how that number entered my head i'm not sure, i think i might've mistakenly applied the "no swimming after eating" rule to running as well. i noticed my next door neighbor jeff had slipped a christmas card into my mail slot this morning, a b&w photo of a young iron-clad anthony quinn on the cover (a scene from la strada, 1954), the picture's subtle allusion to the holiday season completely lost on me. close to noon eliza called, apologizing profusely and saying how she was just leaving jamaica plains. like i'm going to get angry if a young woman comes late! 20 minutes later my doorbell rang, eliza arrived with a large backpack, which i assumed (incorrectly) was her change of clothes.
after temporarily being sucked into a bit of television watching (ocean's eleven was on one of the movie channels, i said brad pitt was a one trick pony, eliza came to his defense with "12 monkeys" and said it was a good trick), we were out on our way (i was already dressed, blue shorts and a black turtleneck, 40 degrees outside). i had an unexpected endurance which was surprising because i haven't ran since december 2nd, 20 days ago, and as i recall, it was a pitiful run, almost unworthy of mention (except the fact that i was able to motivate myself to run solo), whatever miniscule muscles i built up already degraded back to fat tissue. today was the official first full day of winter, and out on the charles river, not too many were running, a dozen at most. topics of conversation included the etiquette of gift wrapping, sled buying, the meaning of sarcasm, and the secret of job hunting. after a loop which i'm guessing to be 2-3 miles, we walked back to my place.
while eliza showered, i was in the kitchen making smoo - i mean - fruit elixirs. when she got out, OH NO YOU DIDN'T, GIRL! 
we were wearing the exact same outfit! red pants, black top. it was kind of embarassing and weird at the same time. we drank pink elixirs in my matching pink kitchen, sharing cooking tips. just two erstwhile coworkers dressed like twins chatting it up on a leisurely sunday. eliza asked if i had a blowdryer; the only thing i had was a small old nissan brand blowdryer (before they started making automobiles) that i keep in the closet out of shame, which i let her use anyway (she remarked it was amazingly quiet). we migrated back into the living room, where ocean's eleven was still playing. before eliza left (for a gift wrapping party, hence the large backpack), we shared a packet of christmas season poptarts, medium toasted.
on a call from my father, i preheated the oven before he showed up minutes later on my doorstep with a gigantic turkey marinating in a large pot. this turkey was actually larger than the turkey we had for thanksgiving, when we had 10 friends and family members in my house. tonight, with only 5 people eating, the turkey is inversely larger! after throwing the bird into the oven, my father left to go back to work, while i hunkered down in the guest bedroom (which has become my temporary reading room) and plowed through some more of nick twisp (page 385, i'll finish it off tonight, a mere 100+ pages to go).
before 6pm, there was a knock on my door then suddenly my mother, father, and aunt came into my house, each carrying bags and buckets of food. 
my aunt cornered me in the reading room and forced me to take some gift money for christmas, despite my frantic screaming for help from my mother. okay, i thought we had a deal! i wouldn't give her a present, she wouldn't give me one either. but this voids that contract, 
i am now obligated to get my aunt something this christmas. when the turkey finished cooking, we ate at the dining table in the kitchen. my sister showed up just when we were about to dig in. i only had three turkey rolls, i just didn't have a big appetite tonight despite all that running. when the feast was over, my parents divvied up the turkey, leaving half of it for me to eat for the next week or so.
after my parents left, i was finally able to set up the php blog server (pMachine) on my os x running machine. the instructions that i had from an old issue of macaddict wasn't quite adequate, 
and i had to supplement that information with some online searching. chmod 666 index.xml and chmod 755 uploads directory. yeah, i know, it's so obvious, right? if i didn't have at least a rudimentary knowledge of unix commands from my college days, i'd have never been able to solve the problem. despite the complexity, after playing around with the system for a little bit, it kind of grew on me. and the fact that the latest os x version of AIM now supports buddy icons and transcript logs, all added to my feel good experience. after using the apple mail, i'm thinking i might want to switch over to os x now. that is, if i can get a copy of os 10.2. i'm not going to pay $100 to "upgrade."