8:15 p.m. | 2003-06-09 How I Spent $500 In Less Than An Hour. There are some items I want to/need to purchase for my move. First, I want to get rid of my current loveseat and recliner. Both are more than ten years old and have seen better days. However, I wasn�t sure what I wanted to replace them with. I LOVE my recliner, but really don�t care about my loveseat since I never sit on it. I wanted something� I don�t know� �different� somehow. Then I found this in the most recent newsletter from my favorite European Antique Store newsletter. A 1930's deco style 3 piece suite. A two-seater sofa and two matching chairs. All original fabric, a little faded after 80 years but the pieces are still sound and comfy. The chairs are $175 each, the sofa is $250, but I would like the set to go together, so $350 for the lot! Bargain! Hmmm. Sounded interesting and perhaps promising. I park right near the store so I decided to drop by tonight. I loved the set right away for a couple of reasons. One, 1930�s furniture tends to be smaller in size than modern furniture because houses were smaller. Two, they also tend to be closer to the ground. Just like me. I sat down on the sofa and, get this, my feet touched the ground easily! And, comfortably. I didn�t even have to scrunch down! Plus the arms are at a perfect height, and they have a nice line with cool curves. And, the framing is rock solid. It�s very comfortable too! The slight drawback? The upholstery is in the brown family. Not my favorite but it has faded to more of a soft tan kind of color. It also has a subtle floral design etched into it which contains some green, white and peachish colors. But, it�s real subtle and not �in your face yuk� floral. If I really don�t like the fabric in the space, it�ll be easy to slip cover. The set will fit the space nicely and is in keeping with the general era and design of the building (built in 1909). While I was checking out this set, a lady pulled up in a van and I knew her radar was honing in on the art deco suite. I quickly said �I�ll take it� before she even had a chance. She walked away with her shoulders slumped. See, this kind of thing goes fast around here. In fact, I was surprised that it was still there. Now, it�s mine! They�ll deliver it to my new place after I move. And, I can�t wait until tall people come to my house and have to sit in my short furniture. Paybacks are a bitch, you know? As an aside, I told them that I had intended on brining them a black garbage bag for their homeless man (see previous entry), but I�d forgotten. Apparently he was in their store three times today. Then, I went and bought a new printer/copier/scanner. A compact one. Currently, I have two printers. A HP LaserJet Series II (!) and a HP LaserJet IIIP. I only have the HP II because the HP III doesn�t print right. However, even though the HP II prints, it�s finicky about it and it�s huge! I figured I might as well update since both of these are more than ten years old and printers are much cheaper nowadays. My new printer/copier/scanner is a HP PSC 2110. It�ll be handy having a copier and scanner in the house. Plus, it�ll clear up a significant amount of space. Right now, my office is kind of hidden and consequently, my desk is a little cluttered. I HATE clutter. In my dreamspace, my desk will be much more prominent so I want it to look nice and neat. Plus, I�d like my surface space back. In other news, Intern has been having a little parking issue. See, parking isn�t included as a benefit for him, so not only does he have to pay for school credits to work for us for free, he also has to pay for parking. Which is totally fucked up in MY opinion. But that's just MY opinion. Since he doesn�t know much about MyTown he�s just been randomly parking in lots that are near MyWorkPlace. As a consequence, he�s been paying $12-$16 a day on parking. I suggested that he might want to find a lot that�s a little further away and only charges $6 a day. He was so excited today when he came to work because he�d found one of these $6 lots and even figured out which direction to go to get from the lot to MyWorkPlace. (Note: he walked the LONG way to work, but it�s a start.) One day last week, I asked him if he could give me a ride to my lot as we had worked overtime and I had an appointment scheduled and didn�t have time to wait for the shuttle. He said sure. My lot is actually on the way to the place he�s staying so I didn�t feel like I was putting him out much. Today, he volunteered to drive me to my lot. I agreed, especially because he really wasn�t sure where he parked and I figured I could probably help him find his car. After asking him to tell me every landmark he could remember that was near his parking lot, I figured out where he was and showed him the short cut to walking to his car. Then we had this rather interesting conversation during the drive. (I:) I turn left here right? (CI:) No, you turn right. You�re slowing taking us farther away from where we want to go. I think you have north and south turned around. You need a point of reference you can use to know which way you�re going. (I:) Well, the �letter� streets go east and west, right. (CI:) Yes, and the �number� streets go north and south. �A� is north so if you�re passing letters that go farther down the alphabet, you�re going south. �Z� is south so if you�re passing streets that go farther up the alphabet, you�re going north. (I:) See, that doesn�t make any sense at all. (CI:) What do you mean it doesn�t make sense? �A� is at the �top� of the alphabet and �Z� is at the "bottom". North and south. (I:) No, that�s not right. (CI:) Okay Intern, tell me how it works in your world. (I:) �Z� comes after �A� so it�s bigger. It should be north. (CI:) So, in your world, �Z� trumps �A�? (I:) Yes. It comes after �A� so it�s bigger. (CI:) Okay. Lets try numbers. �1� is west and the bigger the number the farther east you go. (I:) THAT makes perfect sense. (CI:) Fascinating. Just remember that in MyTown, as opposed to your world, �A� trumps �Z�. Boy, I can�t wait to tell him that �Z� is followed by numbers, so you have numbers running north and south, and east and west. But, I�ll save that for another day. I feel like I�m in kindergarten again doing my ABC�s and 123�s. Only in a parallel universe. And in a different dimension. your thoughts? seed flower