t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


it's already july! the second of the three summer months. in the late morning i started my day by riding down to the porter square star market to pick up some steaks on sale ($5.97/lbs). i got a package of porterhouse and a package of new york strip steaks. i then went to the cafe to drop them off. it got busy and i ended up sticking around until 1:30pm despite having other errands to run. one good thing that came out of it was i ate some leftover pad thai and charsiu pork for lunch.

returning home, i stopped by the community garden to water my plot for the 4th of july long weekend. it was supposed to be a quick in-and-out visit, but ann was there and i got snagged into helping her pound some wooden stakes into her plot with a mallet from the tool shed, and we were also chatting about squash bees and i was pointing out some new flowering plants in my garden. she showed me gretchen's tiger flowers which i'd never seen before, a type of tender perennial bulb related to irises and gladiolas. ann also told me she's into cupping for her digestive problems, and she lances her skin before cupping, drawing out some blood. that's when i saw all the track marks on various parts of her limbs.

as for my own garden plot, at least one of the female squashes have been pollinated successfully and now starting to swell. i'll need to figure out a way to support the growing squash so it doesn't pull down the rest of the trellis. that's one reason to go with a wire mesh trellis, sturdier and no danger of toppling from the weight of vining plants. i think because my garden is so lush (more of a happy accident than by design, also a bit of a hoarding issue, not willing to pull up otherwise healthy plants), it's less prone to drying and the soil stays moist longer. on the flip side, the moist soil provides home for a lot of garden pests, like slugs and snails.

i ended up being in the garden for nearly 45 minutes before riding back home. i stashed the motorcycle and switched to my bicycle, as i finally left for boston by 2:50pm.

did i mention the temperature today reached the 90's? the hot weather doesn't bother me too much, but i feel the blood pulsing in my veins and my body baking under the sun. the heat left me feeling more exhausted than usual, although i tried to make sure i wasn't exerting myself too much.

i made it to ming's market by 3:15pm. what i really want to go is c-mart, but i just go to ming's out of habit. one thing they don't have at ming's (or no longer carries) is indomie mi goreng, and i need to stock up. i got some licorice water-melon seeds and a few other snacks. i also got a small package ($2) of MSG. i needed some (but didn't have) when i was making "flavored" salt for korean blood sausages. i left ming's after 15 minutes of shopping and headed towards haymarket.

nothing too exciting to report from haymarket. a lot of tourists in town this weekend to catch the 4th of july fireworks on monday, but there are always tourists in boston, regardless of occasion. my haul: box of cherries ($4), 2 yellow dragonfruits ($4), 3lbs. of baby cucumbers ($2), 2 boxes of figs ($4), 3 boxes of rose berries ($3), 2 guavas ($3), 2 pineapples ($3).

i left haymarket by 4pm and made the treacherous ride back home. i really should find an easier alternate to get home, that stretch of road - from congress to new chardon to cambridge street to the longfellow bridge is super dangerous. lack of bike lanes and the need to cross lanes of traffic several times plus overall poor road conditions (when they paved cambridge street they did a poor job and the pavement buckles at certain spots) makes for a very harrowing ride. it is however the most direct route. but i'd be willing to add a few extra minutes to my outbound ride if it means less stress. google map has one recommendation that cuts through the west end and crosses over into cambridge by the science museum/galleria mall. i might try it next time.

i got back home by 4:25pm. using my last bit of energy, i shed off my sweat-soaked clothes and hopped into the shower to cool and clean off. oh, i also fast drank two tall glasses of ice tea and could've easily finished the whole carton, i was that thirsty. i weighed myself, i'd shed 3-1/2 lbs. from my weight this morning. weight loss through heat exhaustion!

being that today was 91 degrees felt deserving of some AC action, which i turned on briefly. i love AC but it's so easy to get addicted, and once you turn it on, it's hard to turn off. but i'm trying to have a more comfortable summer, instead of the high temperature endurance challenge that i typically experience at home.

i downloaded the last few episodes of season 1 of evil and finally finished watching it. seems like the big reveal is that this shadowy cabal is creating evil children through in vitro fertilization. i'm now currently downloading season 2 (13 episodes).

for dinner i made another peppered ham sandwich. i have enough ham and bread for one more sandwich, leftovers because i dabbled in some fried chicken midweek. i wonder how long that ham can keep, can i have it for next week?

my stridex pads arrived yesterday, i got them for that weird pimple spot on my nose that doesn't seem to disappear. i haven't used stridex since the early 90's, glad to see they're still around. i remember it used to be basically just alcohol-soaked pads and they hurt your face when you used them. 3 decades later, they seemed to have changed the formulation, they're now alcohol free. i used one after a shower, they smell nice, and they don't hurt like they used to (since no alcohol).