It’s a bitter cold Sunday. Been indoors most of the day, except when I went out twice for food. I hung out with Stine and Julio last night. Stine had stopped working on the model and didn’t want to hang out by herself. She also had bought some Guinness which was enticing enough to get me to go down two flights of stairs. I went down after watching some Scrubs episodes with Bill around 8:30. We just hung out talking and drinking and eating BBQ potato chips. Julio showed up after working over twelve hours in a sound stage in Queens.

He was understandably beat but once he had a bottle of Stella Artois and some lasagna that Stine had made the other day he was in a decent frame of mind. We all sat around the table drinking and listening to Scritti Politti and the Beatles ‘Love’ cd. Julio had gotten me that cd for a X’mas present but Annemarie had beaten him to it by about a month. He didn’t have a chance to give it to me before he flew to Denmark for the holidays. I asked him if he had it yet and he said he didn’t so I re-gifted it to him right then and there.

It was good to have some reheated lasagna last night. It certainly hit the spot after a few pints, though by 11:30 I was ready for sleep. I did catch a good piece of Saturday Night Live but really couldn’t tell you what I saw. I woke up around 8:30 and after showering and some coffee I headed out to get the bagels. Stine said that she was going out for them as well as the papers but I didn’t see any shopping bag hanging from my doorknob with bagels and newspapers in it.

I didn’t mind as I wasn’t suffering really after last night’s pints. It was a cold dry arctic air with stabbing winds that made exposed skin instantly tighten up. There were very few people on the streets at 9:00 in the morning. Too cold for many. There was a lot of broken glass though as if someone had smashed their apartment window on the corner of 7th and Washington. Wrong night to break a window, that’s for sure. I got my bagels and the newspapers for Julio and Stine and myself and hung theirs on the doorknob as I passed their apartment.

That was my initial foray into the cold air. The second was when I went to the supermarket to get some dinner. The aisles were packed with a lot of people out buying groceries and snacks for what seemed like Super Bowl parties. I bought what I need and was out of there within 10 minutes, some sort of record I think. Now I’m just hanging out, dressed in layers reading and watching the telly. That seems to be the plan for the evening. Do any of you have a problem with that?

I didn’t think so.

Well it’s Saturday and for that I am grateful. I slept until 8:00, after nodding off around midnight. A nice eight hours of sleep. Woke up fully rested, showered, had a cup of coffee and checked email before I headed out into the world. I walked by Mr. L’s the barbershop on the corner and seeing my Barber Tony’s chair vacant I went in and sat down. He asks me about how the new job is going and I tell him how it’s been going. Just your usual haircut small talk.

I got a decent haircut. A bit shorter than I expected but I think it will look good once it starts growing out. I walked up to Washington Street after that and got my bagels and newspapers and came home to a nice breakfast as Bill puttered about getting ready for his rehearsal and voice lesson. I watched some TV and decided to attempt to take out the old cd burner and install the dvd burner that Rand suggested. It took a little while but I was successfully able to do the switch in about a half hour. And here I thought I was helplessly incompetent regarding matters like these. It only took two calls to Rand.

Then I did some laundry and tried to figure out the new things on my computer. All these bells and whistles, such as this program. You see, when I write this each day, I used to write it on Microsoft Word, then post it into Word Press. Now I use the OpenOffice.org Writer program since Rand removed the MS Word program. Apparently it wasn’t a legitimate version. I could’ve sworn it was, but Rand knows best in matters such as this. Most of the commands and prompts are the same and it’s free.

I got tired of doing computer stuff so I decided to take a walk. I stopped by the third floor and asked Stine if she was up for a walk to the Burlington Coat Factory. She couldn’t since she was in the middle of starting to create a model for work. She’s working for Julio’s cousin, Anna who is an architect. She had the blueprints and thin sheets of foam core boards and the computer had the designs but she was struggling with how to make a 3D representation. I wished her well and headed out into the tundra.

I walked up towards Washington Street and gave Rand a call to see if he wanted to go out for a walk but he was in the middle of many things. So I walked around listening to the Arcade Fire’s new cd, Neon Bible. Juan got it after it was online. It’s very good and dense and deep. Wish I knew what they were singing but it’s really good, a perfect step after the great Funeral. I don’t know when the official release but I’m looking forward to it. I told Juan that when they come to town again, we definitely have to go see them. He agreed.