nanovivid

I’m a little late on getting around to this, but whatever. The weekend before last, we took a trip to Pennsylvania for Bryan’s sister’s wedding. The wedding was lovely, the food was amazing, and the hotel was… odd. We stayed at the Golden Plough Inn in very country Peddler’s Village. Our room had a lovely farm animal theme, complete with a wood cutout of pigs suckling. Confusingly, even though we were in room 108, there were two flights of stairs required to reach the actual quarters. Even though the accommodations were a bit strange, it was a nice time. Since Bryan was in the wedding, I took a bunch of pictures with his fancy camera which he’s going to post at some point. However, the camera was apparently in the wrong autofocus mode, so a lot of them didn’t turn out so well. Here they are anyway. Oh, and there was a massive thunderstorm during the outdoor reception, so that was exciting.

After the wedding (and breakfast at the Cock ‘n Bull… no, seriously), we drove on to visit Dave and Olivia. They already posted a nice summary of our activities and some pictures, so be sure to check those out. It was great to see them again and to finally get to experience firsthand the amazing work they’ve done to their house (even if the fact that it’s a row house lead Bryan to remark that their neighborhood was “like The Wire”).

We also took the opportunity to visit IKEA, where I picked up some white DIODER lights for my desk, replacing the halogens I had previously. Even though the LEDs are a little flourescent-ish, they put out barely any heat and are wonderfully diminutive.

The trip was very enjoyable and I definitely want to get back to Philly at some point in the future. Due to poor planning and research, we missed out on all the museums, so that’s at least one reason arrange another visit. I could probably pass on a second Peddler’s Village experience though.

♫ Sigur Rós - Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur

The IKEA trip was hella fun. I got a couple things — a new chair and lamp for my room. The chair is so comfy… I love it.

I finally got Elephant by The White Stripes today. They effing rock.

This week is going to be hectic at work, but at least we’re only open normal hours at the helpdesk. That means I can finally get back into running and working out. Yay for that… I’ve definitely missed it. Happy Monday all.

♫ The White Stripes - Ball And Biscuit

Friday morning, I picked Courtney up at around 9 and we drove and drove and drove until we reached DC. Our first stop was IKEA. It was our first IKEA experience and we were both pretty much floored. That place is amazing. The entire gigantic second floor is a showroom and it took us close to two hours to make it through the whole thing and pick out what we wanted. After doing so much shopping, we were pretty famished. Thankfully, IKEA anticipates the hunger that comes from seeing so much cool stuff, and provides a restaurant right in the store.

Once we were done with our tasty meals, we headed down to the first-floor marketplace and loaded up the cart (which, btw, was like the ones in Ireland where all four wheels swivel… they’re hard to drive until you get the hang of it). I got a desk, speaker stands, a wire mesh trashcan, a cool lamp, and a towel. Courtney wanted to get a sweet overhead light fixture, but they were sold out. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to go back (yeah, big disappointment there ;-).

Being right next to Potomac Mills, we had to go do some more shopping. So we went to Old Navy, Music 4 Less, and Gap. I got some nice shirts at Old Navy and Gap, and since Music 4 Less was having a going out of business sale, I was able to pick up Sasha’s Airdrawndagger which I had been wanting for a while, as well as The Right Amount by Bon Voyage. I also got an Underworld single. Yay shopping!

Then it was on to Clarendon, for the now-traditional meal at Big Bowl and visit to the Apple store. Big Bowl was delicious as always, and the Apple store had something new this time! Oh yes, the 17" PowerBook was finally available to be played with. After hearing so much about that baby, it was awesome to finally touch one. My decision to purchase one has now been solidified. Completely. There’s really no other laptop like it.

Once we were done drooling in the Apple store, we browsed through Pottery Barn and Crate and Barrel. Both had some pretty cool stuff, of course.

As Courtney said, it was the best Good Friday ever.

♫ DJ Muzik98 - Light Edition Volume II