i went to bed last night listening to a game of thrones podcast instead of my usual routine of some light reading.

in the late morning i visited market basket (via bicycle) to get some groceries. the temperature was in the 60's, warm enough to forgo a jacket. when i returned home i made myself a turkey pastrami sandwich on rye bread. for authenticity sake, i warmed up the pastrami in a frying pan.

next stop was the crafts store (via motorcycle), the first of what will probably be many more visits this week. cutting through the mt.vernon street historical district, a one-armed woman casually asked me for change while i halted at a stop sign. "sorry, no," i told her before riding off.

ac moore was having a sale on lion brand fun fur yarn ($5/2). i figured since they get their new shipment on mondays everything would be in stock, so imagine my surprise to find most of the bins nearly empty. what probably happened was they had a limited-time sunday evening 25% discount on everything in the store and hardcore knitters just cleaned out the place. there was still some fun fur but just the remainders, the ugly colors. also the yarn was much smaller than we realized, just 50g. i ended up getting 3 balls of grape. my mother also asked me to get her a knitting loom kit, basically a series of concentric plastic hoops with pins around the circumference. there was one on sale for $10.50.

will was my cashier, i've seen him enough times already that he said hi to me while i was waiting in line. "see you next week," i told him before i left the store.

i headed to the cafe. the route i now take when i'm coming from assembly square mall is to cut through union square and harvard square (down kirkland street). that's probably not the most efficient route, i'll have to check with google map to see if i can find an easier way to get to the cafe (as a rule, avoid squares at all cost if you want to avoid the ubiquitous traffic jams).

my mother ended up deciding she didn't need a knitting loom after all so i'll have to return it at some point.

after the cafe i went to the fresh pond trader joe's to pick up some frozen spicy soy sauce chicken wings. i then navigated around the rotary and paid a visit to cambridge wine & spirits. i was trying to find some good local beer. they're definitely more of a hard alcohol shop, with the beers relegated to the far corner of the store. the selection was fewer than savmor (hardly any imports) but what they did have were some quality local beers in the fridges.

i ended up getting a 6-pack of harpoon IPA. i paid using the $10 marco gave me to pay for using my MTA subway card and that i told him i didn't want (i figured this was a good way to use the unwanted cash). the id check took longer than usual, as it looked like the clerk fed my driver license through some kind of scanning detection machine.

back at home i tried a harpoon out of curiosity. it tasted like beer, i wouldn't be able to tell the difference from all the other beers i tried. it did have a floral flavor, but that's probably because i read about it off of the label. after doing some research on harpoon brewery, what i really want to try is their hard cider. does it taste like carbonated apple juice with some alcohol? i could get behind that. (vermont's woodchuck also makes a reputable local hard cider).

in the evening i went across the street to star market to stock up on stouffer lasagnas which were on sale again. unfortunately they only had the all-cheese variety. i might go to the bigger supermarket in porter square to see if they have any better selection.

marco came home close to 11:00. he tried one of the harpoon and said it was pretty good, which surprised me, because it tasted like the other beers.

finally, i got a letter from my doctor with the results of my recent cholesterol test. my numbers have improved from last time but i can still do better. nevertheless, i'm feeling pretty healthy!