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i arrived in cambridge later than i anticipated, woke up late, took a while to get myself going, and ran a few errands, including cashing my unemployment check, getting some gas for the car, and a quick run at staples. the first thing i do when i get to the house is i open all the windows, all 11 of them, to air out the rooms, because i close them when i leave, to prevent rain from getting inside the house. then, i sort of plan out what i'm going to do for the day while making myself some breakfast. making myself breakfast might sound like something really fancy and delicious, but it's just pouring milk into a bowl of cereal, and i ran out of cereal today, so tomorrow i have to make a cereal run. sometimes i watch some tv, sometimes i answer some e-mails, sometimes i check out a few sites. once i finish my cereal, it's time to get to work.

today i put on the second coat of orange in the foyer, hallway, and bedroom closet. took me the whole day, originally i had wanted to do the second coat for the master bedroom as well but that's going to have to wait. just as i feared, i only used up one can of citrus blast even though i bought two cans. i did all the math and my calculations told me that i'd need 2 cans for each color (first and second coat), but so far only the living room used the second can, and only a little bit. i totally figured it wrong. maybe i'm painting too thin, or maybe that whole 400 square feet per gallon of paint rule is too conversative an estimate. lesson to be learned here: if you're ever painting, don't buy the second coat right away, wait until you do the first coat and see how much more paint you need.


original

primer

first coat
(retaped)

final

i've got the poor man's curtain up in the guest bedroom, for some privacy. just five feet away i see the window of my next door neighbor, right into their kitchen. i thought i wouldn't care that they can see me and i can see them, but it makes me self-conscious, and they obviously have no curtains in their kitchen, so it's up to me to shield each other from awkwardness.

wonder what's in these benjamin moore paints? water, calcium carbonate, titanium dioxide, and proprietary latex resin. proprietary? sounds top secret. and titanium? isn't that the new hot metal these days? didn't realize you could dioxidize that element.

my tiac.net account finally got canceled. i called to cancel a few days ago and was surprised it still worked days afterwards. this morning when i checked my e-mail, i couldn't get into the account anymore. thus ends my 6 years affair with tiac.net. they were the isp i went with right after college, and i've kept using it even though i don't have any need for a dialup. originally it was $29, but after threatening to leave for earthlink a few years ago, they reduced it to $15/month. it's kind of ironic that tiac.net has since been absorbed by earthlink. since the merger, earthlink has raised the price to $21/month. paying $250/year for an antiquated service i no longer use is just not worth it, especially since now i'm in serious money saving mode.

after all this painting is done, i'm going to need to go to a professional masseuse to work out all the aches in my shoulder and neck. they feel out of alignment right now. or maybe a nice hot bath. i have a lot of muscle tension that needs relaxing.

paula and her husband jonathan stopped by my place after work today, their very first time visiting. after showing them around, we walked to boca grande on mass ave to get some burritos. i bumped into jared and his girlfriend katie. he and i have an uncanny ability to run into each other all the time for no reason. with our orders in hand, paula, jonathan, and i went back to my place to eat our mexican dinner on the deck. looks like my godmother's homemade spaghetti sauce will have to wait one more night before i can try it. after paula and jonathan left, i finished second coating the closet and returned to belmont.