Six Lamps and a Convertible Couch

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Tom in Accommodations, Gallery

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Living room and guard sheep

A bed. Two bedside tables. A pot rack. Two dressers (man am I sick of making drawers!). A dining-room table. Four chairs for the dining-room table. Two stools for the kitchen counter. A metal rack that we call “the appliance garage.” A monolithic wardrobe. Two office chairs. Two office desks (and more chairs—man am I sick of assembling chairs). A TV stand and a tall shelf. Six lamps and a convertible couch.

That’s what we built during the past two weeks. Yesterday the living-room furniture arrived. Blissfully, it was assembled. (That’s it above.)

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MEMORANDUM

08 Thursday May 2014

Posted by Louise in Short

≈ 6 Comments

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Expat Almanac book, travel

TO: Expat Almanac readers

FROM: Louise

SUBJECT: Not Too Proud to Beg

Did Tom ever tell you that he is the man who brought the public radio “beg” to the West Coast? It was working so well for a public station in New York that he initiated his own “Buck-a-Watt” campaign at KLCC in Eugene, Oregon, in 1974. They needed 10,000 dollars for a 10,000-watt transmitter and got it three days ahead of schedule (in Eugene the boisterous celebrations are renown). Now we all look upon public radio solicitation is a plague, but the cause is a good one.

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Free Boxes! Free Book!

01 Thursday May 2014

Posted by Louise in Travel

≈ 5 Comments

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Expat Almanac -- the book, free book

Tom poses with garbage from the first round of IKEA unboxing.

Writing this in the midst of a sea of flattened cardboard boxes, I am thinking about the entry I wrote fifteen months ago, in which we were busily collecting cardboard boxes much the same. Now they are going to recycling.

We have settled in to a grand new Portland apartment. Since we let go of everything but a few antiques and good clothes, we are like newlyweds settling in. We needed everything from a couch to a garlic press. After four trips to IKEA, Tom has built a dining table, chests of drawers, bar stools, and a bookcase. There’s still no place to sit down. Back to IKEA tomorrow.

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