my vibrating cellphone alarm clock woke me up at 8:30am. i got dressed in my painting clothes, had some cereal, watched some war coverage, brushed my teeth, then left my house for work.

across the street.

i was helping my neighbor jeff paint his place for cash. when i got there jeff was nowhere to be seen but bruce was there, one of our neighbors, hired to paint as well. without any directions (painter's instinct), i clipped a piece of 180 grit sandpaper onto a sanding pole and started sanding the walls with bruce. i also helped him put up some more planks into the beams of the second floor. jeff showed up eventually, along with some guys who were there to install the central air system in his house. bruce and i climbed on the beams and sanded the ceiling (wearing a mask that fogged up my glasses), before we started priming, white on white walls. i am a favorite anecdote of the few who've helped me paint my own place, because i had them prime white walls. they didn't understand that the primer acts as a sealant and helps the paint to grip to the walls. however, today i was working with guys who had no qualms about white on white painting. finally, people who understand! also, guys who can understand that walking around with paint on your hands and face is quite sexy.

painting on the beams was very difficult. hard enough trying to paint sloped ceilings, but walking on planks laid across ceiling beams, and some of those planks not even nailed down, and being careful where to step lest i fall to my death. parts of the ceiling required that i crawl on my stomach, my legs dangling from either side of a beam, splinters digging into my arms, in order for me to paint it. by the lunchtime break, i had paint in my hair, on my face, and all over my clothes, not to mention all the plaster dust from the sanding earlier. i went home, heated up some leftover rice noodles, read some e-mails, watched some more war coverage, then went back to work.

across the street.

bruce was already back, talking with jeff. while jeff went off to run errands, bruce and i finished priming the rest of the second floor, then we moved downstairs to do the walls of the living room, a much easier job since it didn't require cirque de soleil style acrobatic balancing. the weather was great today, 60 degrees with a clear blue sky. would've been a good day to go biking, but i didn't mind painting. how much calorie can you lose per hour of painting i wonder? the fact that bruce was there made it easier, just having somebody to talk to. close to 3pm we finished today's worth of priming, and then we both left, ready for more paint action tomorrow.

i came home, stripped off my dirty clothes, then took a shower. my hair was crunchy from the dust. later, i went to the supermarket to buy some ingredients for making some french bread pizzas.

while relaxing on the couch with a bag of potato chips watching spongebob, gary called me back again, asking if i could go with him to microcenter where he was going to buy a digital camera for certain. i agreed, he came by in about 40 minutes, we went to microcenter. after another serious round of compare and contrast, where we narrowed down the picks between a fuji and an olympus, gary decided he didn't want to buy a digital camera after all after i told him he couldn't come over to my place afterwards for me to give him a crash course in digital photography 101. the fact that he'd be down $400 was also a key motivating factor not to buy a camera tonight. he apologized for getting me to come with him again, then drove me back to my place, where i went to star market one more time to buy some pepper before going back home.

i already had the bread from renata. i had some mozzarella cheese in the fridge, but the fact that parts of it were green was a indication i probably shouldn't eat it. earlier, i'd gotten some shredded italian cheese (a blend of four different cheeses) and a stick of pepperoni. learning from renata (who's french bread pizza sunday night was very tasty), i sprinkled some topping on two halves of french bread on a tin-foiled pizza tray. that's when i got a call from renata herself. i told her about my pizza making, she told me about her visit to the dentist and being reprimanded for not flossing everyday. into the oven went the pizza (preheated at 400 degrees), and 20 minutes later, viola! pizza! although nowhere near the technical advancement of the spicy pizza julie and i made, it was just as tasty, and much easier to make. i may never buy another box of stoffer's french bread pizza ever again! i didn't escape pizza-making without some mishaps though: i nearly severed the tip of my thumb when i was trying to cut the pepperoni.

i ate my pizza while watching the gilmore girls, then had a few spoonfuls of mississippi mud ice cream while enjoying a brand new episode of 24.