when julie came over today i made filipino pork noodle soup for dinner. what makes it distinctively filipino compared to some other ethnicity i'm not quite sure. it's basically a combination of grounded pork, chicken broth, and thin pasta noodles. nevertheless, the end result was much better than expected, one of those rare times when the whole was greater than the sum of the parts. i also made some chili lime corn-on-the-cob. the recipe called for outdoor BBQ'ing but i just cooked it in the oven, drizzled with a "sauce" composed of butter, chili powder, and lime juice. it came out well, but i still prefer my barbecue corn over chili lime corn any day. for dessert i made some grass jelly drink but julie would have none of it, her culinary curiosity extending only so far.

julie brought over her new camera, a canon powershot SD870 IS, to replace her old canon powershot which she dropped into a brook and acquired some permanent water spots, amongst other problems. the SD870 is very similar to the SD800 i got my mother, but improved by at least one generation if not more. a bigger LCD for one thing, and a more robust user interface with more features. playing around with the powershot makes me yearn for those days when i just had a simple point-and-shoot (POS) camera. sure, i can do more photo stuff with my dSLR, but a POS is a lot easier to use, and feels a lot more fun and spontaneous.

spend some time at the garden today. i was hoping it'd rain (so i wouldn't have to go) but looks like the precipitation will be arriving tomorrow instead. i rethreaded one of the cypress vines, hoping it'll take advantage of some more open space on the chicken wire trellis. i planted some more cypress vine seeds a few days ago, but none have sprouted yet. the rosemary looked a bit wilted, some mild transplant shock from being moved to a sunnier location. i made sure to give it plenty of water.

when it rains it pours: client N called me today to schedule a project meeting for friday morning. suddenly i'm getting all this work but i may be in over my head. besides projects for client B which i'm currently working on (due at the end of august), client L wants me to start work on their 3 week project in september. and client P has contacted me off and on about a 3 week project of their own. i figured i don't need to sleep. if i can get enough work, i can save some money for next year and possibly go traveling again. and if my chinese research scientist roommate should ever arrive, i'll save even more money.

went to the basement today to stow away some boxes (cd's and old floppy/zip discs). that's when i noticed a mysterious blue circle on the floor. turned out one of the paint cans fell off the shelf and leaked blue latex paint everywhere. it probably happened a while ago because the paint was almost dried. fortunately it landed on a dirty old carpet which i always meant to get rid of anyway.