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NOV

27

2016

the moment i left the house late sunday morning was when catalina arrived. i figured as much for my colombian friends. with the weather so cold outside, it was either hanging out at her place in boston (which i heard isn't that great a place to be with 10 other housemates, and freddy already went there yesterday) or here in cambridge, where they had the whole house to themselves. it would've been nice to let me know ahead of time (instead of discovering it via DHCP client list snooping), but it's freddy's final weekend anyway. catalina's been here a lot, i'm curious how she spent her weekend when freddy wasn't here yet. i did notice they turned up the heat from 68° to 70°. this time of year, with outdoor temperature in the 40's, and a certain dampness in the air, the house can feel cold regardless of thermostat reading.

i stopped at the cafe to check out my sister's my TCL HDTV. she was trying to get into HBO but was using the wrong roku channel (HBO GO, not HBO NOW). there is no input button on the roku remote; instead, inputs are just channels, like there's an antenna channel. of course she wasn't getting any over-the-air channels because her paperclip makeshift antenna was too small and the HDTV was located in a central part of the house away from windows.

i was in belmont eating the final round of leftover turkey, waiting for the start of the early afternoon football games. the patriots-jets game wasn't until the late afternoon. the two early games - bengals-ravens and giants-browns - were a bit boring, so i went and did other things instead, like planting the 4 containers of larkspur seedlings and creating a sparrow deterrent for the seed feeder with rubber strings (seemed to be working so far).

as for the eventual patriots-jets game, the patriots won but why does it feel like they lost? why do i get the feeling that new england is a paper tiger this year? the 8-2 patriots should've easily beaten the jets with a record of 3-7, but new england defense didn't seem to be effective (defenders failing to stop receptions) and the offense was a terrible slog (receivers failing to catch). although historically, pats-jets game have all been very close despite the numbers (i heard rumors that jets tailor their lineup specifically against new england). perhaps it's because i have a personal interest in the patriots, that their deficiencies seem to be magnified. but when i watch other teams, their victories seem so easy, and they play with a sense of fun that i find lacking when i watch new england. i've yet to see a game this season where the patriots totally dominate, even their shutdown win against the houston texans earlier this year. right now, i'm just not very confident they have what it takes to go all the way.

after dinner i returned to cambridge. with everyone back from thanksgiving, all the nearby parking spots were taken so i had to park a block away. nobody was in the house but the heat (70°) was still on (grumble). i noticed the iron was out. did catalina come over to do laundry? they did leave me with a cupcake in the kitchen (blueberry chocolate, although i would've preferred simply blueberry). freddy came home around 10:30pm.