in my dreams the same architecture keep coming up. in this one my upstairs neighbors has a first floor unit as well, but they never use it, even though it's fully furnished. it's actually separate from the rest of the house except by its own front door entrance. in my dream, somehow i get to it by climbing through a circular air vent (apparently my dream self doesn't have claustrophobia). inside a find a black woman wearing all white. neither of us are surprised, as we chat about the property. suddenly the front door opens, and an old man who looks exactly like judd hirsch comes in. seeing us, he makes a rapid apology and closes the door, thinking that maybe he got the wrong place, but chances are he's probably in the right, as my friend here is actually squatting. this is the same dream house that had more hidden rooms, like a cavernous cellar with cathedral ceilings.

i did some light cleaning this morning, spraying some degreasing solution on the wooden kitchen floor to get rid of the slippery oil deposit i keep stepping on. the carpet? the small one i might be able to throw in the washer (or take it to the laundromat and wash it there). only then did i use the bathroom and take a shower. my tree cuts still hurt. there are also places on my upper thighs that are painful, from where i was leaning on the ladder and the branches.

the gods of roommates semi-answered my prayers: although lauryn was still home when i woke up this morning, she soon left after (9:45am) after i finished showering. i wonder what she does in her bedroom all weekend? far as roommates go, she's pretty considerate, cleans up after herself, doesn't make any noises. if she can renounce her frying ways, that would definitely move her up in the all-time roommate ranking.

i had just enough time to use the bathroom in peace before leaving for belmont about an hour later. today was another hot day, with temperature in the 80's. we have enough from last weekend's supply run that we didn't need to go this weekend, so today was a "free" day.

first order of business was following my father in the other car so he can drop off the toyota at the mechanic to get the two front tires replaced. it will probably be more expensive had we just taken the car down to costco, but it might take as long as two weeks for the tires to arrive at costco, and only then can we make the installation appointment. we need the car fixed by the last weekend of june, since we're driving down to flushing to visit my big aunt for 2 days. to make it more worthwhile, my father asked the mechanic to also check the timing belt.

my father and i used the dollar store jute twine i brought to tie up all the cut yew branches into bundles so we can throw them out tomorrow. my arms were still raw from yesterday's arboreal lashing, and i quickly ran inside to put on a long-sleeved shirt. because one car was at the mechanic, there was enough driveway space to stack up the branch bundles, so we wouldn't have to put them on the lawn. a single ball of twine was more than enough to tie up all the branches with plenty left over (i bought 3 balls).

after we were done tidying up the branches, we reinforced the eastern wooden swing door with a combination of old screws, new screws, and scrap wood. my father was using the regular ryobi drill for the screws, which has a tendency to slip when it encountered any kind of resistance. i got my sister's bosch impact driver, which was so much easier to use for driving in screws. however the drill bit kept falling out, and my father even mentioned it seemed like a design flaw, at least make the head magnetic. only later did we find out that the head actually has a quick release feature, activated by pulling on the hex drive.

while we were finishing up, my father spotted a large rabbit again in the southwestern corner of the yard. we were getting ready to drive it out, before it slipped underneath a tree stump and disappeared. that hole i plugged up a large stone brick? well, the rabbit simply dug a new hole next to that. i replugged the hole using another brick and a piece of tree stump. it makes me wonder if the reason why the rabbit keeps on returning to our backyard is because it has a nest here. it did dig a hole in the middle of the lawn before stuffing it with grass. fortunately it was empty and we just filled the hole back up with soil.

my mother made me some more rice noodles for lunch. she was also slow cooking some beef and daikon stew on the stove, and i got to try some later. in the mini instant pot, my father was cooking some ing er mushroom soup.

i went out by myself in the early afternoon to prune the lilac bush. basically i was cutting off all the dead flower heads (so the plant doesn't waste energy producing seeds) and cutting off any branches that i thought was too tall. at one point i used my belt to tie some branches together so i could get better access to the dead flowers while perched on a ladder. my father came out while i was nearly finished. i asked him to water the garden as there was a forecast of rain for tonight and tomorrow morning, so we wanted to use up as much rain barrel water as we can since it's going to fill up again.

i mixed a bucket of acid-loving fertilizer and used it first to water the orchids, which i've finally decided to leave outside, before using the remaining fertilizer on the jasmines and gardenia. a few of the orchids had mealybugs, which i sprayed with neem oil before rinsing off with the garden hose. hopefully being outside will finally take care of the mealybug issue. i've already seen some long-legged flies and robberflies, as well as ladybug larvae around the garden.

my sister stopped by with hailey, because contractors were working on resurfacing her walls and later repainting. hailey spent half her time outside in the backyard enjoying the weather and half the time inside where she slept.

my 2nd uncle unexpectedly showed up at the house today uninvited. we thought maybe something was wrong, but he came by to deliver some more prescription drugs for my 2nd aunt because he forgot to include them last time (once again forcing me to commit felony by mailing drugs using USPS). he walked nearly 3 miles from his house to belmont, which must've taken him at least an hour (and then another hour to walk back). he could've called and i could've just as easily picked it up on my way home. of course i didn't know any of this at first, and i thought it was just strange, maybe even sinister, that he would just show up unannounced. i kept waiting for sounds of screaming coming from inside the house, so when i heard my mother speaking loudly, i quickly went back inside to investigate. by that point my 2nd uncle had already left, and my mother was on the phone speaking with my 2nd aunt, reporting what had happened. my mother told her we were coming down to flushing in 2 weeks via car, which my 2nd aunt said was great news, because now we can drive into manhattan. my mother suggested that my 2nd aunt come back with us, since a few days afterwards my big aunt returns to taiwan. if my 2nd aunt comes with us, she doesn't have to navigate back to midtown and pay for the bus to take her back to boston a few days later.

my father rigged up some twine for the hop bines to climb. the twine we had last year were all cut down when we cleaned up the dead bines. while he did that, i did some weeding, pulled up greater celandines, creeping bellflowers, swallow-worts, nightshade, and whatever else that looked weedy. i found a ripe golden raspberry and ate it. i planted the geraniums and impatiens in the two wooden flower boxes i found. finally my father and i used the clear epoxy (25ml $7) to glue the broken blue plastic adirondack lawn chair back together again. i'd never worked with clear epoxy before, it came in a syringe that squirted out two liquids that i mixed into a sticky gel. supposedly it sets in 5 minutes and cures in an hour. when we came out to check on it a few hours later, the epoxy seemed pretty firm but was still slightly soft to the touch. we'll let it cure for a few more days before trying out the chair. my father wants to apply some of the grey epoxy in the back of the cracks, to give some extra reinforcement (and because we know the grey epoxy works very well).

my mother decided she was going to go have hot pot again (spring shabu shabu). she said we were all going without asking us first, so naturally i decided not to go, since we already have so much to eat at home. so she ended up going with my sister, and i think they also invited my sister's godmother again. that left my father and me and hailey at home. we were told not to feed hailey (since my sister would feed her later, a very complicated regimen). my father reheated the beef stew and we had it with rice around 5pm, plus some leftovers from yesterday.

i returned to cambridge by around 6:30pm. lauryn was already home, and given the faint smell of cooked food, she'd already ate dinner as well. i didn't see her the rest of the night. she only came out of her room once to take a shower before going to bed. the girl doesn't even leave her bedroom to use the bathroom, must have a very strong bladder, or is just very dehydrated all the time. i took a shower when i got back, changed out of my sweaty clothes. i have new cuts on my forearms, lilac bushes are no joke. i don't want to prune another bush for a very long time.

tonight was game 5 of the NBA finals. in true champion form, the nuggets beat the heat to win the championship. miami didn't make it easy, and actually led by a point going into halftime. but in the second half denver upped their game, and the nuggets were just more accurate, bigger, faster, more skilled. miami ran out of answers, but put up a valiant fight, gave the spectators a worthy show. jimmy butler was all class, stayed on the court congratulating the nugget players. the denver nuggets win their first NBA championship. nikloa jokic wins his first NBA finals MVP. jeff green - former celtics! - win his first championship as well, i happy for him. local hoopster bruce brown jr. also wins a first championship, representing boston.

sometime around 10:30pm i heard the patter of hard rain beating against the side of the house. it must've last for about half an hour. frankly, i wasn't expecting much rain given the recent forecast, which said only 1/10th inch of rain between tonight and tomorrow morning. but the rain that i heard most definitely gave us more than that. that's just the first round. another batch will arrive here around dawn. i personally welcome night rain; leaves the daytime dry so i can still do stuff.