instead of the prettier looking but more expensive $200 apple airport hub, i decided to go with the uglier but cheaper $100 ($20 instant discount and another $30 after i send in the rebate) SMC networks 54MBps 802.11g wireless cable/dsl router from microcenter. 
originally i was going to get a $100 d-link wireless router, but it was for the older (slower) 802.11b standard, so the choice was simple. there was no choice of airport cards for my ibook though, i went with the standard $80 apple card (802.11b). the setup was painless, i plugged in the router, plugged in all the ethernet cables, plugged in the airport card into my ibook, set the ibook to the airport network, and viola! i was surfing the web without an ethernet cable, 
i felt like i was performing one of those magician levitating tricks, no strings attached. i even found myself moving my hands around the laptop, just to make sure there really weren't any cables. i then walked around all over my house with the ibook, checking to see if i was still connected, which i was, with very little signal lost, if any. that's amazing, because i didn't even really position the two rabbit ears antennae of the router in any special way, i just sort of crammed it into my network box. i even went down to the basement and was able to access the internet with no problems.
going wireless is totally one of those things where when you don't have it, you can never understand why people would want it, but once you get it, you don't understand how people can live without it. like the feeling when i got my cellphone, or when i learned how to make french bread pizza. if i knew it was this easy and this cheap, i would've done it a long time ago. wireless networks make physical ethernet cables obsolete. from this day on i am a huge proponent of wireless technology. and as a mac user, i will also recommend using non-apple wireless hubs. they're not as pretty as the airport hub, but if going to be sticking it in a closet somewhere, it doesn't have to be pretty. you also can't use the special airport admin tools, but once the network is setup and working, there's probably never any need to administer the network (and there are admin tools, they're just browser based). i'd recommend SMC, they actually make an effort to service mac users, despite the fact that the instructions in the installation guide was for OS 9 (not OS X, but i was able to figure it out easily).
i went to microcenter with my father this morning, where i got the wireless router and the airport card. i also got a $13 monitor toggle switch, the cheapest one they had there, no frills, looked like it was designed for 1970's computer technology, this big bulky box with a A/B knob. turns out i'm missing a crucial monitor-to-monitor cable, so i couldn't use it when i got it home. my father got a cd wallet and some blank cd's. we went back to belmont, where my father showed me this idea he had for my bedroom desk using an used steel shelf. later, i was in the backyard taking photos while he mowed the lawn.
 tomato |
 carpenter bee hole |
 giant allium |
 blue tulip center |
 mowed bamboo |
 father mowing lawn |
 dandelion & money plants |
the lawn was very lush from a wet winter and ample fertilizing. feeding the grass also meant feeding the weeds, 
as the yellow dandelions were growing quite nicely as well. the bamboos seem to be shedding their leaves (or could most of them be dead?), while at the same time vigorously sending out underground rhizomes, pointed bamboo shoots sticking out of the ground a radius of 5-6 feet from the original plant. i gathered up a pot of mint which grows like a weed in the belmont backyard, saving me the trouble of having to buy mint from the supermarket at nearly $3 for a box that i never end using entirely and always have to throw away because they've rotted.
back a home, after i set up the wireless ethernet, i went down to the basement and relit the pilot light in my gas furnace. it was 54 degrees inside my house, felt like a fridge. 
i was hoping that maybe open a few windows will let in the warmer outside air, but the winds just made it worse. finally i had no choice but to fire heat the old forced air gas furnace, warming the house back up to a warm 65 degrees. my days of suffering are over! now, saturday night, i'm looking at the temperature and it's 34 degrees outside. there's no way i could've survived another night without heat. i hear next week temperatures will be back up in the 70's, but i've been tricked by the weather so many times now, i'm tempted to just leave the heat on for the rest of the year, who knows when it'll get to near freezing temperatures again. why i ever experience natural warmth again? spring, where have you gone?
5 hours after i woke up this morning, i finally got something to eat in the form of two hot dogs served in slices of french bread (i ran out of hot dog buns). while cutting the bread, i deftly sliced off half a centimeter of flesh on my right thumb. for the first 30 seconds it didn't look so bad, i could see the flap of skin on the knife but my thumb didn't hurt and it wasn't bleeding. after that initial grace period though, blood started to seep into the wound. one of these days, i'm going to learn how to cut right! and by right i mean, i don't slice myself!
my basils are doing well, they're starting to sprout for real, little green leaves poking out of the cups of dirt. peppers, i see a few seeds, but i still can't be sure if they're the start of some seedling action, and i'm still waiting to see signs of cilantro life. how long as it been since i first planted these seeds? 9 days ago? i guess that's about right. and hopefully by next week the weather will warm up so i can put the seedlings outside, i have a feeling that the warmer weather will be good for them, helps them grow.
around dinner time, maura was over with andrew enjoying some pizza in the living room. when andrew went to drive her back to school, that's when my homemade french bread pizza was ready from the oven and i ate while watching the kings-mavericks game, the mavericks ended up winning the series. the rest of the night i spend craddling my ibook on the couch, researching warchalking and thinking about discovering some free wireless internet access around my neighborhood.