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i just spent the last hour scrubbing my bathroom; specifically, washing the mildew stains off of the shower curtains. my hands smell like chlorine now. all this in preparation for my 2-month-long guest arriving in less than 24 hours. i haven't even started cleaning the spare bedroom yet; i figured i'd do that tomorrow. i still need to purchase another shelf for the basement so i can relocate some more junk downstairs plus i want to recaulk the bathroom and maybe buy some more fish and driftwood to spruce up my aquariums.

the highlight of the evening: 2007 world series, game 1, between the boston red sox and the colorado rockies. i was ready to call the game after the 1st inning, when josh beckett struck out the side and the first red sox player to bat (pedroia) hits a homerun. the sox would finish the 1st inning with 3 runs. the rockies threatened briefly, until the 5th inning when the sox added another 7 runs on top of a 6-1 lead. true, it's only one game, but the sox showed everyone that they were better than the rockies tonight, quite emphatically as a matter of fact. was colorado rusty after such an extended rest, thanks to their easy playoff sweeps? hard to say: with beckett on the mound, even a good team would have a hard time scoring. only in tomorrow's game will we be able to know whether this dominating victory was just a fluke (due to opposition rustiness) or the result of a lopsided series matchup. with such a commanding lead, the last few innings were just boring, and nobody freaked out when gagne came out in the 9th inning to "close" the game. it's actually not in fox network's best interest when the red sox do this well. the nation will still watch, but the rest of america will quickly tune out if there isn't going to be a contest. and imagine the advertising revenue that'd be lost if boston sweeps the series?

the whole time i was watching the game i was going through laptop withdrawal. i never realized how much i use the computer while watching television, especially baseball (honestly, baseball can be so boring at times i need something like surfing the web to fill the time). finally i couldn't take it anymore and watched the game in my bedroom, in front of my desktop computer.

where is my macbook pro (MBP) you ask? it's getting repaired! so i returned to the apple store again this afternoon, after making an appointment yesterday. once again, the place was crowded. half the people there were either browsing/buying things, and the other half were there to get their apple stuff fixed. i'm not sure if that's a good thing to see so many people with busted apple merchandise: it either means apple gadgets fall apart easily or just that a lot of people are using them. i was waiting for my turn to speak with a "mac genius" when i heard my name called. "tony yang what're you doing here!?" it was jessie jesse, shopping at the apple store with her coworker peter. she bought a case for her new MBP. after chatting briefly, my name was called again, this time by one of the apple guys. the person who saw me had long hair like the guy yesterday, but it wasn't in a ponytail. "what can i do for you?" he asked. i took out my MBP and booted it up. "well, there's something weird with the LCD screen," i started. it felt like i was presenting evidence for a case, trying to convince apple that they should fix my computer (and for free). before we even arrived at the desktop, my tech person was already seeing the problem. "there's dust behind the screen," he said. i was so happy! it wasn't just me, apparently it's a pretty obvious defect. "we can totally fix it, send it back to apple," he told me. "oh, that's great. i think i'm also under warranty still," i informed him, then presented him with my original dated receipt. he popped open the battery compartment to get to the serial number UPC code. it was slightly hidden and he had a hard time getting his scan gun to register. "how about this?" i took out the UPC label that i clipped off of the box when i originally got the machine. "oh, that's great," he said, and scanned that instead. "are there any other users on this machine?" he asked me. "no, just me, but i created a new admin user," i said. "and what's the pass...?" before he could even finish, i told him the password. "i also put it on a piece of tape inside," i added. "oh, that's marvelous!" he exclaimed. "will they wipe the drive?" i asked him. "not usually, but there might be a chance. did you...?" "yes, i already backed everything up," i told him. "it just gets easier and easier!' he said. he then asked for my e-mail address. "that's a great address," he added. it was basically a lovefest. after i signed some paperwork and told to expect to see my fixed MBP in about a week, i left the mall feeling like everything was going to be right with the world. after reading some horror stories online, i wasn't very optimistic that i could get the LCD fixed. but maybe i just got lucky, found a tech guy who saw eye to eye with me. also, it's only going to take a week. i was expecting it to take longer. i should be able to live a week without my MBP, but that means no more living room web surfing and i'll have to write my blog in my bedroom on my desktop machine (which is what i'm doing now).

this morning i was doing more painting, this time putting on the 2nd ceiling coat. once that dries, tomorrow we can paint the rest of the walls with color.