the breaking news interrupted my regularly scheduled morning program by around 10am. i already knew what the news was going to be, i just wanted to know the verdict: not guilty, exonerated of all charges, suspension overturned. i was so happy i told sunmeng about it via videochat; she had zero frame of reference and seemed to be bored by the news. thankfully all local networks were covering the news for the next hour, and i kept switching from channel to channel, so utterly saturated in coverage. i was hopeful about the verdict, but guarded in my expectation and prepared myself for bad news. in the end, it wasn't even a matter of brady's guilt, but rather the NFL commissioner abused his powers and handed down a punishment that seemed arbitrarily with no recourse for dispute since he also appointed himself the arbitrator during the initial appeal.

you'd think the NFL would just want to sweep this whole deflategate mess under the carpet, but moments later came news that they were going to appeal the decision, which could take years to resolve. so a small dark cloud still hangs over brady and the patriots, despite the chance of a successful appeal seemingly very low. i can see why the commissioner would want to file an appeal; this decision sets a dangerous precedence for the NFL, one in which players will contest any future punishments handed down by the commissioner, figuring they might try their luck in court, where the NFL has a pretty lousy track record with goodell at the helm. ironically, goodell was slated to be at the patriots home opener next thursday, a tradition for the commissioner attend the first game of the superbowl winning team. to say that the new england fans will not to very welcoming to him is an understatement; that's why he decided not to attend the game, because he didn't want to be a distraction. not as if deflategate was distracting at all.

so do i think tom brady is guilty or innocent? i really don't know. the commissioner has introduced so much doubt at this point, i don't think brady will ever be completely exonerated, even if he really had no idea who deflated those footballs. nothing short of goodell himself making a public announcement that he was mistaken and personally apologize could fix brady's reputation, and even then, the hatred (jealousy?) for new england from those outside of patriots nation would never believe it to begin with. brady, for whatever reason, wasn't as forthcoming with the investigation for somebody you'd think had nothing to hide. the NFL had no evidence anyway, not even accurate measurements of the deflated balls in question. the only thing they could think of is to dig through brady's phone, and since the NFL isn't a court of law, there's no NFL rule that says brady must comply with the request. and because he didn't want to show the investigators his cellphone, that was reason enough to say he was maybe guilty and suspend him 4 games and fine him a million dollars.

i was at home today waiting for my parents' dyson vacuum to arrive via fedex. when i ordered it through ebay, there was no option to choose the shipping address, so it got sent to me instead of to my parents. around 1:30p a fedex van pulled up outside my house. i watched it through the blinds, and as soon as the driver came down with a box, i opened the door to greet him. i was worried that it'd require a signature (that's why i waited at home), but turns out that wasn't necessary (although a box with dyson packaging all over it would seem like a tempting target for package thieves).

with the package safely in my possession, i was able to run some errands. i went down to michael's to look for a particular color of patons kroy socks yarn for my mother. they didn't have the color she wanted, but i picked one away, just so i wouldn't come back empty-handed. then i went to the community garden to water the plants. actually, to water joel's plants, because i don't really care about my plot at this point, i'm just waiting for everything to die so i can clean it up for the season. since my last visit to the garden, somebody had broke the communal water sprayer. it's missing the spray dial, so the water now just comes out in a violent jet. i got creative and blocked the hose with my fingertips to make the water come out more of a gentle spray.

the only good that came from visiting the garden was coming back, there was a pile of kitchen gadgets across the street. there was a coffee maker which i was tempted to take, but it was a little large, i don't drink coffee, and ana was bringing hers anyway. there was also a red 4-quart oval-shaped rival-brand crockpot in brand new condition. i took that, even though i already have a crockpot.

back at the house, i wheeled my bike into the backyard so i could replace the cup holder. the old one i had is just a metal loop. it's not very compatible with my contigo mug, because it can slip right through the ring. so i ended up buying a bottle cage that can be mounted onto the handlebar. i only knew about this because i've seen it mounted a few times on motorcycles. i got one from awwyeah for $5 (the old holder, also from awwyeah, was $8). the bottle cage holder works well, can hold my contigo without any problems. the only thing is it's kind of conspicuous looking, definitely function over form.

i strapped the 25lbs. dyson box to the back of my bike with a pair of bungie cords and rode to belmont. the additional cargo made for a slow ride, made worse by several cambridge intersections (mass-linnaean, concord-huron) undergoing repaving. i huffed and puffed the whole way there and when i arrived my t-shirt was soaked like somebody poured a bucket of water over me.

after a quick shower, i hurried back into the living room to try out the dyson vacuum. my mother was just as excited, waiting weeks to get her hands on a new vacuum so she can properly clean the house. they have an old hoover vacuum which i use more than anyone else when i come home and occasionally do some vacuuming. the hoover is a canister but i use it more as a stick because the motorized carpet head is a pain to install. but the hoover is old and so much dust has gotten into the engine that whenever it runs to vents out their horrible dusty smell. the dyson we purchased was the dyson DC39 animal. i don't understand the naming convention. there's also a dyson DC47 but that's actually smaller than the DC39. maybe the numbers just denote version, and has nothing to do with capacity or size.

after taking all the parts out of the box, it was an easy matter of assembling it following the wordless diagrams (very ikea-esque). as soon as i fired up the dyson, hailey jumped off of the couch and went to go hide in the bedroom (she doesn't like loud noises). pushing the brush head was an unusual experience. unlike the brush head of the hoover which is motorized and has wheels, the dyson brush head is just a manual type. the suction it created was tremendous, an actual vacuum seal which made pushing the head even more difficult. but once you get used to it it's not that bad. the reward is seeing the hair and dust accumulating in the see-through dust bin. i passed the vacuum to my mother to try out. she went around vacuuming the rest of the living room and dining room, then the bathroom. she finally stopped not because she was tired, but because the vacuum generates a lot of heat exhaust, so she'd started to sweat on an already hot day. she also liked using the smaller tangle-free turbine tool more than the normal brush head (dyson calls it the triggerhead).

as for the tangle-free turbine tool, i was happy it came with the vacuum. from the description i read on ebay, it was just the mini turbine head, which is an older model and not as cool as the tangle-free tool. i almost bought a separate tangle-free turbine tool online, but glad that i didn't (since one came with the vacuum).

as previously mentioned, one thing we noticed was the vacuum gets very hot. maybe it's because the first time we used it, we nearly filled the dust bin with hair and dust, when we should've emptied it much earlier. we ended up having to dig out the clogged hair from the bin with a stick. maybe during that time dust worked its way somewhere into some vents to clogged it up, causing the engine to work harder and hotter. i'll have to check it out tomorrow.

all and all, i like the dyson. not sure about any sort of improved design versus other vacuums, but it has a strong suction, doesn't leak out any dust, and seemed to do a very good job cleaning. out of curiosity, i went back to the living room to vacuum the carpet one more time. i ended up with another bin full of hair and dust. i did it twice more, each time the same result, with only slightly less debris. the vacuum must either be doing an amazing cleaning job or the carpet is absolutely filthy or a little bit of both. i'm hoping to vacuum that carpet enough times so when i vacuum it again it doesn't suck up anything.

after some noodles for dinner i biked back to cambridge around 6:40p. ana wasn't home at the time so i decided to take a quick shower, but just as soon as i threw some clean clothes into the bathroom, she came home, along with her brother, her sister-in-law, and their two kids. they were a human convoy of groceries and other moving items. i've never had a roommate who had so much stuff before. in fact, she has even more, including furniture, which is currently in storage, since she's already lived here for almost a year. i seemed to have a lot of things in the house that caught their attention. they were in love with my remote weather station, and was amazed that i'd lived here for 13 years (do the math, figure out how old i am!). their two girls settled down in the living room, plopped onto the sofas, and ana's sister-in-law had a laugh over the fake centipede toy i glued to the log table.

after they left i took a quick shower. ana spent the rest of the night in the kitchen making dinner (spinach omelette) with her computer blaring some pablo escobar series. she then spent about an hour in the bathroom, with her computer continuing to blare. i don't think her lifestyle is compatible with mine. maybe i might feel better if she paid the rent, which she hasn't yet. i'm too polite to ask, but i have to ask at some point. i'm a terrible landlord. or maybe i just have awful tenants.