Genevieve

Waking Sleeping Sign Repose Wish
The gleam in your eyes is so familiar a gleam...

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Daddy Dearest
2004-06-16 - 4:48 p.m.

No there were no wire coathangers involved, but there was wiring.:)

The migrant workers strike again. My folks came up to sieze the opportunity of some of our old furniture to furnish the condo for renting. They got a dining room table, two bed frames and a headboard/footboard set, the old dresser (jazzed up with a new piece of veneer on the top front), the two glass top end tables, and Alan's old set of white stoneware plates and bowls for the condo kitchen. I also took them on a whirlwind tour of IKEA. We went through the showroom first, then stopped for lunch in the restaurant, and then onto the real shopping. I got through much faster when Dad said, "The longer you take to look, the more you are cutting into my installation time..." And from that we were off ignoring most of the rest of the marketplace, including the textile section (my Mom and I could have spent hours there) and whizzed into the self-serve furniture area. They came away with a couple of solid pine dressers that were on sale, some Pong chairs for the office upstairs in the new place, a step stool for the kitchen and other stuff. I also picked up new lighting fixtures for the basement so we could cease use of the evil overhead flourescent lights and using only lamps. Alan picked out the lighting, I just picked it up. As well as some lovely bowls for the kitchen and cute little glasses for scotch tasting, and... you get the point. I think my folks were pleased with the IKEA experience overall and wishing for one in Tampa.

Once we got home and unloaded, Dad ran out to Home Depot to get the essentials for wiring (like we have wire-nuts at home, c'mon) and we moved some stuff out of the way and entertained the house-bound Alan. Then Mom and I sproinged off to collect dining room chairs and lamps from the Mor and Perrin We're moving to Japan, please buy our stuff at low prices sale. I think they had planned to sell to college students, not Floridian retirees. :) Mom and I picked up Harry's for dinner and we ate on the patio until the bugs started to think we were the entrees. My Dad did a bunch of work on Saturday evening both before and after dinner and we now have a light that we can turn on and off from both the upstairs and downstairs. tee hee. We finally had to call quitting time and told Dad he could pick back up in the morning.

Sunday I made french toast and chicken and apple sausages for breakfast, and we returned to the wiring project. Dad finished putting in a lighting track over the seating area so it doesn't interfere with viewing, and put an outlet in the ceiling so we could plug in the projector and not have to use a huge extension cord, and we could plug in the blue rope light and put it on a dimmer switch with no wiring hanging down the wall. Mom really thought we needed this cool LED feature for our Bar so around lunch time she and I headed back to IKEA, but went directly to lighting that time. Of course the one we wanted was out of stock, so it was all for naught except to get more details on it. And wouldn't you know, it's not on the website either. pooh. But we did swing by Hard Times and got chili for lunch. mmmm... chili...

Dad finished up all the wiring, including the pendants over the bar by the time we arrived and then it was just eating lunch and packing the truck with all their spoils and getting them on the road. I was sad we delayed them, but I know they like helping out. And really, it was all Mom's fault we went back to IKEA. They said they like to leave our house better than when they got here, and that has certainly always been the case. I guess this is one of the major perks to having a relatively clean house is that they aren't cleaning when they get here so they can jump straight into projects. I love my parents, even if it is impossible for my Dad to sit still. I can't help but reap the benefits. :)

After they got on the road Alan and I watched a few more B5 episodes, and even sprinted into Season 2 before retiring to bed. We greatly enjoyed the new lighting in the basement. Even now I'll play with the switches just for the novelty of having all the options. I should apologize to Mel though. We went from one single light switch in the basement to a single at the top of the stairs, a triple by the storage room entrance, and another single by the bar for the bar lights. Perhaps if the gift is worthy we can find a website to order more. :)

Since my folks didn't take everything with them, we still have the following available free to a good home.

Meng, do any of these sound useful to you? It's looking like another trip to the Laurel Thrift store to make another donation. whoohoo. We also need to take a trip to the dump, er... "trans-fer sta-shun" to get rid of some old stuff. When trying to get to the bed frames behind the waterheater in the basement we went ahead and took out the old window screens, an old warped mirror, dead boxes, old evil ceiling tiles, and some other trash. Add to that some of the boxes in the garage and the dead umbrella, and dead other items hanging out at the side of our house, we're starting to get a decent haul of stuff. I'm sure we could find more if we only looked harder. So nice to get rid of stuff and know that some of it is going to helping others. yay! And some of it is just getting out of our hair.

For those that ask, Alan is doing well. He's back to work this week, and seems to be going well so far. He's on crutches for 2.5 more weeks and putting no weight on his left leg, except in the shower. We'd hate for him to kill himself in the shower. Hopefully the tear will heal this time with added pampering. Of course it feels fine for him right now, which doesn't help him remember not to put weight on it. We've got reading, and feeding the fish, and B5 on DVD (thanks to the Morgensterns), and a few more things to keep him occupied, but I can see the cabin fever setting in. I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company if folks wanted to get together for dinner or something this weekend. Give us a call, or something...

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