I figured as a gift to myself I'd take the day kind of slow (admittedly gum surgery played a key role in this decision). In the end I got eye strain from playing way too much Dr. Mario tonight... but I got to level 37! And then I made it past page 200 of Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian.

And I avoided typing "liverjournal.com" into my Web browser. (Am I the only one who makes that mistake? What is my subconscious mind telling me?)

Little do you know that you are part of an ancient conspiracy!

On a whim, here's the first hit on Google for "路上行人欲斷魂".

Up: Saturday morning, I participated in the Race Up Boston Place climb (thanks to everyone who donated :-). I didn't die and I made it in 7 minutes and 36 seconds! As a special treat, at the top of the climb we were led into an observation room where we could look down and see all of downtown and the waterfront on one side, and the Zakim bridge and Charlestown on the other. That and they had water bottles (I finished mine in a minute) and cough drops (for which my itchy throat was grateful) and chairs (Oh My Gawd my legs were tired). The other people at my company who went also seemed to have a lot of fun.

Down: By the time we were done it was too late for karate, so I hit downtown crossing for some clothes shopping. It was then I started realizing that the world felt too warm and that my nose was starting to run. And while the fever went away, the rest of the symptoms lasted throughout the weekend, so I had to punt my Saturday evening plans :-(

Up: On my way home (before things got worse) I visited Schoenhof's, which has somehow eluded me for all these eight years I've been in the area. Something about the store being closed on Sunday... but anyways, I browsed the Spanish books section and picked up Diarios de motocicleta: Notas de viaje, which I plan on reading with the help of my new "Pocket Edition" dictionary (at 5" wide x 8" high x 2" deep, it's hardly pocket-sized).

Down: My 4-drawer chest lost more of its structural integrity when I tried putting away my loot from Filene's Basement, so I had to make a trip to Tags and replace the cracked plastic corner brackets with metal ones. And now there are a few more holes in the drawers than there used to be.

Up: But on the way back from Tags I stopped by Shaw's and found... Manischewitz Shake n' Bake (well, "Chicken Roasters")! It's dairy-free and I got to play with raw chicken in a plastic bag! And I got 2.5 pounds of collard greens, which after shredding barely fit in my Dutch oven.

Other fun victuals: jadia gave me leftover pan-fried fish (mmmm) and some of her freshly baked fruit and nut bread, and lokiect made lemon souffle.

Up: I finished calculating my taxes.
Down: But I ran out of checks to pay them with. Oops.

jadia says she suffers from fear of starvation. Is limoktonophobia the right word (even remotely)?

It's not every day that you pick up the paper and find a front-page photo featuring an accident from your home town.

The temperature's finally dropping like it's supposed to, and I think I'm getting the winter hoarding instinct again. Every time I go to the grocery store I feel like stocking up on non-perishable food.

This patent description amuses me: U. S. Patent 5,265,888

The past few days I'd been sniffling and my stomach upset, so I started popping zinc lozenges. They seem to have made the cold symptoms better, so maybe I can start sleeping better.

It almost feels like a breezy fall morning. The snow's mostly melted in the park next to my apartment, and the public works folks are raking the leaves and vacuuming them into a large truck parked on the grass, which is surprisingly still a lovely shade of green.

My work computer just decided to freeze in the middle of shutting down, but I didn't notice until I finished the crossword puzzle in the Metro. Let's see if I can be more productive the rest of the day....

Last Thursday, I rode in C's car with rhean and Y to Ohio for a karate tournament. During the trip I made some exciting discoveries, some of which I list below.

• Citgo gas stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio have luxurious bathrooms. And some of them even have large showers.
  
• Even within the same style of karate, the forms and techniques can vary wildly. An extra hand swirl here, some dynamic tension there, curved fingers in the spear-hand position, and different target locations make some of the seisan and seiuchin katas look drastically different.
  
• People from other dojos are really aggressive during sparring. I got seriously whacked.
  
• Little kids are really cute when they perform katas. Little kids are also really impressive when they perform katas.
  
• Higher-up black belts do some seriously crazy s*** when they spar, such as dropping their guards (it looked like a game of chicken) or rocking back and forth while leaning waaay back (drunken boxing!).
  
• Bonking someone on the head counts as a point during sparring. This seems to work for bigger kids against some of the smaller tykes.
  
• Hotel rooms built from concrete grain silos have echo-y acoustic centers.
  

Addenda:

• I-80 through Pennsylvania is under heavy construction. Seek alternate routes.
  
• There's a lawyer in Philly who (reportedly) looks just like rhean. Be on the lookout!
  

My laptop's Dashboard weather widget reports the following:

Hi: 78°
Lo: 57°
Currently: 56°

Methinks AccuWeather hasn't been updating its forecast....