this morning both john and i woke up at 10am to watch television in the living room and eat our cereal. john remarked how amazingly cozy the guest bedroom was. the bed he slept on was actually his old bed (which dan inherited), and he himself inherited this bed from somebody else. we saw soul man on comedy central, that little politically incorrect comedic gem from the 80's. no way could a movie about a white man impersonating a black man in order to get into school on an academic scholarship be made today, or it'd be a horror, not a comedy. we also saw a bit of clockstopper, that time stopping movie that came out last year, quickly going online to search for more info about hottie paula garces. john left my place at noon to go over to his brother's place in watertown. after he was gone, i got started on repainting the shuttered folding door of the washer/dryer closet. i did the back of the door this time, letting everything dry to put on the second coat tomorrow. i also did a load of laundry, washing some towels and drapes. my father came over briefly to install the two remaining venetian blinds in the kitchen. i was so used to the kitchen without them that they actually felt weird once they were in place.

sometime around 3pm eliza jones showed up on my front doorsteps. despite the bitterly cold weather (temperature in the 30's), we made plans to go running along the charles river. dressed in our cold weather running gear, we headed out. eliza had a baseball cap but it didn't cover her ears. i had a pullover cap which did cover my ears, but my hands were cold because i didn't have any gloves, unlike eliza, who was wearing a pair. we made it to the charles with the strong late afternoon sun casting a strong golden glow on the river's edge. we ran a few bridges down before crossing over and running back to where we came from. back at the warm and cozy house, i followed eliza's lead and downed some water while snacking on some food in the kitchen. we went back into the living room where i revealed to eliza my extensive internet explorer bookmark list, a list so long that MSIE doesn't even bother scrolling it anymore. i visibly cringed and covered my face in shame as she visited a few of my more embarassing links. i reminded eliza that for every sexual or inappropriate bookmark, i have a perfectly legitimate and useful bookmark to match it. i think she was delighted to suddenly discover within the span of an hour all these things she never knew about me. she left close to 7pm. i noticed she left her water bottle in my house and i quickly ran out to try and catch her before she left. i ran all the way down to the end of my street behind her car with her water bottle in hand before she turned the corner and sped away, oblivious to the fact that i was chasing her.

i changed out of my running clothes and went to porter square, to take the subway to alewife so i could walk to lisa's place for her housewarming party. before i entered the station i got a cellphone call from john miller. i told him about the party and where to find the place.

i was the first guest at lisa's house, and got the very first tour, asking all sorts of questions and making all kind of comments that only home owners would know to ask. for me, the house wasn't just a lovely home, it was also a project, and i could totally appreciate the effort and hard work that went into the place. lisa told me that she'd been following the progress of my own home renovation work on my weblog. the next guests to show up was todd and his boyfriend dan. todd very stealthily gave me a present. i was cutting some peppers, and accidently cut myself in the process with my rudimentary food preparation skills. sam and his girlfriend were the next to arrive, followed by john miller. other guests included scott, michael and his wife, and paula/jonathan (they were the last to show up). there were plenty of drinks and food, which was perfect because i didn't have lunch or dinner. michael was the most dressed up, arriving in a suit and tie. besides me, scott and lisa both had digital cameras as well. i was blown away when todd told me he was born in 1974 as well - i always thought he was 3 years younger than me.

around midnight, i got a ride home from sam and his girlfriend. i discovered that we actually live very close to one another, practically neighbors.

finally, maureen wrote me an e-mail saying how her roommate anna thinks my vertical striping idea for the kitchen looks like victoria's secret. that's a good thing, right?