"And how dare you leave your readers hanging on the status of the bookshelves?"

Thank you everyone who gave be birthday wishes, your comments did not go unnoticed. In the shuffle of my birthday, it also did not go unnoticed that I have been in New York for four years officially -- my anniversary was November 13th. That said, my blog anniversary was yesterday, which means that I have been talking nonsense for nearly the same amount of time I've been a resident of the Empire State.

So. My birthday. It was good, obviously. The party I had a couple days before was small and intimate and made for a good reason to get The Apartment somewhat ready for company. And by ready I mean shoving things under the bed and into closets like Ms. K chose to do. Apparently I wasn't bothered or embarrassed enough that 3 to 8 people may be imminently arriving when the place still looked like a construction zone. There was blue painter's tape on the walls and tools strewn about. I was still finishing up the laundry and a certain someone was stressed out by the arrival of our first guests in the new place.

"People are going to be here in an hour and you're sitting on the bed
FOLDING LAUNDRY??!" Ms. K bellowed. "You haven't even made any food for people!!"

I glared at her as she stormed off to finish vacuuming.

She came back five minutes later. "Honey, I'm sorry I got so angry. It's just that this place is such a mess and people are coming over. Aren't you embarrassed?"

Meh, I thought. My friends are forgiving. At least we have BOOKSHELVES!

Indeed we did. The day before he had gone to IKEA, returned the farkakte old shelves, and purchased two Billy bookcases plus height extensions. I think that's all I really wanted for my birthday, some semblance of order in The Apartment. (That and a double ended vibrating dildo.) And after Ms. K had managed to shove all the odds and ends into the closets and under the bed and into drawers, I managed to take a long look at the place and appreciate that finally it looked like two adults live here.

"Honey, I like our place," I said repeatedly throughout the evening. The few people who did come to my birthday party said the same, appreciating all our hard work -- the painting, the sanding, the light demolition.

"Look," I explained to my guests as I passed around my digital camera. "The place used to look like this."

[ Photo ] [ Photo ] [ Photo ] [ Photo ]

We've come a long way.