Miscellany

Monday morning, posting via SpeederWiFi at Speeder & Earl's on Pine Street in Burlington. I'm one of four laptop users here this morning. It's not the coziest cafe, but it's probably my local fave. The coffee's pretty good, there's plenty of space, free wifi, friendly baristas, and free, accessible parking. Am I turning into a  yuppie, or what?

Didn't post this weekend because I've been sick, and our furnace pooped out on us Saturday night--yep, we need a new one! Hopefully we'll get it by Christmas. Certainly not in time for Thanksgiving. We can't even get an estimate until December 2. That's what you get for buying a crumbling 130+ year old house because you can't afford anything better in this crazy real estate market. But I digress.

On Friday, I went to the opening of the Winooski downtown, which was really fun. I wanted to link to someone's account of it, but I couldn't find anything on it anywhere, which is too bad. I saw a bunch of my neighbors there, and ate some yummy food, and got to walk around in the center of the roundabout. Good times, good times. I would post pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet.

Then, on Saturday, Ann-Elise and I and two of our best friends went to Ikea in Montreal for the day (pre-furnace poop-out). We smushed into our friend's Jaime's pickup; MaryAlice and I sat on the jump seats in back. A-E and I bought our first set of matching furniture, a chair and a sofa, and had swedish meatballs in the cafe. We actually spent all day there. It was an intense experience, especially since I was feverish and fuzzy-headed. It was like going to an amusement park. It was actually a lot like Wal-Mart, except the stuff was higher-quality. Ikea's pretty cheap, though, since you have to assemble all the furniture yourself. And we went on the last day of a big sale, and got a great deal.

I plan to go back. Er, after we pay off our furnace in 2008.