Sunday, June 21, 2020

Welcome to the New Home

The phone rang before I even opened my eyes. It was Rose. She wanted to come over to look at my apartment and see what furniture I could use and get rid of, and to see if some furniture she has to give me would work in the new place. She would be over in twenty minutes. I dressed quickly and had just managed to get my hair up when she and Finley knocked on my door.

She looked at the furniture while I lead Finley to my bed with the stuffed animals and the dolls. She was really fascinated by the mini-dolls I have for some of the American Girls. She handed me Josefina's Nina. I had to find Samantha's porcelain doll Clara (she was under the desk) and Jessa's Holly Hobbie (on the printer). (I still can't find Molly's glasses.) She loved seeing Butterbear (Rose had Butterbear when she was little) and my stuffed My Little Ponies Bow Tie and Parasol.

I'm hoping to be able to keep at least some of the larger shelves, like the good oak bookshelf in the bedroom, the shelf Rose gave me, and the rack I used to use for CDs. Rose said she might be able to take one black shelf, but they won't need the other. I can absolutely get rid of the smaller half-shelves. With fewer DVDs and CDs to store, there's now plenty of room for books and records on the larger shelves. The cabinet I use for my cookbooks can now be used for books or media storage, too. There's room on top of the kitchen cabinet for my cookbooks.

Along with clearing out media and shelves and figuring out if I can use Rose's futon, the other thing I need for the new apartment is rugs. The new apartment is entirely bare wood floor, with nary a carpet in sight. I have a long piece of carpet that might work in the hallway, and there's the rag rug in the bedroom, but I'll likely need large circle or square rugs for the living room and bedroom. The living room and bedroom windows will need curtains, too. (I would much rather wash curtains than deal with trying to clean blinds, like I did here!)

Finally had breakfast when I got home. Listened to the American Graffiti soundtrack while experimenting with pancakes. Finley insisted on having a banana while she was here. As she discovered, my bananas are getting really soft. I put one in the fridge and mashed another. I also have a ton of blueberries, so I made blueberry-banana pancakes. Not bad. The second one burned a little, but the first was soft, sweet, and delicious.

I originally planned to look up rugs and buy more of those DVD boxes that worked out so well for me. Trouble is, they'd gone up in price and wouldn't arrive by this week. I need the darn things this week. Rose was talking about Craig doing the first round of moving as early as this or next week. The binder I looked at last week was no longer available. I spent two hours searching before I decided I would buy plastic pockets and just get cheap binders...and then, even those wouldn't arrive when they claimed they would, and I canceled the order.

Listened to the original cast of Hello Dolly! while having a very quick lunch. I needed something to make me feel better. Carol Channing was a sensation as Dolly; I do like her "Before the Parade Passes By." Two favorite character actors of mine, smoky-voiced Eileen Brennan and sweet Charles Nelson Reilly, get to introduce "Ribbons Down My Back" and "It Only Takes a Moment" respectively.

Went back on the computer to do some writing after lunch. Sir Gautier hands Betty the keys, allowing her to release Brett and her sons from their prison. As it turns out, Brett's already been trying to break out of the wall via sharp sticks and her sons pranking the trolls. She tells them that Bill the wolf and some more rebellious trolls are being held in the other doors...

I went back to trying to find cases and didn't even consider dinner until past 7:30. I originally considered getting pizza, but I'm not sure if you can just walk in and order, or if you have to order online first. I finally decided it wasn't worth it and went for a walk instead. I had to drop off Dad's Father's Day card, which I forgot to bring with me when we were there earlier. I would have popped my head in, but Jodie's been so worried about Dad catching the virus, I didn't want to upset her.

Decided that I needed dessert before dinner and stopped at Phillies Yummies for a soft-serve swirl cone with rainbow sprinkles. It was hot earlier today, sunny and humid, but by quarter of 8, there was a nice breeze and it had cooled off somewhat. I enjoyed my walk home. So did a lot of other folks. I saw many people out for a stroll or walking dogs.

Finished the night with leftovers and one of the few Good Eats: Reloaded episodes I haven't watched yet. I'll save "Holiday Spirits" and "Whole Lotta Latkes" for the actual holidays, but I've never tried using a pressure cooker before. Alton revised his "Pressure" episode, adding more of his fancy spices and throwing in a recipe for the Thai street soup Pho at the end.

2 comments:

Linda said...

Oh, you lucky person, wood floors! All you will have to do is dustmop!

Since I have no idea what this apartment looks like and how big, can't think of anything to tell you, but smaller shelves could be used back to back as a sort of "room divider." If one of those sets of shelves faced the kitchen, you could use it as a pantry for canned goods and other packaged groceries. We have a bookcase downstairs we use like this, and then I have some cheap red-and-white checked gingham I got at a fabric store, cut it the shape of the front of the bookcase with a pinking shears, and then thumbtacked it to the top of the bookcase. Covers up all the groceries inside and looks tidy.

Whatever. Half the fun of a new place is deciding where to put things.

Emma said...

Oh trust me, I'm happy about the wood floors. I'd rather use a nice, quiet dust mop than have to run that noisy, energy-sucking vacuum cleaner! The rugs are mainly to keep furniture from scratching those nice floors.

Rose mentioned something like this. I actually do have an old floral cloth that'll work. I've been using it as a tablecloth on the table in the music area, but the table is old, oversized plastic and I don't intend to keep it. It'll be perfect for the shelf. Most of the groceries should fit into the kitchen, but there's other things I'll need to hide, like bike-repair supplies and tools. :)