ugly furniture

Whew! This week flew by. Despite being together nearly every non-school moment, the kids didn't get pinkeye from the neighbor boy. His sister didn't get it either so maybe it really WAS an "eye allergy." The neighbor kids are mostly over here, but all the kids do go back and forth to both houses regularly. Plus, Gene dumped our kids on the neighbors while he made two trips to take our old chairs to Goodwill yesterday. I was SHOCKED that Goodwill accepted the chairs!

The new furniture came yesterday and it is HUGE. I guess it looked normal in the store next to all the other HUGE furniture. The sofa especially looks gigantic. It looks a zillion times nicer than the old stuff, though! I had to yell at all the kids (ours and neighbor) about climbing/jumping on it. (Sheesh! We put Grandma's hideous davenport in the playroom for that purpose... Leave the new couch alone!!!!!) Oh, and then Gene complained because the new couch is too high for him to comfortably sit on the arm while he eats. WHAT? I don't even think he was kidding. Men!

Gene has been wanting a headboard for our bed for a long time. He likes to sit up in bed with his laptop while he watches tv, but the wall is cold and hard and the bed pushes away from the wall. Fine, whatever, go buy a headboard. I suggested he try a used furniture store near our house. He went- and came home with not only a headboard, but a "new" lamp table and lamp for the living room as well.

As everyone who knows me knows, I am prone to laughing at inappropriate times. I burst into laughter and then had fits of giggles every time I saw the table and lamp for the next several days. The table is a giant cube of ugly, dark wood. The table is also a cabinet (!) and the cabinet doors are (um) priceless. The doors have four cathedral type "windows" that are backed with wicker. Then, right in the middle of each window is a faux brass flower with a faux brass loop pull in front of it. The table is ugly. And then there's the lamp... The lamp has a round brass-colored base and stem. The stem is surrounded by four intertwined oak pieces. Totally 80s. For some reason the lamp reminds me of the "lovers" statue my brother Ben and I stole out of some neighbor's garbage when we were kids. Anyway, the lamp also had it's original GIGANTIC shade. I replaced the shade and it looks slightly better. Since I'm not prone to furniture shopping, the table and lamp will probably be around for a while. After that, feel free to claim them for your half-finished basement or your child's first apartment.

New subject. I am TERRIBLE at running! I've done four 1 1/2-2 mile run/walks each week for the past two weeks and am barely increasing the time I spend running. It probably doesn't help that I keep trying to run on my street that is all up or downhill. (Our house is in the middle and kind of at the peak.) I'm not going to quit, but it's a good thing I started training a YEAR before the next Zoo Run Run because I'm going to need it! At this point actually running a 5K seems impossible. Oh well, at least I'm getting some exercise.

Well, I better go work on Halloween costumes. With 50 billion pirate costumes priced under $20 I decided to MAKE Logan's. I also need to come up with something for ME to wear to work Howl-Zoo-Ween this weekend. Ugh. I'm totally uninspired! I panicked at my lack of time and gave in and bought Kaylin a "beautiful" purple witch costume last night. Wheeeeeeeeeeee!