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still smarting over the fact that i wasn't able to get my run on yesterday, i woke up this morning (and by morning i mean 12pm saturday morning), got dressed, rolled the motorcycle out of the garage, and rode down to the office. approaching kendall square parked at a stop light, the bike's ignition suddenly went out. i had to turn the fuel knob to reserve in order to make the final leg to the office. todd was at work, putting some final touches on the delivery i burned yesterday. i got dressed into my running stuff then headed out.

it was probably about 60 degrees, a nice warm sun making it seem even warmer than it actually was. i started running and right away i knew it wasn't going to be a very enjoyable run. i was basically operating on an empty stomach ("shake hands with danger"), which doesn't affect me very other than i probably didn't have too much energy. the more critical thing was i didn't properly hydrate myself before coming out, and i started feeling thirsty even before i got to the charles river. but what i lack in energy, in fluids, i could make up for in the stamina department. i might not be able to run fast, i might be experiencing a lot of exhaustion, but at least i'll be able to run the whole 3 miles without stopping. so i thought. when i started approaching the halfshell nearing the end of the course, suddenly it was teeming with people on the shores of charles river enjoying some radio sponsored concert event. i had to negotiate through the crowd and once i got cleared i ran a little bit more but that magic feeling was gone. overall i didn't think it was a bad run, other than the traffic jam by the halfshell. the final mile i was on automatic, when it started to get a little crowded, and i was weaving left and right, dodging and passing pedestrians.

when i got back to the office, todd was still there. i changed out of my running clothes and got back on the bike, riding home on reserve fuel. i made it to belmont intact (i was afraid i'd get stranded on memorial drive) but before going home, i filled the tank at a local gas station. on 2.1 gallons of gasoline my motorcycle went 136 miles (according to the odometer) before i needed to refuel. so what kind of mileage is that, 65 miles/gallon? that is some sweet mileage.

i saw derek lowe throw a no-hitter on television today. now he's the fan favorite again, even though last year everyone hated him. the few games i went to last season, i remember groaning whenever the announcer said that lowe was coming out to close the game, because i was afraid he'd blow another save. and like many in the crowd, i too joined in the booing and jeering. but that's the finicky nature of sports i suppose. you're the most despised player one season, the next season you could be the most beloved. this seems to be the case with lowe.

with the weather so nice, i had no excuse not to go out in the backyard and do some gardening. i noticed that the tulips i planted back in november (underneath the cherry tree) were already out. that's surprising, because i thought these were late season tulips and i wasn't expecting to see them until the end of spring. also, the variety i planted was "blue amiable", named because it produced blue tulips, but the ones that i saw were magenta. i also planted 6 but there were only 3, which confirms my suspicion that squirrels must've ate the bulbs as soon as the ground began to thaw early spring.


cherry blossom
bird feeder

tulip
"blue amiable"

help me
identify!

wisteria bud

wisteria: a few years ago we planted a wisteria vine in the garden and every season while we watched wisterias in other gardens bloom in lavish strands of grapelike purple flowers, our own wisteria never never bothered to produce a single blossom - until now that is. today i noticed a single bud sprouting from one of the tendrils. unfortunately, that was the only one i saw, but it's a good sign, and maybe next year there might be a few more.

unknown plant invasion: plant people, please help me identify this plant! originally i thought it was money plant (because we have a lot of those in our backyard), but once it flowered it turned out to be something different. it's slowly taking over parts of the yard though, a very fast growing plant which i now think is some sort of weed. i tried finding it in my plant books but so far so luck. i'm pulling out the ones that i can and the rest i'm spraying down with round up, the most effective biodegradable plant killer i know of.

and finally, no sunny weekend afternoon would be complete without the further decimation of the dandelion population growing on the lawn. weeding fork in hand, i went about reducing the producers of those ubiquitous bright yellow flowers. i don't use chemicals, even though i have in the past (other than round up, but that's my all purpose herbicide, it will kill everything green). not that i'm worried about pesticides contaminating the drinking water, or children and pets ingesting dangerous chemicals. i'm not concerned about those things. i like using the weeding fork instead because it allows me to get up close and personal to the dandelions, the sworn enemy of anyone who's ever tried to maintenance a perfect lawn. my fight with these weeds is often times very personal. it's not enough that i uproot them either, but i also have to pluck off each flower because i've learned through experience that even when uprooted, a dandelion can grow long enough to transform any bright yellow flower into a seedhead, sending out a new batch of seeds to increase their population even more. not on my watch you don't!