kind of mounting bolt. i headed down to my local bike shop to either look for a replacement part or just buy a new set of front brakes. "it's up to you," the shopper keeper told me when i asked which option was better. but since the old brakes were in pretty good shape (still looked shiny and new), i opted to just buy a replacement bolt which was only $3.50. it took the guy a while to find the part, while i looked around his store. there was a pretty green mixte road bike for sale but i didn't see a price sticker (i'm guessing $200-300). i also bought 2 pairs of brake pads ($5/pair).

somewhere on the road my cellphone rang. it was my urologist (how many people have their own urologist?), calling to let me know about my recent tests. i was relieved when he told me everything was normal1, but slightly dismayed that they still had no idea what was causing the pain. his recommended course of treatment was to take ibuprofen for the aches and use some "scrotal support," which means tighter underwear (so that's what the kids are calling it these days). "that's it?" i blurted out, a bit incredulous. in my mind i always thought this problem could be cured with some antibiotics but apparently that's not the case. in 2 months i go back and see my urologist again.

back at home, i finally got around to cleaning out my algae-covered aquariums. there was no time to do a thorough cleaning (meaning changing the filters), just a basic water change which i'll have to repeat again hopefully later this week (i'll also need to run to the pet store to get a new algae-scrubbing pad).

bram finally left around 11:30. i made some breakfast (eggs+prosciutto+english muffin), took a shower, and rode my bicycle to belmont.

with replacement brake bolt installed, my father and i finally got the ross 3-speed working. we replaced the front brake cable and tuned the back brakes including respacing the pads2 and dribbling some oil into the cable housing (we adjusted the rear brakes on the 10-speed as well). it kind of makes me sad now that the bike is finished; i'll need to find another cheap bike (in the free-$50 range) so i can start a new project. i'm looking for a road bike with 700c wheels, but i'll settle for any kind of bike with wheels bigger than 26".

i rode my bicycle because it was supposed to rain later in the afternoon. the sky certainly made a turn to the dramatic but it never did rain in the area, not even a drop.

i crawled into my parents' bedroom and took a nap in the late afternoon after finishing a few more chapters in a storm of swords. i woke up an hour later, covered in sweat. i retreated to the cooler air-conditioned comfort of the living room. i didn't think today would be so hot but turned out we actually hit the 90's.

after some noodles for dinner, i biked back to cambridge. since it was the beginning of the month, i was curious to see if my roommate would remember to pay his rent. when i saw him he made no mention of it, which was strange, because he brought it up on friday. what he did remember was to do his laundry again around 10:30, finished drying by midnight. he was cooking something smelly in the kitchen, i was too afraid to go and see what it was.

i finally finished a storm of swords. it definitely got better in the end. it's one of the longer books of the series, but i thought it read pretty quickly. not sure if this is a spoiler, but a supposedly dead character makes a surprise appearance in the end. i quickly leafed through the chapter content table for the next book to confirm if this character really has come back or maybe just a ghost. a feast of crows is the 4th book and i've heard some bad things about it. i just want to quickly get through it so i can read the most recent book that just came out, a dance with dragons.


1 i'm surprised, because from what i saw on the ultrasound monitor, my insides looked like a real mess.

2 at the bike shop, the store keep showed me a trick to centering unruly caliper brakes: with a flat screwdriver, you tap the spring on the side that sticks out more to even the two arms. it actually worked.