there was no painting this morning, but instead i was prepping some baseboards along a stairwell. i figured it'd be a quick day, but it ended up taking me 4 hours to finish. a lot of sanding using various paper of various grits, followed by vacuuming, wood filling, and blue taping. after i finished i stumbled home across the street, showered, and quickly ate a microwaved pot pie pocket while watching good day live. it's actually kind of fun working so early in the mornings, gives me the rest of the day to do other stuff. the only bad thing is i can't still up as late as i'd like to, but it forces me to have a healthy schedule, get a good night's worth of rest. the city of cambridge test fired some hydrants on my street, a large puddle of copper colored water filling my street. freaked me out a bit when i went to take a shower and was running my hand underneath the faucet, because i thought i had cut myself as the water came out red. i had a second scare when i flushed the toilet and found a red pool of water. being that today was monday, i went out for a run, stretching out a bit before i did so, still feeling the pain from friday's extracurricular activity with a sledgehammer. i felt pretty good running, thought it'd be cold but the temperature was just right. i felt strong but slowed to a walk briefly over the jfk bridge, not sure what it was, lost my stamina for a few minutes, before regaining it again and continuing my run. there was hardly anyone else out running, which is good, most people probably thought it was too cold for jogging. i felt good enough to even run back a little bit coming home, but not all the way. lilacs were in bloom everywhere, it was perhaps my most fragrant run ever. it was a surprisingly good spring day, despite the slight overcast and relatively chilly temperature (high 40's).

rob house showed up right when i got home. i knew he was coming to borrow elias' php/mysql book, but we also talked about unemployment benefits and how much to charge for freelance work. he also briefly aimed julie as me with the same questions. later, he vented on how much he hates os x (for which there are certain things i agreed with) then we got into a talk about motorcycles. andrew came home from a day of administering in boston just when rob was about to leave. andrew packed up his stuff for his weeklong business trip in vermont and left as well.

on the gardening front, i think there's something happening to my basil seeds. my father told me that when basils germinate, their black shells disappear and become these white translucent shells. that's a relief, because i had thought they were maggots. maybe in a few days they'll grow up to become tiny seedlings. the pepper seeds might be doing something as well but i can't confirm that, will need to give it a few more days.

my father came over later to help me rearrange the furnitures in my bedroom. i ended up not moving my queen sized bed but moved everything else instead: the dresser, the bookcase, and the makeshift desk. i had to take out all the books from my bookcase and temporarily put them in the kitchen. the new arrangement makes more efficient use of space, and i can maybe put an armoire into the bedroom now, since this bedroom has no closet to hang up any clothes. the room is set up in such a way now that from my desk, i can see the monitor, the television, the kitchen, the backyard, the bed, while at the same time being able to grab whatever book i need from the bookshelves. what i want now is one of those monitor switching devices, so with a simple press of a button i can switch between the mac or the pc while using the same monitor. that way my desk won't be cluttered with two monitors (i hardly use the pc anyway, mostly for testing, the more i can hide that machine, the better).

for dinner, i had a serving of rice noodles my father had brought, and when he left to go home, he took back the square parquet coffee table and the two expandable mattress chairs, a few things i didn't need anymore. i watched the celtics get swept by the nets in game 4 of the playoffs, which was disappointing, but i'm glad it's over, not a lot of people believed the celtics could beat the nets, finally the charade is over, antoine and paul can have a nice rest of the summer.