i don't know when i got the notion in my head that i wanted recessed lighting for my kitchen. maybe it happened soon after i closed on the place and got a chance to inspect my new house. it was probably during that time that i hit upon the idea that i'd refurnish the kitchen with recessed lights. and now almost two months later, that dream has come true.

this morning my father and i went to the watertown home depot to get some painting supplies, in preparation for the eventual priming work i'll be doing within the next few days. when we got to the house, jeremy was already there, having put in all the cans into the ceiling and was in the process of wiring the three dimmer switches that would control the lights. he had cranked the air conditioner to 10 (he's crazy!) and he was listening to this indian chanting music on a portable stereo he brought with him. he asked if we could go out and buy the baffles (the housing that sits inside the metal recessed light cansisters) and some lightbulbs (saves him some time), so my father and i went to independent electric supply (41 inner belt road) in somerville. pretty friendly service if you know what you want, it's primarily an industrial supplies depot for electricians. the people who work there seem to be having a great time, and over the pa i heard, "adam from lights, will you please come to the front office? crystal wants to check you out. adam from lights, please come to the front office immediately." we got the baffles and the lightbulbs (halogens), plus a 17" halogen alkco undercabinet light for above the kitchen sink.

before returning to the house, my father and i had lunch at wuchon house in union square. it's a korean restaurant with only two box meals on its lunch special menu, chicken or beef bulgogi ($8/each). my father went with the chicken, i had the beef. the selection's kind of poor. besides my beef bulgogi, there was a serving of white rice, a salad (with thousand island dressing and a slice of orange), two pieces of vegetarian sushi, two fried dumpling, and a compartment of soy sauce/wasabi/ginger. the arrangement was uninspiring though the bulgogi was quite delicious, with little bits of garlic. the miso soup that came before the meal was really good though, a generous serving of scallions sprinkled over the delicious broth. during our lunch jeremy called asking if we could also pick up another dimmer switch, one of the ones he was using short circuited and the electronics inside got fried. so after lunch, after a quick stop at the motorcycle store next store, we went back to independent electric supply. they unfortunately didn't have any in stock, so we went to the somerville home depot which did carry the lutron diva switches. we also bought some clips to hold on the bathroom mirror and a pair of sink fixtures, one for the kitchen (american standard), one for the bathroom (moen).

when we finally made it back to cambridge with the supplies, jeremy quickly popped in a baffle and a bulb and recessed light number one of ten was finished. he then went ahead and put in the rest. he also installed the undercounter light, creating a new light switch in the wall to turn the light on and off. while he did that my father and i installed the large 24"x36" bathroom vanity mirror. jeremy left at around 4pm again (to come back tomorrow morning), and i immediately went into the kitchen and flipped the light switches on and off, fading them in and out. some areas of the kitchen ceiling needs to be patched, but once everything is painted, it'll look really sweet.

i went back to belmont to get cleaned up before i came back to the house again, parking the car outside and walking over to the star market to get a bag of grapes and a box of popsicles for shannon's taco thursday. i then walked to her to apartment across the train tracks in somerville. when i got there, it was just shannon and sooz sitting outside. shannon fixed me a drink, i had to stop her before she poured any vodka into the blender. then for the rest of the day it was a mixture of chatting and eating (tacos! a lot of food, the hot sauce was particular potent, half of my lips were numb afterwards). sooz's boyfriend michael showed up, and i met a bunch of shannon's roommates and friends. when it got dark, we continued to sit outside, illuminated by a few candles that would periodically blow out in the wind. we seemed to be fixated on a few things: white assless chaps for me, misheard song lyrics ("hold me closer tony danza"), funny saturday night live episodes, funny kids in the hall episodes, funny onion articles (the dogs are barking at evil!), prague, the rules of taco thursday fight club, and the boston phrase "no sah!" when it got close to 10pm, sooz, michael and i all left.

i walked back to my place, passing a quartet of dolled up neighborhood girls getting ready to go out for the evening. college kids? urban professionals? who knows. it's just kind of weird bumping into people my age near where i live. where i grew up in belmont, most of my neighbors were senior citizens. i went into the house to play with the recessed lights some more, wanted to see what they looked like in the dark. with 10 lights for a maximum wattage of 500w (not including the new sink light, which probably adds another 50w at least), the kitchen felt like it was bathed in daylight. later, i drove back to belmont.