Miscellaneous Updates

Here's a bunch of stuff:

A couple of weekends ago, Todd and I trudged to Ikea and got, among other items, a lovely bed frame. As always, I was in charge of furniture assembly. Todd, for his part, had the unsavory job of obtaining the rental SUV, since we have a tiny car. We made the mistake of thinking it might be worth the $40 of savings over the cost of Ikea delivery to get the car from the airport. We were very wrong. It took forever and generally sucked. And then Todd had to drive that stupid SUV (I needed to save myself for assembly, of course). Next time -- and there always is a next time for us and Ikea -- we do delivery.

Here are some pictures of the bed in progress:

Body parts strewn about: Oh, the horror.

Malm takes shape.

The artist collapses, exhausted.

The parts of the overall assembly experience that these pictures leave out are me dropping the footboard on my big toe and my loud cursing at several points. Good thing those windows were open! And for those of you who might be wondering about funny camera tricks, wonder no longer: Our bedroom really is that small. Cozy, if you will. And now you know why our previous (sleigh) bed would not work.

In other news, we've lately been enjoying a weekly delivery of organic produce, courtesy of Boston Organics. When we lived in the 'burbs, we had wanted to get this service, but we were so distant from Boston that the trucks didn't come out to our area. Which tells you something about the lameness of our former town. This weekly delivery, combined with our propensity for recycling, the fact that every light bulb in our apartment is a compact fluorescent, and my rampant vegetarianism, makes me feel very good about myself (look, I need to have something). In addition to my increased self-esteem, I get the added benefit of the element of surprise when I open the box o' produce every week, not knowing what might lie within. Ahh, the drama of it all!

And finally, it is less than 2 weeks until the half-marathon that Dr. Bombay and I are running. (Our third runner, Dr. Shoe, has sustained a knee injury and will not be joining us). And I am happy to report that, barring any dramatic injury, we will be able to outrun the loser van that comes to pick off runners who are taking too long or otherwise don't look like they can finish. Avoiding humiliation is priority number one! And don't worry kids -- we will be signing autographs after the race!

Thank you, Rasta man

Today while making a midday trip to Trader Joe's, I thought about how sick I am of studying for licensure, and how I would much prefer to sleep until 10 AM and spend the rest of the day shopping at Target. Yeah, like that'll ever happen. (And I'd get bored anyway -- I want what I don't have, and then once I have it, I don't want it anymore. Analyze that!)

Anyway, my checker at TJ's was a nice Rasta man, who seemed genuinely puzzled when I told him that the card reader wasn't working ("Really?!") and as I was leaving, he did so much more than wish me a good day. He said: "Stay focused, alright? Stay strong." And he sounded like he really meant it. I was so shocked as his timely suggestion that I looked dazedly at him and said "You too" the way you accidentally might to someone who wishes you a happy birthday. I wish I had had something deeper to say.

Or, if there was something good he had been smoking, I wish he would have at least shared. Though it probably wouldn't help me stay focused.

Helga Haus

Here are some pictures of Helga Haus. It's a work in progress: We don't have any plants, we still need a bed frame and probably some other undiscovered treasures from Ikea. We haven't been quite able to bring ourselves to make the pilgrimage to Ikea yet, however, because we're afraid of all the college students who are probably there buying all the stuff we want. At least the ones with good taste are doing that. We'll go in a couple of weeks after those crazy kids are settled in and too busy drinking to buy any more furniture. Although I suppose they are probably already busy drinking, so maybe my logic doesn't hold up so well.

But that's why they pay me the big bucks.

What Would FloJo Do?

In the sweltering heat of Friday afternoon, Dr. Bombay, Yeti and I went out for cupcakes (I highly recommend Kickass Cupcakes), ice cream, and generally stopped traffic in Davis Square. Though the cupcakes and ice cream may make us sound like a group of 11-year-old girls out for a birthday party, and the fact that it was the middle of the afternoon on a weekday may make it seem like we were doing nothing very serious, this was, in fact, a working "lunch."

We had to plan our outfits for the half-marathon that Dr. Bombay and I will be running, along with another friend, in October.

This is approximately what we decided on:




We were thinking that perhaps we could have some kind of patriotic theme, with the 3 of us running together and our costumes making a picture of an American Flag or Lady Liberty. FloJo often seemed to be wearing patriotic-themed running costumes. And if it was good enough for FloJo, it's certainly good enough for me.

We also imagined that we might wear capes, to increase the drama of our progression through the grueling race. The capes will, of course, be sparkly. Then we will look like superheroes. Or perhaps running drag queens. Or Superhero Drag Queens.



I think FloJo would have approved. Plus, we can blame our slowness on the weight of our costumes.

Rollin' with Helga

This last Saturday, Todd and I decided to roam around the city and enjoy our new urban digs.

Our "tour" started in our own new neighborhood, Davis Square. Here's a picture of our new building and street. Pictures of the inside of Helga Haus will be forthcoming, contingent upon the process of nesting.


Then, after eating lunch in Central Square, we walked to the river. Usually when people walk to the river, they are searching for views like this one of the Boston skyline from Cambridge:


But we were actually on a mission of a different sort. We were looking for moving trucks. You see, in the Boston area, it seems that the majority of leases start on September 1st to accommodate the ridiculous number of college students in the area. And every single year, multiple students drive their U-hauls onto Storrow Drive, which goes along the river into downtown Boston. But there's just one problem:


The low clearance. Funny how it's not clearly posted, huh?

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Todd and I walked down to the river to see if we could find a wrecked U-haul with some dejected looking college students standing off to the side. Seemed like a good way to spend a nice afternoon. When we saw this we knew there was something afoot:



So we walked faster. We weren't disappointed:


That thing that looks like a piece of a giant sardine can hanging from the top the tunnel is the roof of a moving truck. We waited around for a while, but we never did get to see the truck. Apparently the kids just kept on driving into the tunnel even after they heard that funny noise from above. And if you look closely, you can see them huddled off near the police car. Sure kids, try to hide. Hardly anybody saw you.

It was a good day rollin' with Helga in Boston.