urban planning like we've all done it

LA reminds me of Sim City--Sim City 2000 that is, the last game if that noble line that I played, or even ever saw. On the flat, everything is laid out in a regular grid pattern; and in fact, the planners went even farther and adopted the most efficient form of urban development known to man and Sim: the long block. I can't say for sure that the long blocks in Santa Monica are exactly six property squares wide, but they're close. The RL blocks also have alleys down the middle of them; while there weren't alleys actually represented in Sim City 2000, we can imagine that they were there. And indeed, that answers the ever-pressing question of how did folks in the single-family houses in the middle of the blocks get to work? I could say more about the uncanny resemblances between life and game, but I'll leave them for perhaps another day.

Leah is at work today for a million hours, and I'm sitting at home waiting for UPS to bring my real computer, which I miss like an absent lover. Sammy the laptop is nice and all, but it's just not the same. The five packages, weighing in at over a hundred pounds ($282.20, boxed and insured), are marked as 'out for delivery' on the UPS tracking page, so I have high hopes of seeing them today. Expectations, too: I'm hosting a pop-pop tournament tomorrow (my first as a host!) and playing on the laptop would be less than ideal. Specially since I don't have a working mouse or a registered copy of the game. Er... here's hoping.

Leah didn't post yesterday so she didn't mention my ever delicious dinner offerings, but last night I made Carribean black beans and mango salsa. It was all even better this afternoon for lunch, in burrito form. I confess I didn't quite know what a mango was before I went to buy them, but by pure luck I picked the right fruit. Sadly though, the two I got were far less than ripe, so the salsa was a little more cruchy than I could have wished. Still tasted good though, and I'll save the other mango to make another batch a bit later.

yay!

I got my real computer back! And it still works, as is evidenced by the fact that I'm now typing this on it. You can't tell that, of course, but you can take my word for it. And ain't it nice. Only trouble is my external speakers seem not to be working, which is unfortunate, since listening to music was one of the things I was looking forward to most. Hopefully the problem is something I can sort out short of buying whole new speakers.

Some hours, or some amount of time anyways, have passed between the end of the last paragraph and the beginning of this one. That is the joy and beauty of having a computer that's not a pain to use!* I watched some petty fights on IRC, read some articles online, played some pop-pop... and before I knew it it was now! It's a good thing, I have to say, cause Leah had to stay late at work cause there was no one else there or something, so I would have been dead bored otherwise. I might have even been driven to watching tv!! As it is, I could waste time in a slightly more interactive fashion. Only problem is now I don't have any more excuses for not doing real work, so I'd better get right on that tomorrow. Look out for some beautiful paintings Leah did posted tomorrow.

[*er... except, the real computer here is a bit of a pain in the neck in the literal sense. I need to get something to put under the monitor to make it about six inches taller...]

bad grammar from working a million hours

So this is me getting back home at like a billion oclock, after having worked more than ten hours at the store. towards the end of it i was responsibly filling in for someone who ended up MIA, and helping to prepare for two major lululemon events tomorrow: a yoga class in the store at 8am, and then a big promotion sale for Bikram teacher trainers (note, they should actually be called "Bikram teacher trainees" because they're in training to become teachers, but oh well, they all call themselves trainers. but they also learn to say things repeatedly like "go back fall back way back more back" so the nuances of our english grammar are not necessarily their forte.) anyways, for most of the evening i helmed the store almost all by myself, so i'm proud for that. and nautical lingo isn't my forte, so bear with me if that whole helm reference is horribly incorrect. i'm learning slowly, by reading the book of "Master and Commander" except only a little bit every evening because our voices get tired. so i predict it may be a slow process. i hope dan can stand my silly girl stupidity. perhaps he will find it endearing.

speaking of endearing, i was much aided in my work day by my cutie bunny pie who made for me a delicious lunch of two burritos, which i thought was way too much food when i ate the first one at lunch time, but the second one came quite in handy at 7pm when it was dinner time. my boyfriend is the bestest in the world. and you know what that means. that means i win.

- Leah