from the above photo you can surmise two important things: 1) that my windows need some serious cleaning, and 2) today was warm enough that confused moths were tricked into coming out. the temperature reached the high 40's. just yesterday my sidewalk was covered in ice and i was outside putting down some salt.

while outside bringing in my empty trash and recycle bins, i ran into my next door neighbor renee. she just had her gutters done, and the guys were leaving. "did you do your gutters yet?" she asked. i said no, and she told me i could try asking her crew before they left. sure enough, since they were already here, the guys decided to clean my gutters for $125. i think that's $5 more than what i paid last year but $5 less than what renee paid. they asked if i could make out the check to a person instead, so i think there were doing it under-the-table, but in any case, i got my gutters cleaned. i'm glad that i did, since from inside the house i watched as large clumps of dead leaves and other debris were falling downwards. i wasn't planning on doing my gutters this year because by the time i thought to do it, it was already pretty late in the season (and gutter guys are impossible to book so last minute). besides, once it starts freezing, it's already too late. i wrote a note to my upstairs neighbors telling them how much they owe me (since we split the cost) along with a copy of the invoice. later i got a check in the mail, minus the amount my neighbors paid for some ice melt pellets (even though i already had my own road salt).

just 2 more days before zhu lei moves out. i discussed the logistics with my parents (since they have the car), it's going to happen saturday morning, before the big snowstorm that's supposed to arrive on sunday. i noticed some more annoying things around the kitchen but composed myself knowing that it wouldn't be long before things go back to normal.

my father dropped by in the late afternoon with some food that i had for dinner. he also brought a russell peters dvd he wanted me to copy.