2007-02-11 - 10:41 a.m.

...outdoor saturday...

Disaster struck this morning when the super full automated coffee machine decided to no longer press out its life-giving brew. The 'de-scale' light has been flashing for at least a week now. We knew this time was coming. It still felt like an automated betrayal when it arrived.

No worries - I boiled water and threw it over some emergency ground coffee while K downloaded the coffee manual and dug out the de-scaling tablets. We are now de-scaling as we drink a truly awful cup of filter coffee. If only my problems were all this great.

The sky is completely grey and it is raining today - making it clear that we do, in fact, RULE in our ability to choose days for activity. Following yesterday's quandary: 'to run or to bike?' We did both. I am not entirely proud to say that I whined enough that K caved, and we went running first. (I knew that I would not run if we waited until AFTER the 20km cycle - go me.)

And so out we went, cycling down to the amazing cheese shop in Kitsilano. I got rather cranky halfway through the ride. My body realized that it was still functioning on half a slice of bread from early morning, and by 1pm it decided to enter the equivalent of 'descale' mode. Poor K - I am not very pleasant in 'descale' mode and he became the cause of everything wrong in the world. But he did feed me (half a sandwich at Starbust), and I did apologize for accusing him of trying to kill me. And truthfully it was a very lovely ride, and I'm glad we did it. K is a very patient person - he laughs at me when I whine, and he cajoles me out of grumpiness. Who could ask for more?

Anyway, it was a wonderful day. I fixed a lovely Mediterranean salad with roasted eggplant, red peppers and pine nuts; olives, tomatoes; fresh cilantro, basil and parsley; lemon, spices, and crumbled goat cheese. We enjoyed it with a glass of red wine before climbing into bed with a romantic movie.

And now today we both face a full work agenda. ugh. I so want to live a life where I don't stress about how my work will look in six months...but then, I wouldn't be an academic.