"Though it's not a high lot."

[mrissa]

This morning timprov and I used the Home Despot flatbed truck rental and got our money's worth out of it. We brought home trim for the basement around the floor's edges. Oh lordy, I am going to be staining trim until my thirty-seventh birthday--at which point, coincidentally, I will be un-grounded from all the smartass remarks I made as a child that made my mother say, "All right for you, kid, you're grounded until you're thirty-seven," so that'll be a good milestone, un-grounded and done with staining the trim. And we brought home the new recumbent stationary bike, which is good, because everybody including the dog was starting to have serious worries about my safety on the old one. We have worn that poor thing into the ground. And also we went to Ikea because that is where you can get adjustable height desks.

Ohhhhh, I am so pleased at this prospect. We still have to deal with moving this desk, my grandpa's old desk, under the window, and putting together the new adjustable height one, and finding out what height to adjust it to. But I said about two books ago, "I should not write another book on this desk, it'll kill my arms," and now we are acting on it. (Grandpa's is a lovely desk, and I'm really glad to have it, but it will be my writing desk, not my typing desk. Also to a certain extent my storage desk.)

The new desk is called Frederik. I have never had a named desk before, but it says right on the box, "Frederik," and on the box for the drawer, it indicates that it is a drawer for Frederik. So all right: Frederik. I fear this means my next computer will have to be named Mabel. I'm glad that my new desk grew so brave and daring, but I'm hoping that it doesn't apprentice to any career seafaring. I'm also hoping that I can someday get that bit of Gilbert and Sullivan out of my head, but in the meantime I have shared it with you. Yes. You're welcome.

(timprov's new desk is called Galant, but I call it Goofus, because apparently part of my brain is still five years old and waiting for the dentist.)

Apparently the purpose of rental trucks from Home Despot is twofold: one to get things home that will not easily fit in the Volvo, but the other to make me immensely grateful for the said Volvo. Good grief, the ride on that thing. Uff da.

Comments

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

I am going to be staining trim until my thirty-seventh birthday

This is mostly why I still haven't done anything about all the quarter round molding my house needs. I may be thirty-seven by the time I buy it, and then I'll be painting and installing till I'm forty-two.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I was never grounded quite badly enough to stay grounded until I'm 42, so I have to get this done in the next five and a half years so I'm done before my grounding is up.

I don't suppose by any chance your quarter round needs to be a standard color? Because they had all sorts of quarter round trim at Home Despot in colors that were not the one we need.

[lynnal.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about trucks. We rented a 26 foot truck last summer to move badger2305 from Ames to Madison. It was packed to the top, mostly with books. I drove the truck while he drove the car with his cat in a carrier on the front seat. It's debatable which was the better deal.

I've done the drive between Ames and Madison many, many times. The Wisconsin part is rolling and pretty, the Iowa part has long dull stretches. I normally depend on books on tape to keep me awake. Not driving that truck. Aside from the bouncing, there were only a few minutes out of the five hours of driving where I was relaxed enough to consider taking one hand off the steering wheel to turn on the radio. I've never paid so much attention to all the other vehicles on the road. It made me really happy to get back in my old station wagon.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, I had some times when I thought, "I will make an offhand remark in conversational passing, as we do," and then I thought, "No, timprov is driving this truck, and my offhand remark is not clever enough to be worth any of his attention."

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

Did you know that the Highlights website now has Goofus and Gallant themed choose-your-own-adventure stories?

It's like Dragon Age without all the gore.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I am disappointed in the lack of gore.

I also join in the multitudes who are now wondering why you know about the Highlights website in any detail.

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

I had a senior moment, I couldn't remember the name of the magazine at the dentist. So I did a search and there it was.

That's not my favorite Goofus and Gallant related thing on the internet, though. http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/08/18rashomon.html

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

That's great - much better than the Goofus / Gallant slash I once saw, which *still* makes me want to bleach my eyeballs.

Only since the desk is labeled Galant, wouldn't the natural equivalent be Gofus?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh sure, it's in some way my fault that you're hanging out at Highlights dot com.

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

Bravo!

[avocadovpx.livejournal.com]

Yes, Evan, we're curious, more about your reading choices than about the choose-your-own-adventure stories, though there is room in the universe to wonder about both.

So confess: You're writing Goofus and Gallant CYOA stories under a pen name, aren't you?

[evangoer.livejournal.com]

Well, in the software manuals I write, the Best Practices sections owe a lot to Goofus and Gallant.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

You made me laugh twice: once for being un-grounded, and once for being five.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

I'm technically still grounded "until further notice."

I heart a desk named Goofus. So very awesome. You should randomly stash rebus stories and "find the hidden object" pictures in it.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Frederick, name of care
high above in sky that's clear
all the things I've been dreaming of
are expressed in this name of love...

Happy desk-having!

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

I have no words to describe how jealous I am of (1) your ability to make use of Home Depot's flatbed truck rental OH, HOW I LOVE HOME DEPOT and (2) the fact that Tim has a Galant desk from IKEA which is totally what I want how come he gets one /whiiiiiine

At least, I am assuming that it is named Galant because it was a Galant desk from Ikea. If I am wrong, you should correct me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That is indeed what it is! And due to the nature of Ikea, there are even some left there for you to have one also. Even though he could hardly have gotten more Galant desk without it becoming Galant architectural system or something.

[numinicious.livejournal.com]

The original Galant desk that I wanted to buy had so many attached pieces that it was not so much a Galant-desk as... well. I don't have a word/metaphor to describe a desk that is the size of a small planet. It was HUGE. And then I realized I had no money.

So now I am planning to get a much smaller Galant desk. How is Tim's working out? It looks big-ish. I wanted to re-create my cubicle at home, because I love my cubicle so much, but the Galant desk looks like it's rather, er, deep.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Tim's is working out in boxes in the garage and music room. We won't be assembling the glory that is the full-on Galant until the floors are done in the basement. It looks like it will be occupying most of a room, though--which makes sense as he is using it for multiple kinds of workspace, huge monitors for photo editing, etc.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Three things:

1. Apparently it is a requirement that all Home Depot rental trucks be built without any sort of shock absorbers. My personal theory is that this is their way of ensuring you don't run off with their trucks.

2. I am amazed there are people in this universe younger than I am who still remember Goofus and Gallant. (Pleased. But amazed.)

3. I'm glad you went with Penzance instead of German monarchs.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It is possibly a deficiency in my musical education that I don't know many songs about the Hohenzollerns or even the Hapsburgs. And things for which I have songs generally trump things for which I do not.