In the afternoon I went up to Anna's in Berkeley, a cafe Karen introduced me to, with comfy velvet couches and decent chai. I had planned to work, and hauled all my work with me, but ended up reading instead; I had gotten completely hooked on George R.R. Martin's (he invented the middle initials; isn't that cute?) novel, _A Game of Thrones_. Very solid high fantasy, and I'm looking forward to spending Saturday or Sunday in Utah sitting in a bookstore reading the sequel (_A Clash of Kings_, now out in hardcover).
At six I went to Karen's, stopping to pick up a pot of tulips and a bottle of blackberry honeywine. I arrived to find her sister cooking up a storm; apparently Karen's sister is a caterer by trade, and had agreed to cater this dinner as a birthday present. There were eleven of us, and we dined magnificently on all sorts of yummies. Dinner lasted 'til midnight, and I have to say that it was really nice being in a group where the conversation was interesting for many hours on end. Met some really nice people too, who I hope to run into again.
Sunday I slept in some, but was still feeling a bit tired; I think I may have picked up a cold. I had planned to go to Greyhaven for a wedding tea, but decided I didn't feel up to it. Called Heather, who had thought of going with me, found out she wasn't feeling so well either, and so we cancelled. I started working, doing programming homework. A few hours later, Cliff came home. I had thought he was going directly to the tea from his earlier brunch in the city; instead he dragged me along. He actually went and got the fixings for cucumber sandwiches while I showered, then helped me put them together, and then drove us there. I'm really glad I went, although we didn't stay long; James and his new wife recapitulated their vows, and it was really a good thing to be there for them. Yeah, Cliff.
The rest of the afternoon was devoted to computer homework.
I've finally started actually doing little programs for my programming class. Nothing fancy -- so far I've gotten the computer to say "Hello, World", print a big letter E made of asterisks, and convert Celsius to Farenheit. I'm working on a program that figures out if a year input is a leap year or not. It's been driving me a little nuts; I have to figure out how to tell the computer whether something is divisible by 4 or not. I thought I had it, but it wasn't working, so I sent my latest version off to Kevin this morning for advice.
I just got back his long response, where he details my errors, talks me through the correct version of what I was trying to do, offers another solution, and then says, "See if you can figure out what this would do." I am ridiculously tickled by how teacherly Kevin sounds. One of these days I'm going to sneak into one of his lectures. I know -- I won't understand a word he's saying (he's teaching some form of analysis this year, I think?) -- but I bet I'll have fun anyway.
I was feeling awfully tired by dinnertime. I made a rich chicken curry and ate some, mostly with the leftover crusts from the tea sandwiches. I didn't want to waste them, and they tasted good, though they were a bit messy to eat. :-) I had planned to do some revisions in the evening, but I was so tired that I just read a little Andre Norton until 8, and then fell into bed, and slept until 6 this morning. I'm still kind of tired, so I *must* be sick, but not too bad. I'll try to sleep a lot tonight as well.
Today, piles of work at the office, but I did get to have lunch with Karina. (She jetted off to New York for the weekend, leaving Kevin in Utah, to spend time with our friend Alex (the Russian one)). David had picked her up from the airport, which is five minutes from my office, so we had a nice half hour catching up on the last few days. We also tried to make plans for tomorrow night; Heather and I are thinking about performing "Carol Throws a Party" for the San Francisco poetry slam tomorrow night. We'll see. I'll try to remember to post the details here tonight, in case we go and y'all want to be there. The admission charge is pretty small.
Later: Mar 2 - SF slam; 330 Ritch Street, 7:30-8:30 (between 3/4th off Townsend)