Danielle Blog

Had a good weekend

At first, I was thinking that not all the much has happened since I last wrote a blog post. But then I realized that, for me, there are many things worth mentioning for those of you who like to hear the details.

To pick up where I left off, I did manage to get all of the heat-sensitive boxes into the apartment and back into my closet on Friday mid-morning. I realized Friday night that I sort of strained my back muscles in the process of turning all of the boxes in the garage so that I could see their contents, and in moving the CDs, DVDs and photo albums into the apartment. But it was worth it; exhausting, but worth it.

Yesterday (Monday) I also finished putting all of the linens away. I pulled out some cloth placemats to help protect the wood of the dining room table from the heat of dishes when I eat there. The set I want to use right now are sort of wrinkly from washing and mistakenly putting them in the dryer several years ago. I may see if ironing them helps at all.

But back to Friday. I collected all of my stuff for the weekend and headed off to Texas Seestor (TX S.) and Trainwreck’s (Tr) home that afternoon. I arrived before Trainwreck brought my nieces home, which was really great, because it gave me time to unpack the car and return things that I’d borrowed to the correct locations in their home.

When they arrived home, it was so nice, because I was back in the bedroom unpacking, and I overheard TX S and Tr. telling the older of the two about how I was there. As I was leaving the bedroom and walking out to the living room, I called out that I was there. My niece came RUNNING around the corner with this HUGE GRIN on her face. I squatted down and she hugged/tackled me. It was such a wonderful moment, even with sort of getting her arm slung into the side of my head.

I stood up to greet my baby niece and she also looked at me with this biiiiiiiiiiiig grin!

Now, this isn’t to say that it isn’t special to see TX S and Tr. after a week of not seeing them, but well, I talk to them on the phone and such, so it isn’t quite so dramatic. Also, they tend to not tackle me when I see them.

As for the weekend, some of it was sort of usual. We played a lot inside, but also in the kiddie pool out back. There was at least one ride around the block with my older niece.

The unusual part is that we all drove back to my apartment after breakfast on Saturday to put together the TV stand that I purchased Friday night (with TX S’s advice) and to deliver the TV that Mom and Dad bought for me (with TX S and Tr. chipping in part of the cost too).

In the end, it was Trainwreck who was the super-trooper to put together the TV stand while we introduced my niece to my “‘parmen” (apartment) a.k.a “Danu’s house.” The steps for putting it together were, of course, in diagram form. And step one required about 26 parts to be put in place. But, when he was done, he told me it was super sturdy.

My camera was back at their house, but we took some photos to document their first visit to my apartment with their cell phones. At some point, I hope to share the photos.

As for my niece and I, we played playdough for quite a while, colored, and walked/jumped/skipped to the gazebo that is around the corner at my complex. When we arrived at the gazebo, we jumped up and down inside of it for a while. She is really into jumping right now.

Toward the end of their visit and back inside my apartment, I pulled out the Sesame Street stuffed characters that I own along with Garfield. I made them a house on the couch out of some pillows and a blanket. I was inspired to make that when I remembered that one of the things we used to do as kids when we played inside was to make tents in our bedrooms. It was a hit.

They also unpackaged my new TV and plugged it in to make sure that it at least started up correctly. And it did! I have my very own, beautiful TV now!

The cable people came yesterday evening (Mon night) to set that part of it up. I have already set the DVR that came with the cable package to record the Glee season finale and the So You Think You Can Dance series. I imagine I will watch the shows live, but it was fun to learn how to set it up. It was similar enough to our TiVo that it was fairly intuitive.

Other events over the weekend and yesterday were that we went to their local park that has a free pool. This was the first time this season and the first for my baby niece to go to a pool; this was also the first time ever for me to go there.

Another great moment is that we went out to supper and I had a fantastic jambalaya. I love andouille sausage. I think that I need to try to find a recipe for that so that I can make it myself sometimes; maybe a low-fat version, if I can manage it. I’m sure it is the sausage that makes it fatty, but perhaps there is a spicy turkey sausage that could substitute….
… I guess I’ll have to see.

Yesterday, I continued my pattern of trying to locate some new business or such each day by finding the way to the Best Buy near their house. It was sort of a mess for me to get home from there. Frontage roads are hard to navigate when you are new to a road, because there are a LOT of lanes that become the type of lane where you HAVE TO do something like turn when you don’t want to turn or go straight when you want to turn. There are signs, but they are often too late to be useful. Thankfully, TX S. was available for me to call a couple of times to get me to the interstate. I don’t know that I can consider that trip a success, BUT I did GET there without making a phone call to her.

Later in the day, when I was back at my apartment, I got in touch with the local parks and recreation department to find out about their Zumba exercise class. I’ve never done it, but I read about it in the newspaper a while ago. I had wanted to try it out last night, but the cable guys came too late in the day and it interfered with the time of the class. I’ll go tonight instead if my head improves.

Again, the directions to find it were really bizarre, so I drove there yesterday afternoon to find it in advance. That turned out to be a wise decision, because I did take a wrong turn at one point.

Some portions of the park look like a LOT of fun, because there are sections that are on a river. There were a lot of people swimming and people hanging out in rafts. I will find out more about that too. It would be nice to take advantage of some water activities this summer. And floating on a raft is one of my absolute favorite things to do. I will just have to be careful to not get my Minnesota skin-tone sunburned right off the bat! I don’t float around to tan, but just because I find it so enjoyable and relaxing. Tanning/burning is just a side effect for me.

I guess that is it for now. I have a lot of random things that I hope to accomplish this week.

I’d like to get my office at school chosen so that they can prepare it for me. Since a lot of my boxes are related to school stuff, it will take a while to do all of that.

I also need to find places for my decorative things which are currently taking up the space where I need to put my DVDs and CDs. And I ought to make a concerted effort to put my fun books into bookcases. The only snag with that is that one of the shelves of one of the bookcases is missing. This means that I can’t really put books into that shelf. And it probably does not make sense to put books into the matching shelf until I know how I will place the bookcases in the apartment. I imagine that the locations will change if the moving company cannot locate the shelf and I cannot find an exact replacement for the bookcase, or one that is at least pure white again.

Anyway, with that, I feel the need to read a chapter or two of the Endless Forest and then put all of my tea away. I have a surprise with regards to my tea. I look forward to showing it to you!