this post is entirely for laura soto

I love lamp!



(I know there are others of you out there who will appreciate this. Some, like my parents, will think I've totally lost my mind. Either way: Enjoy, kids!)

life, she is a taskmistress/interior decorator

So the rest of our furniture came today.

Only it didn't.

Perhaps I should back up, yes?

One month ago, oh, tomorrow (give or take, going by dates and not days of the week), we left Maine. We left Maine while almost all of our Earthly Belongings stayed there, in the same apartment they had inhabited since we arrived in Maine three years earlier.

Recently, the Earthly Belongings joined us in the District of Columbia. This was a greatly pleasing event, but given that we have upgraded the total square footage of our living space, we ran into the problem of Not Having Quite Enough Stuff (tm).

We knew this was going to happen and had, in fact, planned for it by acquiring new Earthly Belongings that were due to arrive shortly after the old ones did. This was our first-anniversary-and-Christmas gift from my parents (hi Mom and Dad! Best gift ever and we love you!!), and the stuff we picked out is absolutely the most wonderful stuff I've ever found -- I'm really, truly in love with it, and if you know me and my previous vague indifference to home decor, you know how big a step that is.

Until its arrival, we created some stopgaps that would soon be rendered obsolete (an end table as a coffee table, for example) and a few that would last until more Earthly Belongings of a less urgent nature took their place (the steamer trunk as a stereo stand).

Anyway, the new and wonderful Earthly Belongings arrived this morning. They came from South Carolina -- it would seem that we have created, via our decor, a very pan-United-Statesian home, as befits our new zip code, I guess -- and were everything we hoped for and more.

Except the pieces that didn't arrive.

As you have been reading this, you may have noticed that there are pictures of the dining room and bedroom. There are, very intentionally, not pictures of the living room, because one of the pieces that did not make the trek from below the Mason-Dixon line yet is, in fact, the new coffee table.

(We're also still missing the lamps that go on the bedside tables. You can just imagine them there.)

Adding to the frustration, though, is the fact that while we still do not have quite enough Earthly Belongings, we also have now too many Earthly Belongings. By which I mean, we have this ugly old television stand that we do not need and have no place for, but we do not actually have a good entertainment console-y type thing yet, so we're using the old coffee table and aforementioned steamer trunk. Now, a "good entertainment console-y type thing" is by no means an urgent necessity, so I'm not really complaining -- I'm just sort of dumsquizzled by simultaneously having stuff I don't need while not having stuff I sort of do.

Still, the bedroom is perfect and the dining room just makes me want to invite everyone over as soon as possible. (Yay!) Even Jim's office-cum-guest room is looking put together, and there will be pictures of that as soon as we get more light bulbs.

We are 95% completely settled. Of course, as y'all know, I hate limbo states and have the patience of a flea, so I'm focusing on the negative, which I shouldn't. Please be assured: I'm actually supremely excited, and when everything is really, truly, 100% done, I will be the happiest girl on earth.

the interwebs are for geeks

I want this shirt.

Only problem is, I'd so write on it what they have on the sample:


Because I'm just that lacking in creativity. And I already have a Trogdor t-shirt, so effectively I'd be doubling up on the same element of geekiness.

Which, since I just not only thought that all through but posted it for the world to read, really shouldn't matter that much to me.

Heh.

28 going on 80

After eleven days of sitting on the floor, I can say it definitively.

I hurt.

Everywhere.

My husband, on the other hand, is remarkaby chipper.

Fuckin' aging. It sucks.

embedded in the genetic code

Dad: "So your mother rented the perfect movie for the summertime."

Me: "She rented Dr. Zhivago?"

Dad: "How did you know that?!?"

Me: "Hi, related much?"

add-hic-endum

I should point out that, while I've not so much been cooking of late, that's not to say we have not been, ah, continuing our oenophilic explorations.

And to that end, we are -- ok, honestly? I am -- enamored of Cork'd. It's a wine-review-cum-social-networking site, where you can rate and review wines and see what your friends are drinking or recommending. You can also keep a list of what's in your cellar...if you, you know, have a cellar.

Oh, and: your chosen friends on the site are referred to as your Drinking Buddies.

Yeah, I'm hooked.

learn summat new ever' day

Jim and I went downstairs just now to try to catch Simpsons reruns in the lounge. Unfortunately, the digital cable connection is inexplicably out. This also means we can't watch So You Think You Can Dance tonight. Who's gonna TiVo it for us? (Pretty please?)

However, on the ride down to the lounge, we ran into a couple who were, well, possibly a weensy bit tipsy. When we got onto the elevator, see, I was carrying a glass of wine. No, I was not trying to numb myself for the five-floor ride; rather, I was taking my wine and a small bar of delicious Scharffen Berger 70% chocolate down to the lounge to enjoy while watching television.

Anyway, this couple -- probably the only people over forty-five, by the way, we've seen in our building since we moved here -- seemed slightly schnockered, looked at my wine, and asked if we were going up to the 13th floor. (Note: this was a downward-bound elevator.) We looked confused, I guess, because they went on to say there's a terrace there and you can take drinks.

Well, he said that. She said, "Hey, don't give away all our secrets!"

And that was awkward.

Anyway, they saw us off at the lounge floor, and when we discovered that the digital cable was not functional, we decided, what the hell, let's go to the top floor and see what we can see.

Well, turns out we have a pretty good view. It's not as great as if the terrace were on the southern side of the building, in which case I think we could see the Monument and possibly the White House. However, we can see the National Cathedral and Thomas Circle and it's just a nice, relaxing place to go. There's a little bench and a little--well, to me it looks kind of like a sukkah without the fruit, if that helps, which for more than half of you it won't --and it's really quite lovely.


We still have no stuff, but at least there are some perks thus far.

*for the three-and-a-half of you who care

*I have not been adding menus to the sidebar because I have not been cooking.

I have not been cooking because I have been moving.

(Durrrrrr...)

Menus will resume when I have my kitchen fully stocked again.

That is all.

You may go about your business. Move along.

greatest. book review. ever. (spoilers!)

"Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert. Passionate woman sleeps with men not her dull husband; ignores child; goes into debt; offs herself by arsenic; husband dies; Berthe works in cotton mill; pharmacist Homais gets legion of honor. Possibly the most perfect novel ever written, and possibly my favorite."

From my friend Matt McHale's blog. Go there. He bicycles to raise money for Type 1 (Juvenile) Diabetes, with which he was diagnosed in his early twenties, and has the greatest wife and most adorable son ever. Hi, McHales! Come visit us in D.C. -- or just send your too-cute-for-words child!

the relocation blues

Well, we're here.

Yep, we're safely installed in our new digs. And by "installed" I mean "I cannot wait to start work tomorrow if only because I should have a desk with a chair and not be sitting on the floor anymore."

This is because, while we made it to the District safe and sound with a very welcome week-long detour through South Carolina, our furniture did not actually even make it out of our Maine apartment until the day we arrived in the Mid-Atlantic, and it won't be joining us here for another week. (Props to Ms. Soto for her masterful supervision of the packing, and to Mr. Opperman for his masterful cleaning job.)

We have some bits and pieces because Mom and Dad were happy to provide certain necessities of which they had extras (thanks, Mom!) and because we bought a few other must-haves (thanks, credit card companies!), but essentially, we're living out of suitcases and picnicking on the carpet. Wait, no, that sounds lame. Let's call it "urban camping," shall we?

In all seriousness, though, it's really pretty great. Our apartment is in a fantastic location for us, so we have explored the neighborhood a little and realized we can walk to Whole Foods. This is, of course, a massive triumph for me. We are having dinner tonight with one friend, drinks with another, and brunch on Sunday with a third. And while walking home from dinner Saturday, we ran into a college friend on the corner right near our place. It's kind of awesome.

This is not to say that there have not been been a few snags -- above and beyond the moving-company hell, that is -- but overall, things are positive. The bathroom has two doors, but one won't open alllll the way due to the placement of the toilet (a common apartment foible, but still). The dishwasher is slightly smaller than my previous one -- but I have a double sink! And a gas stove! And an ice-maker! Most vexing during this time of Furniture-Free Living, though, is the fact that the pass-through counter is not meant to be a breakfast bar, so unless I buy extra-tall bar stools, I can't use it for sitting...at least, not without thinking creatively. Last night we decided not to eat dinner on the floor and used our big CD storage books as booster seats so we could eat at the counter. We still weren't quite at the right height, so our feet dangled freely and our plates were a little too close to our chins, but hey, if four-year-olds can do it, so can we!

We've also decided we should paint before our stuff arrives, but that means driving the six hours round-trip to and from Warminster to borrow painting accoutrements from the Malteses. The idea of getting back in the car half makes me cringe, but then I realize, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing, since spending Friday night there means a real bed and not an air mattress. And chairs...

I'd post pictures, but we packed the digital camera's cable. That's probably for the best -- this way you'll see it when it's all gussied up, and when my hip flexors don't ache from contorting myself all over the damn place.

It's good. It's gonna get better. Welcome to D.C.

i no has fernichur...

...but at least i has lolcats.