<1849>

As noted, I didn't do anything but read Harry Potter until Thursday night, and after that, I've pretty much done nothing. Yesterday I was part of T's moving crew, and we tried to stick her boxspring in my basement, but it was too big to get down the stairs, to her great sadness. Today I've done very little, except a little cleaning.

I broke up with Blockbuster last night after they pulled a bait-and-switch on me. I had signed up for an in-store pass, one out at a time, for $15 a month. That worked for 4 months, and then for *some* reason they just didn't auto-renew this month. When I went to the store last night, when the guy scanned the outgoing movie, the little debit/creidt swiper in front of me asked to verify a charge for the $15, which he reached around and cancelled, because he's an idiot and didn't bother to ask the manager right next to him what he should do. This effectively cancelled my account, and, lo and behold, now they only offer a two out, $25 account. Uh, fuck that. I sent a grumbly email through their customer support channels, and we'll see what happens, but I'm guessing I'll soon be a Netflix customer.

<2131>

OMG, Harry Potter. Fucking a.

<0030>

So, last night I actually left the house and went to see Merry Wives of Windsor with Lynn and Tim. It was pretty hilarious, and nice to see a play outside. Then there was City Cafe and delicious chocolate cake... mmm.

Today I opted to do nothing but read HP4 (all of it). Tomorrow I do need to go out and do some shopping, but between then and Monday I intend to get through HP5, and then I'll be clear to read 6, which I did kind of start last weekend. I don't think I know anyone here who would have purchased and already read a copy, so I'll have to bite the bullet and buy the hardcover, which will not match my paperback copies of the others. Pout. But, I would also like to be able to read the internet again without constant fear of spoilage.

Also, Happy Birthday, Amber! 23 is a prime age. Har.

<0014>

Oh, so last night when I was reading HP2, I realized that Potter is Hogwarts class of '98, which means he's my age! Which means in 'real time' he's off doing whatever 25-year-old wizards do... unless he dies and I just don't know it yet. Cheery thought!

<0929>

Republicans don't want Democrats asking John Roberts any questions about silly things like abortion or stuff like that, but the president is free to ask potential nominees about their exercise routines. I guess Bush thinks following the doctor's orders on cross-training is a good proxy for sound jurisprudence.

<1933>

Storey isn't kidding about the looseness on Potter... I just saw a Globe headline about kids needing to talk and grieve, and a post somewhere about Rowling being a sadistic woman with a follow-up about how she actually went and did it. I guess this only gives away that somethin REALLY BAD has happened, but it is getting to be Book 6... time to start killing people off, eh? Anyway, I better stay off the internet and keep hacking away at the books and get book 6 fast.

<1011>

Since I'm too tired to do work, I might as well recap the last week. Last Tues I went with the Fiz crew to see this weird movie, Howl's Moving Castle. Weds there was lunch with some of the girls, packing, and TV. Thursday's flight was no big deal... I took the MARC train down to the airport, which wasn't that exciting, really, but it was something new. I had dinner with Ben once in the square, and then I stayed at the crazy house the whole trip, which was cool.

Friday I went out and bought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory so I could remember what the actual book is like (I still haven't seen the new movie), and there were lots of parts at the beginning that were really neglected in the original movie, as I recall. Friday night was Potter madness, so we did our traditional wandering around gawking at weirdos, all of which were at the Garage this year, leaving the rest of the square full of normals. Grafton had potion bowls, but it was crowded and they were expensive, so we had our own Potter party at the Kong, which was dead.

Saturday Mindy had a birthday lunch at Tanjore... mmmm, Indian buffet. Then we went to see March of the Penguins early in the evening... it was adorable! Penguins have such harrowing lives, though! Definitely an awesome movie. Then no one was around for the night and it was dead, until Danny and Loren got back from a concert, and then we went to Daedalus and the Kong.

Sunday was wonderful and lazy and I just stayed at the house all day, except for when we all went grocery shopping. Jamie made this delicious broccoli quiche thingy that was mostly broccoli with some cheese and eggy bits mixed in just enough to be sooooo goood. There was TV, and then sleeping.

Monday sucked, as mentioned. I got to the airport pretty early because I couldn't think of anything fun to do in the square and anyway it was hot. But then my flight was delayed 2 hours due to thunderstorms over New York causing diversions all along the corridor. Le suck. So then that meant instead of getting back during rush hour when there would be more things running, I got back at like 7:30, which meant slow ass trains and shuttles. Crappy.

Yesterday I only came in for half a day of work. I hung out with Steve a bit last night, and then went to TV night. After dropping Steve off, I was making a left turn at this big intersection, but it was sort of dark, and I'm a little night blind like my mom, and there weren't a lot of cars around to define where things like the line dividing the lanes were, so when I turned, I couldn't quite tell where the line was to get into the proper lane. And, ooh! a concrete median! I hit the brakes hard and didn't hit it, but apart from feeling like an ass, there was a cop like right there. He pulled me over, as expected, but he was really nice and could see that I was not tanked, just clumsy.

<2217>

Does anyone else think Sara Vowell has the creepiest headshot ever to grace the NYT Op-ed page? I can't bring myself to read any of her columns because she looks like a friggin zombie (okay, I have a read a few and found them generally lame... but Dowd is pretty lame also, and her non-frightening headshot allows me to forget that sometimes and click on through).

So, I never end up buying Potter until it comes out in paperback. After book 4 I borrowed all of them and caught up, and after book 5 came out, I bought the first 4 books in paperback, re-read them, and stole Matty's copy of book 5 to read. Now, I poked my nose into someone's copy of book 6 this weekend, realized I didn't remember shit from book 5, and have started "skimming" from the top. I finished book 1 today, and have started book 2, hoping to make a major dent by the time the Daily comes on. I'm always such a lagger.

<1402>

I was thinking about the overall disparity between my two exam graders today... they were only one off by section, but overall they were hugely different. If the first grader had been doubled, I would have probably just missed an honor pass, and if the second had been doubled, it would have been halfway to a fail. I guess that's why they have two graders!

<2322>

I had a great weekend, which I will recap later.

Getting back sucked balls, though.

I passed my quals! Though it was closer than I would have thought... one grader was pretty much as I expected, while the other, one of the easiest graders in classes this year, turned out to be a real hardass on the exam! It's also kind of his area... in that the main topic is his area, but the specific topic I chose isn't really, so he probably felt off-kilter the whole time. But, a pass is a pass, and while I would have loved to honor pass and represent SBS, it really doesn't matter.

I think it'll take me a while to get around to looking at my reader comments, though.

<0924>

I felt an itch on my head when I was sitting here at my desk just now, and I reached up to scratch it only to touch A BIG BUG. Okay, so it was a medium sized beetle, but still, EW. I had to get my hairbrush to make it get out all the way. EW EW EW. It was actually a cool-looking bug, once it was dead and not on me.

So grumpy and bleh today.

<1424>

Friday I didn't end up doing much... went to Physics happy hour and then came home, watched a movie, and crashed. Got up at 1 on Saturday, and I only accomplished grocery shopping before having an evening much like the one prior. Yesterday I went to the Inner Harbor with Lynn, where we had lunch and then walked around and shopped for a while. I dropped her off and then jetted to Trader Joe's for a few grocery items. I stayed up too late trying to get my exercise in, which made my body decide to pee well into my sleep time.

So this girl in my cohort moved into this really cool apartment that has been in the public health family for a while... she told me earlier in the year it must have been a really cool coke den in like the 80s. Anyway, some jerk set the dumpster outside the building on fire, causing the apartment to then be on fire. Everyone got out fine (at 3 am!), but it sounds like most if not all of her stuff is pretty wrecked. She's been all over the world too, so there's a lot of stuff with sentimental value and memories attached. :-(

The more productive I am at work, the slower it goes!

<1500>

If I didn't love Krugman enough already, today he cited that creepily prescient Onion article from Jan 2001.

You know, the Democrats really suck at gathering and consistently pounding outrage... over things that are outrageous! The Republicans managed to hammer on all that completely stupid shit with Clinton... it was so stupid most people couldn't believe it was happening! That people were actually going to impeachment over something so dumb! Here we are, war based on a whole lot of nothing, chief advisor leaking CIA agent identities... these people are fucking corrupt and soulless, and they need to be called on it nonstop until they're gone.

<1058>

It's amazing to me how I can be on the same general side as someone (opposite the other side), and yet so consistently vehemently disagree with their perspective.

<1204>

This cold has finally gotten to me... I took some Dayquil to combat it, and I should have only taken half the blister pack's 2 capsules because I feel all buzzy and unfocused. This London business isn't helping any, and I'm having a minor freakout about threatened attacks elsewhere in Europe.

<0157>

OH MY GOD DON'T LEAVE A 2.5 MINUTE VOICEMAIL WHEN 15 SECONDS CAN DO THE JOB!

I thought the last voicemail was pretty bad, but this latest one just put the nail in the coffin in any chance that I will ever communicate with this dude again. Seriously, dorks of the world, practice leaving a decent voicemail. I mean, I've left some pretty rambly messages before, but generally that's to people who already like me. Not people who did not return my last call already. Yeesh.

I also need to start driving myself to TV night, because it's 2 am, and I have to be up in 5 hours, and I should have been home forever ago.

<1328>

Yesterday I went with Lynn and crew down to DC. We got there around noon, tried to get around the parade, which finally ended. Then we got stuck at a security gate trying to get into the mall area. Hooray for freedom! The first gate was poorly situated and much of the line poured out into an intersection (and another line came in from the sidewalk, but you couldn't see that line if you had approached from the other side). We eventually decided to try further up, where there was a much saner and well-organized line, with an actual adequate number of bag checkers.

We got some free lunch from the Hare Krishnas, then wandered to the Freer museum. It was hot and sunny out, so even though my feet already hurt by then, it was nice to walk around a nice cool museum. After that we found a spot on the mall in front of the monument, alternately got dinner and beverages, and chilled. Lynn and I made an exciting excursion to the outhouses. Yuck.

The fireworks were pretty great, although the overall atmosphere was kinda lame from where we were. Unlike in Boston, there were no loudspeakers to broadcast music around to the various parts of the mall. So that was dumb. Also, they set off most of the fireworks right behind the monument, which was sometimes really cool looking, and sometimes annoying. We decided there should be a holographic monument that could be turned on and off. So, I suspect that things may have been cooler on the Lincoln Memorial side of things, or even from the Jefferson. Lynn noted, however, that maybe it wouldn't be so bad just to go to the Baltimore Inner Harbor, as that is supposed to be pretty cool. Then there's no driving, and it's a shorter day all around.

Today I seem to be coming down with something. I woke up with a sore throat yesterday that mostly went away, and again today. The throat soreness is pretty minimal right now, but I feel all woozy and tired, even though I slept a lot. I'm bummed because I came in for my half day today because there was supposed to be a training session, but they postponed it until tomorrow. Meaning I might actually have to do work today. Bleargh.

I've also been having the weirdest dreams lately.

<0008>

I'll never stop hating you.

I did actually get to Annapolis today, which was fun, though I feel like I didn't even come close to seeing all of it. There's a lot crammed in there. I had to park way out by the stadium, so that meant I had to get back on the park and ride shuttle by like 5:30, but it was still really crowded in town at that point, so I just came home. I can go check out more stuff some other day because it really is not that far away.

I sunburned my shoulders walking around, though! Lame!

I love those little eastern seaboard towns, though... they're all sort of the same. Made me miss my dear sweet wandering companion.

<2257>

Last night I went to physics happy hour, my new weekly ritual. Then I had dinner with Lynn, went to see the adorable doggie, and then met up with the boys again to see Batman Begins, which was pretty good. Then Paper Moon, where we were regaled with comic strip ideas.

Today I got up too late after getting home too late. So, the day was kind of a wash, but I did go to Fell's Point to do some reading and chill in the sun. Well, the shade; it was hot. Then I came back, had dinner, watched a movie. Okay, so the last three rentals I've watched were: Virgin Suicides, Magnolia, and Secretary. Wow. I like the latter best, though. Crazy hot movie.

In the mean time, I decided that it wasn't worth going out tonight if I had to respond to that socially inept voicemail. Boys gotta learn sometime.

Tomorrow I think I'll actually try to get to Annapolis.

<1507>

I have done so much laundry... all my clothes, sheets, and bathmats. I think it was like 9 loads all together.

Plans for tonight: physics happy hour, and then maybe dinner, and then probably vegging. Tomorrow I might try to go to Annapolis, and maybe DC on Sunday for some museums, or maybe vice versa or only one. There is talk of DC on Monday for fireworks. I thought about trying to brave Live 8 tomorrow, but I think I won't be able to coerce anyone to go with me, and I might get rapidly overwhelmed if I'm all alone.

Boston plans are set for the 14-18th. Seriously, it was under $80 with all the fees and such. That's way less than driving, maybe even for two people!