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Falkoff and Zoe appeared back in town on Monday. They appeared like a magic trick without notice materializing in town for the next few weeks. It was good to see them back from France so we went out to the Chinatown Seafood restaurant in Coolige corner. I hadn't been there in the six years I've been living down the street from it. The food was OK. Zoe ordered off of the chinese menu which was five times smaller than the english menu. Falkoff may be returning to Boston in a few months but he likely has to decide between California and Boston. Kilimnik is off to Chile for three weeks and I keep getting dispatches from Jeremy from the outback of Australia that include lines like this "The only really unusual thing is that since they dont have dollar bills in australia and its hard to shove a coin into a g-string you have to buy these fake paper dollars from the bar. " So as usual at the end of the year I suffer from travel envy. So last night Sarah and I spent time discussing potential travel plans for 2005. I think we will be going to the Caribbean in February, skiing in January, and I'll do Machu-Pichu in Peru with Falkoff and Kilimnik in March without Sarah.

Yesterday I went and took my lumps at squash down at the Boston Sports Club squash courts in Allston. Dave, Nick, and Phil Falkoff were all there to take turns trouncing me. I did learn from Nick a good to return a serve into the corner in a way that's unreturnable if done right but like all raquet sports I suffer from a backhand that is useless. I got lots of blisters and was much more sore than when I normally work out. My bones felt like they were slipping in an out of the sockets when I lay down.

Sarah had kidnapped the pug dog and we had wanted to go for a walk with him but the traffic was intense at about five o'clock and it was getting dark so we just turned around and walked him down the street. He cuddled-up with us as we watched Spiderman 2. I thought it was an OK movie. I still don't believe the love interest between Spiderman and MJ. It is too cartoonish for her to be engaged to a seemingly nice guy and still love Peter Parker secretly. That was actually the same plot between Tim and Dawn the secretary from The Office. We also watched The Office Special where Tim and Dawn's relationship is resolved later in the evening after we dropped off Leelin at his home. The difference was that The Office villified the fiancee so that you didn't like him. Maybe that is more cartoonish. People usually have real conflicts. I did like the humor of the director in Spiderman 2. He seemed to have fun with the subject of Spiderman deciding to give up his super powers.

Waichi has had these couches in the entranceway of the condo for a couple of weeks that I helped her move. The Salvation Army was supposed to take them but they rejected them because they were too ratty. She also brought out a red chair that I think Stephanie and James took with her. She finally rented a van this morning to move them so I thought I'd earn some mensch points by helping her carry it to the van. It wasn't very hard but Waichi was happy to have the help. Kids should have a mensch game where they learn how to be a mensch by doing good deeds like helping elderly people cross the street, opening doors for people, but with a huge world full of needy people. It could be a bit like Taxi Driver. It would be called "Nice Guy". Maybe it could be made competitive in some way with a multi-player mode with people trying to outdo each other with good deeds. My guess is that it wouldn't be nearly as popular as Grand Theft Auto where you are a criminal and go on a rampage destroying things. But parents in Utah might prefer it.

A couple of other odd observations.

1. The Bean Town Coffee Shop has once again led the charge in coffee shop innovation with a vase labeled "Too much liquids". So when you have more coffee than you wanted and you need to lighten it up you can pour out the excess coffee into it instead of pouring it into the garbage receptacle. Bravo Bean Town!

2. JP Licks discontinued Cherry Garciaparra and replaced it with Cherry Ortiz ice cream. The original Cherry Garciaparra was a derivative of the name Cherry Garcia by Ben and Jerry's which was derived from Jerry Garcia of the Greatful Dead. This is what happens when ice cream mixes with fame. I thought that the ice cream should have changed from vanilla to chocolate but that would likely have been seen as racist and most people expect cherries to be in vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips.

3. At JPLicks Zoe picked-up flyers for a cleaning service from an artist/musician couple living in Brookline. Among the quotes o nthe flyer was this one "Communication is important in relationships and I like to think my degree in English helps with this."

4. Scientific American is covering a guy named Hans Moravec who makes robots that can deal with the world around them using some cheap sensors. I love this stuff. The article is called You Robot. I hope the guys over at irobot get onto this project. I am always available for a robotics project. Just waiting for the phone to ring.