281001, 0820hr, illinois time.

i'm waiting for alvin to wake up, to eat the lemon poppy seed muffin that i baked. i baked some cornbread muffins yesterday, but he procrastinated eating one, and by the time he got to it, they were all gone. so today, i baked another batch of muffins, and i kept one for him, by taking one up to his room instead of leaving it in the kitchen for everyone. heh. sneaky eh.

yesterday had been an eventful day. lion dance in the morning was simply great, i had a drum to myself for the whole 2 hours, so practised nonstop, i could feel myself getting better as time goes by. it's quite helpful to be able to practise on my own, continuously, cos it's easier to just target my weaker points and work on them.

after that, had to go do some publicity work for tau beta pi, basically distributing flyers in the nicer neighbourhoods in urbana. [apparently it's illegal in champaign, but legal in urbana, so the team leader basically said we're not to cross wright street into the champaign region. haha...quite funny, being at the boundary of two cities, with different laws.] the flyer distribution itself was quite boring, but it was fun talking to the team leader. i guess it was a good decision to initiate for tau beta pi [after being too lazy to do that for the past year] just to open my social circle up a little. it's interesting to know more people, and get to see their perspective on things sometimes.

upon finishing the publicity work, it was already 4 in the afternoon, picked up shaun to go shopping. god, i spend more than $100 in that 2.5 hours we spent at the mall. eek. of course, the bulk of it are essential items, like socks and stockings [you have no idea how fast my socks and stockings spoil. bleah. is it me?] underwear [always essential, though despite what shaun thinks, none of those are bought with alvin in mind. if alvin wants anything for me, he can freaking come shopping with me and pay for it. hahahahaha...] gloves [frozen fingers the past few days.] and 3 tops, one beautiful woollen sweater, which is the most expensive sweater i've ever bought [yes, i tend to be quite cheap, i buy things on sale] but i really think it's beautiful, and quite comfortable, for a woollen sweater.

oh yes, and i finally found the perfect toy lion. his name is olie. my baby. =)

dinner with shaun and lynn after shopping was wonderful too. we ate at an italian restaurant, the waitor was very enthusiastic and very funny. i had a creamy seafood lasagna which wasn't too heavy at all, to my surprise. shaun ordered a bottle of dessert wine, which was sweet and fruity, very nice. upon the enthusiastic waitor's recommendation ["personally, i really like this one, it's just oomphf, hmmmmm.."] a creme brule cheesecake, which was just nice, not too heavy too. very satisfying meal. and shaun paid. muahaha...even more satisfying - having just spent so much money on the mall, wasn't in the mood to be politically correct in rejecting his treat.

by the time i got home, i was just dead tired. my arms were sore too, from over-exertion in the morning during lion dance. so alvin had to apply deep heat for me. i felt so pampered. and then obviously the rest of the people in the house were jealous - wenqiang came in, and he was complaining that his butt was sore, from horseriding in the morning. since alvin was the one who has deep heat on his hands, i offered to lend him my alvin to rub his butt for him. though of course, i'm pretty sure wenqiang would rather his girlfriend do the rubbing than alvin. heh. then clement came in too, and he was like, "eh, alvin, what did you do to cindy, why is she sore?" and then wenqiang went, "eh, my butt is sore ok, what does that say about me?" hahaha...it was simply hilarious.

alvin is finally awake. he's brushing his teeth right now. and the muffin is already cold. sigh. i'm gonna go heat it up for him. it's a brand new sunday today!