all the plants and bugs in the backyard don't know it yet but soon they're all going to die. we are in the autumn season and autumn is all about dying for them. yet for a brief moment today it still felt like summer, the weather was nice, nature went about its business. i did notice the wasp nest that was built between two window frames seem to be devoid of activities. in the past, during the summer, there would be a lot of wasp traffic but now there's just nothing. hopefully in the coming days i can't take it down (making sure there's nothing inside) and study it. the metallic green bees seem to love the morning glory flowers. these bees are just the right size to fit inside of these ephemeral flowers. this season was my best season studying these insects up close. they're normally not very stationary, but they will land on morning glory flowers and crawl inside to take some rest.

for errands i got two more rolls of blue tape from home depot and went to star market to pick up $20 worth of groceries including some more cereal (corn pops).

today i was taping, first the living room then the master bedroom. you'd think it'd be very effortless but for some reason i had a really hard time doing it. maybe it was because i realized how much of it i had to do and was just sort of discouraged. even after i taped, there's still a little bit of clean up work, making sure the trims are free of blemishes, before i an start priming and painting again. oh, and there's still the question of the kitchen. i'm having a hard time closing this project, but i'm afraid if i don't close it soon, it will be the 4th month that i've bought the house and yet to move in. i keep on picturing this hill i'm trying to climb, and i'm almost there, but the final leg of the journey seems to be the toughest. plus, i've been working on the house nonstop for countless number of days now, maybe i was just burned out from home renovation, maybe i just need a day or two to rest, to reenergize. i pulled out the mattress chair and in between tapings i'd lie down to either read the latest issue of newsweek magazine (the one about genetically modified foods) or browse one of my cook books, figuring out what i want to make (raisin nuts pilaf, hmmm...). my ibook was diligently playing out some diana krall and some old lone justice through a set of amplified speakers. although the weather was nice, it was also blustery and enough cold wind would blow into the house that i had to put on some more clothes and then later close all the windows. the house felt cozy after that, especially after i started doing some laundry, finally washed my dirty pair of painting jeans (not much improvement, they'll be forever stained with paint).

with taping over, i felt hungry and decided to cook the package of sausages i had defrosting in the refrigerator. after carefully reading the instructions, i threw half a dozen links onto a frying pan and fired up the gas stove. historical moment: this was my very first time using the stove to cook anything at my new house. it was taking some time to cook so i cranked up the flames to high, which started to get them sizzling a little bit, a lot of smoke billowing up from the sausages. when they were golden brown i turned off the range but not before smelling an awful stink which smelled like burnt platic. sure enough, like the amateur that i am, i had melted a little bit of the plastic handle of the pan, and it stank up the kitchen. i had the fan running, i was burning candles, i was using the deodorizing spray, anything to cleanse the house of that awful stench. i figured it was bound to happen sooner or later, i'm not use to gas cooking having grown up with an electronic stove, and better to make that mistake now, so i will learn to never repeat it in the future. by the way, non-stick is non-stick, that teflon coated pan is like magic, water beads on its surface like droplets of mercury.

john miller arrive at my place after 7pm. i had cleaned up a little bit to make the house look presentable, screwed back a few light switch plates, even replaced the bulb on the front porch light with a smaller 25w bulb (previously it was a blinding 100w bulb which i never turned on because i didn't want my place to become a lighthouse). it was weird, because he just walked right into the house. i realize now that my foyer area, with the addition of the coat closet, looks like the split entrance foyer area of a 2 unit condo, so people naturally come in not realizing that they're already inside my house. as soon as he came in he was walking around the place, forgoing the formality of a guided tour. he was raving about the condo and saying how much he wanted a house now or how he could never go back to his current apartment. he even offered a few suggestions on how i can further improve the place.

what most people don't understand though is i've been at this home renovation thing with over 3 months now, and after all this painting is done, it's going to be a very long time before i do anymore renovating, so renovation ideas are appreciated, but it's already too late, i'm all renovated out. i offered john my last bottle of sam adams summer ale (purchased by claudio when he stayed over at my place last month). we were waiting for a phone call from dan (which never happened), but joel called up and then came over (his first visit since the painting), and the three of us walked down to boca grande to get some food after watching a special sexy episode of nbc's spy tv. we came back to the house and lounged around watching some more television (trading places on the learning channel), before joel had to leave. john briefly fell asleep (watching tv lying down has that effect on people, especially after a meal) but then woke up. he left to go to his brother's place to spend the night (my place was in enough of a state of renovation that made it unfit for staying over), i left to go back to my other house.