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being a freelancer means having this tremendous amount of freedom, which i exercised this morning when i didn't bother going into the office (instead, burying my head into the pillow and sleeping until i was drunk with slumber, how many times have you ever wished you could do that, hmm?). not that there was much work for me anyway; things have died so much now that i had to call the unemployment office to reinstate my benefits (in order to have money enough to pay bills), and nobody from the office contacted me anyway even though i was online for most of the day. it feels like this structure that i'd known for the past few months is now disappearing, not that it's a bad thing, but suddenly i have so much free time i don't know what to do with myself.

i decided to catch up on a few errands: sent a copy of the latest invoice to todd. called citimortgage regarding a home equity loan. mailed off some letters. clean the house a little bit. set up some voice commands for my phone and attached some photos to people in the addressbook. i actually kept myself fairly busy the first few hours, and didn't eat lunch until almost 2pm, flipping the channels on the television.

having visited that quaking bog this past weekend has fueled my obsession with bogs that much more. i spent a good deal of time researching online places nearby i can go to see bogs. apparently there's one in concord (a few towns over) called gowing's swamp, also (better) known as thoreau's bog since he spent a lot of time there during his hiatus from civilization. i looked everywhere for information as to its location but it seems to be a well-guarded secret. all i know is it's in the most remote part of concord, it takes 2 hours hiking to get there, and it's surrounded by dense vegetation and a marshy moat. what else i found: there's a nuclear waste dump on 2229 main street (concord), home to a cranberry bog, but also the resting place of several thousand canisters of radioactive waste used in manufacturing depleted uranium munition.

i went to microcenter to return the useless wireless antenna, then bought myself a discounted "returned merchandise" kvm switch for my mac/pc setup at home (belkin, $64, i'm going to write it off as a business expense). i stopped by briefly at the cafe, picking up some bubble ice tea while i was there, leaving in the nick of time right before a metermaid could write me a ticket. i hooked up the switch which works flawlessly, much better than the free kvm alex gave me, which wasn't properly shielded and resulted in ghost images on the monitor. my only complaint is that the software toggle works only for PC's, so i had to toggle manually with an awkwardly located button underneath the desk.

and finally, to top off the day, i went out running, bum knee and all. some nice looking college girls, but today was more about the guys, the harvard track team must be practicing, as packs of topless men all sweaty and tanned and lean circled the river, their t-shirts tucked to the waistband of their track shorts. i went at my own safe pace, stopping only once to soak myself thoroughly at the drinking fountain, continuing the rest of the way refreshed from my quick outdoor shower.

in the evening rob and i watched the red sox game (victory over the tampa bay devil rays, clinching the AL wild card spot), he had his chicken pot pie, i had my frozen chinese dumplings. when the game was over, rob was in the mood for some french new wave cinema (just like how some people might be in the mood for a midnight snack) and we went out to pick up some movies from hollywood express down the street, but the pot pie didn't agree with him and he had to go back home while i went to video store. the godard movie he wanted (le petit soldat) wasn't there, so i went with french-belgium toto the hero (tape). as for myself, i got cabin fever (dvd), a movie i'd wanted to see for a long time. originally the second choice was supposed to be a russ meyer's film (probably supervixens) but they only had his movies on VHS and i'm a digital quality snob. with my 2-for-1 coupon the movies came out to be $4.50.

i was surprised that rob had seen cabin fever before, so i put in toto instead, which he hasn't seen. now there's only a handful of french movies i like, and toto is one of them, the story of an old man who believes that he was switched at birth with the boy across the street (who, by the way, would make a nice candidate as the antichrist) and that he should've had the life of privilege instead a life of bitter tragedy one after another. it's a great movie, told in a non-linear way, with four different timelines: the old man as a boy (who falls in love with his older "sister" who is a young kleptomaniac pyro), the old man as a middle-aged man (who meets a woman who resembles his sister), the old man as himself in the present (institutionalized in an old age home), and the old man as "toto", this fantasy spy hero who rescues the day in his imagination. it's a dark comedy, but the kind of film that makes you laugh at one moment, but cry the next, touching, poignant, a must-see for anyone who's never seen it, plus it features a really catchy french song which you'll be humming long after the movie's over.

rob went to bed right afterwards, leaving me the last man standing to close out the evening. the SRM testing team did find a bug in the code today, i could fix that, leaving me free again tomorrow, where i've already picked a new naturing place i want to go: ponkapoag bog in the blue hill area (milton). i heard it's going to rain though, heavy at times, but that just creates more dramatic photomaking. the place is wet though, and i'd hate to fall through the bog since i can't swim and all.