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"we got them on the run, we're hunting them down one by one."

that's what i heard come out of george bush's mouth when i woke up this morning and watched the news. he made it rhyme! his genius is showing.

i went to lunch with julie today, she had a hankering for korean box lunch specials, we ended up going to wuchon in union square. in the trunk of her car was a trash bag full of soda cans that i'd been saving up to be redeemed for deposits. when you're out of work, every cents counts. i had the beef bulgoki box lunch ($9), julie went with the chicken. she revealed her unamerican lukewarm attitude towards beef consumption, her dislike of sushi, and i asked her questions about her hair. nothing has changed since my last wuchon lunch, their box lunch special is uninspiring but the beef bulgoki is delicious. after lunch with 15 minutes left on the meter, we went to the korean supermarket to get some stuff and also visited a korean stationery store next door. one of things i got was this kaitai floral chewing gum called "acacia," which julie said tasted like her grandmother. along the way she showed me the infamous somerville round house, which i will visit at another date to grab some photos.

julie came with me to the redemption center on somerville avenue, my very first visit. it felt weird returning cans, felt kind of skeevy, even though technically i had already paid for them when i paid the deposit on the sodas. julie was saying how back in the early days of recycling, everyone redeemed their cans, but nowadays, people just throw them out with the recycle bins come trash day, and they're usually picked up by some dirty shopping cart pusher before the recycling trucks even come by. who returns cans anyway? who's got time? is it really worth the couple of cents you'll get back in return? nowadays, if you're returning cans, you're either a tightwad or a pauper. i fall under the latter categorization (i'm no miser despite my paucity of funds). inside was just a big dimly-lit warehouse with a mountain of soda cans. there was nobody there except a hispanic man silently loading cans into a push cart. fortunately julie sort of knew what to do, which was to put the cans into these cardboard trays. with her help, i ended up with three trays full of cans and four beer bottles, which came out to $3.20 (they kept a penny for every deposit), 20¢ which i gave to julie for all her help, as she drove me back home.

minutes later i was back out to run some more errands. i cashed my blue cross health insurance reimbursement check for the past two months, then went to the porter square post office to grab some 1040's (that's tax forms, don't act like you don't know what i'm talking about), and stopped by cvs to buy some mint flavored baking powder dental floss. my final destination was the beacon street star market, where i bought some toilet paper (24 rolls of 2-ply shaw brand) and a bottle of italian salad dressing.

i've been watching a lot of spongebob squarepants whenever it's on these days. there's something about the show that's very addictive. it's mildly subversive but not like ren & stimpy subversive. it's just very easy on the brain, that's all. tonight's episode featured panty raids and a underwater living squirrel from texas who yearns to go back home and who definitely takes the motto "don't mess with texas" to heart.

i made dinner from leftovers, reheated the porkchop from last night in the toaster oven and microwaved some raisin pilaf. nothing special, just trying to empty my fridge of leftovers before i embark on another cooking adventure.