headed down to chinatown today to have lunch with james. i got there a few minutes late, found a parking spot right across the street from the chinatown gate. i immediately noticed his new glasses since the last time i saw him back in june. for a lack of any better places to eat, we went back to pho hoa, the old vietnamese standby, despite recently discovering that it's actually a national franchise and not an independently-owned vietnamese shop. we managed to get the exact same table we got back in june. i went with a small bowl of pho this time around. we talked about sports, including the incredible red sox comeback late last night and the patriots' asterisked brady-free season. james talked about his job, how he's doing more management stuff these days.

after lunch i made my way to beacon hill to find a parking spot for my motorcycle so i could go to mass general hospital to get my final foot x-ray. i was supposed to do it a few weeks ago (come in anytime appointment) but never got around to it. beacon hill is a pain to find parking because it's all resident permit parking only, and they will ticket even for a motorcycle ($60, learned that the hard way). however, there are a few hidden 2-hours visitor parking areas, and i stashed my bike in one of those, wedged in between two cars.

to be honest, i didn't work all that much this week. it wasn't that i didn't have work to do (there were stuff from all three of my clients), i just wasn't very motivated. i work a few hours everyday and then spend the rest of the day doing my own thing. today was no exception, it's all probably going to come back and haunt me next week though. this is the nature of the procastinator!

i was in my bedroom watching television and surfing the web when my roommate came home earlier than usual (6:30). he took a shower (also unusual) and quickly ate some leftovers before biking to his friend's apartment near kendall square. feeling hungry myself, i prepared to make some macaroni and cheese. while rummaging through my pans, i took out my relatively-new red italian frying pan, the pride of my collection, the one i got to replace my previous pan that was mutilated by last china roommate when he decided to clean the pan by scraping it with a fork.

i'm so in love with this red frying pan that i almost never use it, saving it for special occasions, and treating it with the greatest care. one reason is it took me forever to find it in the first place, a pan that will actually fit a 9" glass top (most american frying pans are 8" or 10"). so imagine what i felt when i picked up the pan and saw it was completely scratched up. not only scratches, but deep gouge marks, like somebody stabbed it repeatedly with the tip of a knife. this was murder!

china roommates take note: it's one thing to piss all over the bathroom floor. or only take a shower once a week and fill my house with the smell of armpits. or to invite your girlfriend/wife to come and live with us for a month. BUT YOU DO NOT MESS WITH A MAN'S FRYING PANS! i was livid. i was so angry that if my roommate was home at the time i would've probably told him to move out of my place, effectively immediately.

i think i just snapped. i got dressed and sped off angrily on my motorcycle to the one place that might possibly fix this problem: the tj maxx at the fresh pond mall. that's where i originally found the red frying pan (at the somerville store though). in my mind i was hoping for a miracle, that maybe another red frying pan might exist. i made a beeline to their kitchenware department. to my surprise and happiness they carried a few 9" frying pans from the same italian manufacturer. they didn't have any red ones but i did find one with a yellow metal handle and a flower psychedelic wave pattern. usually my arm as a ruler (before i left the house i marked a 9" length on my forearm) i made sure the pan was the correct size.

instead of going back home, i went to my parents' place, along with my newly prized frying pan (my precious). the only person that was home was my mother, along with hailey, who was recuperating from her spay surgery (she just came back from the hospital today). she seemed to be still recovering from the effects of the drugs the vets gave her. her lower belly was completely shaven along with a patch of fur on one of her forelegs where they injected the IV. she seemed a little out of it, but did jump on me when i entered the kitchen. she spent most of the time sleeping, although i did walk her around the block. my mother fried some chinese raviolis for dinner. i left when my father came back home, leaving the frying pan at my parents' for safe keeping.

the temperature was probably in the upper 40's but i felt warm enough with my riding jacket. as long as i'm dressed for the occasion, i can probably extend the riding season until the first snowfall, hopefully late december (although in years past i usually put the bike away the last week of november). coming back to cambridge along huron avenue, i saw a slow moving animal crossing the street, our mutual trajectories on a collision course unless i swerved out of the way. once i got close enough i could see what it was: an ugly opossum! no wonder those things end up roadkill all the time, they never look where they're going and they walk slow. i can only imagine what the car behind me was thinking as they watched me dodge a mystery animal crossing the road.