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i went to my community garden plot in the morning to harvest my thai basil plant for my mother, who needed it for something she was cooking. as it's already late in the season and i don't think the basil will be doing very much growing, i decided to pull up the whole plant. unfortunately because it was growing behind a large tomato plant, it didn't get much sun, and there weren't that many leaves. of the leaves that were there were young tender ones. i also collected a quart of cherry tomatoes.

i dropped it off at the cafe (traveling via motorcycle) and picked up 3 tea eggs for my trouble before returning home. by that point - close to noontime - kiki was finally awake. i asked him what he was up to today, he said he had some work to do, and then he was supposed to meet cristina at kendall square at 4:30pm to go kayaking/boating.

i did my own thing, went to market basket to get some groceries, then was in the backyard trying to fix the red schwinn. the rear wheel has a habit of rubbing up against the fender. originally i thought it was just the sides of rubber tire, but turns out it was rubbing up against a nut holding the chrome fender in place. to fix that, i needed to adjust the position of the fender, and the only way to get to that nut was to remove the rear wheel. unfortunately i couldn't take it off, and gave up after a few unsuccessful attempts, reassembling the bike and putting it back in the basement.

around 2:30pm kiki was getting ready to go outside. he wanted to pick up some snacks for their boating trip, and maybe just hang out around the kendall area. i told him if he was interested, i could take him to a secret place to get a 360° panoramic view of boston and the surrounding area. this place was the mt.auburn cemetery tower, and this was my plan all along, before kiki told me had to work. we had 2 hours, which was just enough time to go to mt.auburn cemetery (15 minutes to bike there, another 15 minutes to walk up to the tower), visit a supermarket, and get to kendall square.

it was a beautiful day, temperature in the low 80's, dry, with a blue sky overhead. we biked down brattle street so he could see some of the most historical and expensive mansions in cambridge. when we finally climbed the tower, he seemed pleased with the view. he was surprised this place wasn't mentioned in any of online places he visited about boston. mt.auburn cemetery isn't a big tourist attraction, and tourists who do go there are most likely taken there by locals. i think i only ever brought one other roommate (kazakh) here to mt.auburn cemetery.

leaving the cemetery, we had about 45 minutes left. i ended up taking kiki along the charles river to trader joe's, where we both did some shopping. i got some spicy mango strips and a small baguette. we parted ways there, he continued along the river to kendall square, i went down putnam street back home.

i came home soaked in sweat and went to go take a shower. afterwards i weighed myself: 138.8 lbs. that's probably the lightest i've been in nearly a decade. it's not my real weight though, because my body was so dehydrated from sweating so much. when i came back from southwestern china in 2006, i weighted 135. and after 4 months backpacking in southeast asia, i weighed 125 lbs. now that the weather will be getting colder as we head into winter, i don't expect to see anymore weight loss. typically during the colder months i put on a little bit of weight.

around 8pm i heated up the honey barbecue chicken wings i bought earlier. by 8:30pm they were ready, just in time for the main event of the day, a thursday night football game between the houston texans and the new england patriots. what was special about this game was our rookie backup backup quarterback jacoby brissett was starting, with garoppolo still recovering from his shoulder injury and brady still serving out his 4 game suspension. i went into the game with some worries, but once the game started, it soon became evident that the patriots had the game firmly in control. brissett even ran a 27-yard touchdown. by the second half, i only half-heartedly watched the game which surfing the web. the final score was 27-0, houston was completely shut out. the best part was being able to embarrass texans qb brock osweiler, whom new england fans still remember for beating the patriots last year in the regular season, causing new england to lose home field advantage.

cristina and kiki came home around 10:30pm. instead of kayaking, they rented a boat ($20/hour), and cristina's belgium friend tagged along as well (3rd wheel). cristina and kiki ended up doing most of the rowing. they went to the little islands on the charles by the community boat house, then went back the other way to the locks by the museum of science. afterwards they biked to mission hill to have dinner before coming home.