I'm blogging early tonight so that I can use Mac Freedom to force myself off the internet (it disconnects your internet connection for a specified amount of time, and the only way to get around it is to restart your computer), write for a couple of hours, and not feel compelled to switch back into blog mode before going to bed. I should have started writing earlier, but I let myself relax for awhile, which was blissful.
But before describing the end of my day, I should describe the beginning. I got up around 8:30 so that I could finish getting things into some semblance of order before Heather and Salim arrived for brunch. As you know if you read last night's post, I put together three sets of shelves yesterday, but I needed to put together my dining table and get the chairs out of their boxes before my friends showed up. The table was relatively straightforward to put together, and now that it's in place, you would never guess that I had to assemble it -- it looks lovely and is the perfect size for the space. The chairs, though, were another story. They came in boxes, with two to a box, and while they were already assembled and theoretically just needed to be pulled out, freeing them from their cardboard prisons was probably more challenging than putting any of the rest of the stuff together. I finally threw in the towel and made Salim do it when they arrived, which was a good call; even with a knife and his brute strength, it took him fifteen minutes to get them out of the boxes, leaving a ridiculous amount of cardboard and styrofoam all over my patio.
But the chairs are fantastic, the table is great, and everything is coming together (even if I'm back to having a lot of boxes in my kitchen since I had to relocate them from the dining area). Heather and Salim brought fruit, juice, and champagne, so we had mimosas while I cooked brunch. My timing was perfect; Salim was able to eat with us during halftime of the USA/Ghana match, then return to cheering/groaning on the couch in the living room while Heather and I caught up. I made french toast (absolutely stellar french toast, if I do say so myself), and the home fries that I made gave me hope that I may be able to rival my father's fried potato skills in twenty years or so (they were really good, although I cooked them in half a stick of butter instead of Crisco). The only failure was that I burned the first batch of bacon, which necessitated airing out the house -- but the second batch was fine, and burned bacon is a better burned smell than most other burned smells, if you have to burn something.
So Heather and Salim stayed until the end of the match (around 2:15?) before taking off. It was fun having them over, and fun to cook again -- and even more fun to cook again in a place with a dishwasher. I loaded up the dishwasher, washed some of the remaining cookware, and left the bacon and potato pans to soak. Then, I took a nap that stretched to two hours, before getting up and dealing with the mass of cardboard/styrofoam on my patio. I considered writing then, but instead I procrastinated by reading an entire Real Simple magazine cover-to-cover, and then I finished up the dishes, unloaded the dishwasher, and ate a delicious Amy's enchilada (made better by the fact that I sat at my table, rather than eating it off my lap in the living room like a sad spinster).
Now, though, I really want to get some writing in. Tomorrow, I'm going to the city of sin rather early for a massage and a facial, and then I'm hoping to con Vidya into having lunch with me before I head back down to the glorious south bay. So, I can write some tomorrow, but I have work to do for teh day job, and I need to keep making some progress on the unpacking so that I finish before it's time to pack up and move again. If nothing else, I want to get things into reasonable shape so that I can post pictures for those of you who can't come over in person -- Salim said that he's always thought of me as a gnome, but that this place confirms it (although now I'm a woodland gnome, I suppose, rather than a city gnome, if those exist), which I somehow took as a compliment. I adore it, and I'm going to adore it even more if I ever get everything else out of boxes and into their proper places.
Okay, time to write -- goodnight!
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