8:45am was the time i got out of bed this morning. after i was done with the bathroom, i had enough time left to eat some breakfast, some corn pops cereal, watch watching regis and kelly interview jennifer garner. the house still reeked of tarragon chicken. walking to the train station, i came across a tattered polaroid photo labelled "king & his queen", my found item of the day. by the time i arrived at the office, my stomach wasn't feeling very well and i started wondering if i'd become lactose intolerant in my old age. after some initial discomfort though, i became well again, with the exception of the coughing, which is unrelated to my possible inability to break down milk.
around lunch time i went down to rick walker's (21 temple street), this cowboy outfitters store in downtown crossing. it's kind of hidden and if you weren't looking for it you'd never find it. i got wind of this place from an advertisement in one of the local newspapers. i was captivated by their claim of "over 500 buckles in stock, tons of snap belts". it's true that i've had an ongoing search for a snap belt for my yang belt buckle, and this seemed like the kind of place that would carry it. when i got there though, i was sort of disappointed. in my mind i pictured the place kind of like a western version of the garment district or the boston costume shop, but it turned out to be more of an expensive boutique store with limited selection. they had belts but they were all at least $20 up (i originally thought i could just find a cheap $10 belt, leather or otherwise). somebody had to help me remove the belts from the rack as they were all secured down. the smallest size they had was a 32" waist, and there wasn't too much selection (like i mentioned before), most of the belts were so garrish looking they weren't eligible for purchase consideration. i ended up going with a plain looking black leather belt ($22.50), and when i was paying, i noticed a sign by the cash register that read "no refunds; exchanges or store credit only." i'm always suspicious of stores like that, and i left the place with a sour taste in my mouth, like i overpaid for something that really wasn't worth that much and now i won't be able to return it. next, i went to cvs to get some more cough drops, a birthday card (for my friend jessica) and a bottle of isopropyl alcohol to treat the ink stain from yesterday (which i think is pretty much a lost cause at this point). i grabbed a spicy chicken sandwich from wendy's then came back to the office.
some bad news: carly our project manager informed us today that she'll be leaving at the end of the month, her reason being she'd like to find work closer to where she lives, down in providence, rhode island. it's kind of sad because we'll lose her sense of humor and god knows if i don't get my office laughs my work performance will suffer considerably. looks like it's back to making my own fun, but hopefully carly will keep an online presence so we can continue the exchange of yuck yucks.
by the end of the day i had donned on my new belt with the yang belt buckle, prancing around the office with my shirt tucked in so everyone could see my bling bling. already i'm starting to think the buckle isn't big enough, and that i should get a bigger buckle, maybe a pewter american eagle or a silver bull. slowly i descend into the dark world of belt buckles.
i got caught talking with my neighbor renee when i got home. the topic du jour: when they'd would pick up the trash (monday was patriot's day, so trash pickup is delayed a day, but everyone had their trash out nevertheless). one of our neighbors came out of her backyard (i'd never seen her before, goes to show how friendly we all are) and got caught up in the discussion as well.
i opened as many windows as i could when i stepped inside the house in order to get rid of the tarragon chicken smell. i went into the backyard and was shocked to see that two of the branches on my jade plant bonsai had fallen off, either those branches were dead to begin with, or maybe the sudden change in temperature had a detrimental effect on the poor plant. i fear that renata's birthday gift might not survive the season. i quickly brought in the jade bonsai, as well as the potted jasmine plant. after about an hour it got cold so i went around and closed up all the windows again.
i ate the rest of my smoked salmon as an appetizer before making some ramen for dinner while watching the red sox game. i almost fell asleep on the couch but figured i had some weblog entries to write, so i took a shower to wake myself up and then went to work writing.