once again, i got up early to run some errands. i called a few places asking about gutter cleaning. the first place i called, the guy had an 800-number, and there was a recorded message telling customers that the temperature has to be 40 degrees or higher in order to do any gutter cleaning, and with the impending snowstorm this weekend, there's a backlog of customers. i stayed on the line and get some guy, i told him how tall and how big my house was and what kind of roof, and he gave me an estimate of $120 in about 2-3 weeks. i then called a second person, he could do it as early as monday or tuesday, but he charges $150 per cleaning. i ended up going with the more expensive guy only because i'm stupid, not because i wanted the gutters done as soon as possible. (later during the evening, lisa recommended another guy for me, i'll call him tomorrow, he might be better because he's cheaper and he does a lot of local business).

i got dressed and walked down to the porter square post office to retrieve my 401k forms from my old company, in the process of liquidating my account, that's why i've been scrambling to open up a rolling IRA account (when i got to the office, i completed the forms and faxed them out). the weather was cold, in the teens, and i wore my thermal underwear for the first time this season. everyone i saw on the street was wearing a hat, while i figured that my hair would be enough insulation.

at the office, i bumped into debra may again, flanked by some men who may or may not be clients and/or programmers. we exchanged greetings, and i overheard her say to one of the programmers, "yeah, that's tony yang," and the programmer said, "really?" i think i might've recognized him as one of the programmers from way back when. throughout the day, i went out for little excursions, despite the cold weather. one time to go out and get some ramen for lunch from meitung (dana did the same after seeing me with my bowl of delicious 89 cents noodles), another time to sun sun supermarket on a candy run. i was eating light, because i had a lot of leftovers at home, and i wanted to make sure i was hungry when i got back. the office drama today concerned the bathrooms, apparently the electricians messed up the wiring or something, killing the lights. we had to use an extension cord connected to a clamp-on lamp in order to get some illumination.

i wasn't looking forward to coming home because i knew i had a lot of freelance coding work to do. i've been busy the past few days, and today the client was pushing once more for another delivery. i code all day for 8 hours in the office, and then come home and code some more. my brain is tired! i immediately started eating the food that my father had brought over yesterday afternoon when i got home, as well as a cup of flan. i watched a little television, then by 8pm i was coding. this really is the project that won't end. i was just checking my hours and i've been on this same project since august. it's a revision update too, so i'm working with somebody else's code. the person who originally wrote this is either a genius or a madman. i spend probably 80% of the time just following the maze-like intricacies of the codework and only a small percentage actually programming. i didn't finish until 6 hours later, 2am in the morning, which coincidentally is usually when i go to bed anyway. it's pretty satisfying though, getting this done again, i can't even say if this is really the final version yet, but i guess it'll be officially over once i get paid. the thought of code hard cash to pay for my mortgage drives me on.

i'm ready for bed, but i'm upgrading my G4 desktop to panther and it's taking a while. i'm kind of terrified of my machine crashing during the install, i've heard some horror stories, and i have data on that computer that i haven't backed up yet. i've used panther a little bit now (more than a day), and it does seem faster somehow, i don't think i'm imagining it. installing a new system is like getting a new machine, put some sparks back into the computing relationship.