working and walking

This morning I worked for three hours and as many pages at the Dunkin' Donuts down by the river. For the past several days I've done that, and it just registered that the same thing has happened every morning at about 7:30 or 8:00 . . . a man in a grey suit parks his plain American car in an illegal spot and takes a few slips of paper out of the glove compartment and goes away for maybe fifteen minutes. Sometimes he makes two short trips. Comes back and drives away.

Golly. I wonder why he never gets a ticket.

It was a nice day for walking. I went back and picked up Gay and we set off to a local café, Barlow's, where I had an excellent fresh fried fish filet. Then we wandered up the river a ways to an old favorite place, the Barking Crab, for a beer and some waterfront atmosphere. Crossed the river and went to a hokey tourist joint where they have a replica of one of the dangerously small ships that brought suckers over to the Massachusetts Colony. Didn't go in this time; just had a cup of tea and bought some loose tea at the tea room.

Then we looped around to a handy channel and got back to the apartment in time to avoid some rain.

Junot Diaz came by at five with Marjorie Liu, and we drove down to Chinatown for dinner at his favorite Chinese place, the Dumpling Cafe, where we dumpled well. On the way back we spotted an oddity, a little Australian restaurant, KO. Checked it out and picked up some Aussie stuff. Only a few blocks from here, so we'll check it out soon. (It has the true Aussie hamburger, with beetroot and all.)

Didn't rain until we were safely home. Slaved away over computers for awhile; I quit and played guitar for awhile. Will have to do a 30-minute concert in a few weeks at a con, so I'd better get some of my chops back.

Joe