A new emoticon

Born as a result of a typo while trying to type the more well-known =(

I give you ... "crying face"

=*(

Klutziness & tea leaves

Last night I kicked over a small table in my living room. It held a glass of red wine. The wine went flying. Some of my books and a good portion of carpet got doused. It was spectacularly bad.

Continuing in the same vein, this morning at the office I went for a jar of green tea and spilled a bunch of leaves on the floor. As I bent over to pick them up, I thought about what I always think about when I waste any tea leaves: Wang Lung, the poor farmer in The Good Earth, and how on the morning of his wedding he gives himself and his old father a special treat, a couple of tea leaves to flavor their breakfast hot water. His father scolds him for being wasteful but then slurps up the tea greedily. And Wang Lung drinks his tea and then chews and eats the precious leaves.

Full-priced adult furniture, not for me

Rejoice, for I am finally beyond the IKEA furniture phase of my life (except for the occasional, irresistibly fun kitchenware). The two IKEA items that I still own -- a couple of small white-and-beech colored pieces -- I find myself staring at these days with almost-loathing.


My new predilection: Second-hand furniture. Stylistically a step up, but not yet quite arrived. I'm sorry to anyone who thinks I should have been farther along in life by now, but I just can't bring myself to pay $1600 for one sofa from Pottery Barn. Not now, and perhaps not ever.


Below is an antique writing desk and chair I bought yesterday for $100 from a guy in Glendale I found via Craigslist. Before it really feels like it's mine, I'll need to sand down and refinish the top and stretch some new fabric over the chair pad. But how cool is it? If you're curious, scroll past to see what the same amount of money would have gotten me in real stores.

$100 at Pottery Barn would have gotten me... the keyboard tray in this attractive home office setup:

$100 at IKEA would have gotten me this perfectly functional desk. But the cost to my soul: Another $100. Resale value: $10.

Flush with coupons*

I currently have, in my possession -- and a good thing too since I am setting up a new household in Palms and needing things like a new toilet seat, bath rug, under-cabinet light strip, bedskirt, small pieces of furniture and other exciting items -- no less than the following 7 very useful coupons:

Two 20%-off-one-item for Linens-N-Things
One $5-off-$15-purchase for Bed, Bath & Beyond
One 20%-off-one-item for Bed, Bath & Beyond
One 15%-off-purchase for Home Depot
One $25-off-$250-purchase for IKEA
One 25%-off Friends-&-Family pass for Cost Plus/World Market

That last one I just received from Randi via e-mail, and it pushed me over the edge: I had to let the world know about my ridiculously great stash of coupons. (I do this not to brag, but to appease the gods of good fortune, so they know I appreciate what they do for me.)

I am collecting these kinds of coupons like a hungry squirrel storing up nuts for the winter. I have looked through my neighbors' discarded junk mail. Don't pity me; these things are as good as cash! I pity you if you are one of those chumps who wanders into Bed, Bath & Beyond without a big blue 20%-off coupon in your hot little hands.

*On a side note, I considered the alternate title "Awash in coupons" for this blog entry. I ended up liking the sound of "flush with" better than "awash in," plus it's less pretentious-sounding. But I confess I had to google the phrase to make sure I had it right, and that it wasn't actually "flush in" or something. Google, thank you for helping me keep my idioms straight.

The high and the low

Today's high:
I went to the Smashing Pumpkins' studio this morning to deliver their meals for the day and bumped into Jimmy Chamberlain in the kitchen as I was making my way to stock the band's refrigerator. He was very nice and said, "Hi. I'm Jimmy," and shook my hand. It was a warm, firm handshake. But that probably goes without saying, since he is the drummer and all. I saw this picture of him on the Internet and his arms are cut (See below.... What! I had to do my research before going out there.)

Today's low:
I ate a bag of Kettle chips that were past their expiration date. The good thing about working at a food company is that there is a lot of food around. The bad thing is that some of it is expired, and that is why it is sitting in boxes around the office. There's also a huge tub of abandoned Honest Teas out back, which don't taste that bad.