If you are interested, this is what I do on a lazy Sunday. Sometimes I go to work, but today, I am staying home. For breakfast, I ate some Cuban Black Beans from Trader Joe’s. I also drank some gunpowder green tea. I didn’t eat on the balcony. I ate at the dining table and looked out the window. I also took my vitamins. I admit that I don’t take my vitamins every day, but I am trying to be more consistent. It’s good for me.
I enjoy going to church on Sundays but today, I am not feeling well so I will stay home. My brother may come this afternoon (to bring me the volvo and some of his other stuff–like a printer) as he moves to Los Angeles for law school. I haven’t heard any news from him so either he hasn’t left yet or he’ll call when he gets closer. I decided to wash my pillow cases in preparation for his visit. I tossed into the laundry my flat sheet also because 2 pillow cases doesn’t constitute a good laundry load. I am a little worried about drying these items. I’d like to use the dryers downstairs but they cost $1.75 per load and I don’t think I have enough quarters. If necessary, I may go to the store to get quarters or else dry flat sheet and pillow case in my lint-emitting unvented dryer for a short amount of time. I guess I could hang the flat sheet in my bathroom and then the pillowcases shouldn’t take long to dry in the dryer. My food plans for today: if my bro comes, I want to make buffalo burgers. I have frozen patties (from Trader Joe’s ) and frozen buns (I bought a bag a few weeks ago and didn’t eat them all). I also have ketchup. But I am thinking of going to Giant to pick up chips or potato salad as accompaniments. Well, potato salad at Giant might be scary–their deli doesn’t look so good. Maybe I’ll find something canned or frozen to serve with the burgers. It’s possible my bro may not even make it here for dinner so no pressure. I just enjoy thinking and planning my upcoming meals and cooking.
Sometimes I feel really stupid. I wrote the wrong date for the travel itinerary requested for the Gordon Research Conference so the travel agent booked the ticket for the date I wrote. I was looking at July calendar instead of August. I didn’t catch it until this morning. I called Southwest and they let me change the ticket to the correct date with no penalty and no hassle. YAY!
On a brighter note, I purchased a plane ticket to go back to Chicago for our 3rd wedding anniversary on September 3, 2009. It falls on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. Airfare was a little steeper than usual but since I purchased the tickets almost 2 months in advance, I don’t feel bad about the price. We have a nice bottle of Oregon wine from the Albrechtsons that they gave us at our wedding. I will try to make more frequent short trips to Chicago. It will make my missing Ben a little more bearable. The plane ride is short and BWI is a small airport only 20 minutes away by car. Once my bro brings the volvo, getting to/from the airport won’t be as big of an ordeal as it was in June (when I took a bus to the light rail in the pouring rain and it took over 1.5 hours) or on the way back, when I paid over $50 for a taxi cab ride.
My brother called. He is near Wheeling, West Virginia. That means he is only ~5 hours away! Hopefully the weather will cool down before he arrives. Temperatures are in the mid-80s today. About 50% humidity, which is a nice day but not if you’re moving stuff/carrying boxes. I found a private parking lot near BWI that charges $6.40 per day (plus tax). The other option is the normal BWI parking lot run by the airport that charges $8.00 per day. I also found some airport shuttles that charge $23 to $36 each way. So if I am parking more than 10 days, maybe the shuttle is better but any less, and I will probably drive. The other option is taking the light rail ($3.50 total, including bus to light rail station) one way and the shuttle on the way back. Or find free parking near the light rail. But I don’t want my car to get broken into while I’m out of town, which could also happen if it’s parked in front of my apartment. Hm…
I vacuumed my floors this morning. And cleaned the dust off my grate/vent in the kitchen. I feel like I clean several times a week but my hair is still everywhere and dust builds up quickly here. I wonder how air quality compares to Chicago. I always felt kind of grimy when I lived in the city near busy streets and highways. The sky seems less smoggy here but there seems to always be a layer of black soot-like dust on my window sills after a week of accumulation. I didn’t have quite as much dust in Evanston. I wonder if warmer weather causes more dust buildup?