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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Perpetually Post-Dated.

I seem to be one day behind.

This is for yesterday, Tuesday, April 6, 2010.

Woo.

So I biked myself home in the morning, around 7:15 AM, took a short nap, and then got myself into work by about 9:00 AM.  Not bad.  The day went fairly well, as I recall.  I sorted out some bits with the integration I'm working - the majority of it is in pretty decent shape now.  I stayed at work until approximately 6:00 PM.  I was scheduled to meet Julia and her friend Grace at 6:30 PM in Central.  I left the office at the same time as Hillary - she on foot, me on my bike - and she had the very smart idea that I ride over to Central along the river, rather than through the city streets.  Excellent.  I took her advice, and decided part way there that I'd just show up at Julia's school to meet Grace and her, rather than stand around Central waiting for them.

So I biked on over, stood around for a few, got a call from Jason, re: Magic cards at Newbury Comics, and then got a call from Julia.

They must have walked right by me - cause they were already at Central.  I said a quick, "Oh!  Be right there!", and biked up Magazine to Central, and found the two of them standing around near the corner of Mass Ave. and Prospect.

I tied my bike up to a tree on Prospect, and we went to The Field for some food and bee-ahs.  I'd never been in there!  Nice little spot.  We got a rockin' table in the corner.  I had a veggie burger.  It was Morningstar Farms, far as I could tell.  Their fries were good, though.  (And the burger wasn't bad, just not really noteworthy either).

After an hour or so, Julia/Grace's friend Devin showed up as well, and we all hung out for a while longer.  At some point we took our leave of The Field (and Devin - she had to go) and took the T back to Harvard, then walked over to Julia's place.  There was a bit of drinking of the whiskey.  Rather than bike home, I just resolved to spend a second night over there.  Yay, path of least resistance!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Being for the benefit of April 5th

This is for yesterday.

Yesterday was an awesomely productive day.

Like, whoa.

I woke up at 9:15 AM.  For a moment there I wrote PM, and that just didn't sound right at all.

I promptly set up my new/old whiteboard above my dresser and made myself a little list.

I think, during the course of the day, I finished every reasonable thing on the board.

I spent some time cleaning the apartment.  I finished my taxes.  I put away my laundry.  I finished and sent off my Lady Bird solo well before class time.  I found out what I needed to do to cancel my BSC membership.  I had a delightful breakfast and lunch.  I cleaned out some old boxes and things and threw out a ton of cardboard products I don't need.  I consolidated some Magic card boxes.  I recycled a giant stack of New Yorkers.  I started our census form and left it out for the other guys to notice (and they did).  I think I got some work done on the evaluation page for Dave, though I can't remember.  More on that later anyway.

At around 5:30 or so I left the apartment and headed over to NEC for class.  Both went pretty well, though some of the stuff around minor 2-5-1's was kinda confusing.  We're getting good penetration into the NEC community with Noteflight, far as I can tell.  Like half the class submitted their Lady Bird assignments using it.  Joel seemed totally okay with that.

After class (8:35 PM), I high tailed it back to Cambridge, snagged some ice cream from Gourmet Express, and rode over to Julia's for Focus, Get Shit Done, And Eat Ice Cream time.  (My name for it that I just came up with, not the agreed upon name.)  And we GSDAEIC.  Pretty good!  I worked more on the evaluation page(s), Julia read some articles for her class.  Around 12:30 AM or so, I resolved to just stay there for the evening rather than bike home.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

A Nor'Easter? Except without the snow.

Doh.  12 seconds too late to post on Sunday.

Oh well!

Today was, I think, productive for a Sunday.  I hear I probably wasn't supposed to work today, but I did, a bit.  Pretty good.

I woke up at 9:15 of my own volition, stumbled downstairs to my parents' living room, had a lovely little breakfast of yogurt and granola, and then set about considering what I might do with my morning.

I eventually ended up working a bit on the evaluation PHP page for Dave, as well as pulling together some stuff for yonder Lady Bird solo.  I also played a bit of Starcraft II (Protoss) against some computers.  At least I can win that.

Around 1:00 PM, Mom and I took a short drive down the hill to Starbucks, cause I wanted coffee.  Then we had a nice chat in the car for a few minutes before taking the Overland Route back up to their house.  I almost just said apartment for some reason.  Augh, I've spent too long in the city.

Sometime in the afternoon I helped Dad fold up some big piece of netting he was using to keep birds off his strawberries.

For dinner, we had a stir-fry inspired by the one I made the other day.  It was tasty - good job, Dad!

In the evening I talked to Mr. Zoffer twice to ask him random questions about the PHP page I'm making.  Around 6:40 I talked to Chris and we decided I wouldn't bother to go over to his place - by the time I got there, the boys would have been asleep, and Chris said there was probably no guarantee he wouldn't be as well.

At 7:30 PM or so, I decided it was about time I got on the road back towards home so that I could have Monday to get stuff done around the city.  By 8:15 PM, I'd packed up the car and gotten myself ready to go.  I said my goodbyes and hit the road with less than half a tank of gas.

There was a surprising number of random traffic jams, but otherwise fine traffic.  It ended up taking me until 11:30 PM to get home, with a stop for gas.  That's an unacceptable amount of hourage.  Ouch.  Oh well, it was a nice drive.  I listened to Andrew Bird, My Brightest Diamond, and Violent Femmes along the way.  I think there was something else I started in on briefly, but I can't remember it.

Anyway, home now, with all the windows in my room open.  BEAUTIFUL out.  Someone replaced our shower curtain with a greenish blocky one with palm trees on it, and put my white one up in the closet.

I approve.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Backwards Day

Got back to my parents' place about half an hour ago.  I'd been at my brother's, hanging out, watching YouTube videos of John Zorn in his various incarnations through the years.  On the way home I listened to Melt-Banana, as it reminded me of him.

I got there after the boys had gone to sleep; Aleksandra was still out at an Easter service, so we sat and talked about some books we'd been reading.

On the drive over, I listened to Joanna Newsom, in stark contrast to later-in-the-night's Melt-Banana.  Prior to the drive from Oxford to New Haven, I took myself a lovely little hour nap from 6:30 to 7:30 or so.  It was great.  Part of me didn't want to bother to get up.  It had been a long afternoon.  We went to a little church out in Easton at noon for their annual Blessing Of The Easter Baskets, which is apparently an eastern European tradition.  After the service, we went to Aleksandra's parents house for a lunch of blessed food.  I became blessedly stuffed.  After a little lunch, we went out into the yard and kicked a few soccer balls around.  The boys came and went periodically - usually when they caught the ball they just held on to it and ran around.

For a few minutes, we played tag, with them trying to tag me with the ball.  Being the master dodgeballer that I am, and being so good looking and fleet of foot, eventually they had to tell me I couldn't run.  Then they told me to slow down.

It's not lost on me that they're only four.  I just didn't want to get tagged!

I also took two separate, small, short naps at Aleksandra's parents' house.  They were wonderful too, though less effective with all the activity.

In the morning, I had a little bowl of yogurt, Craisins, and granola for breakfast.  I also installed Starcraft II on my dad's laptop and played half of a game against some computers.  I was going to win - I can tell. They were listed as "very easy" computers, cause that was the only option.

I woke up today around 9:15, feeling pretty good.  Turned out to be a pretty nice, beautiful day.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Beautiful day for a drive to Connecticut

Today was wicked long.

It started at 6:00 AM.  I woke up and got ready for our run at 6:30 AM or so.  By 6:41 AM, I started to wonder where Julia was.  I swore she had said that we should leave from my place in the morning at 6:30.  Apparently, now that I look back at it, she said "how about leaving your place at 6:30," which implied I should leave my place at 6:30 to get to her place so we could go for a run from there.  Oops.

So at 6:42 AM or so I was beginning to have an inkling of this, so I hopped on my bike and rode over on a hunch, figuring that if she was on her way over, we'd run into each other along the way.

Needless to say, I found her outside her apartment wondering where in the world I was.

Oops.

So!

We went for a run.  From her place down along the river to Western Ave., then up Western to Green Street, back along Green towards Harvard Square, ending at the corner of Mt. Auburn and JFK.  It was at this point that Julia offered to buy us some coffee/pastry, lovely girl that she is.  I happily agreed to her proposal.  At this point, I was getting annoyed at my legs for their general inability to run properly.  It was kinda annoying, and I was glad to convert brewing annoyance into brewing coffee.

After that, we walked back to her place, sat around for a few with our breakfasts, listened to a few tunes, and then around 8:20, went along our merry ways.  I started to ride back home, and decided on a whim to ride over to Fresh Pond instead.

I took the back roads over to 16 and then found my way in, and had a wonderful time riding around the pond.  It was great - the weather was absolutely perfect.

After that, I rode home, showered, and set about packing up some stuff to head down to Connecticut for the weekend.

I always kinda like it when you're going to your parents' place and you have no clothes to wear, because you can usually just throw all your dirty laundry in a thingy, throw the thingy in the car, and leave without bothering to pack a thing.

This is what I did.

Well, with respect to clothes, anyway.

I brought a guitar and computer, otherwise, along with my leftover stir-fry from the other night for lunch.

At approximately 10:02 AM I set out from my apartment, took route 2 out to 128, 128 to 90, 90 to 84, 84 to 8.  I got here in about two hours and fifteen minutes (which is pretty good).  I arrived at, well, 12:15 PM or so, much to my parents' surprise.  They thought I'd probably still be sleeping at that point.

I hung around home for a while, almost took a nap, and went with my Dad to the grocery store instead.  We got supplies for tomorrow.

After that, there are a few hours that are kinda a blur.  I talked with Mom for a while about Facebook.  I played a little Braid.  Chatted with Julia on the lines.  I played some guitar.  Oh!  I did my laundry (woo!).

Around 6:00 PM or so we had a little dinner of some sandwiches made out of some crazy bread my Dad baked (garlic, cheese, onion bread).  It had just come out of the oven and was delectable.  Delectable.

After that, we went over to Chris and Aleksandra's!  Got there around 7:00 PM or so.  The boys were still up - I read them a story about Napkin Rabbit before they went to sleep.  Aleksandra was out at a choir rehearsal, but eventually came home and we had a tasty dessert of ice cream, cinnamon bread, and some crazy fruit/lemon meringue stuff my Dad made (also today).  It was great.

Then the Canasta tournament began.

Chris and I, on a team, got pummeled.  The score was about 5000 to 4000 at the end after 3-4 rounds, and it was only that close because Chris and I got 2400 points all at once in the last round.  We were utterly destroyed the other three rounds.  Bad, bad luck.

Anyway, after that we drove back to Mom and Dad's.  And now I'm here.  The end.  Holy crap I'm tired.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Attempts and success

We attempted to go for a run this morning.

We really did.

Julia ran up to my place from her's (good on her!), and then we set out down Mass. Ave. towards Harvard Square.  Somewhere around Linnean, there was a solid yellow talk-to-the-hand crosswalk signal staring at us very sternly, so we took a right down the street.  Coolness - yay adventure.

So we were heading down Linnean for a piece, and passed this massive oak tree.

I mean, it was effin' big.

So we stopped.

And we walked up to it.

And Julia tried to hug it for fun, but it was so big and had such large roots she couldn't even get in close.

... And then we just never quite started running again.

Instead, we took a leisurely stroll through West Cambridge, looking at the houses and flowers (of which there were many.  Of both.)  Very pleasant.

Eventually we made our way back to my place, briefly discussed Wilco, and then she grabbed her bike from the other day and we went on with our days.

Following that, I got my act together and shipped myself off to work on the T, after a brief stop in Harvard Square (Yes, Dado) for coffee and a scone.  Reena was working (I believe that's your name!  I apologize if I'm off!  It was a while ago when I heard it).  She gave me lots of coffee.  This served me well.

Work went pretty well - I didn't really take any time for lunch - I wolfed it down in like 5 minutes before a meeting (penne pasta from 2nd Street!  It was quite delicious).  The meeting ran from 12:00 noon until 1:00 PM.  After that, I made some great progress on my project (hooked up a whole catalog feed export/FTP system.  Rockin'!), so I eventually decided to take my success and head home a smidge early.  This time was well spent.  It gave me a few hours to work on some software for Dave so he can 21st Centurize how NEC collects information prior to student evaluations.  I made some good progress.

At 7:30 PM or so, I left home and headed over to Brookline for a lesson.  We actually ended up talking about software and such for about 40 minutes, then had only 20 minutes of lesson cause his next student showed up on time.  Doh.  Well, we'll make it up sometime.  I'm sure he's aware of it.

Anyway, now I'm back home.  I got some lovely lemon ginger tea at the store the other day, which I've been sitting here, sipping.  But, given the time, I do believe it's getting close to bed time.  I think we're going to try to go for a 6:30 AM run tomorrow, rather than 7:00 AM.  Watch out, now!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

An Afterthought

Blogger.

Blogging.

Right.

Today we went for a good river run.  Down to Western Ave, back to Julia's.  A solid 3.2.

Once in the office, I figured out two of the remaining barriers to my completing my current project at work.    Not too shabby.  I'm still moving along at a lovely rate, far as I'm concerned, despite other, various, unexpected-yet-high-priority drains on my time the past few days.  Yay!

I left work tonight at around 7:00 PM and walked to Central Square, talking to my brother on the phone.  He says he (and the family) are planning on going to London next summer.  I'm so in.  Apparently Aleksandra's choir will be singing there, somewhere.  The Harry Potter cathedral (Hogwarts).  Sounds good to me.

From Central I took the T back up to Porter, got home, and proceeded to stir-fry up some goodness:

1. Tofu
2. Baby Corn
3. Broccoli
4. Water Chestnuts
5. Yellow Pepper
6. Portabella Mushrooms

Chop up vegetables.  Saute tofu in hot chili oil until browned.  Add veggies.  Let sizzle.  Add spicy Szechwan sauce.  Let sizzle.  Eat.  Wondrous.

After that, I proceeded to clean up my office.

And start my taxes.

And then play guitar for 10 minutes.

Not a bad day - I even did productive things with my evening.