t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i've been going to bed pretty early these days: i'm in bed by midnight, i read for about an hour on my kindle, and then i'm asleep by 1:00. this marks a 2 hour head start on my usual sleep time, which results in me waking up around 8-9 in the morning, like a normal human being.

i was up before my roommate, his first day of work. i began working from my bedroom (client had already sent me a few e-mail messages around 6:00) and watched as my roommate got up to fix himself some breakfast. i secretly turned up the heat as a courtesy, but as soon as he was out the door by 9:00 i cranked it back down again.

it was kind a strange day of work. the edits were flying fast for client E, and so were the back-and-forth e-mails. client N got in touch with me about a project starting next month. later a different project manager from client N contacted me about another project. i've been at this for a while so my first question was about the schedule, which elicited a nervous laugh: final due date is next week, but they'd like to have something by this thursday (less than 48 hours). a rush job! i've had my share, and i usually suffer for it because i'm too honest to bilk them for more than the fair market price, even if it means sacrificing my own nights and weekends to build the darn thing. but more work means more money, so you won't hear me complaining too much.

today was probably the coldest day of the week with temperature approaching the single digits. before my roommate left the house i even reminded him to bring his hat and gloves out of hospitable concern. despite the cold, it was a grocery day for me since there was nothing else to eat in the house. actually that's not true, i still had enough eggs and sausages to last me for another week, but those are breakfast items, and i was looking for dinner ingredients.

first i went to rite aid to pick up my monthly prescription. i also bought some nuts and chocolate and the cashier was the flirty girl that i occasionally see. i noticed her purple eye shadow before i left the store. next was a stop at the bank to deposit the rent money. the brazilian clerk behind the bullet-proof glass was very friendly and asked me if i had a nice weekend (i said yes, even though most of my weekends are pretty unmemorable) while she counted my money. finally i went to market basket. i bought so much stuff it barely fit in my milk crate (that reminded me that i need to swap out this smaller crate with my bigger 6 gallon crate).

the watch batteries i ordered last wednesday arrived in the mail today. the batteries i got were sony SR621SW/364. but i noticed the watch circuit board makes references to 2 different batteries: SR621SW and SR621W. i wonder what's the difference? in any case, my watch is working now, although the illuminator light isn't as bright as i remembered it to be (maybe that's because of the batteries).

i made lasagna for dinner, which is my backup plan when i can't think of anything else better to make and i want something that can last me for the rest of the week. despite my lactose intolerance, today i was on a diary overload: first i ate a whole wedge of blue cheese (with crackers) in the afternoon, which was followed by several glasses of chocolate milk. i felt gassy and bloated the rest of the day, further exacerbated by a large square of lasagna full of pasta, ricotta cheese, and mozzarella. i wanted to make it more interesting so i added some italian sausages along with the ground beef; it was okay at best.

when victor finally came home around 9:30, i offered him a slice. he actually said it was very good and liked the extra italian sausage surprise. i asked him about his first day of work. he said he got an office, which he shares with another astrophysicist. instead of windows, there are two posters of vacation destinations (islands, mountains). he said the next 3 months will be pretty busy.

i watched glee while eating dinner. i like to go on the record and say that glee is systematically ruining songs. i live in fear thinking that any of my favorite songs might appear on the song and thereby be ruined forever. tonight it was human league's "don't you want me baby." fortunately an episode of PBS frontline managed to cleanse the palate with a behind-the-scenes look at the recent egyptian revolution.

finally, an ongoing project of mine is figuring out a way to attach a video camera to hailey when she runs loose in the forest. i think i found a suitable camera: ultra mini screen-free 3.0 mega pixels cmos motion detection video camera. it only weighs 14 grams so it's very light. now i have to figure out a suitable collar-mounting mechanism (like the one for the catcam).