i left before david even woke up this morning, his last sunday before returning to spain tomorrow night. i left him a note so he wouldn't be wondering where i'd gone.

i saw it yesterday but finally got a chance to snap a photo: locked to the chain-linked fence by the fresh pond golf course parking lot is what looks to be a recumbent trike with a shell. manufactured by lightfoot cycles, it's called the rainshadow. i'd never seen one before, and there's very little information about it online. lightfoot cycles doesn't even sell it anymore (no mention of it on their website) but i did find a cool video of the rainshadow in action. apparently it also has an electric-assist drive.

i got to belmont by around 11:00 to go with my mother and sister to ikea again, so my sister could return her unused dresser. my mother made some noodles for lunch and after waiting for everyone to get ready we didn't leave until almost 1:00. of course it didn't help that the times were a little messed up due to the start of daylight saving time.

the last time we went to ikea was almost 3 weeks ago. we took the exact same route, via the turnpike onto I-93 then to route 24. i had my canon dSLR this time, snapping off photos from the backseat. when we got to ikea we decided to park on the roof since it was the same floor as the exchange/return department. unlike last time (president day weekend), the upper level lot was nearly empty today.

despite the rather empty upper floor parking, inside ikea it seemed as busy as ever. while my sister waited in line to return her items (enough people that you had to take a number like at the RMV), my mother and i went to go use the bathroom and later went through the showroom to do some browsing. my sister found us a short time later.

the whole time i was experiencing some back pains, start from my right shoulder blade, going down a length of my right arm, and affecting my neck so i lurched around turning my head by twisting my entire body instead. i'm not sure how it happened, it could've been some aggressive snow shoveling combined with just sleeping on it wrong.

once again, everything in the cafeteria was free this weekend provided you spend over $100 from the store (the amount from the cafeteria receipt would be deducted from the store purchase). knowing this, my mother went crazy and grabbed practically everything: baby back ribs, fries, pie, corn bread, salmon, chicken salad, and a coffee. i just had a plate of chicken fingers, the same thing i had last time, which was just okay. my sister had to have her swedish meatballs.

we sat at a table where the previous occupant had left a full but opened bottle of dryck påskmust AKA swedish festive drink. they probably took a sip, didn't like it, but didn't want it to go to waste, so just left it behind. i'd wanted to try it when i saw it at the cafe counter but didn't want to get too greedy. but seeing it on our table made me curious, and i decided to give it a taste, despite the warning from my mother against drinking something somebody just left behind ("it could be poisoned!" she said, i was willing to risk it). dryck påskmust is an aromatized carbon soft drink, with unique ingredients like malt and hops flavors. it actually tasted pretty good, different from any other soft drinks i've ever had (although the ubiquitous sugar syrup is one of the main ingredients). i'll definitely get it again next time (a new bottle, not one that somebody threw away).

the original plan was to return the dresser and then buy a clothes rack. but after passing through the showroom, my sister decided she wanted to downgrade her queen size bed and get a smaller twin bed instead (to better fit the small bedroom she was moving back into). she got the fjellse bed frame ($40), a set of slatted bed base ($20), and a simple foam mattress ($80). she also got a not torchiere ($8) to replace the hot halogen fire hazard one.

while my mother was buying some cinnamon buns, i helped my sister load her things into the car. we weren't sure if the long bedframe box would fit but it did with an inch to spare. while loading up the car, i realized we were missing something. even though we'd already picked out the clothes rack my sister wanted, we just forgot to pick one up from the warehouse. so after we got everything into the car, we drove a bit closer to the entrance and my mother and sister went back inside to grab the rack while i sat in the car.

they came back with the rack but also a expedit cabinet box in white ($10). we were looking for these but they were all sold out, but while they were waiting in line to pay, my mother spotted one in the pile of abandoned merchandise by the cashier and grabbed it.

we didn't get home until 6:00. while my sister was clearing out the small bedroom to make enough room to assemble her bedframe, my father and i pieced together the expedit cabinet box. my mother, sister, and i weren't very hungry since we ate so much at ikea, but my mother made dinner anyway.

my father wanted to give me a ride back to cambridge with my back pain, but i insisted on biking back myself. i was expecting david to be home but wasn't surprised when i saw he wasn't. he didn't come back until around 1:00, spending his last full day in cambridge still working at the lab. he bought a sandwich and ate in the living room while we watched munich.