poor roommate! i saw pau in the living room this morning, eating his cereal, watching tv, wearing his winter coat. after opening the blinds, i surreptitiously cranked up the heat.

since he's leaving tomorrow afternoon (5:00 flight), this was his last full day here. with his luggage packed and presents bought, he had a free day today and decided he'd visit a few museums. he invited me to come along, and under normal circumstances i wouldn't even hesitate to go, but i had a lot of work to do so had to decline his offer.

i had just one more section left to finish in the coding, but it was a doozie and required my complete concentration. i was hoping for an afternoon delivery but i didn't finish until almost 6:00. by then pau had already came home, after having visited both the museum of science and the museum of fine arts, and visiting the bank to close his account.

it began to snow while my roommate was out. i was hoping he'd get to see some snow before he left and was starting to think that wouldn't happen. it was very light snow, but kept on falling to the point where it accumulated, about an inch here in cambridge.

in the evening i took my roommate to go see some somerville christmas lights. history has a funny way of repeating itself, as i did the same thing last december, with another roommate on his last night before departure, bringing him to see some holiday displays as well.

i gave pau the option of riding our bikes, but he said we should walk instead (snow being slippery and all plus the cars), which would've been my choice. it took about 20 minutes to get to concord avenue (somerville), with snow still falling and a strong wind swirling ice crystals everywhere.

pau almost didn't want to take photos because he was afraid his camera would get wet from the snow, but wanted to show his family back home how americans celebrate christmas.

i got a surprise holiday gift today: an alien II bike tool from frances and fredrik in norway. i wonder if they took a peek at my amazon wish list? because this was exactly what i wanted. i played with it all night, folding and unfolding tools, going into the kitchen and testing it out on the ross bike.

also arriving in the mail: a set of new front and rear brake pads that i purchased off of ebay ($6 with free shipping). i'll take my new bike tools and install the pads on my bike tomorrow.