despite the cold wet weather, shannon talked me into going with her to trader joe's in cambridge. i didn't realize that's where we were going, as we took a round-about way to get there (which in the end was for the best, as memorial drive was clogged with traffic for some reason). the whole time, her magnetic fields' cd was playing on heavy rotation. though i didn't care much for the music, the one love song about pantone color was catchy enough that i might want to get a copy of it. trader joe's was crowded, which made me remember why i don't grocery shop on the weekends. for my money, i still prefer the mass consumerism of a star market any day. i bought some rice crackers and some instant meals in a box.

next stop was the somerville public library, a place that i've never visited before. it's been a while since i've set foot in a library, and a new library at that, the feeling of being surrounded by all those books was intoxicating. the somerville library has some very inspiring interior architecture. unfortunately, it's a wee bit far for my taste. my favorite library is still the public library in my hometown of belmont, and i've been meaning to pay a visit to the cambridge library, which i haven't set foot in for over 7 years now.

next, we went to pemberton farm on mass avenue between porter square and arlington. i've never been there before, it's kind of like half mahoney's, half bread & circus. for some reason the store inside had the unmistakeable smell of strong gardening pesticide, the kind that feels like it's burning away the inside lining of my nasal passages. nevertheless, it's a quaint little place, i won't mind returning, if nothing else, then at least to get those tiny jars of maple syrup shaped like human torsos. we swung by davis square where shannon dropped off a bag of donations to the salvation army (i hope they weren't 80's clothes) before taking me home.

the rest of the day was spent cleaning out the guest bedroom, data entering past weblog content into the database (if i work fast, i can input a month's worth of content in 30 minutes), then my family came over for dinner, and after they left, andrew and his girlfriend maura moved in a few boxes of his stuff, before they left as well. my days of single living are numbered! i finished off the rest of the night watching some nba playoff games.