t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


finally finished clash of kings last night. onwards to a storm of swords! at this point i don't care about spoilers for the HBO series. i won't be as surprised when i watch the 2nd season, but it'll still be interesting to see how they'll interpret the 2nd book. i already have a dance with dragons (5th book) all loaded up in my kindle.

the temperature is rising. today was warmer (into the 90's) but still dry, at least for the first half of the day. in the afternoon i could feel the air starting to becoming sticky. i thought about putting in the air conditioner but i'll hold off until tomorrow. today was the beginning of a heat wave that will take hold of boston for the next few days.

bram didn't go to work until almost noontime today. after he left i made lunch: egg on whole wheat english muffin with feta cheese and prosciutto. the meat's already salty, the feta cheese just made it worse. what this sandwich needs is some greens, like arugula or spinach (if i had spinach, i could make a feta cheese spinach omelette - looks like i'm going on another grocery run tomorrow!).

both my parents had the day off so i went to belmont. i took the motorcycle which was a good break from riding the bicycle. i woke up this morning with an ache in my left ankle. i also don't sweat nearly as much as i do when i'm on the motorcycle.

i found my first red tomato today, one of the cherries. they're actually a bit bigger what i expected, not suitable for salads. i see green tomatoes everywhere but it's taking them forever to ripen. when they do mature though, we'll have more tomatoes than we'll know what to do with them. the tomatoes growing in RB4 are already 5 feet tall and don't seem to be slowing down. i had to tie of the branches to a wooden stake so it wouldn't break off under its own weight. i picked the one red cherry and gave it to my mother. she said it tasted sour, must not have been completely ripened.

something ate the new russian olive seeds my father and i planted a few weeks ago. my father thinks it was a squirrel, because it knew enough to go into the pots and dig out the germinating seeds. since then he's put the pots to higher ground, but the damage may already be done. thankfully we still have close to a dozen seedlings. they seem hardy enough that each one should be able to mature into a tree. in 3 years time they'll be producing their own seeds.

my ebay-purchased genuine shimano 3-speed shifter cable and parts arrived in the mail today. the packaging smelled musty and old. the plastic bag had a rip so the seller put everything into a ziploc. i checked to see when the replacement bell crank would arrive. estimated delivery date not until august! that's because it's coming from montreal canada, although that's not too far from boston. i'm still hoping it might arrive this week so we can finally fix the 3-speed ross.