The sound of rain, a new lab manual and serve breaks

• Although I can't see a thing through the frosted glass of the windows at my office, I can hear the welcome pattering of raindrops.
• Having Joel tell me (via text messaging as usual) that he'll show me the lab manual he's currently revising once it gets printed.
  
• Watching a tight fourth round tennis match at Roland Garros between No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal and No. 24 seed and fellow lefty Thomaz Belluci. As expected Nadal breaks Bellucci's serve on not a few occasions. But what is surprising is that Bellucci immediately breaks back nearly all the time. Some fighter that Bellucci!
  

A dictionary, veggie loaf and an extension

• I finally find a dictionary to use with my Mobipocket reader. It sure feels cool to be able to look up the definitions of unfamiliar words.
• Eating a slice or two of Goldilock's Veggie Loaf which tastes great alone. No need to add a slice of cheese or some sandwich spread.
• Seeing that my countdown for "until Joel leaves the university" is down to a little more than 20 hours. And then realizing that, since he decided to stay for at least one more semester, I get to reset it to 31 October--an extension of at least five months!

New black t-shirt, 95 wpm and nai cha

• Wearing for the first time the black baby tee I bought last month and being relieved that it still fits!
• Discovering that I can type at a speed of 95 wpm with 100% typing accuracy. I guess it pays to play piano and know how to sight read.
• Drinking nai cha at Chowking to go along with my early dinner.

Rising moon, cool air, and Rakot's G2

• Driving home yesterday, a beautiful sight met my eyes: the rising full moon just above a mist-covered Mt. Banahaw.
• For the first time in so many weeks, refreshingly rain-cooled air wafts in through the doorway in our basement.
• Downloaded and installed Rakot's G2 theme for Symbian s60 3rd edition in my Nokia E51. It's one of those rare elegant themes with an icon for all but a few apps.

Sleeping chickens

It is a habit of my staff here at the office to take a 30-minute nap during lunch break. For some strange reason, the sight of them dozing away in their chairs in their respective cubicles in semi-darkness (the lights in the office are usually turned off at that time) reminds me that of brooding hens sleeping in their nests.

Cupcake or flapjack?

My souvenir cupcake from this morning's wedding turned out to be quite an athlete. It took a dive off the saucer I was using to transport it from my office to my car for a photo session at home, hitting its head at the edge of the saucer (a la Greg Louganis once upon a time). Notwithstanding that minor mishap, it managed to perform a spectacular double somersault before landing with a soft albeit fatal thud on my office's linoleum floor, thereby sustaining grievous injury to its erstwhile artfully decorated head. :(

Another long chat

This morning, I attended a colleague's wedding where most of the guests visibly got restless as the "Christian ceremony" dragged on. As for me, I ended up having another long chat with Joel via text messaging about his plans to enroll as a non-degree student, among others. Our "conversation" in fact continued after the wedding (and the luncheon reception afterwards) and lasted until just after the end of the workday.

Oldie but goldie

Have just installed the 1913 edition of Webster's Dictionary in my cellphone. Despite being obviously outdated--I love how it defines a 'computer' as 'one who computes'--it should still prove useful for quick look-ups.

Someone to watch over him

Just after midnight this morning, the goat sent me a text message to thank me for last Saturday's dinner. He also asked me to watch over the bear whenever he would be out of town. Naturally, I responded by promising that I would watch over the bear.

Health hazard

Appointments to administrative positions here should include a warning:

Holding an administrative position is hazardous to your health. It means having to attend lots of meetings. Lots of meetings means sitting down for hours and being served unhealthy food snacks. And lots of unhealthy food means helloooo borderline high blood cholesterol levels.

Scapegoats

Since I typically eat veggies and generally eschew fatty stuff--save dark chocolate--junk food and pop, may I blame the four silvanas last Friday, breakfast at McDonald's last Sunday and yesterday's pizza for my high blood cholesterol level in this morning's blood chem results? Please, please, please...?

I take it back...

Eep! Just got back the results of my blood chem. Everything's fine except for--surprise!--my blood cholesterol level. All of a sudden, I've lost interest in baking cakes and other goodies...

Cheese, more cheese and a lighter load

• Eating pandesal with white cheese.
• Eating a slice of super supreme stuffed-crust pizza from Pizza Hut, a treat from one of our committee's members as a thank you for waiting two yours 'til she got all her unit's papers together. (As the pizza's crust was stuffed with mozzarella cheese, it seems I got my fill of cheese today!)
• The sight of the trunk of my car finally emptied of all the papers and books I constantly ferried between home and office last school term.

Vacation blues

Am realizing it was a bad idea to look up a recipe for silvanas. Now am itching to bake something--anything!--before things pick up again at the office in a week. Perhaps that good ol' banana bread or maybe Hershey's Black Magic cake. Or cheesecake, oatmeal cookies or Food for the Gods even if it isn't Christmas? Sigh! But our oven is still on the blink! Time to go shopping for a new oven... else it's back to no-bake cookies.