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once again my roommate was gone this morning. i thought she was going to meet her new housemates to go over some living arrangement details but apparently not. despite some of her annoying habits (e.g. oily cooking, not turning off the lights, wearing dirty shoes inside the house, scratching up my one and only good frying pan) i'm kind of sorry to see her go. i've gotten used to her, warts and all. i feel bad about her new living arrangement. true, her room is twice the size of her room now, but it's more expensive (both rent plus she has to pay her own utilities), completely unfurnished, and she'll have to live with at least 5 other housemates (2 official housemates and their multiple satellites). when i saw her place yesterday, it was sparse: a mattress on the floor, a used bookshelf, an old desk, and a plastic folding chair. not only that but she won't have internet access for the time being until she can get comcast to come by and install a cablemodem.

i'm sure i'll get over any sort of guilty or compassionate feelings soon enough; it's always better to live alone. my next roommate was supposed to arrive wednesday morning but he sent an e-mail last night saying it's now this saturday, and even that isn't absolutely certain. at the very least it'll give me a few days to have the house to myself. that sounds fun but what i'll end up doing is a lot of cleaning (aquarium water changes, wash all the sheets, scrub the few remaining dirty venetian blinds).

i rolled the fuji bike into the backyard and fixed the bracket on the rear rack. much better now, although it's still not the sturdiest rack because the vertical braces are a little wobbly. i don't think i'll be attaching any rear baskets to this fuji anyway. once my roommate leaves tomorrow i'll wheel the bike inside the house so i can get to work on replacing the shifter cables. i'm actually kind of excited because i really like working on bikes. i'm a little disappointed that i didn't have one to work on this winter like i did last season. i would've loved to get my hands on an old freebie bike and fix it up. but now finally i get my chance.

the thing about getting a new bike (even one that's used) is i can't wait to ride it. i took it to belmont on this slightly overcast 50°F day. the brakes on the fuji aren't the best, but better than my ross eurosport. they "flutter" when i pull the brake levers, like they're not catching the rim properly, and they're also noisy. maybe the pads need to be replaced, i haven't inspected that part of the bike yet. the wheels seem true though, i don't feel the rim skipping against the pads when i ride. the rear wheel is well-lubricating: when i spun it yesterday after oiling the chain, it kept rolling for a long time before stopping. another issue is since i've raised the set, i don't like stopping because it's slightly awkward for me to get my toes to touch the ground. i think eventually i'll get used to it (i just need to tilt the bike bit a few degrees) but for now i find myself not wanting to stop, doing the balancing game when i do need to stop, or slowly rolling to traffic lights hoping it'll turn green by the time i get there.

i was in belmont alone with the dog, after my sister left for nanny duty in the afternoon. my parents were in new hampshire, visiting their friends who run the sushi deli at a market basket. while my father was helping out the husband, the wife went with my mother to the coach outlet store to buy some handbags for relatives when my parents go on vacation in taiwan next week.

when my parents finally came back close to 6:00 they brought a box of sushi for dinner.

my roommate wasn't home yet when i got back. when she finally did return, she told me she'd move out tomorrow morning. i didn't bother telling her that my next roommate wouldn't arrive until saturday at the earliest. she cooked some dinner and did one final load of laundry.

what's been happening in skyrim: