today was the tail end of the storm front that's been over boston for the last few days. it rained last night from the patter on the windows, but this morning all that was left was some puddles. the sky was still overcast, with intermittent periods of inspirational sunlight.
in the afternoon i decided to take a trip to the fresh pond trader joe's in search of some good earth tea. my usual route would be to go down garden street, around danehy park, and cut through the fresh pond shopping center to get to the other side of fresh pond parkway (2.3 miles). today i'd be trying a new route, huron avenue to lake view, riding a bit along the fresh pond reservoir, then crossing concord avenue to trader joe's, about the same distance (2.4 miles).
i did a brief search for my favorite tea before i had to ask someone for assistance. apparently they're still out of the good earth. it's been more than 3 weeks! i still have a few packets left but i've been hording them like gold, only waiting for special occasions to drink them. when will they have new shipments? and all because of a little salmonella? doesn't boiling the tea bags destroy the bacteria? i'm willing to risk it, just for my tea fix! in the meantime, the closest approximation is the bengal spice tea from celestial seasoning (a very cheap imitation at best, and not even remotely spicy).
coming back, i went a weird way, behind the movie theatre, through danehy park, down field street to fayerweather and finally out to walden to the cafe. i stopped by to do some bicycle repair work, 
replacing the shifter cable on the ross bike. unfortunately i only brought my tools but forgot to bring the replacement cables. the ross bike actually has reflective strip tires which i never noticed before (the old ones must've been replaced at some point). it needs some cable work but it should be rideable. the only thing missing is a rear rack since it already has nice chrome fenders. it's designed in such a industrial-rugged way that it'd make a great winter bike. it also has a nice frame that would look great with a new paint job (a project for next year).
i hurried home before sunset (even though i had all my lights, so i wasn't in any danger of riding in the dark). even though it wasn't even 3:00 yet, it felt later, probably because of the overcast and probably because i'm still not completely used to the time change yet.
for dinner i cooked up my vodka sauce pasta from last night. i must've had a bigger appetite yesterday because i could barely make any progress on tonight's dinner. looks like i'll have more pasta leftovers for one more night.
pau came home with katarina around 9:30. after making dinner, they ate in the living room. we watched a travel show on germany, and katarina was able to give us some additional commentary. the two of them were showing some PDA that made me feel a little uncomfortable. good news is pau is only here for another month and at least a 3rd of which he'll be away on assignment in hawaii so he won't even be here.