September in the Rain (9/6/2011)

I took the afternoon off to take Evelyn in for a doctor’s appointment so I figured I might as well use the time wisely.  What better way to pass the time than to blog, eh?

Except for the taking off from work part, today was a reasonably normal day, and normalcy does a good a job as any at making the world go round, so to speak.  In no particular order…

I stumbled upon a website reporting that a branch of the University of Wisconsin is standardizing on  the Century Gothic font which they’ve found saves up to 30% in ink over whatever they were using before.  I tried half-heartedly and, ultimately, unsuccessfully to find out how they were able to quantify the savings.  I also tried to post this blog entry using Century Gothic, but it wasn't available.  Too bad, I might have been able to reduce the number of pixels displayed by as much as 30%.  (I could do way better than that by simply choosing not to post this blog.).

Earlier, at about 5:45am give or take, I got my first glimpse of the new University of Maryland football  uniform which even NPR, which I listened to on my way to work, had taken notice of.  The Terps win of Miami (32-24) was far less interesting than LeBron James tweet: “OH GOSH! Maryland uniforms #Ewwwwww!.”  The three TVs in the gym each took its turn, one tuned to ESPN, another to CNN, and, eventually, the third initially tuned to an infomercial station hawking some sort of get-slim-quick dietary supplement.  Later, it was switched to WJZ in Baltimore, where I got to see not only more Terp jerseys, but a blow-by blow of the dismantling of the Grand Prix track which had graced the downtown area during the past weekend and apparently significantly slowed all non-race-related traffic.

Speaking of the gym, I forgot my earbuds, so I was forced to be more sociable than usual.  I chatted about the play “Farenheit 451” playing at the Round House in Bethesda, shopping for suits on sale at Joseph A Bank and Simms, and 9/11 memorial events that would likely impact the schedule of the first full week of classes.

At work, Michael returned after a week at the beach, and our Senior Staff meeting was cancelled because only 4 out of 14 members were at work, today being the day after Labor Day.  I made myself a K-cup’s worth of coffee and had a second cup at the Starbucks in McKeldin library.  I was there returning a DVD, “Our Neighbors, the Yamadas,” (*** out of 5) that I had borrowed via the interlibrary loan system.  I also made a stop at the non-print media library to return two additional DVDs that I’d borrowed for the extended weekend, “Sanshiro Sugata, Part 2” (***) and Zach Snyder’s remake of “Dawn of the Dead” (**)  Over the weekend, I also watched “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” for the third time (****), and “A Scanner Darkly,” (****) Richard Linklater’s rotoscoped version of the Philip K Dick novel.

I actually did some work this morning as well.  I sent out an agenda request and meeting reminder for the University Technology Coordinating Committee (UTCC) and successfully solicited a couple of speakers, including Aynsley (Green Office) and David (new digital certificate procedure).I also read and responded to quite a few email messages.

While Evelyn was at the doctor’s, I ran a bunch of errands.  Between raindrops, I closed out my credit union account (I got back $6.36), returned a CD and DVD to the White Oak library, got a haircut, and stopped off at the BP station to let them know that my car was still not starting sometimes (I’d brought it in three weeks earlier for the same thing and they replaced the battery AND the radio!!!) and now the service light was also coming on every once in a while.  They told me to bring the car in when it was convenient.  Because I still had to pick Evelyn up at the doctor’s office, just then it wasn’t.

In the waiting room I glanced through USA Today and the New York Times, paying particular attention to an article on Roger Ebert (he’s just finished a new book) and another on how eating a small meal and then a big one seems to help a person lose more weight than an equivalent, but more balance intake of food—at least according to one study.  Another article warned against eating food up to three hours before going to bed.  If I’m shooting for a bedtime of 9pm or so, I’m gonna need to eat dinner at 5pm, which means I need to leave work by 4:30.  Not a bad plan when you come to think of it.

It rained pretty hard on the way home, and at Eastwood, traffic on Colesville southbound was stopped.  As a result, I made a detour through the neighborhood and came out at University.  Turns out there was an accident just south of Four Corners, so the traffic on Colesville was still backed up with only the rightmost lane of traffic getting by (thanks, MC police).  We were able to squeeze by in a couple of minutes, and a couple of minutes after that we were home, safe and sound.  I celebrated by eating several of Stacy's tasty parmesan garlic & herb Pita Chips accompanied by a soupcon of Sabra roasted garlic hummus.  Now that's one healthy snack.  I'll make up for it by eating a light, early dinner.