went on another yarn run this saturday morning, first to ac moore then to michael's. every day the temperature goes up 10 degrees and today was no exception as the thermometer reached the 50's. each store was located on opposite sides of the mystic river and i took the chance to admire some natural scenery while i was there.

when i got to belmont my mother made me a bowl of mien geda for lunch. i brought my bike tools so my father could remove the rusty chain from the found bike frame. he tried to install the loose rear derailleur (shimano RD-M290 acera) but it wouldn't screw into the frame. i also noticed one of the rear eyelets had a sheared off screw bit still embedded inside. my father said it could easily be fixed by just simply drilling out the bit. i love to fix up this bike but it does seem more trouble than its worth. the cost to acquire all the missing parts - even if secondhand - would still take up too much time, effort, and money. it's cheaper just to buy a new used working bike, which is why i've been trolling craig's list again. there's definitely not as many bikes for sale during the winter as there is during the summer. nevertheless, i'm hoping to snag a bargain.

i was the only person left in the house in the afternoon. my sister went out with a friend and my parents drove all the way up to manchester new hampshire to visit their friends working at a sushi kiosk at a market basket. these are the same friends who are letting my parents use their empty house in taiwan when they visit this spring.

i washed the motorcycle, which is kind of premature since i decided not to put away the bike just yet (no snowstorms in the forecast for the next 10 days at least). later i went to the watertown target to get some engine oil. i like to do a fresh oil change before leaving the bike in winter storage. i ended up getting a quart shy of what i needed but fortunately i still had some in the garage from the last oil change. while browsing the automotive aisle, i got a nasty paper cut from a packaging. it was right in the crease of a finger so the blood pooled in the joint, making it look worse than it really was. i kept on sucking my finger while i paid, which probably made the cashier think i was a weirdo. as soon as i got back to my parents' place, i dabbed some superglue on the wound to seal the cut.

my parents didn't get back until almost 7:00. they brought with them a large container of sushi and several packages of hard cider. i tried angry orchard's apple ginger hard cider. despite the intriguing graphics on the carton, it was pretty bland, more beer than cider, and not very sweet. later i had a woodchuck amber, which is the hard cider i compare all others to. i didn't get a chance to sample the granny smith, maybe tomorrow.

when i returned to cambridge i tried watching the football game but i discovered i really didn't care who won (new orleans or detroit). that was the case this afternoon when i watched the bengals-texans match. tomorrow's games look more promising. between the steelers and broncos, i'm rooting for denver only because i think new england can easily beat tebow and company but would have a harder time against pittsburgh.

i spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of shameless.

last night i knitted a sample of a 3 braid cable pattern (15 stitches, 16 rows). i had a hard time following the word instructions so i drew a knitting diagram for myself. what i want to do now is to knit a 3 braid cable using 3 different colors. the biggest challenge will be what to do with all the floating yarn strands on the wrong side.