Completely unlike this vegetable

What the hell is that? We had it with pasta last week, and it reminds me of a Saturday Night Live skit (maybe with Bill Murray?) in which 2-3 guys look into the distance, the audience can't see at what, and start....

"What the hell is that?"
"Oh, I know what it is! Wait, what the hell is that?"
"You know what that.....what the hell is that?"

It goes on, for at least 5 minutes of skit. I thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, this strange fractal broccoli elicited the same response in me. Especially in trying to explain it to someone else.

And my day today was nothing like this vegetable. This piece of produce is green, mysterious and kind of disturbing. My day was more busy, sunny, tiring, and long. But, like the vegetable, it came out okay in the end, I guess.

M is gone on a trip until tonight. So when our movers canceled yesterday's delivery of storage stuff to the new apartment, and rescheduled for early tomorrow morning, the ticking time clock began. Will we move into the new place this week? (Kind of depends on whether I can get the internet working....that appears later in this piece). Who knows. Movers are moving a lot of stuff, from storage, from the apartment, all into the new place.

Today started early, had some cereal at 7am, fed the dog, back to bed until 8am, then had to make phone calls to the doctor for new pre-natal vitamins and to change another prescription which got filled with something that contains saccharin (which is evil according to some pregnancy websites). Dog sitter came late, so now my tightly planned day got knocked on its side. I was supposed to head down to the pharmacy, then get on a bus to the local goverment office for our new neighborhood (by TODAY, a letter in our new mailbox told us, even though we haven't yet moved in and didn't have the mail key until yesterday), then take a tram to the post office in our new neighborhood to pick up the box from the cable/internet/phone company that also couldn't be delivered to the place we don't live yet, then up to work to get help with some forms, then....probably home. Oh, and get some money outside that post office to also pay some bills in that post office (yeah, you pay bills in cash at the post office....when you're not sure how to use your online banking yet).

Well, dog sitter came late, around 10:45am, and post offices and local government buildings close for lunch around here. Great. I now had to wait until 1:30pm. I could have done some work but then I remembered I hadn't yet ordered our wardrobe, for the place we haven't moved into yet, which doesn't have closets.

Ok, quick check online, addresses in the iPhone, off to catch the bus to the furniture district to pick out and then order the monster wardrobe. Oh, did I mention the morning dog walk where we scored a 3 (a pee=1, a poop=2) and as I was coming down the little 4 foot hill from picking up the "2" I slid and fell in the grass. On my bum. And my arms got into a bit of a scuffle with the various weeds around. That red, itchy swelling actually went down on its own. Now I just have little red scratches that make me look like I own an ornery cat.

Anyway, I miss the bus, so I sit down to wait for 30 min and read some stuff for work. I then get the bus, switch to a second bus, and walk to the furniture store, find the wardrobe folks, and we have a good 30 min. design session (I thank these people for making my day easier, and for putting up with speaking Ger-nglish), and order the monster. Which only one of my credit cards works for for some reason. Again, whew, just under the wire. Take the 2 buses back to our current neighborhood and jump on a waiting tram, to another tram, to the pharmacy. He only has 2 of the 3 things I need in stock, I get those and jump on another bus to the local gov't office. They are also nice, say that M won't have to come in, but that I need to do some final pieces of work to finish up the whole thing. I then jump on a tram to the post office. And when she bring s my box (which I'm thinking is going to be big enough to put a pair of shoes in),....it is HUGE. What am I supposed to do with that?

Well, I wind up paying my bills, and getting my box outside to another bus, then a second bus to our new stop. And then down the hill. At which point, one of my new neighbors stops her car and asks if I want a ride. I almost say "no" (thanks to many years of being an "independent woman") but then remember that M would really like me to not kill myself when he's on travel, so I say yes. Whew, again. People here are not that bad. In fact, they're kind of nice.

By this point, I've skipped going into work because, no way I'm dragging this box (plus my stuffed bag) to work and then the new place. I get to the apartment and do a little mental happy dance at the elevator, and start unpacking the cable modem, phone, wait....2 cable modems, no that's a mistake,...TV receiver. I concentrate on the modem, because if I can' t get that to work, we're not moving in for a bit. It starts off well, with instructions in English even! I find this out after opening the booklet at random to a page that looks like it is in Swedish. But in the end, the strange, triangle-arranged outlet won't fit both the router and the modem power plugs. Ah well, at least it is almost the end of the day.

I'll go back there tomorrow with cables, some snacks, the dog, and wait for the arrival of our beloved matress, and some furniture. Finally.

Oh, wait, so on my way home, I go back to the pharmacy because I remember the guy told me that the last item I needed would get there 10 min. after I picked up the first 2 items (about 3 hours ago at this point). He happily gets me the package, and off I go, on another bus home, and stop at the little grocer's to pick up a few things to bring as snacks tomorrow. I now have about -6 energy (whatever that means....I mean it to mean low), just enough in me to have a glass of water, take a shower, and catch a nap before the dog gets home. And then the bell rings, way too early to be the dog. The pharmacist has ridden up here on his bike, to tell me he gave me the wrong thing 45 min. ago. Again, people here can be really nice (ok, I know, he can't afford that kind of mistake, but still, it wasn't just a call to tell me to come back....ha ha, yeah right I'm leaving the house again tonight!).

45 min. nap, dog comes home, I make some simple dinner, and sit down to write this entry. What a day. I took 12 different legs of the trip with trams and buses. Maybe I can convince the movers tomorrow to bring up the matress and sheets first, and the pupper and I will just take a little nap while they unload everything else?

Yeah, I didn't think so. Well, at least I have a bag by the door to bring with and that new place is going to have toilet paper. Fancy!