as planned, i woke up early this morning to go to the bank to work out my finances. fortunately i checked my account online one more time before i left. the numbers were all different from yesterday. the IRS had already deducted my taxes, but my work check had gone through as well, so the two things cancelled each other out. the good thing was i was no longer insufficient in funds. the dates on some of the transaction were wrong though, that's what got me so confused to begin with. say what you will about bank of america, but i had far less trouble with them than i do now with citizen's bank. they had more ATM locations, checks always cleared, transactions were dated correctly, and 24/7 phone support. bad things? their fees and the fact that they're an evil bank. 

one advantage of waking up so early is i feel like i've added an extra hour to my day. i keep on looking at the clock in disbelief at how much more time i have left in the day. i rode the motorcycle to the somerville home depot to look for cypress vine seeds. they had some in watertown (i was surprised), but they didn't have any in stock at somerville. the weather was overcast and looked like it might rain at any moment but all the forecast i've heard (including the biker who lives at the far end of the street) said no precipitation in the greater boston area until tonight and throughout the day tomorrow.

coming back, i made a pass at the community garden to water the plants. i added a dozen more morning glory seeds hoping at least a few will sprout. it didn't take long for whatever slug/snail/bug to have already eaten some holes in my basil leaves. i propped up some spreading raspberry stalks with some wooden poles. since the place was empty, i took advantage of the vacancy to take some more community garden photos. a couple of landscapers taking a break on the back of their pickup truck eyed me suspiciously.

flowers in bloom include columbines, clematis, and lupines. there seems to be a profusion of purple/blue flowers growing in the garden.

of course there were irises, which are also currently blooming.

existing in this bonus hour, i didn't know what to do with myself. after my little motorcycle field trip, i basically had nothing else to do. earlier in the week i thought about some naturing, but with the sky looking like it might rain, i decided not to risk it. i must've spoken too soon about not having anything to do because that's exactly when client E sent me an e-mail about some more edits. when i finally got in touch with him though, he managed to figure out what to do and didn't need my help anymore. 

so i finally decided to re-caulk the tub. i'd stripped out about half of the old caulk a few weeks ago, and got around to taking out the rest today using a combination of razor blade and awl. the awl is a weird tool and i'm not even sure what it's usually used for other than a very professional-looking prison shank. but for digging out old caulk, it's pretty good. i've been using acrylic latex caulk (dap kwik seal plus with microban, the kind that comes in squeezable toothpaste tubes) but wanted to try something else because even though it's mildew-resistant, i still get mildew in 4-6 months. i went with silicone, which from my research online seems to be very difficult to work with (but more durable), so i was a little bit worried. 

turns out silicone wasn't that bad. it's a bit more runnier than acrylic latex, but if i didn't know any better, i would've thought it was acrylic latex. i'd heard about the strong ammonia smell of silicone caulk but i didn't notice any usual odors. it does leave a bit of grease on my fingers, but nothing that won't wash off with some soap and water. i've actually worked with silicone before, using a sealant to patch a cracked aquarium. that was nasty and smelly, so i was expecting the same for silicone caulk, but overall, it was a pleasant experience. 

the secret is to have a lot of paper towels handy to wipe away any mess. when it was all done, i didn't even remember why i thought it'd be such a hard job. another good thing about silicone: fast curing! it should be ready in 3 hours, but just to make sure, i could forgo showering until tomorrow morning. i could always take an impromptu sink bath!

a little kielbasa english muffin sandwich with a fruit smoothie for lunch (or was that breakfast) then more pulled pork sandwiches for dinner. spending the rest of the night watching game 2 of the celtics magic game!¹

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¹ i was hoping the celtics would win game 2 but realistically i was expecting them to lose tonight. yeah, the magic were rusty game 1 because they haven't been playing in a while, but i expected them to adjust accordingly for game 2 and exert their will on the celtics. so imagine my surprise and absolute happiness now that the celtics are up 2-0! a tight game throughout, boston had the lead for much of the game, but i was afraid orlando would mount a run in the final minutes and steal away the victory. it wasn't just the fact that boston won these 2 games - it's that they won on the road, against a team many pundits expected to reach the finals. even in the regular season, celtics met the magic 4 times, but only managed to win once. i don't want to get ahead of myself, but i'm already looking at the west coast matchup. after dethroning king james, and now poised to upset last year's eastern conference champions (superman's weakness? green celtics kryptonite of course!), a west coast matchup (regardless if it's the lakers or the suns) seems easy by comparison. can't wait until saturday for game 3!