Can't Win

Afterwards I decided to go get lunch and do some shopping and enjoy the lovely weather we were having: It probably hit about 70 and was sunny and mild. A lovely day! I stopped by an art store and bought some sketch paper and a few random art supplies, so next time I'm hit with the urge to do some drawing, I'm all set.

Being concerned about my re-set crown, I wanted to find some fairly easy-to-eat food for lunch. My first thought was to get a salad at Pluto's, but then I remembered the good Thai restaurant that CJ loves, so I decided that chicken yellow curry would be just the thing: Rice, sauce, and tender chicken. I didn't need to use my incisors! I also learned that this restaurant has a garden out back where you can sit and enjoy the weather. So I sat and read and had a fine lunch.

I went by the Stanford Shopping Center where I bought some candles from a store called Illuminations. I've also been on a quest to buy some more Gousha Fastmaps; I have the Oakland/Berkeley one and love it, and would love to get similar maps (which are laminated and compact, perfect for the car) for the peninsula, valley, and for San Francisco. But no luck; I've checked many stores and found nothing, and I haven't found a source on the Web for these maps, either. (Gousha doesn't seem to have a Web site!)

On the other hand, at the map/travel store in the mall I stumbled across a book called Mysterious Britain which is a photo tour of many interesting buildings, stone formations, and natural formations throughout the British Isles. I love rock and natural formations like this, and I've long thought that I'd like to rent a car and drive around Britain (after flying there first, I mean!) seeing the many lesser-known stone circles (I understand there are about a thousand) and similar things. I find this stuff way more interesting than old castles turned into museums. Well, someday.

Yes, I bought the book. It has some terrific photos.

After all that I decided to go drop in on CJ and David. They were having a fairly lazy day, and I got to see their house for the first time since I helped them move in. They plucked an orange off the tree in their back yard for me, and boy! It's a strong contender for the title of "best orange I've ever eaten"! I guess there really is nothing like fresh fruit!

They hadn't yet eaten lunch, so we went into Palo Alto where they had sandwiches at the Peninsula Creamery and I had a milkshake. (Gosh they have good milkshakes.) We also went off to Fry's where they bought some things they needed. I browsed the Mac games.

I abandoned them afterwards and came home for a little while. Eventually I called Lucy to see if she wanted to meet at Borrone, but she's been sick all week and is still fighting it off. So we talked for about half an hour and then I went off on my own. I realized once there that I was, in fact, pretty tired from the stress and from not sleeping in this morning. But I stayed long enough to finish the book I was reading: Steven Gould's Blind Waves. In a nutshell, it's a fairly routine adventure with a tiresome love story and not a lot of science fictional content. Each of Gould's books has been a bit less interesting than the previous one, and this might be the last I'll read by him.

This morning revealed the "I can't win" nature of the weekend: I was putting in my contact lenses when I felt the crown come off again! Argh! Fortunately it does seem to be less sensitive than it was before, but it is still pretty annoying. I guess tomorrow I will call them again and see what they say, but I may just have to live without for a week until I get the permanent crown.

The dentist (and everyone I know who has a crown) tells me that the permanent crowns are much stronger than the temporary crowns, and that temporary crowns do just come out sometimes. Sigh. Well, I guess I'll live. I'll be pretty annoyed if I do have similar problems with the full crown, though!

I've wondered if the brace I wear at night might put some additional stress on the crown (so I didn't wear it last night, not that that helped). I'll make sure to bring it with me to test its fit when I get the permanent crowns.

Sigh.

I had a pretty lazy day, all-in-all. Still feeling rather wiped from not enough sleep Friday night. I went into work purely to spend some time playing Quake and was reminded - as I often am - that there are players out there who are way better than I am! Zoiks!

This evening I finished watching the Sherlock Holmes videotapes that CJ loaned me. I'm always a little surprised at how weak the story "The Final Problem" is. Apparently Conan Doyle wanted to stop writing about Holmes to focus on more 'serious' work, so he decided to kill him off, and it shows in this story, which is not at all a mystery, which leaves the matters of how Moriarty's organization is ended entirely to the imagination, and which isn't really "about" anything, except perhaps tugging on the heartstrings with some of the Holmes/Watson dialogue. The story of Holmes' return, "The Adventure of the Empty House" is really a much better story.

Oh, and I did finally sit down and appraise my 1999 taxes, and came up with a few questions to resolve over the next week or two. It looks like they will not be so bad to figure out, which is mainly what I'm concerned about, since I know I'll be owing some money.