i was meeting brice for lunch in harvard square at 11:30am. i finally left by 11:15am, DC annoyingly still asleep. 
i went to star market first to buy something small so i could get some change. i was looking for a human checkout aisle but they were all closed, the only ones available were the self checkouts. i asked the attendant what should i do i was paying by cash, and i actually found out those self checkout machines actually take cash as well besides credit and phone swipes (a little slot for inserting paper bills). i got a box of botan rice candy, and got back $18 in change. i then rode the bike down to harvard square.
brice and i agreed to have lunch at gyu-kaku, the japanese barbecue place. when we went inside, the place looked abandoned, as there was nobody around. we finally found the hostess, who muttered some japanese words to the effects of welcome before letting us know a few conditions of eating there. first, they currently had no waiters, so it was just the hostess working the tables. second, their receipt machine wasn't working, so we wouldn't get a printed receipt. after that she seated us in one of the booths. there was one other customer in the restaurant, a japanese woman eating by herself. brice and i both got the lunch special ($14.95), with a choice of two barbecue items, plus a salad, miso soup, and rice. we waited a long time for our food to be delivered, but we were patient given the situation. when the meats arrived, i had to find the hostess and ask her for the sauces before we started grilling. i think the last time i had gyu-kaku was 4 years ago, with my parents. despite the lackluster service, it was still pretty tasty. the miso soup was filled with seaweed, never had such hearty miso soup before.
i hadn't seen brice in over 13 years. since that time, he got married (11 years ago), bought a house in watertown, had 3 kids (oldest 9 years old), and got a masters degree at harvard. i ended up asking brice all the questions, almost like an interview. he told me over e-mail that he's gotten into ultra-marathons, but i learned he's really into trial running ultra marathons as well, with ones held in groton state park (vermont), as well as more local in the middlesex fells (running the skyline trail). i never did find out what got him into running in the first place, as he self-professed he was never much of a runner before. i found out he's the oldest of 6 siblings. how he sold his old motorcycle after taking it apart one year and not being able to restart it afterwards. how he rescued some ducklings near his house that fell into a storm drain. we could've talked more, but he had a zoom meeting at 1pm that he was already going to be late for.
when the handwritten check finally came, we both tossed some cash onto the table and hurriedly left the restaurant. brice ran off to his meeting, i got back on my bike and rode home.
did i mention it was kind of cold today? temperature in the 40's, grey skies. i wore my flannel-lined pants for the first time this season, and put on my hat and gloves while biking. DC was gone by the time i returned home. i raked a barrel of brown oak leaves before coming inside.
i spent most of the day collecting receipts and crunching numbers for the cambridge small business grant survey form due on friday. it's basically an audit to see what we used the grant money for. cambridge is due friday, and the one for the state grant is due mid-december.
i went out in the late afternoon to pick up my prescriptions from walgreens. there was actually a long line at the pharmacy, about half a people waiting ahead of me. listening to one of the pharmacists on the phone, there was some kind of mix-up at one of the micro-fulfillment center where this pharmacy gets some of its prescriptions refilled (basically outsourcing that job so the pharmacists can better tend to the customers). luckily my prescriptions wasn't part of the mix up. i paid for my irbesartan and thiazide and left. i noticed on my blood pressure medication that it said it was manufactured in zhejiang. so now even prescription drugs are made in china?
i signed up for the energy star appliance rebates from eversource, since both the LG washer and dryer are energy star rated. unfortunately i discovered that the rebate only works for a dryer ($50). a rebate exists for washers, but you first have to have a consultant come to the house and certify that you have a pre-existing energy inefficient washer and need to be installed by a certified technician to claim a $150 rebate. unfortunately we already let home depot haul away our old washer, and technically belmont can't apply for the rebate because it has its own municipal power, not eversource.
because i didn't get any groceries today, i ate just what i had in the house. i made an avocado egg ham bagel sandwich around 7:30pm. i was watching MSNBC, waiting to see trump announce his reelection for president. after that i turned off the tv and started watching after yang on my computer.
as of 1am, DC still hasn't come back home yet.