Sunday, February 11, 2007

Slept in. Showered. Cleaned in the bathroom, tidied the bedroom. Usual oatmeal breakfast. I can't remember if I have mentioned this or not, but we've been trying to find an AC adapter for our Sony ICF-M410V portable radio. The one Sony recommends is not available in the United States. We tried the Radio Shack Universal 300 mA Power Adapter (273-1662), but it did not fit. [Updated: It works—see tomorrow's entry.] Even though we discovered the unavailability of Sony's recommended AC adapter long after we bought the radio (and thus cannot return the radio because there is no AC adapter for it like we were led by Sony to believe), we like the radio. We originally bought it as part of our emergency preparedness kit, but we've started using it as a white noise generator to help us sleep because sometimes our neighbors make noises at night. We simply turn the radio on without extending the antenna, and it sufficiently covers up other noises. This uses a lot less electricity than the solution we used in the past—running a clean air filter. We no longer have the clean-air-ness of the device we had before, but I'm not really certain that it was necessary in the first place. Lunch: leftover pizza. I did a lot of cleaning today. Patrick and I went to a piano and violin performance that Sam had invited us to at San Francisco State University: Jassen Todorov (violin) and William Corbett-Jones (piano). Afterwards Patrick and I got ice cream at Polly Ann Ice Cream (415-664-2472, 3138 Noriega Street, 11:00 to 22:00 daily). This was our first time visiting in this corner location. Patrick got 2 scoops: pistachio and almond, chocolate. I got one scoop: chocolate banana. The business card for Polly Ann's says that kids under 2 get a free mini ice cream when visiting with their parents and that every dog gets a free ice cream cone when accompanied by a human being. We visited the West Portal branch of the San Francisco Public Library, which had had its grand reopening yesterday. Dinner at home with Patrick: asparagus ravioli in marinara sauce with shrimp, bread and butter. Went to bed early.