my father asked me to dig up all the extra golden raspberry canes that were growing outside the confines of the raspberry patch on the western side of the house by the fence. after work he was going to go over to my aunt and uncle's place in arlington to pick up his bike but also to plant these surplus raspberries. i'm probably go to have some extra canes as well whenever i get around to cleaning out community garden (the original source of these golden raspberries).

while waiting for the start of the jets-patriots game at 4:00, i watched the 1:00 matches: ravens-texans and redskins-giants. i was rooting for baltimore because i thought houston was still undefeated until i saw the stats and realized they lost last week (atlanta falcon is the remaining undefeated team in the NFL). the texans demolished the ravens, which surprised me because baltimore seemed evenly matched with new england when they beat the patriots in week 3 (31-30). are the texans really that good? better than the patriots even? fortunately we'll have an answer in week 14 when new england and houston go head-to-head. as for the other game, i was rooting against the giants. i'd never seen robert griffin iii (RG3) play before and he's exciting to watch. it's always exhilarating to see a running QB in action; that is until he gets knocked out one too many times and becomes just a standing QB. washington was close to winning this game until eli manning pulled another last minute miracle and threw a long bomb for a touchdown.

the jets scored first with a touchdown but the patriots scored on the receiving kickoff when mccourty brought it back for 104 yards. before the 1st half ended, new england scored another touchdown and got 2 points in a safety play when sanchez fumbled the hand off into his own end zone. we entered halftime with the score 16-10. the largest point differential came in the 3rd quarter, when the score was 23-13. even though it was close, new england seemed to be dominating since new york kept having to start their offense very close to their own end zone.

then the game turned into a nightmare, as the patriots seemed incapable of scoring, while the jets slowly came back and regain the lead (26-23) with less than 2 minutes left in the game. fortunately new england gained enough yardage with their possession to kick a field goal as the clock expired, sending the game into overtime. i knew they changed the rules of NFL overtime but this was my first time seeing it in action. the new rule forces teams to win through a touchdown instead of the easier goal kick. goal kicks are still allowed (which was what new england ended up doing) but then the other team gets possession and tries to either tie with a goal kick of their own or win through a touchdown. anyway, sanchez ended up fumbling the ball over to new england who then won the game. i don't like these close games at all. definitely better to be on the winning side, but i rather see the patriots win through decisive and overwhelming victories.

after dinner i motorcycled back to cambridge.