this morning i called nstar and signed up for the home heating protection plan, which for $120 a year insures me for any replacement parts and repair work that might have to be done on my gas heater. after i explained my situation, the first woman i talked to said there wouldn't be any problems fixing it. however, when i went to go give them my credit card information, this other woman said they might not repair my heater under the plan because it's a preexisting condition. how would they know anyway? for some reason i have to wait 5 business days before the plan becomes activated, so i won't be able to get my heater fixed until sometime next week. however, nstar does same day service, so it should be a quick job once i make the call.

james and jaime were coming into cambridge from southern massachusetts for the day to look for halloween costumes at the garment district. i was to meet them there around 11am, then we'd go have lunch. halloween is the only holiday where a woman can dress up in something slutty, something that's pretty much fetish wear, and it's okay. i'm all for halloween. jaime would be going as jem this year and was looking for the perfect purple glitter gown and matching shoes.

they followed behind my motorcycle as i rode back home, parking their car nearby. i gave them the quick tour of my place, then we walked to sugar & spice in porter square for lunch. we got the circular corner booth by the window, the best seat in the house. their lunch menu is not as adventurous as their dinner menu (although much cheaper). we all had soup and i went with some curry thai noodle dish that was okay but nothing like the stuff i had there for dinner. later, we walked to sweet tea cafe where we all got bubble ice tea. the tapioca balls were too soft this time (at least i thought they were), compared to the too hard that it usually is here. we returned to the house, where after they used the bathroom, they headed back home.

temperature was 55 degrees and i went running. the sun actually came out and it got warm enough that i took off my t-shirt. i pushed myself because i thought there was somebody trailing me the whole way, but when i finally went to take a look behind me, there was nobody, so i turned on the gas for nothing. walking home, i saw a woman taking photos of a beautiful autumn-colored maple tree. when i asked her if she knew what kind of tree it was (be it red or sugar maple), she told me no. do you do this after you go running? when i came back home i weighed myself, to see if i had lost any weight (no change). looking at my body in the mirror, i've decided i have to work on my love handles. they're not too bad, but i think with a simple regimen of daily situps, i can get those nice v-creases. i jumped in the shower and washed off, confident in the knowledge that i've nipped any potential fat problem in the bud.

julie, who usually comes over on tuesdays, wasn't feeling well, so she cancelled. i went over to dan's place instead (just across the train tracks), where we watched the game while eating wings. during the commercial breaks we'd switch to animal planet, to watch austin "snakemaster" stevens get viper moneyshots by milking these poisonous serpents of their deadly venom.

game 3 of the world series took place in st.louis. we've been hearing about how great the cardinal fans are, and how much better their team plays at home, but we saw none of that tonight. the red sox nearly silenced the cardinals as well as the fans. it felt like i was watching a yankees-red sox game, except the red sox were playing like the yankees, and the cardinals were playing like the old red sox. it seemed like the red sox were getting all the breaks, getting the early runs, making hits consistently on 2 outs, while everything the cardinals seemed to be doing just wasn't quite enough. even the cardinal fans looked like old red sox fans, the look of anguish on their faces as they realize their home team wouldn't get a W tonight. a lot had been made about david ortiz, the designated hitter, playing first base (because of NL rules), but ortiz, combined with manny ramirez (also not known for his field work), made the two best defensive plays tonight: ramirez making a throw to homeplate to get out a man coming in to score, while ortiz threw to third to get out jeff suppan. pedro martinez pitched like vintage pedro. the deeper he went into the game, the better he threw, until towards the end where he was mercilessly fanning out batters. even his at-bats seemed to improve: the first at-bat he just stood his ground, second at-bat he at least swung at the ball, while the third at-bat he worked the count for a walk (bear in mind that pedro used to play for the expos, an NL team). when pedro came out of the game at the bottom of the 7th inning, the score was 4-0, which wasn't a large lead, but the cardinals never exploded offensively in the final 2 innings, although they did manage to get a homerun to put the final score at 4-1. game 4 is tomorrow, and the red sox have an opportunity to not only sweep the cardinals, but also to win the world series, the first time since 1918. just so happens tomorrow night there will also be a lunar eclipse, an auspicious celestial sign, as a reddish hued moon hangs high in the night sky in hopefully a red sox victory.

dan gave me a ride back to my place, worried that i'd have to cut through the shady underground tunnel passage if i were to walk home.