♫It all began when I went on a tour, hoping to find some furniture...♫

[captainsblog]

(Five points if you can get that reference without googling. You'd do better than me if you could, because I got the song totally wrong;)

Our little girl is growing up, and in at least one way a lot faster than I did. Even though I lived off-campus for most of my post-freshman life, all of my Ithaca apartments were furnished. I moved 12 times in 10 years, which was made a lot easier on the front end when I could just about fit it all into an exploding car.  Emily, on the other hand, will be taking a university-owned but nekkid apartment with two friends beginning this fall, and we have only just begun.... to furnish.

Fortunately, the blogosphere came through, and from about as close by as you can get without actually being in our house. Our neighbor Ann, who we met at last summer's block party, was quickly discovered to be a very talented photographer and writer about her various crafts. (Among things we've learned from her: used wine bottles can be made into pretty good Tiki torches, but if you don't completely drain the wine, they can just as quickly turn into crafty Molotov cocktails;)

Anyhoo.... through keeping up with her entries, we learned, about a month ago, that they'd sold their summer cottage in southern Ontario and would be bringing a lot of its contents back home; and then, round Memorial Day weekend, that it was really not enough to have a yard sale with and they were just going to give it to Amvets. I tipped off the grrls to this possible source of apartment loot, and Ann emailed Eleanor yesterday to come on down!



Dresser and end table- roomy and in great shape:)



And a coffee table with a marvelous wingspread and, .... something;) (Sorry, I don't know my ass from my Ottoman; didn't he used to be an empire?)

They also threw in a lamp, promises of some dishes further back in the storage area, and no expectation of payment whatsoever.  So once again, thanks, and since that's really not enough, to replace the value of that Amvets donation? When we get the chance to make a donation to the website for Alicia, the daughter of Eleanor's coworker? It will be in Ann and Nick's name.

There's still much to get between now and the end of the summer, including the one item my late sister always said was the sure sign of being on your own when you have to buy it for yourself: toilet paper.

----

Speaking of which:

Eleanor started a grocery list the other day, but then I saw that TP was on a separate one. I also knew why: as I mentioned here over the weekend, Wegmans has stopped carrying bulk packages of our preferred brand in this vital-to-old-people area, so I've made it my job to seek it out at WalMart, which still offers the big-ass size.

The entry seemed a little lonely on a list all by itself, so I felt the need to embellish it a bit:

Comments

[thediva-laments.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nice furniture, Em totally scored. And I love that little pie crust table, very cute.

That's an excellent Wally World list. I did, quite literally, LOL.

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

The song would be "The Battle of Epping Forest," by Genesis, from the Selling England By The Pound long-player.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd get that. Just wasn't sure if you'd remember the song; I had it confused with one of the movements of "Supper's Ready."

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, I have a freakish memory for lyrics. I can do about 90% of the songs from the classic period (Cryme - Wind) from memory. Ditto classic period Who (Sell Out - By Numbers) and bunches of other stuff. Hell, I still sing commercials from the '60s...

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Palisades has the rides, Palisades has the fun,

____ __ _____

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

Cooome ... ooooon ... oooover!

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I believe that's a plant stand.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

That is GREAT furniture!

So...what does Em need in terms of housewares etc? Make a list. My mother is an old hand at outfitting off-to-college folks, and it's high rummage sale season. Given $35 and a list, everything can be covered, no sweat...

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

We have a butt-ton of extra silverware (I think), but other than that, she's basically starting from empty. Are you coming this way over the summer?

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I can certainly make arrangements to do so, or to meet you guys partway, if you want me to see if Mum can come up with helpful things for her!

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I believe that green thing is a pie-crust table.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

Oh man. G and I had to go into Walmart recently for fishing tackle and whatnot and... it was not a pleasant experience. I'm no snob - I shopped at Walmart in OK. But we witnessed an incidence of domestic verbal violence and it just left an icky taste in my mouth. We are lucky to have a local place, Fred Meyer, which functions as an "everything in one" store that is closer than Walmart. If only they carried fishing stuff....

P.s. That's really awesome about the furniture. How lucky Emily is!! But I still kinda think that she needs to have at least one bookshelf constructed of either milk crates or cinder blocks and 2x4s.