i woke up this morning to go grocery shopping. one thing i know about italian mothers is that renata wouldn't be leaving her parents' place in rhode island without being fed first, but i was prepared to make brunch in any case. i had time to inspect my vegetables in the backyard. i gave every pot a good watering and pruned the jasmine bush. the jasmine bush, which a few weeks ago seemed to be very unhealthy if not dying, seemed to be better now, so much so that small jasmine flowerbuds are starting to show up now, a good sign. the zinnias look good too, i'm just worried that i might've planted them too close together, but i brought them out of the makeshift greenhouse to get some better sun coverage (taking a gamble that hateful squirrels won't dig out the seedlings like last time). when renata finally arrived close to noon, i made food. she opted out of my scrambled eggs with bits of chopped scallions, but instead had a smoothie and some kielbasa sausages. renata asked me about the bonsai she had given me for my birthday a few months ago, and i regretfully informed her that it was murdered by squirrels. after we ate, i brought out renata's surprise: a small carvel ice cream cake topped with 3 candles to celebrate her 30th birthday tomorrow. i also presented the birthday card i was making for her all of last night.

by the time we made it to harvard square to check out the dragon boat festival along the charles river, it was already close to 2pm. the place was mobbed with people, the nice weather might've had something to do with it (i heard last year it was raining pretty hard). we first found a spot on a bridge, a dangerous location with a piece of missing barrier that afforded us a good view of the river below. later we switched to a spot along the river bank, beneath the shade of linden trees, in the company of a team of resting dragon boat rowers from montreal. watching the dragon boats was secondary: renata couldn't get enough of people watching, with all the walkers, joggers, bikers, and strollers. having seen dragon boat races before, i was a little jaded, but renata seemed to be very excited by the event. renata also seemed to be very concerned with any bad photos i took of her, and decided to erase those she found unsatisfactory; i finally had to wrestle back the camera before all my photos were lost.

walking back to the housee (with damp asses, since we sat in the grass), renata kept on putting on and taking off her sweater, having a difficult time thermoregulating her body temperature on this perfect weather day. she gave me a ride back to belmont when she went home. for dinner, i had some barbecued ribs and chicken wings in the backyard with my parents. as soon as i finished, i got a ride back to cambridge, where i caught the red sox game (victory over the dodgers) and game 4 of the NBA finals, between the pistons and the lakers. i haven't really been paying any attention to basketball all this season (frankly, i'm still disgusted with what ainge did to the celtics, and i think the new ABC broadcast is a poor man's version of NBC's), but it didn't take long for me to get sucked back into it. of course i'm rooting for the pistons, the lakers are the evil empire of basketball (with kobe, shaq, peyton, and malone, just too powerful), and i'm happy that detriot leads the serious 3-1 now.