i was at the house early this morning to check up on the status of the uploaded files i worked on last night and to also put up new content for the weblog (since where i'm staying in belmont no longer has dsl access until wednesday). my original plan was to start painting again, but i got caught up in sanding and trim repairs, and ended up only painting one side of the coat closet door. painting can be addictive. once i started, i just wanted to keep on going. unfortunately, my chicken pot pie (i ran across the street earlier to get some groceries) finished cooking in the toaster oven (apparently a very popular appliance at my house) so i stopped for lunch. i camped out in front of the 13" television watching the color of war on the history channel, and then later a special on the army's corp of engineers. i didn't go back to painting but instead waited for eliza jones to surprise me with her arrival. sinatra was playing on my ibook hooked up to a set of long range speakers, every 5 minutes it'd ding-ding-ding as my outlook express checked to see if i had any e-mails, and occasionally i'd hear the door creak of somebody on my buddy list logging onto aim or the door slam of somebody logging off. i was sprawled out between two small mattress chairs in the living room, perusing a copy of hamilton's books latest circular, later reading the issue of newsweek about whether or not we should buy organic or genetically modified foods. it was getting cold (60's outside, but inside the house probably colder), and i thought about turning up the heat but since the vents are all still covered, i couldn't do that quite yet.

eliza's arrival wasn't much of a surprise because she'd called minutes before, forgetting which street to turn in to get to my house. the last time she was here was last month, one of the few people to have seen the place after the new floor treatment, before i covered everything up with the rosen paper. she'd yet to see the new paint job however, with the dramatic coloring. her appearance today was under the aegis of "hanging out," and i made some ten-ren tea as we chatted by the dining table (disappointed that my old teakettle wasn't the whistling kind). i used the retro tea set which formerly belonged to daisy's sister (who i heard inherited the tea set from somebody else). as a good host, i also brought out a bowl of grape. we chatted up a storm about george w. bush's inferiority complex making him want to go to war in iraq, what motivates someone to just pick up everything and relocate to someplace else, fading swimsuits, flowers for algernon charlie gordon, the futility of higher level math and how it applies to everyday life, john miller abc newsreporter, how the chinatown buses are no longer a closely guarded secret anymore, how she should totally play améliesque matchmaker and get two roommates of the opposite sex and pair them together in a totally complex romantic comedy manner, and i answered her survey about whether i would want a girlfriend who was smart but mean or dumb but nice.

my sister dropped by after eliza left, to briefly come and use my internet connection to check her e-mails. i drove back to belmont listening to 90.9FM (people tell me it's this thing called NPR), a segment on how a group of resourceful MIT kids learned how to count cards at casino blackjack.