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i'm in a foul mood tonight.

the celtics post season run came to a premature end with their game 7 loss in miami. this may be the last time we ever see of the big 3 as contracts end for both ray allen and kevin garnett. my secret wish is they're both willing to take a pay cut for the expense of the team and stay in boston until they retire. but who knows, both players are looking at serious money in free agency, particularly the resurrect kevin garnett. we'll always have that magical 2007-2008 season where they won the championship. if i'm feeling sad about the team's future, i can always put in the commemorative dvd and drown my sorrows in the past. my only comfort is knowing miami can't possibly beat the OKC, and that kendrick perkins will be in the lineup to exact some kind of vicarious revenge on the hated heat. i also loved how KG and rondo left for the locker room right after the game, didn't bother staying on the court to congratulate the heat. i've always thought it was weird seeing bitter rivals suddenly hug it out after the game. it almost makes me think, "were they just pretending to hate each other? maybe the whole thing is rigged."

i also lost some photos. i was a little careless backing up some old images and accidentally erased a folder that i didn't save yet. all 138 photos from june 1st got erased. i then spent the rest of the night in my bedroom, booting up from my old desktop mac, trying to rescue the lost photos via firewire using data rescue 3. after almost 2 hours of scanning, i was able to salvage the photos; unfortunately they were all corrupted, every file reduced to a third of its original size. in the grand scheme of things it's not a great loss, but i still don't like losing photos.

finally, i'm in a foul mood because i taught LJ how to use the washer and dryer today. earlier when i came back from boston after watching the pride march, i noticed the accordion door to the washer/dryer was opened. later when i returned home from my parents' place, she asked me about the washer/dryer. turns out she couldn't figure out how to use it, so instead hand washed a few garments and hung them up to dry outside. as the only thing out there is my old schwinn, she hung her clothes from my bike. so i taught her how to use the washer/dryer and she really took to it. i asked her how she washed her clothes back in china, and she said they all do it by hand, nobody has a washer, and definitely nobody has a dryer (everything is hung dry). everything was fine until i heard it doing a second load. she said she had some other clothes to wash but didn't want the colors to run. so this girl who seemed to have never used a washer/dryer before in her life is now separately her colors! even i don't do that! what bothered me the most was when she ran the dryer. she seemed to have forgotten about her clothes so by the time she was running the noisy dryer, it was already close to midnight. that's one of my pet peeves, roommates who wash clothes late at nights.

anyway, i was already planning on going down to boston this morning to pick up a few things from haymarket. but when i realized last night that the pride march was actually happening today, my plan changed. i'd see the parade first, and then pay a visit to haymarket on my way back home. the route changed this year, starting from copley square, down clarendon, across tremont, up berkeley, and towards city hall via the state house. this route is actually more similar to the original route, when the parade would snake through the south end.

i decided to wait on clarendon street, on the bridge above the mass turnpike, next to back bay station. it was the highest point on the street looking down on the procession route. it was also easy to get to berkeley street, in case i wanted to catch an encore of the parade. i took my bike and left the house a bit after 11:00, after taking a shower and eating some oatmeal for breakfast. my roommate was still asleep. i also managed to watch the end of the women's french open and see maria sharapova complete her quest of winning all the grand slam titles.

i got to where i wanted to see the parade with half an hour to spare. afraid of losing my spot, i just stood on the side of the street and waited.

the parade has been rained on twice in a row, but today the weather was parade perfect. i was standing on the eastern side of the bridge but decided to move across the street to the western side get a better angle. the noon day sun was perfectly shining on the north-south clarendon street. as more people started to arrive, i was flanked on my right side by an old lesbian couple with a brood of kids, and on my left side by a hipster gay boy and his beard who brought along a mean-looking but docile pitbull.

as far as pride marches go, this one was okay. i figured with the nicer weather there'd be more spectacles, but it was pretty tame compared to years past. even the last 2 years with the rain, that was more interesting as both parade participants and goers used creative ways to fight the elements. maybe it's still the economy, but i didn't see any crazy floats, or stereo trucks. because i was on the ground level and close to the beginning of the procession, i did pick up a lot of beads though, the one concession.

at 1:30 with the parade winding down, i followed the procession along clarendon street all the way to tremont, where i took some more photos. i then returned to back bay station where my bike was parked, and cut across columbus avenue to berkeley, where i caught some more of the procession. i then made by way to boston common, cutting across the park to downtown crossing, finally to haymarket. it was actually easier than normal since so many streets were still closed due to the parade, but the police don't seem to care if a bicycle cuts through their barricades.

i had all my beads on, which must've been a sight to the produce vendors, but nobody said anything. i bought 2 bags of cherries ($2/lbs.), some kale (2/$3), scallions(4/$1), a papaya ($3.50), and some yellow onions (4/$1). i was in a rush (my mother was already calling asking me where i was) so instead of returning home via the river i went across the longfellow bridge.

i stopped by my house briefly to change rides (bicycle for motorcycle) before leaving for belmont. it was close to 3:00, LJ was home but sleeping in her room. i noticed 2 trash-filled bags in the foyer by the front door. later i'd learn LJ threw them out. "where?" i asked. "in those blue bins across the street," she told me. she threw her trash away in my neighbor's recycle bin. i'm going to have to do some apologizing and explaining.

it was already kind of late when i arrived in belmont. i was going to mow the lawn by my father already did that, half of it anyway, before he ran out of fuel. i was feeling tired anyway from standing out in the sun most of the day and didn't feel like doing much yard work. we did put down a tarp and scrape the dry paint off the eastern side of the house next to the garage, as sort of a test to see what kind of prep work we'd need to do before we could repaint the house. instead of real scrapers we just used some putty knives.

so back to the game: the celtics almost won it. they had the lead briefly in the 4th quarter, but that was before miami turned on the jets and went on a hot streak while boston found themselves in a dry spell.

i watched most of the game from my bedroom. later i hooked up my laptop to the LCD monitor so i could work from the desk (with the laptop screen closed), something i haven't done in a while (normally it's from the couch, which super comfy but bad for my back).