in hindsight, maybe i should've stayed down in mattapoisett for another day, today's weather was just as awesome as yesterday's. i could still smell the ocean from all that beach sand still in my shoes, which left me yearning for the sea again. i had a few pimples on my face from all that oily fried clams i had yesterday.

i headed towards downtown crossing during lunch, cutting across boston common for beacon hill to get some photos. people were crowding the park, on benches, on the grass, just enjoying the weather.

on byron street stands a building with an interesting statuary. i saw it for the first time during one of our office runs. it appears to be a chinese man, his hands raised as if delivering a sarcastic clap, high overhead between two large second story windows. i think maybe the building used to be a trading company store front, and the figurine is just a legacy item from that time. it's kind of interesting though, maybe it's like the chinese version of garden gnomes.

i mentioned this before, and today took the opportunity to get some sample images, but a lot of buildings within beacon hill have metal boot scrapers affixed to their front steps. they come in all shapes and sizes, and it's just one of those things that you might not notice, but i live for noticing things like that. people say cars pollute the air, but what was it like a hundred years ago, with horses instead of cars, and instead of just bad smelling air, you had bad smelling air on top of streets filled with horse manure?

coming back from my photo expedition, i got the spicy chicken from wendy's again. all those food nazis have made me feel guilty everytime i go to a fast food joint. how can something that tastes so good be bad for you? i miss the good old days when i could take pride in my hamburger and french fries. don't even get me started about the social stigma associated with biggie sizing my meal.

after i left the office to go home, i went to mei tung to get some groceries for my parents. the cashier woman, whom i've seen before, was much nicer to me, and she actually seemed to recognize me because she spoke to me in mandarin instead of english (they speak to you in english when they just assume you're not capable of speaking chinese, it's not a good thing when they do that). my parents came by as soon as i got home to cambridge, bringing with them dinner ingredients in the form of fish which they fried, potatoes which they baked, and salad greens which they mixed. my leftover fried clams were a big hit, and my father finished them off since they're one of his favorite things to eat. it'd been a while since my mother had been at my place, and she rummaged through my fridge with disgust over the amount of food gone bad, tossing them into the trash barrel. after dinner my parents left, taking with them the collapsible white table for my godmother who needs a table for her place.

i finished off the evening watching the red sox finally clinch the playoff wild card spot. the magic number is 11!