America, basketball, cafes, work, cats, and my reality TV addiction

The highlight of this week was going out for dinner with our friend B to celebrate her new status as a U.S. citizen. She got sworn in at Faneuil Hall on Wednesday and then a bunch of us went out to Durgin Park. E picked it for the ambiance, because the food is mediocre at best, but we found it rather lacking in atmosphere. Maybe it gets better if you go later in the evening.

Between scheduling snafus (the first game of the season got cancelled for the Red Sox victory parade) and having only 4 teams in our division, my basketball team winds up playing the same opponents twice in 3 days. We won the first game on Thursday, despite having only 4 players show up (they only had 5, so they couldn't run us down too much). It turns out that it's much easier to play defense when there are no subs on either side because things get really predictable after a while. I managed to sink my foul shots this time (a personal first in 3.5 years in the league).

Since we didn't have our act together to cook dinner, Kelly and I went to Sherman Cafe in Union Square. This place is totally becoming my favorite local coffee shop. I'll spare you all the reasons I like it more than Diesel (with which I have been disenchanted since they painted the back wall orange), because I'm sure I've posted them before. We hung out and had some sandwiches and she kicked my ass at cards again.

Work is about to get pretty busy. This is good, but it's sort of like when you haven't done any exercise in a long time and then you try to go running. I'm sure that my crunch time abilities have withered from neglect. I know that a year ago at this time I was frequently getting to work at 7am, but if you saw me in the morning you'd be skeptical. Fortunately, there's no upside to getting to work at 7am this year so nobody minds that I'm not doing it. I have been reading The Innovator's Dilemma on the subway. I should have read this book a long time ago, but I'm finding it particularly relevant to my current situation. It's improving my understanding of how companies choose to pursue and commercialize new ideas. After this, there's a bunch of fiction in the queue. There've been a lot of interesting-looking books coming out lately, but I have been trying to avoid getting really engrossed in anything that will keep me up at night or otherwise inspire poor time management.

Morgan's still doing well. He lost so much weight while he was sick that from some angles he looks like a different cat. But he seems to be fine and he likes to hang out and watch TV again. Speaking of TV, Kelly and I are hooked on Project Runway. Apparently bratman is too, so I don't feel so bad admitting that to you all.