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just when i was about to leave in the late morning, big heavy raindrops began to fall. it wasn't supposed to rain until later this afternoon, so this was unexpected. i checked the weather doppler radar and a quick moving swath of heavy rain was passing through the area. i couldn't believe it at first but radars don't lie, so i waited inside the house to see what would happen. and then suddenly the sky just opened up and torrential rain started falling. so much rain came down that i had to move my utility bike back into the basement, along with two packs of schweppe's pomegranate seltzer.

the rain quickly stopped as soon as it started and everything was back to normal. i lifted the bike back out from the basement and went on my way to belmont. despite the sun breaking through the clouds, i wasn't out for more than a minute before a sudden unexpected downpour started again. i made it as far as the harvard dance program building before i pulled underneath an overhang to wait out the rain. it finally stopped after a few minutes of waiting.

i went to belmont the long way around fresh pond just so i could have a chance to catch some water-type pokemons. i had good luck in the area around the water treatment plant, which seems to be a spawning ground. that's where i caught 2 goldees the last time. this time around i found 2 staryus (first) and almost caught a goldee before it despawned. before i left, i also caught a slowpoke (first).

i hadn't planned on painting the guest bedroom door, but i had some spare time in the evening, so figured i'd get a jump start on the painting. there hasn't been painting in my house since september 2010, when i repainted the bathroom door. that was a hardcore (and smelly) project, with layers of chemical stripping followed by serious oil painting. the last time i actually painted was just last fall, when my father and i finally completed my parents' house painting project. had i had the time (and cristina not arriving in less than a week), i would probably go with oil paint, because it's more durable, even though it's a pain to clean up and takes at least a few weeks for the smell to go away. so it will just have to be behr semi-gloss acrylic, which is easier to work with and doesn't smell like oil paint.

it was surprisingly easy to paint once i got started, but maybe it was a bit too warm in the house because the paint seemed a little watery, which caused several drops onto the floor but fortunately i had newspaper down. the whole process took about 40 minutes, starting with the inside, followed by the outside. it looked pretty good, and hidden behind that white paint, you couldn't tell which areas had been patched, everything looked like new.