Arguments with furniture are rarely productive. - Kehlog Albran

Sunday I was on my way to the nursery with Terzo, to let him crawl around a bit, because while he was enjoying the stained glass and the organ, he was also making a bit too much of the joyful noise unto the Lord than is necessary. I was waylaid by the book sale in the parish hall. And then my librarian instincts blindsided me and I helped shelf four boxes of newly-arrived books, and organized what they already had shelved. Ahhhh…..much better.

Turns out the church secretary is on lifting limitations due to recent surgery, so I told her I would be happy to come by and shelve whatever comes in. I was totally honest with her, I am happy to help, but it’ll be nice to get first crack at the donations, too. She didn’t seem to mind at all.

This is what I scored:
I Should Have Stayed Home: The worst trips of great writers - so far really interesting and amusing.
The Silver Anniversary Murder - Lee Harris. I’ve read most of Harris’ “holiday” mysteries. Her detective is an ex-nun, and mostly the mysteries are research-intensive sorts of things, but they’re fun, mindless reads. For when I need that.
Babylon Revisited and other stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald. Why not? Collecting the classics is ok.
The Red Tent - Anita Diamant. I have read this several times, but lent my copy to someone in the book club and I will never see it again. And I want to own it. Although I HATED Diamant’s second novel.
The Hours - Michael Cunningham. Not a huge Woolf fan, but I’ve heard too many things about this not to at least check it out.
The Map of Love - Ahdaf Soueif. It was a Booker finalist. I know nothing else. That’s often enough.
A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar. I’ve never seen the movie, I can’t stand Russell Crowe. But the book looks interesting. Plus, if I remember correctly, he’s a Carnegie Tech alum.

The boys got a few books – Muppets, a (blech!) Berenstain Bears, and another Richard Scarry for Seggie, and two books about natural disasters and weather, for Primo. Going to church is getting to be an expensive habit.

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Otherwise, things have been a’ shiftin’ around here. We were given a china cupboard. So now all my platters can live in our original, smaller china cabinet, and the pantry is freed up for foodstuffs.



I am ripping up carpet in the bedrooms – why would you not refinish the whole floor? I just wonder.

And we are rearranging minor things. Just turning this rug the other way made the entryway feel much cozier and welcoming. Like you might want to hang up your coat and stay a while. And as soon as we pick up the armoire I bought off Craig’s List, the TV will migrate down to the living room.

At which point the couch will become the crisis.
Because it’s really ugly, with or without the slipcover. But considering that this morning, Seggie was entertaining himself by piling up the cushions and belly-flopping his way down the furniture mountain, I see no reason whatsoever to spend any kind of real cash on new furniture.

Not while the barbarians still reside here.