woke up at 6:45am, got dressed in my business casuals, and drove my parents' toyota camry down to plymouth to meet up with sandy to fix perhaps the last existing bug before they send the cd out to the burners. traffic on 93 was lighter compared to the last time i went down about a month ago. going against the flow of traffic wasn't bad, but on the other side of the highway, all the cars going into the city, it was bumper to bumper all the way down to hingham. 93 is a weird highway, everyone goes way too fast, the lanes seem far too narrow, and there's an abundance of curves. i listened to a new mix cd i made the night before.

i got right to work when i arrived in plymouth. sandy was a little bit freaked out by my paint covered hands, thought maybe it was poison ivy ointment. the bug turned out to be a case of not escaping out certain special characters in an input field. it took me a while to write the filtering function, but eventually i finished it, gave sandy the new version, and tested to see that it worked.

after that bit of business, i left to go to a dunkin' donuts next door where i got a coffee coolatta and an onion creme cheese bagel. i sat by the water, eating my lunch, watching a handicapped boy wearing a helmet slowly make it down the boardwalk with his stroller. the weather was nice, made me think of just going to the beach if it weren't for the fact that i didn't have any beach gear. i saw the little information house my architect neighbor jeff has designed a while back. the woman behind the counter told me that it was actually built by high school wood shop students.

i came straight home, no nature exploration like last time, i didn't need to get lost in the forest again (besides, i didn't bring my gps, and no way would i venture into a forest without the DEVICE THAT SAVES LIVES). since i still had the car, i went to the belmont public library to return some overdue books. i took out the mammoth book of best new horror 13 and frisco pigeon mambo (c.d.payne). frisco is by the same author who wrote youth in revolt, a great and funny book (which i borrowed from julie), so i can't wait to read his latest novel.

i contacted rob house to arrange a time i can drop by his place, he wanted some photos taken of an obscenely expensive antique table his girlfriend had bought, so they could get it appraised. driving down to teele square, i went by julie's place in davis, where i just happened to see her watering her plants out on the porch. "julie!" i shouted from the window as i drove by.

bed warmer

rob lives in an impressive apartment with his girlfriend and cat on the same street that katrinka and james used to live on (back in the days). not much to look at from the outside, but inside, with the 10+ feet ceilings, the place looked enormous. his backyard looked into the matignon high school field, and while we were out there, we saw an impressively large hawk flying overheard. rob's place reminded of a museum, everything all old, retro in a 1700's style. i got an education in antiques. up to this point, i never thought much of antique furnitures, but there's a whole world of people who collect this stuff. what may look like old junky furniture to one person might be worth a fortune to somebody else.

before i left (rob also let me borrow stalingrad by antony beevor), i turned on my wireless enabled ibook just for kicks. i was happily surprised to see that i was within range of one wireless network, so close as a matter of fact that the wireless indicator was showing maximum reception, which had to mean that somebody in the same building but on a differnet floor had wireless (linksys as a matter of fact), and the best thing was WEP wasn't enabled and i was able to surf the web for free.

i drove back to belmont, where i was meeting my parents to go to costco i get some supplies. once again i opened up my laptop and went into the backyard where our property bordered a few other houses. once again i was able to detect a wireless hub (named "boysnet" because some middle school boys live in one of the houses), but unfortunately it was password protected and the reception was fluttery, fading in and out. it's just so amazing, there are more wireless networks out there than i had previously imagined, in the few times i've taken the ibook out to find networks, i've managed to detect something almost everything time.

after shopping, we bought a pizza and went home to eat it, after which my father drove me back to cambridge.

this entry was written a day late because last night i was just too tired to work on the weblog. i even went to bed without flossing, which for those who know me know that i'd never do that. i've been waking up early and sleeping late all this week, hopefully with this weekend and some good nights of rest, i'll be revitalized.