a check of iberia flight 6165 this morning showed my roommate david was enroute to boston from madrid, arriving sometime this afternoon. that left me a few hours to do one last round of cleanup throughout the house. there was 3 things i had to do: change the water in the fishtank, vacuum the bathroom floor, and clean the clutter off of the living room side table.

we were supposed to be getting a snowstorm today but with the temperature above freezing, it was mostly a rain event for much of the day. only until 1:30 did the snow begin to fall, but it quickly melted the instant it touched the ground.

when i checked the flight status in the afternoon, the estimated time of arrival had changed: apparently there was a 4 hour the delay and now the flight wouldn't be landing at logan airport until after 7:00.

it wasn't until evening that the snow finally started to stick. at most maybe we had about a centimeter of accumulation, hardly worth the effort to shovel. i began making my risotto around 6:30. i thought i had some white wine left but it turned out to be red. making risotto with red wine looks pretty awful, so i substituted a whole cup of vodka instead. the final result was delicious but i did have a few uncooked grains of arborio rice. i ate dinner while watching the red carpet coverage on E!.

david finally arrived around 8:30, taking a taxi because of his luggage. he had a large suitcase but said it was mostly empty so he could bring back some things he left behind before he and his then-girlfriend moved back to spain in november. in fact, there was actually a smaller suitcase inside of the larger one. figuring he'd be hungry after his long delay and flight, i offered him some risotto for dinner, which he gladly ate, saving him the trouble of going back out to look for food.

david seems like a nice guy. when he and his girlfriend used to live in the neighborhood, they referred a bunch of european roommates to my place. i'd never met david before but i felt like i already knew him through my past roommates. i heard he got married recently but didn't realize it was just this past december. i also didn't know he's currently in san sebastian, working with my former roommate marco at the nanoscience research center.

the oscars were on tonight but i was chatting with david that i was barely paying attention. i was rooting for jessica chastain but jennifer lawrence ended up with the best actress win. the big surprise was ang lee winning best director for life of pi, beating out spielberg. this is ang lee's 2nd best director win after brokeback mountain (2005), although some would argue he won on technicality since the award should've gone to not-nominated ben affleck for argo. my mother early in the award season told me ang lee was going to win big, but i think she just read it from some chinese newspaper, and changed her prediction eventually. argo won for best picture, quick was the picture perfect ending for this year's award ceremony, giving affleck the due that he deserved though not in the category he should've won for.