i spent the morning packaging up frances' latest shipment. there was so much stuff, i was afraid it wouldn't all fit in the largest box i had, but once i took the shoes out of their boxes, there was enough room. the last time frances ordered something was back in april. but before i was ready to ship everything out, i rode down to rite aid to pick up a bag of bonus halloween candy for her kids (actually, i went to get some more candy for myself as well).

once that was done, i weighed the box, sealed everything, then paid the postage online, before strapping the package to the back of my bike (nearly 28 lbs.) and riding down all wobbly-like to the porter square post office to ship it. there was a new clerk who was trying to figure out what to do with a prepaid shipment. i patiently waited for her to work through her training, until she finally gave me a receipt.

since it was nearby, i went to michael's to look for some yarn for my mother. she wanted a particular color of yellow for her crochet pikachu dolls. there was however also a 50% off sale on all loops & thread yarn (michael's own brand). i called my mother and sent her some photos. she ended up having a hard time deciding so i picked some colors for her. i left with nearly a dozen skein of yarn. had i known i was going to buy so much i would've brought a bag, but instead had to pay for a paper bag (not sure the rules, why some stores make me pay for bags while others don't).

back at home i changed to my motorcycle then went to the cafe with all the yarn loaded in my backpack. after dropping off the yarn (my mother didn't like them, said they weren't soft enough), i went to belmont to do some yard work, but more importantly, to eat some leftover pizza from yesterday for lunch (around 2:30pm, heated up in the toaster oven for 10 minutes).

i planted my half dozen balloon flower seedlings along the western perennial bed. they should've been planted much earlier (like in the spring), but i was afraid rabbits would eat them so i kept them in containers throughout the growing season, stunting them in the process. hopefully they'll do better now that they're in the ground. balloon flowers are actually pretty hardy, despite their containers getting tipped multiple times and haphazardly repotting them. i also dumped 2 bags of manure into half of the smaller raised bed in order to make a fertile spot to plant the small garlic cloves i pulled up from my community garden plot back in early august. i added a think layer of compost on top as a dressing.

back at home, i did a water change on the aquarium, scooping out as much cyanobacteria growth in the process. i also ordered another 1/2" hose repair kit, this time for the other end of the hose (female), which is also leaking water.

for dinner i finally tried making a burrito with the barbecued pulled chicken i made last night. i steamed a 10" flour tortilla in the microwave with my little steaming container (had to folded the tortilla so it'd fit) but it still came out a little dry, which made it harder to fold. to the tortilla i added 2 slices of american cheese, a heap of white rice, pulled chicken (heated in microwave), black beans (from a can, heated in microwave), chopped lettuce and tomatoes, and a dollop of yucateco habanero sauce. it was pretty good but messy to eat as i didn't fold the burrito very well.

when li returned home in the evening, i made a burrito for him as well as another one for myself. i shouldn't have eaten the second one as i was already quite full, and almost didn't finish it. li went to bed around midnight.

john was supposed to leave brooklyn around 6:30pm, but got delayed and didn't leave until 8:30pm. he ended up arriving at 12:30am. there wasn't a lot of time to chat as we were going to wake up early tomorrow morning for our new hampshire hike, but we finally picked where we wanted to go, the mount morgan and mount percival loop. john crashed on the couch as i retired to my bedroom, alarm set to 5am.