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i arrived in belmont with my mother just about to make some belgian waffles. later i heard the pop-pop sounds of her roasting some nuts over the stove top.

i went to belmont center to take some photos of the town hall, built by hartwell and richardson (of yesterday's youth's companion building fame) in 1881, in the queen anne style. i'm not exactly sure what constitutes queen anne, but the building has elements of victorian and romanesque.

i finally pulled the proverbial trigger on buying a small point-and-shoot camera. i decided on the panasonic lumix ZS20 ($244). i don't think it's the best camera out there, but i don't think that camera exists yet. it's one of the better ones though, it was either this or the canon sx260, and i just wanted to try the panasonic because it's different. today was also the last day to score a $50 discount on panasonic cameras on amazon.com, so the decision became easy (i just checked, the price has already jumped back to $294). i figured i don't have anything to lose, if i don't like the camera (or a subsequent price drop) i can just return it (amazon has a pretty good return policy with free shipping).

the highlight of the day was the ravens-broncos game at 4:30. i was strategically rooting for baltimore since i think denver with peyton manning is the bigger threat for the patriots (assuming new england will beat houston tomorrow afternoon). it was an intense contest, with each team alternating in touchdowns from start to finish, ending up in a double overtime. after more than 4 hours, manning finally made a mistake and threw an interception. that's all it took for the ravens to kick a field goal and win the game. baltimore is such a good story that should the patriots not advance, i'm totally rooting for the ravens to win it all this year.

i finally tried those silkworm pupae tonight and they were awful. it's not that i'm grossed out about eating insects - that doesn't bother me in the least. but they have to taste good, and canned silkworm pupae are just nasty. they taste like tropical mildew, and even after we sprinkled some sauce on it, it was still barely edible. fortunately the green tea mochi dessert cakes i got in chinatown yesterday were really good, i'll definitely get them again the next time i'm in boston.

i heard about the free showtime preview this weekend but i wasn't able to get any of the channels. then i found out tonight that for comcast at least it only works through on-demand, so i've been gorging myself on free movies the rest of the evening.