August 31st

American culture is weird. I finally managed to speak to someone from the uconn tennis section. THey only have tennis teams that compete at a fairly high level. But I can't compete because it's only for undergraduates and I am not an undergraduate. Can I come and train with them? No, because of liability issues, if something happened to me and I was not a member of the team there would be a big problem. Can that not just be my problem, I am medically insured. So, no training for me. I am allowed to come by and they will have a look at how well I play and then maybe someone will be prepared to hit some extra balls with me - but those someones are likely to be undergraduates who are 12 years younger than I am. I wonder how that will work out.
Also have been looking for walking clubs. There is a coventry running club that meets every Saturday at 7.45 am for a work out - I don't think so!
Anyway, tomorrow I will continue my alcohol hunt - they make drinking difficult. Yesterday they kept announcing at the store that it was nearly 9pm and that we could not buy any beer after that. It was only 8.15 on both my watches but I did not dare take any beer with me, as I only finished my shopping at 8.30 (= "after 9 pm"). And I already knew I was going to make a bit of a fool of myself by asking where I was. I am continuously making a fool of myself. I don't think I was supposed to help the cassiere pack my shopping either, no one else does - but she was kind of slow and it felt odd to stand there doing nothing.
Tomorrow is J's last day for the coming 3 days. I start running my experiment the day he gets back so we have a lot to sort out in our last (only 1 hour) meeting tomorrow. I wish he were not going, it scares me. I need him. He's even driven me out of the university campus when he heard I got lost on the way in - after stopping me in my car to yank at my emergency break and then telling me NOT to use it EVER ("no, not even when you park on a hill"). But that obviously is not why I need him, it's the research support. I was having a bad day yesterday, both privately and workwise. The work part I told him (I don't think this is a good manipulation says me - and to my disgust feel tears welling up, can luckily keep them down). He says "I always think my ideas are great when I first think of them, then I hate them and after that I think they are OK". That helped, and he helps because he listens to my ideas and then develops them (or says this is ok for now, this is the FIRST study).
SO I guess any weblog reader (if there are any, have still not got many e-mails so I believe not many people are reading here...) will be glad J. is leaving, no more J stories (but we may get more B stories and is that any better? I wont tell the last one, L would not like that - it was slightly embarrassing)
This weekend I play poker. I get a one hour lesson before the rest of the group arrives so I don't lose too much money. What a person will not do to get out of the house... Sunday evening I take L out for a thank you dinner. OTherwise it is supposed to rain this weekend... I am going to try and find a walking map in any case. And some shops.
Now off to bed, lots to do before meeting tomorrow morning (was hoping it would be in the afternoon, preferably the last person - always get more time then...).