i took my former roommate wang to the mt.auburn cemetery this morning to check out some spring flowers. being an avid iphone photographer, i knew she'd appreciate some pretty new england vernal color displays. she told me she might've actually passed by the cemetery when she rode the bus to visit a coworker in watertown.

the temperature was in the 50's and i dressed thinking it'd be cold but it was actually quite warm out in the sun. wang was impressed by how deep a blue the sky was, something she rarely sees in smoggy nanjing. she also marveled at the open spaces devoid of other humans. she told me a place like this in china would be crowded with people; in a nation of over a billion, it's hard going anywhere without seeing somebody else. it got colder in the afternoon when the clouds came out and blotted out the sun.

unfortunately there just wasn't a lot of flowers. your usual yellow forsythias, white (and some pink) cherries, and a few pink rhododendrons. wang did see a few birds she'd never seen before: robins, cardinals, red-wing blackbirds, and 2 wild turkeys.

originally i'd planned a walking tour back to harvard square, passing through historical brattle street to check out the pre-revolutionary war architecture, but we were both a bit tired after wandering mt.auburn cemetery for nearly 3 hours so we took the 73 bus back to harvard square and returned to our respective homes. wang told me that she was planning on moving again come june, her relocation complicated by the fact that she needed to find someone to sublet the remaining 3 months on her current lease (ending in august).

my current roommate was home cooking some rice for lunch. i'm not sure if he was surprised to see me since i'm usually not home on the weekends, but i told him i'd be back later tonight before i gathered up my things and left for belmont via trek.

i brought my wii so my sister could try netflix streaming from the HDTV (with her netflix account). it's not the most elegant of solutions because it's only 480p quality, but apparently it's the 2nd most popular way people are watching netflix streaming behind computer. recently i've been doing a lot of research on HD media players, like the western digital WD TV live streaming media player or the AIOS HD media center. i think i might get one just so i could play it with, even though i don't own an HDTV. i currently have a USB-enabled philips dvd player but it's showing its age since it only plays divx avi files, which is being phased out for the higher quality H.264 mp4's.

anyway, in order to receive the new netflix channel, i had to upgrade the wii firmware (i haven't played in over a year). this is a scary undertaking because my wii isn't exactly "2 legit 2 quit" because i modded it with a wasabi zero chip (3 years ago) so i could play "less than legitimate" games. worst case scenario would be the upgrade bricking my wii. i waited anxiously for the upgrade to finish, then put in a copied dvd. it worked fine! non-bricking upgrade successful!

returning home after dinner, i saw a posting on craig's list for a free bike in cambridge on the curb on poplar road. the poster said it was a giant brand bike but it was actually a french gitane. i saw the time and realized it was posted only 20 minutes ago. checking the address, it was on a dead end side street off of a one way avenue. there was a good chance nobody had claimed it yet! so i got dressed and went back outside, armed with a spare bike lock so i could secure the free bike if i found it and come back for it tomorrow. by the time i got there though, probably 45 minutes had already elapsed since the posting, and the bike was already gone. disappointed, i slowly rode back home.

well after midnight, my upstairs neighbors were still being incredibly loud, which is unusual, since they're not night owls at all. i flashed the rear porch light a few times hoping to catch their attention. that did nothing and the noise continued. i went outside to see if i could see what was going on, triggering the motion detection lights. the music was so loud i could hear it from the streets (and i can't believe my next door neighbors didn't hear it as well). it was almost 1:00 and i'd just had enough. i knew ringing the doorbell was useless since they wouldn't hear it above the noise. i tried calling both the home phone and cell phone but it went to voicemail after so many rings. i even threw a small pebble at the window, trying to get their attention. something must've worked because when i went to the back of the house i noticed all the lights were turned off and a few minutes later the music as well.