the day after easter finds me at rite aid stocking up on discounted easter candy, particularly cadbury chocolate eggs. i had a sudden flashback of the few times i was in the watertown mall last week. they'd set up a platform where children could get their photos taken with somebody dressed in a plush bunny outfit. i think i found it so creepy that i must've blocked it out of my memory until now. the cashier was a nice russian woman, not the usual cranky old man who always seems to be on the edge of telling me to get off his lawn.

with on-going construction on prentiss street, i made my way to belmont via wendell instead. as promised, i took the motorcycle. the one thing i always did on a bicycle that i can't on a motorcycle is to ignore traffic signs. running red lights, going down the wrong way on a one way street, or even riding on the sidewalk. but when i want to travel fast, the motorcycle trumps the bicycle.

the yard work continues. besides dinner and watching television, working in the garden is the only other thing my family and i do together. there was raking (of the dead grass and leaves), clipping (of pruned branches and vines), bundling (of said branches/vines), and weeding (mostly dandelions and garlic mustard; i've already eradicated the celandine population from the past 2 days). the weather wasn't as warm as yesterday, but still pleasant enough, as the sky went intermittently from overcast to partly sunny.

by day's end a mountain of garden refuse lined the curb awaiting pickup tomorrow morning. i helped my father cut some wood to make a mailbox post. the lumber was too thick for his ryobi circular saw so we had to do 4 cuts on each side and then just break off the desired piece, sanding down any leftover bumps. i'm in the market for either a miter box (cheap) or a dedicated miter saw (expensive). i'd like to build a picnic table for the upcoming summer. carpentry might be next hobby.

my sister made dinner, some kind of pasta that looked like wonton skins along with some sausages. we also heated up a strip of ribs in the oven. i had two servings of pasta due to the fact that i didn't eat anything the whole day.

i was dismayed to discover that my favorite parking spot was taken when i returned to my place. instead i found a space between two cars directly in front of my house. living in cambridge, where parking lots and driveways are at a premium, curbside parking is the norm. it's better not to have favorite spots, since they can't be guaranteed to be there when you come back. it's nothing personal, just the law of the street.