watering plant with fresh snow

the day seemed a little bit different when i only get an hour of sleep. i felt a little light-headed and everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. there's a calmness about today. all my clients have been suspiciously silent. i know if i lie down for a few minutes i'll fall asleep. reminds me of high school chemistry, the example of a super-saturated solution. a gentle shake of the test tube and suddenly solid start precipitating out of the liquid. i felt like that today. it wouldn't take much to push me over. hopefully tonight i'll get a better night's rest.

winter scooter

cucumber gravy noodle

dan & clarissa

so it was the second time this week that i went to bed at 8am after working all night. with fresh snow falling outside, there was a magical quality to the moment, a moment futher enhanced (or dulled) by sleep-deprivation. by the time i woke up (1-2 hours later), the snow had already stopped. my father stopped by briefly to bring me some lunch. i visited dan (home on "maternity" leave) & cymara and their new baby clarissa. she was a little bundled up sausage, alternating between crying and sleeping. i stopped by the super market to pick up some groceries before returning home.

preshave

postshave

julie learning knots

in preparation for my court date next week, i started the clean-up process (which requires several days) by shaving off my beard. i decided to leave a moustache, at least for a few days, just for kicks. a beard i can do; a moustache i can't pull off. the area above my upperlip is sparsingly populated with hairs - the moustache i'm growing now is the same i'd grow at age 14.

potatoes

clam chowder

spicy sweet potato fries

with my brain fried, i was still able to do work, although just the easy stuff. julie came around in the evening for dinner. she practiced making knots while i made spicy sweet potato fries and clam chowder. this was my second time making chowder and i've learned to avoid some earlier mistakes. for one thing, i skinned the potatoes and cut them into smaller pieces - the problem i had the first time was my potatoes were too chunky and too undercooked. this time around, i ended up making a pot of chowder i can be proud of. julie didn't think it was clammy enough (i personally like a chowder that's less clammy) and added some salt to hers (i felt it was salty enough as is). the fries came out well too, although a bit scorched on one side (the side that was facing down, surprisingly). the sugar coating carmelized while the pepper powder made it spicy.