my mother called this morning. i could see the number so i thought maybe something went wrong and my parents had come back early from their trip. turns out they were still in china, at jiayuguan, about to take the train to xi'an. they're not due back until wednesday night.

after a quick trip to market basket to pick up a few grocery items (lemons, romaine lettuce), i went to the community garden. i carried the large plastic trash bag full of salt marsh grass on my head because it made it easier to move.

i used up the whole bag but i still had more in belmont, a whole bale. some areas can't be mulched until the seedlings emerge. while i was there i ran into dennis and we had a chat.

i stopped by the cafe to drop off some supplies before heading to belmont.

i watered the plants, weeded the lawn, hung up a few more bottle gourds, and moved all the seedlings outside. i only use the watering can for tender seedlings; larger transplants i water directly to the base of the plants with a plastic container full of water. i noticed the sages are sort of yellowing, which may be caused by too much watering. the rosemarys don't need a lot of water either.

the last thing i did was to wash the cars, starting with my motorcycle. the honda element was particularly dirty and i vacuumed the inside first, cleaning up the accumulation of winter season salt. afterwards i washed the camry which had been sitting inside the garage.

i left via motorcycle by 5:00 in an attempt to beat the friday rush hour. i decided to take a shower and when i got out victor was already home, working on his laptop from the dining table. in the evening he watched the red sox-yankees game with me while i explained all the rules. afterwards i heated up some soup from a can for dinner.