all things me

Finally I received a call from the furniture store (on a Sunday morning, strange) telling me that my sofa was ready and waiting in the storage. They’re delivering it on Tuesday night.

Hurraah!

The original schedule was for week 25 (it’s week 27 now) but I wasn’t awfully worried or annoyed with this furniture store. The other one is a completely different story: I should’ve gotten the rest of my stuff on May 15, then May 23 after the mess with my bed was sorted out. But I’m still waiting for the bed and the TV stand. I call them time and time again and have to leave a message for the sales person but she never calls back.

Can’t remember if I’ve told you about the bed mess. I was planning on getting a framed mattress and a whole bed frame in which case I wouldn’t need anything to put the mattress on (like you would with a regular, soft mattress or it falls through the bed frame ). At first the dimwit sales person ordered me a normal mattress with a headboard — one that should be attached to a framed mattress! I received the mattress on time (before the move) and, because I needed to sleep somewhere, I decided to keep it and opened the package. I’ve been waiting for the bed ever since.

But boy am I glad I’m getting the sofa! Now I would really like the TV stand to get the TV, set-top box, and video/DVD player off the floor. (And the bed of course, but I’m not holding my breath.)

Here’s my bookcase:

The photo is terrible because it’s really grey outside and I haven’t bought any ceiling lamps yet. Anyway, my DVDs and CDs are on the left, miscellaneous literature, dictionaries and other kinds of encyclopaedias in the middle, and Stephen King books and X-Files collection on the right. I’ve placed some souvenirs in the middle and my favourite alien toys on the right. Stephen King takes almost three full shelves — I love it!
Two of the bottom shelves are empty and once I get my bedroom/office sorted, I’ll move my dictionaries and encyclopaedias close to my computer. You may wonder the logic in that but I like keeping them close to where I work no matter how much of that same info I can find online. I’m more apt to pick up a dictionary in book-form than surf to a dictionary site.

You know what’s unsettling? Going to reserve a time for a hair cut and see a hairdresser with horrible hair…

I’ll see tomorrow morning whether my hair will end up just as horrible. Bye bye, locks.

Now the sofa is here (it came 45 minutes early, around 8:30 pm) and it’s lovely!! Oh la la, check it out:

(Sheesh, camera phone is bad indoors without ceiling lights…)

Only I noticed that the “legs” (little square stubs of sofa legs) are unevenly painted. There is proper, dark colour on some of the sides and lighter on others (like they’re missing a layer or two of paint). I’m going to go to the store to see if I they can send me new ones.

My bed (who cares about that) and my TV stand (!!!) finally arrived! Now I don’t have to stare at the floor while watching TV! They would’ve delivered them last Wednesday but I was 400 km away from home — at our summer cottage — so I had to postpone it to this Monday.

I assembled the thing this morning. I had received and assembled that small drawer on the right side of the TV before. First I thought I wouldn’t attach the backboards to the stand (they’re just thin panels that are nailed to the stand) but then I noticed they leave a hole in the middle for all the cords to get through — excellent! Now the cords are in an almost-manageable mess hidden behind the table.

The top drawer (under the TV) holds my remote controls, the bottom drawer is currently empty, the bigger drawers are pretty much unused (I put user manuals there for the time being). I’ll have to think what to put on those lower shelves, I don’t have enough gadgets. Maybe I’ll bring my favourite CDs there so I don’t have to get them from the bookcase whenever I need them.

Oven is a dangerous thing, you know. I can’t remember a lot of times when I haven’t burned myself on the upper edge while putting something in or taking something out of the oven.

Today I’ve been making raspberry pie and in addition to forgetting to buy creme fraiche (I had it in my hand but between the shelf and the cashier, it disappeared! It’s missing from the receipt so I didn’t pay for it thankfully.) and probably botching the pie dough (40 g of butter and 10 cookies is supposed to make a dough you can mold?! Yeah, right.), I managed to burn both my arms.

Right arm while putting the pie in, left arm while taking it out. I really need shoulder-length oven mittens. (Or better yet, a head-to-toe padded and insulated safety overall.)

I’ll take a picture of the pie (it’s not very interesting-looking) when it’s done.

I’m so clumsy in my kitchen anyway (emphasis on “my” because it’s just a matter of proportions — mine or the kitchen’s). The hood of the stove is above my eye-level so I’m always bumping my head into it when I cook something on the back burners. I thought of taping some yellow and black warning tape on it or attach some dangly things (beads or something) there. Also the cupboard doors are hazardous because I’m always forgetting them half-open — bruises and bumps are guaranteed when I’m unloading the dishwasher.

Anyway, here’s the pie!

It’s not burned (I had to take it out of the oven a little prematurely cause I had to leave to meet my aunt at the train station) but the cookie colour or butter seeped into the filling. It was delicious, despite the missing fraiche (I used some lemon juice as a substitute for sourness).