the rumble of thunder and the patter of rain woke me up this morning. ugh. my thoughts were of my motorcycle, sitting outside in the elements because i didn't put the cover on. i wasn't expecting it to rain until later in the afternoon.

around noontime - after everything had dried up - i went outside and put on the motorcycle cover. i rode the bicycle to market basket to get some groceries. it wasn't oppressively hot but it was warm; the high humidity also made me break out in a sweat.

we were supposed to set a new high temperature record but i don't know if it even reached the 90's here in cambridge. the morning storm sapped some energy from the afternoon weather system. it was definitely warmer in the house compared to yesterday, with the room temperature hovering at 80°F. for the most part my own internal thermoregulation kept my cool, but every once in a while i'd jump in the shower as a refresher.

i didn't do much today. invoiced client N. changed my health insurance (network health to celticare, the only carrier accepted by MGH; sort of a pain since the website doesn't work on any OSX browsers). paid my amazon credit card bill. the samsung repairman called me again, said he received the parts - the ones he told me yesterday morning were being sent to my parents' place. now the only problem was finding the address. it took a while, but the issue was his computer (or was it a cellphone?) was autocorrecting his entry and trying to find a street that didn't exist. he'll be making the housecall tomorrow. not too bad: i called samsung on monday, and hopefully the tv will get fixed by friday.

the sky turned ominously dark in the late afternoon. doppler radar showed a strong band of serious red. when it began to rain, i slipped on my flip flops, grabbed the umbrella, and went outside with the camera hoping to catch some seriously soaked cyclists. almost all the ones i saw rode bikes with 700cc wheels. everyone wore helmets, but not everyone had lights, even though it was dark enough that it might've been a good idea (i personally think lights are more important than a helmet). i saw a few topless male bikers; might as well, since all their clothes were wet anyway. there wasn't as much action as i'd hoped; i think most cyclists knew about the oncoming thunderstorms and probably decided to wait it out before heading home. i also saw some lightning which made me nervous. i got as far as dali before deciding to walk back.

bram come home around 8:00 then retreated to his room to take a nap. he woke up an hour later to go to diesel, his favorite cafe. "what's the latest i can do laundry?" he asked me. it took me a while to answer. nobody's ever asked me that before. usually people have the common sense not to wash clothes in the middle of the night when everyone's trying to sleep. besides, he did a load of laundry just 3 days ago around midnight, and he didn't ask me about it then. "midnight," i replied, thinking back to monday. what i should said was, "are you planning on washing your clothes very late at nights?" it's also weird that he should be doing his laundry again so soon, but i guess if he's going to the gym after work, he'd have a lot more dirty gym clothes.

he came home around 11:00 and promptly did a load of laundry. it wasn't finished until 12:30. so much for the midnight cutoff.

game 5 of the NBA finals was tonight. it was a must-win for the dallas mavericks, since it was their last game at home before the remaining two in miami. mavericks had the lead for much of the game, but the heat would come back and tie or occasionally go up a few points, only for dallas to retake the lead. dwayne wade was injured so dallas was in a good position to take advantage of their missing superstar. but in the 2nd half wade came back into the game, and in the 4th quarter it looked like the heat might win. but dallas came back on a run, putting the difference to a 4-5 possession game with minutes then just seconds left. it was a great game. new the series is 3-2 and the mavericks need just another win to be NBA champions. i hope they can do it on sunday, and not go to a game 7 where anything can happen.