i love pretzel crisps. my godmother first introduced them to me, said she got them from trader joe's. i thought they were okay, nothing spectacular. then my parents bought a bag, and whenever i returned to belmont, i couldn't stop eating them. when i went to costco with my father last week, i picked up my own supply, and in just a few short days i finished it all and now i want more. they're kind of like pretzels, except they're flat and crunchy, like a potato chip - but without the greasy fingers.

a potential client contacted me today about a possible programming job. it was somebody i met at the developers' meeting in boston 3 weeks ago. although nothing definite yet (and the project itself is just a small application build), any work would be good news to alleviate my current cash crisis. so selling blood to pay the mortgage will hopefully not have to be one of my options. still no word from client S regarding the code fixes. i figured if they're not calling me, no need for me to call them. without tomorrow's weather forecasted to be nice however, i hope they can understand if i won't be at home working. a man has to have his priorities and mine tells me to go outside and get an eyeful of early spring nature.

watched the red sox home opener this afternoon. first i heard it though, as the jet fighters soared overhead on their way to fenway park. as cool as i think fighter jets are, seeing them flying above the city makes me nervous. they're essentially designed to kill things; what they have to do with sports i don't know. the game was particularly long because of the opening ring ceremony (felt bad for the detroit tiger players waiting for the game to start in their dugout). bill buckner came out to throw the first pitch. the bill buckner. in that one moment, the demons of 1986 was forever exorcised. watching him slowly take to the mound, i felt bad for the guy, needlessly labeled a sports pariah by the fans, living the role of the scapegoat for more than 2 decades. other highlights of the game: a red-tailed hawk flying into the stadium clutching a dead rat, and steve tyler of aerosmith uncharacteristically singing "god bless america" without any electric guitar accompaniment.

i had a meeting of the community garden association in the early evening. it's probably the only time i'll meet most of the gardeners for the rest of the year, since people have different schedules and not everyone is down in the garden at the same time. even then, only a third of the people actually showed up. about a half a dozen more were wait-listers hoping for a coveted open spot. the two big news that directly affected me was 1) a new wooden fence to replace the preexisting chain link fence; i sort of liked the chain link, gave my climbing plants something to hold on to, but the people who live right next door wanted to get rid of the wire fence for aesthetic reasons; and 2) they finally decided to chop down that massive mulberry tree. i was the only person to object to the decision last year. it only affects a few people, me being one of them since my garden is right beneath the tree. it wasn't like the tree was shading the garden; people just didn't like it because for a few weeks in late spring it drops mulberries all over the place. once again, this probably only affected a handful of the gardens (half a dozen at the most). so for that reason it's going to get chopped down and all the animals that depended on the mulberries for food will have to go elsewhere. in my heart i believe this is the wrong decision but i'm the sole dissenting voice.

the giant hot thai peppers that sprouted yesterday? turns out they're actually tomatillo seedlings. i know this because i planted 3 tomatillo seeds (per container) but only 2 pepper seeds (per container). i couldn't tell yesterday, but today i could definitely see that some cups had 3 seedlings. i'll probably have to thin them out in a few days, a task i dislike performing, but necessary if i want the remaining plants to be healthy. at the meeting i heard there was a plant swap next month. i might decide to go since i think i'll have more plants than i know what to do with and it'd be nice to get some new stuff.

i started moving my funds around in preparation for paying my taxes. i essentially liquidated a money market account so i'll have money in the bank to pay off the IRS. there's no reason to not pay now and get it over, since it's just delaying the inevitable. i still have to go through my returns and look for any missed deductibles. i was actually surprised to find more money in my liquidated account than i'd previously thought. looks like i'll going to survive another tax season after all.