i could not for the life of me make a call to eliza this morning. maybe it had something to do with the rain hampering our cellphone connectivity. i would hear the ring, she'd pick up, but then my phone would immediately cut off. in the pouring rain i walked with an umbrella to star market, where i had to get some groceries for making a lasagna anyway, but i remembered there's a pay phone of some kind. at least there used to be, now there's nothing there. i bought some ingredients then came home. i moved the motorcycle to a new parking spot, out of the pool of water collecting beneath it, threatening to submerge the bike. i tried calling eliza again and was able to get enough of a clear signal standing soaking in the rain to let her know it'd be okay for her to bail out of our movie appointment to go see her sick father instead. back inside the house i changed out of my wet clothes and decided to get wet a second time with a shower. i warmed up some rosemary chicken soup for lunch, watched some television, listened to the hissing of the falling rain outside.

rob returned just in time to see the red sox disintegrate even more against the yankees in this game 2 of the weekend series. the yankees were up in double digits while boston had nothing, with not only a possible yankees shut out but a possible no-hitter as well. if we weren't going to win the game, at least break up the no-hitter against an undeserving pitcher, which was exactly what happened when ortiz stepped up to the plate to jack in a single homerun late in the game.

i was determined to get a new replacement cellphone today. my nokia gets crappy reception, horrible battery life, and uses the old TDSM system. i did some research with at&t wireless online, and found a deal for a sony ericsson T637 camera phone for $80 when i sign up for a single year contract with 600 anytime minutes. i get 700 anytime minutes right now, and i usually use up to 300 minutes, so 700 is more than enough for me. because i've been a loyal at&t customer for the past few years, i thought maybe i could squeeze out a better deal, so since the rain had stopped, i rode the motorcycle to central square, to the nearest at&t wireless store. even though i had a jacket, i was freezing on the bike, a clear sign that fall has arrived. the store was crowded with people waiting in line, and after browsing the display phones, i grew impatient and left. i went to pearl to get some black and white foam paper to be used as photo backgrounds, then went to the atm to cash a check, before riding back home.

i came home and called at&t customer support to ask about special deals. the answer i got was this: even though i was a "highly valued" customer, the fact that i was switching from TDSM to GSM meant i couldn't carry over any sort of accrued minutes from my old account. the price quote i got was more expensive than the online price (and even then i had to do a 2 year plan to get the cheaper deal, although "our online prices are always better," operator tina told me), and before i could ask her anymore questions, my phone died on me once more. that was the straw that broke the camel's back. armed with a credit card, i went back online and ordered the phone upgrade. by next week i should be rocking with the T637.

around 7pm i started making my lasagna, knowing that it'd probably take 2 hours before i would be able to eat it. to spice things up, i chopped up some mushrooms and tossed it into the simmering pasta sauce. while that was going on, i cooked the lasagna noodles, to coincide with the cooking time for the sauce. i layered the lasagna in my rusty brownie pan (heavily covered in tinfoil to mask the rust), then threw it into the oven for 45 minutes. rob and i entertained ourselves with a history channel documentary about card counting, a topic that rob is intimately familiar with, having devised his own card counting technique for a mohegan sun exclusive game. the lasagna was ready just in time for the miss america pageant at 9pm.

we didn't get too long a chance to watch the pageant however; after we finished eating, i went with rob to a birthday party on the posh mt.auburn side of cambridge. it was the 30th birthday of eliza's friend alison, and about 25 people were there to celebrate, a wine and cheese kind of party. dave and jerica greeted us at the door, and we met eliza inside the house, sporting a black wig. i totally know what that's like, sometimes you want a little attention, i should've unleashed my red pants on an unsuspecting party audience. most of the other people i didn't know, and there was little effort made for friendly cross-pollination, as they seemed settle in their own social circles. after the cake was brought out and cut, the crowd started to thin out as folks said their good byes and left.

the jamaica plain contigency was one of the last to go. and what a motley crew they (we) were: former and current roommates, former and current coworkers, high school and college classmates, and friends and lovers. there are so many variations in the degrees of separation of our little clique that it boggles the mind. david entertained us with his piano playing virtuosity, while we collectively soaked in the soothing 80's music nostalgia hot tub, casting out songs from our past to get him to play, sometimes not knowing the words but describing the songs through hums. lionel ritchie, george michael, phil collins, howard jones, we touched them all just as they touched us 2 decades ago. occasionally we'd break into songs, and even rob surprised us with his singing talents. i never realized it, but david reminds me of italian actor/director robert benigni, that infectious hyperkineticness. while at other parties people might have stereo music to spice up the evening, we had the human jukebox on piano. approaching midnight, we all left, eliza taking home a plate of cookies.

we came home, and popped jean-luc goddard's band of outsiders into the dvd player. rob rented the movie after hearing quentin tarantino mention it in a commentary for chungking express, about french new wave films. we got through about halfway before rob looked like he was dozing off so i put the movie on pause while he stumbled half-asleep into his bedroom. i futzed around a little bit more, writing this weblog entry, and am only going about to go to bed.