i got to belmont sometime after 10a to sand the western side of the house for 2 hours with the orbital sander. i know i said i was finished with sanding, but i found a few spots that could use a touch up. it was a hot and humid day and i could feel the sweat trickling down my back and into my pants. i was detailing any rough shingles that don't look entirely smooth. i worked without a tarp or shopvac, just periodically dumping the dustbag into a covered trash barrel.

for lunch i found some leftover ribs from yesterday. by then hailey was already home but she was asleep so she didn't know i was eating.

after dinner i returned home by 6:30p. ana was already back and by the fact that she was dressed up i knew she must've planned on going out. she left by 7:20p, into boston to have drinks with friends. she came back at 11:20p.

it was hot enough in the house that i turned on the air conditioner. not having had roommates for many years now, i sort of forgot what it was like. for one thing, having someone else in the house wrecks havoc on my bathroom habits. normally when i'm home alone, there's no sense of rush. but now i feel like i have to be quick in case ana needs to use the bathroom, and my delicate digestive system doesn't like that. also i noticed all this oil splatter on the range. not sure if it was from yesterday or today, and this after she asked if i had a splatter guard. i'm counting down the days until i can have the place to myself again!

i watched the china military parade, which started at 10p (10a china time). people in china are actually getting 3 days off in order to watch the parade. it was to commemorate the 70th anniversary of japan's surrender in WWII. there's all sorts of things wrong with the parade, like the fact that the chinese communist had nothing to do with it (it was fought mainly by the chinese nationalist forces of chiang kai-shek). plus america's involvement in the pacific is all but forgotten (including how 2 nuclear bombs dramatically hastened imperial japan's surrender), rolled in with the "assistance from foreign allies."

the US is glaringly absent from the celebration. it's as if communist china is taking credit for a victory it never earned itself, stolen valor i think is what they call that. also nobody in the communist government seemed to see the irony when they kept stressing how china wants to be a peaceful nation coexisting harmoniously with neighbors during a procession of military hardware, and that the war was about defeating fascism - only to be replaced by more fascism. so it wasn't a surprise that putin attended. i'm not sure how china can be taken seriously in the international community when it holds these extravagant parties but nobody comes.