Friday, May 26, 2006

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.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice china cupboard. I don't have room for anything that big in my teensy tiny house. I'd like to see a picture of your bookcases sometime. Or did you already show those and I missed it?

Paula said...

Who could ask for more than wanting hang your coat up and stay a while? Sounds just right...

Jennifer said...

Do you change things often? I change around furniture, paint, even my dishes and such get switched out.

That's a lovely china cabinet

Peg said...

I'm grooving on that beautiful plum armchair and how that rug was created specially to highlight it and vice versa. You may be having sofa troubles but you're an armchair genius.

Thank you for helping the secretary who's recovering from surgery and can't do any lifting. :)

Caro said...

Nice rug.

We don't want new couches until the barbarians are gone either.

Suse said...

Some thoughts ...

- I was attracted by that plum armchair too but then noticed the OTHER chair on the left, cunningly hidden by something grey (a cushion? bag?) and I am IN LOVE.

-You have armchairs in your entrance hall? I like that.

- That's a great rug. I know someone else said that. I'm reiterating.

- We did a similar rug thing. Swapped the family room rug and the lounge room rug around, shifted them slightly and voila. Whole new feng shway.

- And our floors? The rustic brick floors? I pulled up one of the carpet-rug-things that came with the house and promptly discovered that the bricks had only been sealed around the edges where they are exposed. Not under the carpeting. Sigh.

- Get a new slipcover. Like I said before. Whole new feng thingie.

- That's all.

Joke said...

Think of it as a tithe that happens to be accompanies by a Gift With Purchase.

-J.

P.S. Keep an eye out for old etiquette books, or old Esquire books. There could be some good-as-new Magic Treehouse in this for you...