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since i went to bed so late last night, i felt obligated to wake up late as a consequence. david was missing, off to chat with his advisor one last time, clean up his lab, and fedex his crystal samples to spain.

my whole day was geared towards seeing david off. with him missing, i went out to run some errands: get some snacks from rite aid and some groceries from market basket. i returned home and made some apple chicken sausage oatmeal for a late lunch.

david finally returned home around 2:00. while he was packing his suitcases, i went out to shovel some melting snow to make a parking spot for my bicycle by my usual signpost. i ran into dennis and told him about the elm tree that's coming down this friday. noticing the camera mount on my bike, he asked if i had a gopro camera. he showed me his own P&S, a nikon coolpix AW110 (in black), a 5x zoom waterproof camera with a GPS and an attached polarizing filter (through a filter adapter). since we were showing off our equipments, i whipped out my panasonic ZS20.

originally i thought david's plane was leaving at 11:00 in the evening, but he told me last night they changed the departure time (air iberia has been experiencing some instability due to a worker strike) to 6:30 instead. he called a taxi around 3:30 but it didn't arrive until almost 4:00. he was taking a taxi instead of the subway because he had too much luggage. david wore his knee brace, which he had from a past accident. it wasn't like his knee was injured or anything, but he wanted to bring the brace back to spain and there was no more room in his suitcases, so he figured he'd wear it during the flight. he told me the one advantage this might have is they might let him board earlier figuring he's a handicapped person.

it's not like i won't see david again: he'll return to cambridge in may and july, and i told him i'd try to reserve my guest bedroom for him, provided i don't get any other roommates. he's such an easy roommate though, at this point i'd let him have the room.

david didn't leave much behind, considering he was only here for 2 weeks. most of the stuff he did leave behind he actually asked me first, so they were more like gifts than genuine abandoned articles. the only items that were truly forsaken were the containers of olive oils and vinegar and a bottle of body wash.

i left soon afterwards. my mother was still at the cafe and told me to meet her there so we could bike back to belmont together. my aunts and uncles were also there, a convergence of relatives. arriving in belmont, i checked out my sister's new room. i tried out her new bed which wasn't bad considering how little she paid.

we ate dinner late since everyone seems to be still on the old pre-daylight saving schedule. i biked back to cambridge afterwards, knowing i'd be returning to an empty house.

i returned home with my wattage meter, determined to figure out how much electricity my old 1987 princess series whirlpool refrigerator uses. at idle it consumes 4.7 watts, but during the cooling cycle it jumps up to 184 watts. i found out through an appliance database that this 14.34 cu.in fridge (64x28x29") uses on average 884 kWh. it's actually the more energy conserving model of the series, but still no match for a modern day energy star refrigerator. just doing a cursory search for something of a similar size reveals energy consumption at least half if not less. it makes me seriously consider replacing my old fridge.

i nearly forgot to mention it, but i took a few new photos this morning (i felt like some of my old photos didn't capture the full display size) and reposted my craig's list ad for the HDTV with a $50 less price reduction. i got a hit right away from mario in quincy (he gave me a phone number, i was able to trace the location) who wanted it for $150. i told him that was much too low. later in the evening, i got 2 more hits. one seemed promising, andrew a student at BC who didn't have a car and asked if i could deliver. i told him for $5 i could, but he hasn't replied yet. then there was oscar, who kept switching from spanish to english (i think he was using an iphone set to spanish language). he also seemed promising because he's in cambridge and didn't need delivery, but suddenly he asked if i'd reduce the price to $200. i told him no, he said he only had $200, so that's probably not going to happen. i'm hoping andrew will get in touch with me tomorrow. i was actually hoping to sell to a college kid.