what i thought was a conference ended up being a conference call, as karen disappeared into her room around 11am chatting on her phone. as for me, i received a call from my mother asking me to come down to the cafe to help my father move some furniture out of my sister's place. i left a note for karen in the kitchen and took off.

i thought yesterday was warm, but today was even warmer, if that's possible. i noticed more people out biking and more people wearing t-shirts and shorts.

while waiting at the cafe, i gave myself a deep papercut while loading paper into the printer. it was right at a finger crease, so hurt every time i flexed it. we ended up moving my sister's electronic keyboard, which had been sitting in her kitchen acting as an expensive and heavy paperweight. the kicker was my sister was there but was of no help, instead getting ready to take her dog to the beach. i also helped my father move a pedestal table upstairs for my sister's godmother.

i finally returned home by 1pm. i expected to see karen, and decided to ask her if she wanted to bike down to longwoods and haymarket, take advantage of this nice day. but when i got back i was surprised to see her missing. maybe she went to work after all? i had a bowl of cereal for lunch and opened up as many windows as possible to air out the house and also increase the room temperature as it was warmer outside than inside.

warmer weather means increased people watching. i observed a minivan backing into a pile of snow. at first i thought it'd gotten itself stuck because it was revving the wheels, but then i realized it was purposely backing into the snow multiple times in an effort to reduce the pile.

i took a trip to my community garden, hoping to salvage some more delphiniums. i was expecting to see some bulb activities (like crocuses) but the entire garden is still relatively dormant. i managed to dig up 3 containers of delphinium plants and relocate them to the front of my house.

the temperature today actually hit 75°F here in cambridge, which is a record high temperature for the month of february.

my sztrokia diffuser arrived today. excitedly, i unpacked everything in the kitchen and set everything up. earlier i'd taken some essential oils from my sister (jasmine and tea tree). i filled the tank (180ml) and added a few drops of jasmine oil. the result was kind of disappointing. there was hardly any mist, if at all. and the glass enclosure had a weird chemical smell. could i have received a defective unit? i immediately dashed off an e-mail to technical support, asking if i should return the unit for exchange.

the sztrokia might be a disappointing diffuser, but it sure looks pretty. the glass shell looks like there might be multiple layers of mirrored display in order to create that infinity dots effect. i did some research online, and finally discovered this effect is called an infinity mirror. basically two layers of mirror, the one on the inside 100% reflective, the one on the outside only 50% (like a one-way mirror), which creates that cool infinity effect. that combined with the color-changing led's create this very psychedelic transcendental calming optical illusion.

i kept the diffuser running. once it got below 150ml, it started to release more mist. turns out, the less water there is the more mist gets created. i think i read that somewhere in one of the reviews. so it wasn't broken after all, just a little quirky with the diffusion.

karen had a hankering for beer on a friday night so she went to the liquor store to get some. not knowing the brands, she got a six-pack of pabst blue ribbon, which i told her was the beer of choice of local (somerville) hipsters. maybe the packaging attracted her.