i was greeted with a surprise this morning when i went out into the backyard: a dead bird was lying on the wooden deck. it must've hit the french door and died from the impact. maybe it was looking at the houseplants inside and just didn't see the window. it must've happened a while ago because rigor mortis had already set in (amateur ornithological CSI). the bird was a hermit thrush (relate to the robin), a not very common critter in these here parts, more of a forest bird. it might've been migrating, heading down to the warmer southern states. unlike other migrating birds, they don't spend their winters in the tropics. the hermit thrush has an amazing song, this unnatural-sounding three-dimensional melody. to just simply toss it away seemed an undignified end to such a pretty bird, so i found a spot in my backyard and buried it instead.

the temperature today was at least 20 degrees lower than what it was yesterday. it wasn't too bad because it was still warm inside my house from the past few days of warm weather. after deciding on a few recipes (lasagna and mexican tortilla soup) and writing up a grocery list, i left for the supermarket. i went to rite aid first to stock on soaps. bought some more pears transparent soap (i like it's old-fashion charm), as well a different variety of dial glycerin soap (white tea & vitamin E). i also got a bar of grisi exfoliating seaweed soap (99¢ from mexico). i'm still trying to find a local source of castile soap.

cleber once again didn't return to finish the few small things still remaining on the house. the most important thing for me was to put back the light fixtures on the front and back of the house (if nothing else, for safety reasons). cleber told me the lights could be put back without having to turn off the electricity, but i still had my doubts. considering i took an introductory electrical engineering course in college, i'm surprisingly lacking in electrical savviness. still, it didn't look very difficult, and was worth to do myself instead of waiting for cleber to come back. i did the one in the backyard first. i figured if i did get shocked, at least i'd be spared the humiliation of having my neighbors witnessing the spectacle. i connected the black and white wires and the copper ground wire. i flicked on the light switch and was actually surprised to see the light turning on. the fixture in the front of the house was a bit more challenging because i didn't want to climb onto the porch bannister and scuff up the new paint. so it was a matter of balancing myself in my socks, but i finally managed to put in that light as well.

i went to the community garden again to snip some parsley for tonight's lasagna recipe. parsley is surprisingly cold hardy. while much of the garden plants have already succumbed to the cold weather, parsley seems to be unaffected, and if anything, seems to be still growing, as much of what i cut off a few weeks ago have all grown back already.

it wasn't until the late afternoon did i finally have time to play metroid 3. i faced rundas, one of the bosses, the metroid equivalent of iceman. it took me several hours before i finally managed to beat him. i took a break to start the lasagna meat sauce - a combination of ground beef and hot italian sausages. i made enough to eat for several days.