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today would be the last day of painting before bruce and i go on hiatus, waiting for more renovation work to be done, before returning to painting duty in about a week or two. i met bruce and his special friend jack as i left my house, bruce wanted to show jack jeff's place. we started with the bathroom, using a can of special mildew resistant paint for both the ceiling and the walls. we then moved on to the hallway and the stairwell, putting on a coat of ceiling paint, followed by the wall paint. i edged and cornered, bruce rolled. we listened to the oldies station again, where today they seemed to play only either beatles or supremes songs. when abba's "dancing queen" came on, we cranked up the volume, feeling the beat of the tambourine. jeff also paid us for the work we did last week. after 4.5 hours, we cleaned up and once again left ben to his windows.

lunch was a container of rice noodles my father left here yesterday. i took a walk down to porter square to cash my check and get some money. when i came back, i ate some ice cream and fell asleep on the couch while watching bio-dome. what a crappy movie but check out the supporting players: kylie minogue (during that brief period where she was doing movies), joey lauren adams (the chasing amy girl), rose mcgowan (i love her so much), roger clinton (yes, that roger clinton), and tenacious d (jack black & kyle cass).

my cell phone alarm clock woke me up at 5:30pm. i vacuumed the house a little bit, then waited for julie to come and pick me up. it had started to snow again and julie was still online, telling me about how the falling snowflakes mesmerise her cat. when she finally arrived around 6pm, we drove to arlington, to grab some dinner at the blue ribbon BBQ (908 mass ave). julie had heard good things about this place from our friend rob house, and wanted to try it and see for herself. she did a bit of online research and found some info saying that blue ribbon BBQ is only second to red bones in davis square. i've been to red bones a few times, and i've never found their barbecues to be very inspiring. while riding in the car, i noticed a toilet seat cover in the back seat. "what's that?" i asked. turns out it's called the "hash shit" and it's given out as a badge of shame within her running group, although julie received it for no reason other than the fact that they wanted her to have it. "adults acting like children, great," i said. i also discovered that julie too doesn't floss every night, flossing only when she remembers to. where are these people coming from? i thought everyone flossed.

blue ribbon BBQ looked like a pizza place, a few tables and a row of stools along a front window counter, definitely not a restaurant. the place is loosely decorated with a southern decor (old license plates, a photo of elvis), with framed chalkboard menus hanging from the ceiling. i got the duo platter with texas sliced beef brisket and a piece of red hot smoked sausage, while julie got the duo pulled pork and memphis dry-rubbed barbecued ribs. julie said it was better than red bones, and asked me to rate the barbecue food there. "8? 9?" she inquired. "hmm...more like a 7," i replied. she said i was too picky about my food. there was just way too much meat, and i ended up taking most of it home in a doggy bag.

after dinner, we drove further up mass ave to trader joe's. the first and last time we were here, we were on bikes so we couldn't buy a lot of stuff. tonight with the car, that wouldn't be a problem. i bought some wasabi peas, some rice crackers, another bag of biryani, and a bar of french-imported lavender soap. julie drove me back to cambridge, where i invited her over to watch the red sox game.

the first thing she did was to go into the bathroom and floss, not really to put my mind at ease, but more because she was afraid she had barbecue stuck between her teeth. while watching the game, she revealed something else i never knew about her: she swallows gum. where are these people coming from? although after some online research, the practice doesn't seem to be dangerous, nowhere as bad as not flossing daily. she told me about this magazine all about short haircuts for women, which she used to show her hairdresser the style she wanted when she recently got a haircut. julie also: complained about my coffee table being too short, told me i needed paintings/photos on my bare walls, rummaged through my visual food encyclopedia and asian grocery store demystified, and drank the last bottle of samuel adams. the game against tampa bay was a close one, and looked like it'd drag into extra innings. julie went home, and finally after 16 innings of baseball, the red sox were able to pull out their first win of the new season.

being tomorrow's trash day, i gathered up all the trash bags in the house and went outside to throw them away. i used one of the trash barrels that i haven't used in a while, and boy was i surprised when i saw there was already trash in it! i shudder to think how long that trash has been there. there was an odor but it wasn't too bad. the fact that it's been very cold outside the past few weeks (if not months!) probably froze the trash and kept it from becoming a biohazard.

now that painting is temporarily over, i can sleep late on a weekday again! my shamefully lax life continues once more.