• The city feels so empty this week. Even my laundry, which is usually done late the next day, was done the same day. There just isn't that much laundry to do. I'm looking forward to my next getaway the last week of August.

• I finished Bringing Down the House and really never tuned in. It is not, by any means, a bad book. The writing is engaging, but I just never found a connection with anyone in the story. I'm also not much of an expert on the subject matter. I was hoping it would be more about the personalities and the math they used to outsmart the system, but instead this book is a dramatic narrative that, to me, isn't that dramatic.

• I got The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood, to read about something entirely different. Wood is a superb writer and historian. In college I read The Radicalism of the American Revolution and thought it was one of the best history books I have ever read. Wood is smart and lively, intellectual but not pompous.

• I bought a second Master Lock because I've been working out at other NYSCs. I rent a locker at my home base (this is currently under review, although the rental is a sunk cost through the end of the year so I may as well keep it until then). So I need another lock when I venture to other branches. I went with a lock-and-key version instead of the combination one because I do not trust myself to remember two different combinations of three numbers. So now it is a matter of when, not if, I accidentally lock the key in the locker. But until then, it should work well.