i feel like somebody beat me with a pipe. i don't have full range of motion in my arms and my legs can only walk in small baby steps. this is because yesterday i helped julie move, and today i'm feeling the after effects of my little physical indiscretion. but having had that experience as a runner, i've learned to equate pain with pleasure (something that all good sadists know and love). it's been a while since i've gotten that much "exercise," since i spend most of my days like a slug. oh how the mighty have fallen! okay, i'm going to promise myself tomorrow morning i'm going to go running but it's a promise i'll probably break.

a lowkey sunday, woke up just long enough to make myself brunch (scrambled eggs, raisin english toast with ham and cheese, orange juice), crawled back into bed to watch television and then fell asleep. i had wanted to go buy groceries, to rake the backyard of leaves, to find a birthday present for my sister, but i abandoned all those plans. my nap was only interrupted by my mother's phone call telling me that we'd be having dinner tonight since my sister's birthday is tomorrow.

about 6pm my father came to pick me up and we went to not your average joe's restaurant in watertown center, my sister's choice. the place had a nice decor, but for me the food is definitely more important than the ambience. unfortunately, i found the selection kind of on the light side (i personally like a lot of choices), and the sirloin steak tips entrée that i had wasn't anything exceptional, too heavy i thought, and the tips didn't have any real natural flavor other than the bitterness of the charred edges. for my money i would've liked to have gone to this persian restaurant i saw nearby, but it wasn't my birthday so it wasn't my choice to make.

after dinner, my sister went home while my parents came over to my place to meet up with our family friend pan-ayi and her two sons, in cambridge to return theodore back to school after the thanksgiving break. doing some home renovations of her own back in jersey, she could see the place with a more understanding eye. after they left, my parents left soon afterwards as well (not before helping me relocate the twin bed in the guest bedroom further into the corners).