taiwanese salt-flavored toothpaste

with a rainstorm approaching, i went to watertown this morning to return some metal screws and get some new ones (for the motorcycle backrest). later i visited the belmont public library to ask about their museum pass program. leaving the parking lot, i saw an old lady standing next to my motorcycle. i thought she was looking at my bike but turns out she was looking at some flowers growing nearby. "i've never seen colors like that before," she told me. "really? what kind of flowers are those? coneflowers?" i asked her, speaking the language of gardening, a language common amongst senior citizens. "i don't know what kind of flowers they are, but those things are seeds. i'm going to come back and collect them at the end of the season." by then her husband joined us, curious to know what we were talking about. when he saw i was getting ready to go on the bike, he asked me, "is that your motorcycle?" "yeah it is. i get mileage on it, 70 miles per gallon," i told them. "wow!" they both exclaimed. "it was very nice talking to you," the woman told me with a smile, as she patted me on my shoulder before the two of them walked slowly into the library. i filled up the bike at the mobile gas station across the street before coming back to cambridge.

i emptied out the barbecue grill, removing all the burnt brickets and ash before rinsing everything out with the hose. i watered the plants, took time to admire some of the shade-tolerant perennial flowers growing in the backyard, and picked up a few twigs.

for lunch i ate a leftover burrito from last night and spent the rest of the day in my home office. jawei came home before the storm, before all that rain and strong winds. i had to move the motorcycle because water had backed up on my street again and debris was getting caught in the spokes of the wheels. feeling tired, jawei went to his bedroom to take a nap, while i got dressed and headed out to boston to meet joel in front of the boston common theatre. i was there for a free domino screening, and left my digital camera at home since they're forbidden at these sneak previews. the movie wasn't until 8pm so we got some dinner at the noodle alcove. just our luck, the noodle chef was absent tonight so we couldn't get any hand-drawn noodle action. instead we both went with separate plates of pan-fried noodles. it was okay but it wasn't the house specialty (pan-fried noodles you can get at any chinese restaurant). afterwards we went to cvs to get some theatre contrabands.

we waited for sara at the movie theatre. we should've realized something wasn't right when we didn't see the large line of people waiting to get into the sneak preview. turns out the screening was actually at the fenway 13 theatre on the other side of town. so we hopped onto the green line and made our way to fenway. since it was early, we got there with still some time to spare. sara met us and brought us inside.

domino is the based-on-the-true-life story of domino harvey, fashion model turned bounty hunter. the film is very stylized, shot in this over-saturated palette with creative edits, and the pacing is fast. although a lot of attention is paid to the fact that she's a bounty hunter, there aren't too many scenes of bounty hunting, and the whole second half of the movie becomes a complicated crime caper. keira knightley plays a captivating domino and reprises her role as the tough chick bend it like beckham, king arthur, even pirates of the caribbean). mickey rourke plays the seasoned bounty hunter sensei who takes domino under his tattooed wings - could he be making a hollywood comeback? when i saw lucy liu i almost wanted to leave - she is my least favorite actress, there are a million prettier asian actresses in the business yet she continues to get work. mena suvari's part in the movie seems wasted - i would've like to see more of her or none at all. and christopher walken? he's good in whatever he does. overall, an entertaining and original movie, the ending's kind of weird, but keira does go topless at one point, so it worth staying to the end. and that whole bit about being blacktino and chinegro is pretty funny.

sara and joel gave me a ride back to my place. we listened to the red sox game the entire way, the 9th inning. approaching commonwealth avenue we realized the game was tied. once we got to porter square, ortiz hits the ball scoring johnny damon for the win. i was so happy i wanted to roll down the window and shout the good news to pedestrians.