Book Review

The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields

This novel was mostly interesting, if never exciting. Shields gives us the story of Daisy Goodwill, an average woman who lives an ordinary life during the 20th century. The plot itself is very mundane, but Shields gives Daisy's life poetry. After all, this is the sort of quiet, normal life that many women of the middle 20th century lived. Shields does something wonderful in making something so unremarkable so enjoyable to read about.

Moved In (mostly)

Moving went quite well. Other Kenjari and I had the majority of our stuff moved in by late Friday night. Moving of furniture and such started bright and early Saturday morning. First, the piano movers arrived at our old apartment at 7:30 am. Other Kenjari handed it off to them, and I got to receive it. They did a good job, but watching the move was nerve-wracking. They got it up the porch steps and into the apartment okay. But they had to stand my piano on its end and slide it down the stairs on a board. Not at all fun to watch - I had to go stand in the kitchen for most of it. But it's just fine - all it needs is a good tuning. The furniture movers were about a half hour late getting to the old apartment, but that's not really a big deal, considering what driving a large truck around Boston is like. And once they arrived, they were quick and efficient. Movers are worth every last penny. By 11 am, everything was in the new place, and Other Kenjari and I were not tired, sore, or cranky.
We spent the bulk of the afternoon shopping and cleaning out the old place. We needed to buy some extra shelving and a small table for our stereo, plus some minor accessories. We got most of those things at Target, and the rest at a hardware store in our new neighborhood. We got the remainder of our stuff out of the old place, and did a quickie cleaning job. It was kind of cursory, but the landlord has over a month before the new tenants move in, and they have a bit of renovation to do, too.
I also bought a nice chair for the studio (not a desk chair, a sitting chair). I saw it outside a secondhand shop on Harvard Ave. It's a uniquely shaped, old-fashioned wooden chair painted black with gold accents and red tie-on cushions. It really caught my eye and was reasonably priced.
We spent the majority of the weekend unpacking and setting up stuff. The bulk of it is done - we're down to the smaller stuff: odds and ends, papers and such that need organizing. Some of it can't really be dealt with until I fetch a pair of endtables, a coffee table, a dinette set, and my old desk from my parents' place this weekend.
The new place is really great. There's so much more space, and lots of closet space. The more modern bathroom fixtures are a real plus, as are the kitchen amenities (a dishwasher and garbage disposal). The built-in air conditioning is wonderful, and the porch is delightful - we had our first al fresco meal on Sunday.
This place is much better for having people over, too. We're still planning on having a housewarming party Labor Day weekend, but we'd love to have people over before then, too.