i went to the assembly square mall today with my parents to pick up another metal shelving unit from k-mart (the right one this time) and for my mother to buy more yarn from ac moore. back at their place, i played with the dog in the snowy backyard before helping my father assemble the shelves in the basement. even though the finished shelves can accomodate up to 10 large plastic bins, there's still a lot of clutter in the basement. we'd need probably 2 more additional shelves to really get everything organized.

after dinner, i tested the 2 roomba's my aunt gave me with the new battery that she bought. even without charging up the new battery first, her friend's supposed broken roomba whirled back to life. however my aunt's own roomba did have any reactions to the new battery. granted, one of the sensor wires is broken, but even then, i was expecting some error lights at least. my father and i tried to fix the wire, but we managed to break it again when i tried to put back the bumper. the problem was we just clipped the wire - which is more fragile - than simply soldering it back on. unfortunately we couldn't find the soldering iron so final repair will be on hold.

biking back home, i stopped at the intersection of huron avenue and fresh pond parkway. at nights there are sensors in the road that will turn the traffic lights to red for bikers. i tried to avoid tripping off the sensors by stopping short of the actual intersection, but when a 72 bus came roaring up behind me, i veered a little forward to get out of the way. apparently that was enough to trigger the lights, which all went red. reluctantly i pedaled across, but not before the bus driver angrily honked his horn behind me. a minute later he caught up to me, honked his horn again to get my attention, then gave me the finger. when i finally got home i submitted a complaint to the MBTA.

so that's how my year is going to end, with a mistakenly pissed off bus driver flipping me the bird. 2012 wasn't as stressful as in past years, despite having 5 different roommates, and only about 2 months where i lived alone. i also picked up 5 more bicycles to my collection: fuji 10 speed ($60), jetter 10 speed (free), GMC denali (free), trek allant ($100), and a schwinn road bike (free). there is currently a moratorium on acquiring anymore bikes. i was seriously bike crazy the first half of the year, and even upgraded my trek 800 to a north road handlebar. as far as new hobbies, i got into skyrim and arduino for a while. cooking wise, i don't remember making anything new, other than some failed experiments with turkish delights and smoked barbecue. as for gardening, it was a season of squashes and melons, especially with our newly acquired belmont victory garden plot. 2012 gardening would also be the season i discovered snapdragons, the flower that keeps on giving. having no money, it was another year where i didn't travel abroad. the two times i did leave for any extended period both involved john miller: once at the hamptons, then a month later in acadia national park. honorable mention also goes to the few field trips i went with drew: the berkshires and north easton. also new this year: granola with yogurt for breakfast and infrared fisheye photography. i continued my quest to DIY fix-it-everything, including washing some dirty venetian blinds, spray painting old lawn chairs, replacing a broken microwave door latch, and twice fixing the washer/dryer. finally, 2012 was the year i finally upgraded my camera: after slaving away on my canon rebel XT (350D) for the past 6 years, i finally stepped up to the 60D with an equally impressive 18-200mm lens.