i was in a holding pattern today, waiting for clients to get in touch with me. client N called to patch me into a conference call with the museum hardware guy who was having problems configuring the displays. an hour later they told me i may need to fly down to birmingham tomorrow morning to set up the hardware if the museum hardware guy couldn't figure it out. as much as i detest business travel, it's really one of the rare times that i get to do any traveling these days. last year it was newark, the year before atlanta. sure, new jersey isn't the most exotic of locations, but last year it was the farthest i've gone away from boston (not counting the few trips to new york). at least in this case i had a choice. i could've said no, but since i've never been to alabama before, i wanted to go. a chance to do some traveling, living in a hotel, what's not to love? besides, it'd take me away from all this cold weather.

in the late afternoon bruce and i got out of our houses and went out walking. i wanted to find examples of people freezing in the cold (today was in the teens) and take their photos (i'm a sadist). at the radcliffe quadrangle we saw a young man walking around in sleeveless polo shirt. too macho to sport a jacket, we him minutes later running to his destination before he froze to death. in harvard square, we watched a girl clopping along in heavy shoes wearing just a miniskirt. a slave to fashion!

client N got back in touch with me. the verdict: unknown, wait until tomorrow afternoon to see if i need to go down to birmingham. i can go either way. i sort of don't want to go now because of all the hassle but wouldn't mind it either because i've heard so much good things about southern barbecue. client B contacted me too, with some updates about our neverending HH project.

in the early evening my father came to pick me up. i went with him to the health clinic in davis square to get his eyes checked. i was his driver in case his eyes were too dilated to drive. since it was at night though, it wasn't too big a deal, and he managed to drive me back home afterwards. my mother packed me a boxed dinner which i took with me.

after a shower and dinner (including some dulce de leche ice cream for dessert), i had a craving for more pistachio nuts. i got dressed and walked to the supermarket to satisfying my cravings. they also had a sale on regular nuts ($1.85/lbs) and i bought 2 lbs. of hazelnuts and brazil nuts. you can say i'm a little nutty for... too easy! oh, also got a nut cracker, you have to have one of those.