it rained all day, worse than tuesday, and i even heard thundering at one point in the evening. only went out once in the late afternoon to tag a pokestop, once the rain let up a bit. i finally finished my taxes, e-filed my federal (payment), printed out my state (refund) to mail out tomorrow.
i watched 3 episodes of dimension 404 a new 6-episode hour-long anthology series on hulu that's sort of a modern day version of outer limits, including creepy omnipotent voiceover. the best one was episode 3 "chronos", featuring 90's action cartoons, time traveling superheroes, and the fate of the world hinging on whether or not a college girl will finish her term paper and graduate. episode 1 "matchmaker" wasn't bad either, but episode 2 "cinethrax" was boring enough that i fast-forwarded through the episode even though it had patton oswalt.
i tracked wangyang throughout the day as she made her way from west chester to philadelphia. she booked a hotel next to the convention center. she was about to go out and explore the city when i warned her about the rain. she said it looked like it was clearing, but then i sent her a doppler radar of some heavy bands of serious rain and she got the message. instead she found sonny's famous restaurant and got herself a philly cheesesteak based on my recommendation. she sent me photo updates and i was shocked to see that she only partially ate her bread, instead just eating out the cheesesteak.
later around 5:30pm she sent me a batch of photos. by that point the rain clouds had passed (arriving in the northeast instead) and the blue sky was back. in fact, after today, the weather for the next week is nothing but springtime warmth and sun. i was vicariously experience philadelphia through her, having never visited that city before. it's interesting to see what sceneries interest her from the perspective of a first time visitor to the US. for instance, she took a photo of some hyacinths, as well as an empty philadelphia street.
when karen came home in the evening around 7:30pm, i split the rest of my leftover quiche with her for dinner. we watched CBS's thursday night comedy sitcom lineup, which was surprisingly entertaining. big bang theory followed by the great indoors, mom, and finally life in pieces. i watched all season 1 of life in pieces but i haven't been following it since. of the 4 shows, i like the great indoors the best. the humor isn't very sophisticated (which is often the case with these multi-cameras live-studio-audience sitcoms) but the cast is interesting, especially how it pits millennials against grandpas.
while watching mom, CBS interrupted the show with breaking news: trump had ordered missile strikes on syrian military targets, in retaliation for the assad's government supposed use of chemical weapons on rebels. this all seems to be happening very fast since the chemical attack on khan sheikhoun on tuesday, to the point where i think trump over-reacted before getting all his facts right. maybe it was a false flag attack, trying to draw the US into a war with syria and possibly their russian ally. what purpose would it serve the syrian government to use chemical weapons now when it hasn't since 2013, with a possible peace treaty in the works? and why would trump risk dragging the US into another war over the deaths of 100 or so syrian rebels whom he wouldn't even allow into the US if they were refugees? trump learning-on-the-job presidency is going to get a lot of people killed now.
i got back in touch with wangyang later in the evening. she said she may need to buy another suitcase before she returns to china because she's buying too many things. already in philadelphia (which is not known to be a hotbed of shopping), she's bought shoes, clothes, and bags. not everything would fit in her small suitcase so she's going to through away some old clothes in order to make room.