the painters moonlighting as gutter cleaning guys were working on the house today. they were getting paid $80 for each of the 4 houses on our end of the street. i had the shades drawn, waiting for them to finish so i could open them up, but they were here for a long time, and by the time i left in the afternoon, they were still here.

the new brake release cable for the lawnmower arrived yesterday so i went to belmont to replace it. my sister was home, gathering up her things for her craft fair show. my mother returned home and the two of them left for somerville.

replacing the brake release cable on the lawnmower. the only tools required was a pair of pliers to pull enough slack on the old wire so i could remove it, and a mallet to knock the new frame clip into place on the mower handle.

afterwards i mowed the lawn. the grass hadn't been growing, but i wanted to get one last cut to pick up some leftover dead leaves. it was quick work, and i finished right when a light sprinkle began. i also spruced up the backyard, stacking some stray logs and coiling up the garden hoses.

i did some cleaning inside the house, including vacuuming the living room and bathroom.

my father came home from picking up his friend at the airport around 4:30. i brought hailey outside so she could familiarize herself with a stranger coming into her territory but she was having none of it, barking aggressively and lunging. inside the house we tried to bribe her but that would only buy us a few seconds of peace. finally i put on her thundershirt, which surprisingly she was reluctant to wear. she calmed down immediately (even the threat of the thundershirt made her relaxes), but after a few minutes, i took it off because she seemed frozen. she was calmer afterwards, but only because my father's friend was just sitting there.

my father's friend is also an avid photographer, and he arrived with his camera equipment. the one memory i have of him is visiting his home in california back in the 1990's, when he was shooting with a medium-format hasselblad film camera. he currently shoots with canon as well, with his full-frame 5D mark II body and his set of 2 L-series zoom lenses. he said he gave his old canon 50D (with an 18-200mm lens) to his son, who ended up getting it stolen at the LA airport. his son later replaced it with a canon 7D.

i returned to cambridge around 5:00. my mother left me some rice noodles before she left, which i brought back with me and ate immediately when i got home. drew came back around 6:00 and asked if i wanted to go grab a burger around the corner (i declined). he ended up eating his usual pasta salad combination. after dinner, we watched the prestige.

later i found out from my mother that the crafts fair was a bust. to hold it on a friday night at some obscure american legion post hall with zero advertising probably wasn't the best idea. but at least now my sister has enough stock to sell at my parents' cafe and hopefully recoup the $100+ she lost going to the crafts fair.