i was ready for some more chorizos and fried eggs, until i saw the leftover container of food from sunday night's dinner. i heated that in the microwave and had that instead. the chorizos will have to wait for another day.
thursday "18:00" is when victor will arrive in boston. i was starting to get worried because he'd yet to tell me his arrival time until today. that means i have 3 days to spruce up the house. yesterday i moved a bunch of stuff down into the basement. today was about vacuuming (put in a brand new bag) and sweeping (with the swifter mop). and with trash pickup tomorrow morning, today was also the day to throw out some junk.
at less than 800 square feet, it shouldn't be too hard for me to clean my place. it helps that my previous roommate only just recently left (prior to christmas), so i hadn't cluttered up the place just yet. one thing i did do was to go through a bucket of unopened letters sitting by the front door. there was probably a year's worth of accumulation. since i pay all my bills online, there's nothing in there of any high priority or time sensitive nature. it was mostly utility bills, investment statements, and a slew of mails addressed to former roommates. i tossed everything but the statements, and even then i must've opened at least 100 envelopes, wary of the potential for a paper cut. now that porcelain planter by the door is empty again, ready for another year's worth of mail.
i went out and grabbed a pair of plastic boxes from my neighbor's trash pile. instead of lids, they're the kind with the sliding drawers. they make a perfect addition to my pantry shelf, which i was organizing while washing the sheets from the guest bedroom.
in the late afternoon the client got back to me with a few edits. a few required some more extensive coding, and i didn't finish until the evening.
afterwards i began making the meat sauce for my spaghetti dinner. while waiting for the sauce to simmer and the noodles to cook, i was in the living room breaking down cardboard boxes to be tossed out for recycling. i used my knife which made me a little anxious since it was the same knife that nearly sliced off my thumb over a year ago.
i always feel bloated and gassy after a spaghetti meal. i cooked a lot of noodles, about the diameter of a half dollar. bad news is i'm eating pasta for dinner for the rest of the week because i still have a lot of leftover sauce. the sauce i make is kind of plain, just a very basic meat sauce with ground beef, a jar of flavored tomato sauce (i went with classico roasted garlic) and a can of crushed tomatoes.
after dinner i ate some ice cream while getting an online price quote for motorcycle insurance. i use commerce which used to be the only game in town, but ever since MA deregulated the insurance industry, residents now have more choices when it comes to carriers. i pay almost $300 for my motorcycle insurance, which i thought was pretty cheap when compared to auto insurance. but ever since my godmother's son alex told me how much he paid (something like $180) and with better coverage, i've been meaning to switch. i should've cancelled my insurance the day i put the bike away in storage. progressive gave me a quote of $195 and that's for their premium insurance, with road side assistance and collision coverage. i'm definitely calling up commerce tomorrow and canceling my policy. they've been fleecing me long enough!
finally, i renewed my subscription to entertainment weekly. i was going to it through their mailer, something about taking advantage of their low subscriber rates of only $1.31 per issue. but i went online to see if i could find a better deal: amazon.com had a 1 year renewal but for only 29¢ an issue. that's a savings of 450%. low subscriber rates? glad i didn't fall for that scam!
tomorrow: with the warmer weather, i might want to wash the salt off my bike. i also want to do a water change on my aquariums, and clean the bathroom with chemicals.