Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

There was the usual sitting around and waiting, being told how everything works (which they have to do, because not everyone's been there before, and some who have may not remember the details). Between that and the first time they called juror names for a possible panel, I watched the SpaceShipOne flight on a laptop belonging to a member of the X Prize Board. He seemed very cheerful about the need to cut a large check.

I was called for one potential jury. They had 60 of us in a room, swore us all in, introduced the prosecutor, defense attorney, and defendant, and verified that none of us recognized any of them. The judge then described the case briefly--three related drug charges, all stemming from a buy-and-bust case--and asked if there was anyone who felt they couldn't be fair to one side or the other.

I raised my hand. The judge called on me and I explained that I don't agree with the state drug laws (you don't have to support the legalization of heroin to agree that New York's "Rockefeller" drug laws are barbaric and oppressive). He asked another question and I said that no, I didn't think I'd be able to set that opinion aside and follow the law. So he told me to get my "ballot" (Ghu knows why they call the juror slips that) back from the court officer and turn it in at the jury room.

That was it until lunchtime. The waitress at Excellent Dumpling remembered that I wanted duck, but wasn't sure which duck dish; I told her, and added egg drop soup. Unsurprisingly, they do an excellent egg drop soup, the first in years that I haven't added soy sauce to. I followed that up with one scoop each of lichee and ginger ice cream at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory: I realized as I walked out the door that, to the casual eye, it looked as though I had a vanilla cone.

I spent another hour or two of the afternoon sitting in the jury room, rereading The King's Peace, and waiting to be called. Then they sent us home until tomorrow. I called my office to tell Marvin that I would have to go back tomorrow. The poor man seems traumatized by my hair color, and he hasn't even seen it.

Thence to the gym. Fifteen minutes of cardio (I'd set the machine for 20, felt a bit tired, and figured okay, good enough, I've fallen out of practice on lengthy cardio and I had gotten my heart rate up to 142). Thence to the calf machine: 2 sets of 13 reps at 70 pounds, then one set of 13 at 67.5. Slow progress, but it is an improvement.

Next should have been bench presses. I removed the two 45-pound weight plates that the previous user had left on that machine, and put on my own (slightly lighter total, and no single plate more than 25 pounds), and started to move the weight bench so the head end would be where I wanted it. It was noticeably tiring.

For best results, avoid doing stupid things. If moving the weight bench is tiring, don't bench-press 65 pounds. I finished moving the bench, to avoid leaving it in the middle of the floor, briefly considered doing crunches, and then decided that the sensible thing to do would be to shower and go home. So I did, which had the advantage of getting me back here around six.

Conclusion: I am not, in fact, well, but neither was last night's sneezing and such an allergic reaction to julian_tiger, as I'd briefly suspected after not sneezing all day.

After working out, I went down to Chinatown for lunch. Excellent Dumpling is on Lafayette Street just south of Canal; I picked it because it was handy and a quick scan of the menu showed they had various forms of duck over rice.

I was seated at a large round table, with initially two and eventually five other people, all of whom were also eating alone. The waitress asked if I used chopsticks as she handed me the menu: each place was set with chopsticks, spoon, a glass, and a teapot. I said yes, and poured myself a glass of weak Chinese tea. I tried asking the waitress about the food, but her English wasn't up to my questions; I took a chance on the "sweet ginger duck over rice", which turned out to be hot rather than the room temperature meat I expected. It had the sweet red preserved ginger, pineapple, and vegetables, along with four or five good meaty pieces of duck, in a sweetish brown sauce. The sauce was the sort of thing sweet-and-sour might aspire to, if it could forget about breading.

Two of the other people at my table had clearly, in their own estimation, ordered too much food. The woman nearest me kept pressing scallion pancake on me. It was a very good scallion pancake, and I wound up eating three pieces of it, as she worked her way through soup, pancake, and a "lunch special" that came with fried rice and a fried wonton. The woman behind her eventually decided she couldn't finish her vegetable dumplings, and offered them around. Given the name of the restaurant, I figured I would try one. Not bad, a different filling than the standard chopped cooked greens; it would have been better hotter, I think. Another person at the table mentioned a new dim sum place, on the Bowery just south of Canal: he didn't remember the name, but reported "Grand Opening" signs and good dim sum, including "octopus balls".

I stopped on my way to the subway and bought two pounds of cherries, then went up to 14th Street to give Simon back porcinea's housekeys and their copy of Dorothy Heydt's Point of Honor. We chatted a bit while I stroked Trouble, who was once again quite the cuddle-boy.

On my way home from the subway, I cut through Isham Park to check out the mulberry trees there. Three boys who had been playing ball saw me plucking berries, asked "Are those good to eat?" and then dashed over as soon as I said yes. I barely had time to tell them that the black ones are best, because ripe, before they were reaching up, picking, and eating. When I mentioned that someone had told me "years ago" that these are edible, one of them commented that this was an advantage of our neighborhood. (It is, but I knew about mulberries before I lived in Inwood.) As I was walking away, the oldest boy said he liked the white ones.

Teaching about mulberries seems to balance taking Chinese food from strangers, and I enjoyed both.

( gym numbers )