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8:00 seems to be the time ultrasafepest likes to call me in the morning. they called me last week at 8:00 to let me know mark would be stopping by tuesday. and then this morning at 8:00 mark called me to let me know he was at my parents' place and would be checking the baits. 10 minutes later he called back to let me know there hasn't been any termite activities. that either means all the termites are dead or they simply haven't to feed on the wooden stakes; i'm more inclined to believe the former. he said he'll come back to check in the fall, otherwise he'll revisit next spring.

pau was still at home when i woke up, but left soon afterwards. since the road bike wasn't working and he didn't want to ride any of the lady bikes, he's walking to work the rest of the week. i told him about some local attractions on linnaean street: the oldest house in cambridge (cooper-frost-austin built in 1681) and a building with a "fallout shelter" sign.

after some chicken sausage oatmeal for lunch, i biked to belmont to pick up my screw bit set (pau needed a tri-wing to open up his bulging macbook pro battery). i also took the time to water the garden from the rain barrels and turn the compost. i finally removed all that weedy vine that's been climbing along the lower walls of the sunroom.

i noticed a small korean melon on our 2 backyard patches. unfortunately there's some sort of canker disease on the leaves, but hopefully the copper spray will keep it in check.

there's enough red tomatoes in the backyard to make some homemade pasta sauce. my sister was complaining that we should pick them but i told her to hold off until we needed them, otherwise they just sit on the kitchen counter and rot.

biking gave me a chance to think about what i wanted to make for dinner. with the temperature still hot (80's during the day, thankfully a relatively low humidity of 60%), i didn't want to do much cooking, so i decided i'd make a pasta bean salad.

coming down linnaean street, i passed by a laser ship van. i recognized the driver (i get a lot of stuff delivered to my house), who in turn recognized me as well. he waved at me frantically then shouted something from his window: "i got a package for you!" i turned around and found the box in the back of his van.

after figuring out what ingredients i needed, i biked to market basket to pick up some groceries. a tired-looking hispanic man was sitting outside, his eyes bloodshot. i asked him how long was his shift. "16 hours," he replied with a weary smile.

2 cups tri-color rotini pasta
15 oz. can black beans
15 oz. can garbanzo beans
15 oz. can whole corn
1/2 cup italian dressing
fresh ground pepper
1/2 red onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1 cayenne pepper, diced
dozen cherry tomatoes, chopped
cilantro

i was just going to get plain rotini until i saw the barilla tri-color variety. i wanted to add the cucumber for some crunchiness (completely forgetting that i also had crunchy red onion); i also have a lot of zucchini at home but they're not as crunchy. the only garden vegetables i used were some cherry tomatoes and a cayenne pepper (seeds removed); i also had regular tomatoes but i want to save them for a future sauce. the final result came out pretty well (seems awfully healthy too), a lot of colors, and enough salad to eat for the rest of the week! i put it in the fridge for about an hour to chill before eating.

pau came home around 8:00. i offered him some pasta salad but he was going out to have dinner with a friend.