next i went to belmont, where my sister was able to dig up some spare hangers (both wooden and plastic) from the storage of clothes in the basement.
returning to cambridge, i went out again in the afternoon. drew came along for part of my trip. i showed him the community garden, we rode through harvard campus on our bikes, admired the various architecture (richardsonian building, fogg art renovations), and stopped at the cambridge library (closed for labor day). drew continued onwards towards boston (actually to the central square whole foods) while i returned to harvard square, where i deposited a check and tried to find some vanilla hazelnut yogi tea at the vitamin shoppe. they didn't have any so i grabbed a box of egyptian licorice tea ($4.29); the cashier tried to get me to sign up to become an award member but after seeing the guy ahead of me in line go through the gauntlet of offering up a bunch of personal information to a stranger, i declined the offer.
after harvard square, i meandered my way to market basket where i got some cucumbers for my mother.
i didn't expect drew to be back at home so soon so i was surprised to find his bike already parked outside. since both our bikes are too unwieldy with an assortment of front and rear baskets, i couldn't lock it to the same post so i ended up just stashing my bike in the backyard.
during a brief conversation with drew, i told him about my blog. i just assumed he already knew about it through conversations with bruce, so i was surprised when he didn't. it's inspiring him to have a blog of his own, but there are inherent risks when you're in academia. but the fact that he knows about the blog's existence (i've only told one other roommate before) means my catty comments will be kept to a minimum.
i returned to belmont around 5:00. my parents didn't think i was coming home and already ate dinner (a plate of liver and garlic chives). but there's always room for more dinner so later my father pan-seared some red roasted salmon fish heads outside on the barbecue side burner.
after several years of trying i finally got my mother to get onboard the breaking bad express. after plowing through 4 seasons, she suddenly watching season 5 (the most current season) because she didn't like walter white transformation into a villain. i finally ended up spoiling the last few episodes she didn't see just so i could have someone to talk to about the plot developments.
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my father had already gone to the victory garden before i came home and picked 2 korean melons: a small one he ate and said it was sweet until he got to the stem end; the larger one he collected because it looked like it might rot. we were excited to try our first korean melon harvest. it smelled nice, a fragrant melon odor that my father said could even be stronger. he noticed the center of the melon was slightly firm (instead of gooey), which was a sign this might not be a good melon. sure enough, the flavor was kind of bland, slightly sweet but almost bordering a bit on bitter. the flesh was crisp, but with a slimy texture. hopefully maybe some of the smaller ones might taste better.
i returned home around 7:30; drew had already finished eating dinner and was now working on his computer from bed. tomorrow is his first day at MIT, meeting up with the faculty and his teaching assistants.
i tried the yogi egyptian licorice tea. perhaps the best of all the licorice teas i've had before, but not really what i was looking for. if you're a fan of licorice this is the tea for you, with a sweetness that still lingers in the mouth minutes after a sip. there are also supposedly "spicy notes" of cinnamon and orange peel; i definitely taste something else besides the licorice but i can't quite identify what it is.