how annoying

i'm not sure what was causing it, but i woke around 640a (now 720a) this morning to a constant rapping sound (quoth the raven) which prompted me to see what time it was.

i quickly realized that the power was out as my alarm clock was dead. walk around to assess the situation, and sure enough, there is no power in my apartment. grab a flashlight and confirm that i'm not alone as stinky's always on TV is quiet (only off if she isn't here). so i grab what cash i had ($7) and my license and head out to see just how widespread it is.

well, not very far. i get a block away and they have power. sure enough, there's power elsewhere (including starbucks which provided me with a coffee and muffin, reduced fat whole wheat tri-berry) so now i'm sitting here glad that my laptop has dual batteries which allows me to at least entertain myself for a little while as i hope things will brighten up. it's not light enuff to read in here yet as it's rather overcast.

i've finished my muffin. i can confirm that it has at least 2 different berries, raspberries (i have a seed stuck in my molars) and another darker, most likely blue and black berries. it was 'eh'. i liked that it was soft, and that it wasn't covered in sugar (something M doesn't care for and i've become less fond of in the last few years). it did have that slightly soggy/slimy feel muffins get when they have been packaged for a little while. they didn't put too many berries in, and you could taste the wheat. it didn't have that gritty feel that some whole wheat products have (usually to prove that it really is whole wheat i've found). size was smaller than a dunkin' muffin, more like the size of a regular cupcake size, but with a big top, the kind you see on TV, that perfect mushroom shape.

i have a slight update to the lack-of-power situation i'm currently annoyed by: the timer that turns on the lamp in my living room appears to have stopped a little before 6am, so i'm now closing in on hour 2 (currently 748a).

lesse...yesterday M&i were going to goto some thing her college was doing in boston, but shortly before 5pm, she called and asked if we should blow it off. so we went to dinner in watertown instead. we ordered a few appetizers, drinks and dessert. it was a fine dinner, altho our sweet potato gnocci wasn't as hot as we were expecting, but outside of that it wasn't bad.

weather yesterday was screwy. when i left it was misting on and off, and on my way it started to rain and then it stopped and then it rained, misted, rained and let up. during dinner the heavens opened up, and on the way home it continued that screwy trend until i hit 93 when it just started pouring and was like that for pretty much the entire way home. it let up a little bit when i got home, but i could hear it pouring on and off during the evening.

and it is certainly a lot warmer than one would expect for the 20th of october. i don't mind, and with the power still out (now starting hour 3) i'm glad as it means i'm not worrying about it getting too cold. if anything, i have my windows open as i'm warm.

one of these days i'll get the european pictures up. maybe i'll do some work on that now.

signing off for now i guess. 803am

well, at 807am, power was restored.

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interesting

i saw something similar to this a few months ago, but it was pulled from the shelves (i believe it was Wolfgang Puck branded) for being too hot or something like that, but when i saw it in the supermarket saturday, i figured what the hell. i figured for $2.50, i'd give it a try, justifying it by saying it was the same as a dunkin'. M corrected me by reminding me that dunkin' costs less.

so i tried it sunday morning.

meh.

i wasn't expecting much to begin with, it was more the novelty of the self-heating that was interesting to me, but after waiting for the alotted 5-8 minutes, i was presented with a 138 degree cup of coffee. i poured it into a mug (against the directions on the label) and tried it. 138 degrees isn't much when you think about it, so i found it to be rather disapointing from a heating perspective. (by contrast, the dunkin' i got when i picked up the paper was 158 degrees)

it also looked like a darker brown than i was expecting (i was thinking color would be similar to the starbucks fraps). was a creamy consitancy, and the hazelnut flavor (artificial flavoring) was strong.

i prolly should have nuked it for 30 seconds to bring it up to a better temp, but only in my mug. they clearly state not to put the thing into a microwave (it's that metal/microwave thing).

overall coffee flavor was a little weak with the hazelnut overshadowing it. definitely something i'll pass on in the future. i'll stick to my dunkin'.

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