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today was going to be my adventure day. i was going to ride the southwest corridor into southern boston, get some kennedy fried chicken in dudley square, then take some photos of the spring flowers at the arnold arboretum. weather-wise it wasn't bad (temperature hovering in the upper 50's, warmer in the sun) with one exception: the wind. the 30mph+ gusts were strong enough to sway trees and makes for unpleasant cycling. the ride itself would've taken at least 44 minutes (without stops), but i decided to wait for a warmer (and calmer) day.

i went to the post office in the morning (before my roommate) to mail off my health insurance forms. i thought i had a flat tire because i was going so slow until i realized i was riding into a strong head wind. heading into the city was a stream of bicycle commuters. since i was going in the opposite direction, i didn't run into any bicycle traffic.

after lunch i biked to the memorial drive trader joe's to get some cheap wine (for cooking). at the intersection of magazine and granite street is supposed to be an eruv line; i tried looking for it but couldn't find it. i have serious doubt as to whether the cambridge-somerville eruv even exists. it's nice that trader joe's is inside the eruv boundary but since money is is muktzah, no jew observing shabbat can go shopping anyway.

coming back from cambridgeport was a mini-adventure. it's true that cambridgeport is laid out more or less in an easy-to-navigate grid pattern, but with the myriad of one way streets and road repairs, you can still get lost. fortunately on a bike one-way streets are just a formality and as long as no cops are around to witness my misdeeds, anything goes.

i did 2 loads of laundry, regular and whites. i washed with bleach for the very first time. i found a pair of white shorts at my parents' place that've turned yellow from storage stains. unfortunately the yellow stains are still there after bleaching. maybe there's no hope for them but i might want to track down some rit white wash powder and give that a try as a last resort.

a freeze warning has been issues for most of massachusetts. i'm worried about the tender plants i gave to my father 2 days ago. i'd intended them to be kept indoors in the sunroom in belmont but he decided to keep them in the makeshift outdoor greenhouse/cold frame he built in my great uncle's backyard. i guess tonight will be the ultimate test to see if that cold frame really works. i heard it might be cold enough that tender early season crops like peas might be damaged.

i did another aquarium water change since i won't be able to do one until tuesday at the earliest. i did a thorough cleaning of the minibow, taking over the java-fern-covered driftwood and scrubbing it in the sink, as well as changing out the activated carbon. this was my first time using the activated carbon i got on ebay. first of all, i paid $18.99 for 4.9 lbs. but i'm not sure if i really got that much. using an old activated carbon bottle, i managed to pour 4 (out of the 5) bags worth of carbon into the bottle. at that rate, i'm not really getting a bargain by buying online. the penn-plex pro-carb i usually get from the pet store is much better anyway; i can hear it crackling as soon as it gets wet. the lesson here is just buy activated carbon from the store. i also changed out the guppy tank after cleaning up the algae. it took just 3 days for a carpet of algae to grow back. there may be no hope for that tank.