it was street cleaning on my side of the street this morning. by the time i left the house to go to work, my half of the street was completely empty, which if you knew how congested my street usually gets, was a pretty impressive sight. tomorrow, it'll be the other side of the street's turn for cleaning. fortunately i had the foresight to stash the motorcycle on a private street immune to these monthly cleanings.

the weather today was very muggy. when i got to the subway station, the humidity was so gross that i was making promises to myself that i'd move to some part of the world that never got humid. it's september, isn't it? it's supposed to be cold, it's supposed to be dry.

at the office, i continued to write code without any of the graphics, ghost codes, floating in programming space, detached from any physical manifestations. i had a can of congee for breaskfast, which i was impressed when alex knew what it was, although he never had it from a can, and neither did kristine, both of them getting it fresh from some local chinese breakfast shop. katrinka had her cat in the office, it jumped around on the desks, seeking attention like a dog. for lunch, i thought about going back to the taiwan cafe to see if they had smelly tofu, but decided to hit the nearest wendy's instead, it's been a long time since i had a no.6 spicy chicken sandwich. when i got back to the office with my takeout, i finished all my fries before eating my sandwich. i worked for a few more hours before i left at 6pm, the real 6pm, not like yeterday when i left an hour early.

at the station, i bought a bouquet ($4) of purple-white rose-like lisianthus on green stems. it's true: if you see flowers in my house, it's probably because ladies are coming over. i've finally come to recognize and accept this pattern of behavior. both julie and mandy were coming over for queer night, with mandy volunteering to make some empanadas for the appetizer and tacos for the entree, a mexican dinner. i had an hour to clean the house, doing some quick vacuuming, before running to the liquor store to get a pack of coronas. julie was the first to arrive, showing up on my doorstep with a bag of corn chips and assortment of salsa sauces. mandy came later, bringing with her daisy, her sister's 8 month old labrador. while mandy rolled the dough with an empty corona beer bottle (thanks to julie) and crimped the empanadas, i went across the street to get taco ingredients. when i came back, i ended up making the tacos, which is essentially preparing the ground beef, since the taco shells come premade with the taco kit. julie helped out by chopping up the necessary ingredients, even eating a slice of green chili pepper, which i dared her to try, before she had to rinse out her mouth with cold water. mandy also took the time to do a load of her own laundry, which she brought with her in a plastic trash bag.

the tacos were ready before the empanadas, so we had the tacos first. in the living room, we watched the final few innings of the basbell game (red sox won again), with mandy being our silent captive audience member. when the empanadas finally finished baking in the oven, mandy brought them out, served with a spicy mango chutney sauce. the empanadas were stuffed with goat cheese and crab meat, they looked like chinese dumplings (julie thought they looked like crab rangoons), and tasted pretty exotic, more european flavor than mexican in my opinion.

queer eye was a new episode, the one with the single divorced dad. is it me, or has the novelty of the show started to diminish? every week it seems to be the same things, rehashed differently. don't get me wrong, it's still entertaining, but i can't imagine watching the show forever. i gave the ladies their presents, botan rice candy, which came with tattoos. julie got hers on without any problem, but mandy forgot to remove the plastic protective foil so the tattoo never transferred over. after the show, mandy quietly slipped into the kitchen, where she cleaned up, then left soon afterwards. julie stayed long enough to catch the daily show, then took off as well, remarking on how beautiful a night it was, but all i knew was it was now cold. just a few more days before summer officially ends.