We got back from Philly tonight. It was a long, long day, and two relatively little gals can get pretty tired.

By my calculations, my friend Sara and I carried well over 800 pounds of stuff up two flights of stairs between last night and tonight (Ikea tells you what the boxes weigh… and I extrapolated based on that info). We accomplished a lot - it feels good; I feel extremely strong and resourceful (Leatherman on my keychain helped!)

We successfully loaded a small car with large ungainly Ikea boxes (twine and hazard lights were required for the drive home, but we made it.) A great many heavy boxes were lifted, a bed frame was assembled, pictures were hung, and an empty apartment began to look like a bit more like a new home for Sara.

There was a run-in with a shower apparatus from hell, a trunk lock that wouldn’t release, a parking ticket, a navigation system that was freaking us out by repeating “Make next available U-turn” about 8 times in a row without rest (it sounded frighteningly and disconcertingly desperate for a GPS) when we were already getting a little lost with her help… and the usual jollity that accompanies assembly of Ikea furniture. That said, there was a lot of entertainment and happiness in there, too, which sort of tempers the rest of it.

For example, when finished with phase one of assembling the bed frame (which involved screwing brackets onto the headboard), Sara pondered, “Do you think we’ve had enough screwing for today?” - and I don’t think the full entertainment value of what she’d said hit her until I gave her my pseudo-shocked look.

This morning, however, things started easily enough… with a bagel. I thought the toaster “grill” lines were particularly fun, so here is a glamour shot of a whole wheat bagel, toasted, with vegetable cream cheese.

At Ikea, Sara noted that this would be a cool shot… this veritable sea of Ikea shopping carts. And it is pretty cool:

The Ben Franklin bridge against a really clear spring sky:

And the Cira Centre, also against a very clear sky. The way it reflects the sky does make it look a bit like it’s beginning to go transparent and blend into the sky.

A Mexican restaurant called Johnny Mañana’s has this “I don’t know if I’m entertained or offended” (but nicely painted) moustache & sombrero combo on the outside of their joint:

This beautiful mural caught our eyes while we were driving back to Sara’s new apartment from Ikea. There’s some glare from the windshield since I was in the car, but you still get a good sense of the color.

Sara lives in the same building as someone quite famous. OK, OK - I was just amused by the fact that the mailbox covers the address label where it does. Aren’t you?

Ikea is selling a small selection of artsy wall stickers, so when we got back to her new apartment, Sara went ahead and put those up in the kitchen. She now has a virtual garden of gigantic poppies - sort of Alice in Wonderland-esque, no? They look absolutely glorious in real life.