my job for the next few days is to clean the house in anticipation of sandy's arrival sunday afternoon. of course there's always the constant struggle against procrastination, so i only got done with a few items. thankfully i have a few days.

i tidied up the living room coffee table, which hasn't seen clarity since GC left at the end of august. i found my spare house keys, one for sandy, one for her boyfriend. i finally told steve and paul about my astrophysicist tenant; they replied back that they themselves will be gone 2 weeks in early january, and that the romers will be staying here for those 2 weeks. i fixed the tibetan flags hanging from my backyard porch (a broken wind chime had fallen and tangled in the flags). i organized my cupboard and refrigerator, clearing out half the space. i organized my clothes, packing summer stuff into bins and boxes while rediscovering lost winter garments. while i was at it, i also vacuumed a decade's worth of dust from underneath my bed. i cleaned the bathroom tub, using baking soda to scrub off the soap scum, worked over the slow drain with double plunders, and cleaned the mildew from the shower curtains while i was taking a shower in the evening.

in hindsight, i actually did a lot today. all that's really left is some decluttering, move a lot of electronic parts and devices from the living room into my own bedroom. it helped that i did have a roommate not that long ago (during the summer), and i haven't totally turned the house into a pigsty in the months since.

for lunch i made some scrambled eggs, kielbasa sausage, and coffee. for dinner i made a simple sandwich of bread and a few slabs of smoked ham with a glass of chocolate milk.

i finished watching all 8 episodes of the first season of hulu's the first about the first human trip to mars starring sean penn. it took a while to get into, but the acting was solid, and each astronauts personal story was interesting enough for me to keep watching. i was warned ahead of time that the series isn't so much about what happens in space but what happens here on earth, how the mission affects the family and friends of the astronauts. if you went in thinking martian landscapes and space ship drama, you will be very disappointed. it's more of a soapy melodrama about a single father raising a daughter with substance abuse issues and dealing with the tragic suicide of the wife. the astronauts themselves don't leave the ground until the last episode and it ends on them blasting off towards mars on their 7 month long journey to the red planet. i haven't heard any news whether the series will continue for a second season, but i'd be happy with the story if it ended right here.