The days are just packed

--Ate one chili half smoke at Ben's Chili Bowl, and about ten french fries. I think fries should come in Koog-sized order, which would include roughly a quarter of the number in a normal order of fries. This would probably be smaller than your average "small" order of fries. Ben's has potato salad on the menu, and after ordering the fries I wished I'd ordered that.

--Watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on DVD at Ed's, because Ed's place has air conditioning and mine doesn't; also, he has that movie and I don't; and his DVD player wasn't swiped by stupid petty theives last week. It was good, I was particularly impressed that the villain was a woman. (I had managed not to hear that.) Agreed with the assessment that it was basically Sense and Sensibility with kung fu, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

--Sweltered. This should not surprise anybody, as I live in a notoriously humid part of the country, at least in the summer. This summer hasn't been so bad, though.

--Packed the wheely bag in a box. Now, the wheely bag was damaged on its first trip, which was to Chicago. It lost a wheel. Either luckily or unluckily the wheely bag was manufactured by Eagle Creek, which has a lifetime guarantee. I didn't really want to have to pack it up and send it to California, though. It's been with me for roughly three years and I just now got around to putting it in a box. I called Eagle Creek to get the authorization number, but they're closed on weekends. I think that sucks.

--Got licked by three different cats, which means both my girls and Cosmo, who lives with Ed. Cosmo is a strange orange and white guy with big eyes. I feel mostly responsible for us adopting him from Petsmart when Ed and I were roommates. Anyway, when we broke up that house, Cosmo stayed with Ed because neither of us could bear to separate him from Jester. We used to call them Bruce and Julian, if you know what I mean, and I think you do if you watch The Simpsons.

--Bought a new digital thermometer and some Q-Tip brand cotton swabs. And a Chunky. The Chunky was not as good a candy as I remembered from being a sprout, but then what is? The digital thermometer cost me $11.99 plus tax, which seemed like a lot. Overall it was a mostly unsatisfying trip to the drug store, except for one thing. I spotted something called Cell Phone Jewelry, which was a set of three charms that you're supposed to attach to your mobile phone. I was unclear how this was supposed to be accomplished. I know my phone doesn't really have any holes through which to attach charms. I found this item puzzling and interesting at the same time. The charms themselves were kind of cute.

--Managed to get my temperature below 99 F for a couple of hours. The last reading was 99.6 F. That's OK; it's a full degree under the point where I have to call the hospital and be told to come on down and be the next contestant on Get Yourself Admitted.

--Used the mint soap. If you live in the Washington metro area, get yourself down to Eastern Market next weekend to pick up some mint soap from the soap lady who's inside the gallery. It's just phenomenal stuff; actually made my skin tingle, and that's a good thing in August. Thanks to Rob for the recommendation, even though he still hasn't been by to see Lola's new haircut, which he urged me to authorize.

I will not be updating for a few days after Monday, I don't think. I'm having laser surgery on my eyes Tuesday afternoon, and I don't know how my vision will be, or for how long. The retinal specialist--are they called retinologists, does anybody know?--told me that the treatment might not fix the blind spots in my right eye. I hope he's wrong about that.

before - after