it's been more than 3 weeks since my last visit to the community garden. i was so disgusted with the conditions on my last trip that i'd been mulling over the idea of giving up the plot entirely. i almost didn't recognize my garden today, having been entirely swallowed up by weeds (crabgrass mostly) and covered with rotten mulberries. i pulled up as much weed as i could before watering the vegetables - what was left anyway after the onslaught of falling berries. looks like i will have some tomatoes and that's it.

maybe next year i will devote my community garden plot to underground crops, things like sweet potatoes and garlic. basically anything above ground will be pummeled in the month-long cascade of mulberries.

in the afternoon i went to rite aid to get some chocolate, followed by market basket for some groceries. i ran into my mother's friend nancy, who's been trying to get me a full-time job as a city employee. i told her i was underqualified for the positions but she told me to bullshit my way through the hiring process.

i took a detour coming back and visited royal shawarma & pizza at 66 summer street in somerville. i found out about it from a menu i got in the mail. there are actually no signs and the place itself is located inside a convenience store (S&S market) situated in a remote corner of a mostly residential neighborhood. fixing for something healthy, i decided to get the lamb shawarma lunch plate ($8.50). i'm guessing the owners were pakistani because the menu mentioned the food was halal. the place didn't seem to have air conditioning and i sweated profusely while waiting for my order. most of the customers were there to buy scratch and lottery tickets.

back at home, the lamb shawarma lunch looked too good to eat. i wisely opted for rice instead of french fries. the lamb was a little tough; i wonder if they'd prepared it ahead of time, since i didn't see any meats on the gyro spinners in the store. nevertheless, it was a pretty good meal, and nice to have a nearby source of shawarma, as hidden as it may be.

i've been on a health kick, trying to up my potassium intake. i figured bananas would do the trick, but there are foods with higher potassium, like dried apricots and orange juice. a lot of beans are also high in potassium as well (still haven't worked those into my diet yet). maybe it's just the placebo effect, but i'm feeling more energetic already. last week i was quite lethargic, and i don't think it was just the heat.

in the late afternoon bruce invited me to go with him to go pick up susan and dennis from the airport, back from their hawaiian vacation.

we took susan and dennis' saab, because bruce wanted to test drive it, but also because it seemed to have more cargo space than bruce's car. we got there early and parked at the cell phone waiting lot, a free temporary lot located at the outskirts of the airport. i never even knew it existed, and saves me the trouble of having to deal with angry police officers shooing away cars temporarily parked by the terminals. the lot had a certain sketchiness about it though, with strangers sitting in their cars staring at other strangers, like some roadside pickup joint. a roving tow truck made sure you stayed in the car (otherwise getting your empty car towed away). nearby was the hyatt hotel and water taxi stand with boston (financial district) just across the harbor.

we came back across the zakim bridge, via sullivan station in charlestown. despite the fact that it was during the height of rush hour, we made it back with hardly any traffic.

the evening drama was definitely lebron james televised ESPN show announcing his decision to play for the miami heat. sources this morning were already saying that james would be going to miami, but with ESPN in collusion with james to break the news later in the evening, none of their reporters could lend credibility to the rumors, even though they turned out to be true. cleveland must be on fire tonight, with former LBJ fans storming the streets, smashing his statues, pulling down his posters, and burning his jerseys. why lebron james had to drag out the process and turn it into a circus is up for debate, but he essentially stabbed his hometown in the back tonight. during the interview he said he'd continue to live in ohio, which seemed very naive, as that whole state essentially hates him now, and he probably can't go anywhere with armed bodyguards and police escorts.

will the heat be any good with lebron james, dwyane wade, and chris bosh? first of all, who the hell is chris bosh? when did he become a superstar? (answer: never). unfortunately they keep making references to the 2008 boston celtics, when the big three was formed with paul pierce, kevin garnett, and ray allen. in boston's case though, these were veteran players who toiled for decades, their hardship contributing to their maturity that helped them gel together. i can't see it happening in miami, not with the supersized egos involved. sometimes adding too many superstar ingredients to a team soup (in this case 2, since bosh doesn't count) can ruin the recipe.

i could see lebron james going to chicago, or new york, or (the best option) just staying put in cleveland. but miami? it's just a bad move. the heat is wade's team, james is the new guy. will lebron be happy playing second fiddle? and should he excel, would dwyane's pride get in the way? and up this point, lebron pretty much had the respect of the basketball watching community. now after what he pulled on cleveland, there will definitely be a large contingency of people who hate lebron and want to see him fail. how does it feel to be the villain? lebron lame!