my father went with me to greater boston motorsports in arlington so i could get my motorcycle fixed for the second time. although they bent back the rear break pedal, it's still tilted at an awkward angle. the mechanic said they might have to replace the whole rear brake pedal bar if that's the case. also the $90 steering column adjustment they performed back in june still left the handlebars at a crooked angle. "would i have to pay to get it readjusted?" i asked the mechanic. "well, if you brought it back after you got it fixed, maybe, but you waited 2 months..." he said. "i broke my foot, i was in a cast for 2 months, only last week did i start riding again," i told him. he said he'll see what he can do, and would call me with an estimate before they do any work. i hope this new work isn't going to cost me too much; most of it is their fault, since they didn't adjust and re-align all the parts when they fixed it the first time. but they're the closest honda motorcycle repair shop in the area; if they don't fix, i'm not sure who else could.

so just like that, with about a week's worth of riding, i'm back to being transportionless again. it's not too bad, i'm busy for the next few weeks anyway, so even if the perfect day arrived for me to do some naturing, i probably still couldn't go. this way my still-recovering foot has even more time to heal itself back to normal.

without my motorcycle, it's back to piggybacking rides to the supermarket with my parents. i went with my father to market basket, where i picked up some groceries. back at home, i made a goat cheese spinach omelette with a dash of bacon and fresh ground pepper. i'm a big fan of goat cheese because it tastes like goat, makes me feel i'm at a farm. the omelette was so good, i wanted to have another one after i finished it. my lunch was actually inspired by bruce, who would always tell me about the dinner omelettes he'd make for jack (i personally think omelettes are breakfast/brunch only).

went to the garden to do some watering (also to mail a letter along the way). the cosmos are days away from blooming, i want to be there when it happens. i noticed i'm not producing as many tomatoes as last summer. i think one of the reasons is because my tomato plants haven't been swallowed up by the morning glory vines. they provide a service because the interweaving tendrils prevent the tomato plants from collapsing, but there are more morning glory leaves than there are tomato leaves now. i may go into the garden tomorrow with a pair of scissors and do some pruning.

leaving the garden, i noticed a bunch of butterflies visiting the flowers. monarchs are common, but every once in a while i see a tiger swallowtail, like today. less common are american ladies, and i managed to spot a first: a silver-spotted skipper. i shot them with a combination of telephoto and macro lenses (the ones with the black background are probably macro shots).

back at the house, it was more coding work. client B got in touch with me about a 3:30 conference call. when the time arrived, they postponed it for an hour later. i went over to my neighbor renee to fix her computer. problem this time: her DSL modem just needed to be reset for her to get back online. she said she was thinking about getting a new computer (hers is more than 5 years old running windows 2000), possibly a mac. i hope so too, she won't be knocking on my door for anymore computer help! 4:30 came the conference call, lasted for about an hour. i got that post-conference call boost of confidence, but soon afterwards came crashing down when the reality of the workload set in. i love meetings but sometimes i wish i was the guy coming up with the ideas and some other poor programmers/designers could do the work! sort of like - don draper!

for dinner, i fried up a plantain. i then spent the next 2 hours blowing a fan out my kitchen, trying to clear up that canola oil smell. a few weeks ago i bought a bag of plantains at costco, and i still haven't finished them yet. they're starting to go bad, so i'm forcing myself to a plantain diet. a bit of plantain is okay, but too much can be gross. they're not really like bananas, mushier (maybe because they're over-ripened) and a bit sour on top of the sweetness. unfortunately i still have 3 more to go.