i got the bicycle ready and left for belmont sometime after noon. it was a relatively warm day (in the 50's) with the smell of chimney smoke wafting in the air. i kept an eye on the front tire, making sure the newly replaced rubber wasn't going flat on me because we accidently damaged the inner tube. i cut across the harvard observatory to get to concord avenue. the observatory sits on top of a hill which makes for some very strenuous biking. the day i can reach the top of that hill without being completely out of breath will be a personal milestone. from there i take huron avenue all the way into belmont.

when i got to my parents' place my mother was outside collecting the leaves into paper bags. i washed the dirt off of my bike, aftermath of my rainy day riding last wednesday. i'm trying to imagine riding in the wintertime and cleaning the bicycle with snow.

i watched the colts game versus the houston texans. it was easy to root against indianapolis, with their shared history against the new england patriots and their current goal of achieving a perfect undefeated season record. houston had indianapolis on the ropes, but a couple of questionable pass interference calls put the colts in a position where they came back from their point deficit and eventually won the game. i switched the channel when one of the colts defenders intercepted a texan pass and ran it for a touchdown.

i get this suspicious feeling that for one night at least, the colts fans will be rooting for the patriots to win tomorrow during monday night football against the also-undefeated new orleans saints, just so indianapolis will be the only team left with a perfect record. it would give me tremendous pleasure to see both the colts and the saints lose sometime soon though.

my sister came back home in the afternoon after taking hailey out for a walk in the woods (apparently there are still ticks this late in the season). my father came home in the early evening with some restaurant leftovers: an aluminum tray full of pan-fried shrimps and a plate of general tso's chicken. on top of that my mother stir-fried some bean sprouts with chinese chives and my sister made a turkey soup with barley.

the difference with bicycling back to cambridge versus riding the motorcycle is the more i pedal, the warmer i get. by the time i finally get back home, i can't wait to take off as much clothes as possible because i'm nearly sweating. i decided not to use the wheel lights. too much of a hassle to put on and off, and they started to blink out again. i've decided the best way to be conspicuous at nights is to put a bunch of retroreflective tape all over my bicycle.

roommates get points deducted when they turn the lights on in my living room but leave the shades up. living on the first floor, i'm naturally very wary of people on the street easily seeing inside the house. later in the evening jiang actually called his bank in china and managed to get the security fraud protection restriction turned off. we tried his credit card again: this time the telephoto lens went through (purchased through J&R) but the camera itself was still pending. if i don't receive a "transaction incomplete" e-mail by tomorrow morning, then our efforts will have been a success. i told my roommate he could borrow one of my spare cameras for his NYC trip next weekend if his camera still hasn't arrived by thursday night.