Hi There!

I can't believe how long I've been away from The Complaint Department!  I'm still busy fat-busting over at my other blog, but Fat Chat is just so . . . one dimensional.  And not very interesting to a majority of people, I'm sure.

It's drizzly, drab and dreary today, and I'm making a nice beef stew here at home.  There's laundry churning away and a big stack of papers that needs organizing.  A lot of my downsizing and organizing goals have been sidelined, lately, since Jack the dog joined up with our family.  He's a very large toddler, weighing in at almost 75 pounds at just 12-18 months of age.  You can see a few photos here.

Jack is a little less needy every day, and we're slowly getting a handle on his various physical issues--severe ear mites, mange and a skin infection as a result, intestinal parasites, a fungal infection, etc.  Under what conditions can such a young animal's health become so compromised?  You'll just have to imagine because Jack was basically snatched off private property, and I can't relate too many details.

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Last time I posted, we were preparing to have new carpeting installed.  It's done, and I'm completely happy with it.  Stuff is slowly finding its place again, and my office is taking shape.  The room really houses my treasures, which I've collected and lugged around for years and years, through marriages and different living situations.  Old books, family papers and all kinds of tchotchkes, mostly.

Well, I really need to take better pictures of the overall room, I see.

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In other news, Pamela-J and I went on a little outing to Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, earlier this week.  As you will read from Pam's blog post about the day here (with photos), the original plan involved looking for a couple of lampshades and eating Lebanese food and browsing around.  Nothing really out of the ordinary.

But then I went and bought a very large piece of furniture and the whole afternoon's planning soon involved the careful dance of feeding the parking meter, eating a meal and arranging to have the dresser (or, as they called it at the furniture store, the commode) loaded into my Ford Focus station wagon and secured.

So, little leisurely browsing happened, but we're going back!

Here's one of the lamps for which I needed a shade (above), and here's the shade Pam found--the perfect shade for this lamp, I think!

The shade is broader in the front and back and narrower on the sides, so it fits well in this space on the credenza in the dining room.

Are you curious about the dresser?  Well, it's enormous--six feet long, to be exact.  Once it was loaded in the car, the front seats needed to be pushed up all the way, and Pam and I drove back to Maryland with out faces practically jammed up against the windshield.  And because Pam is so trim, she was able to do this while holding two large lampshades in her lap!

I bought the dresser for Tony.  Tomorrow is his 64th birthday!  He probably would have preferred a new hard drive or something, but I'm not too knowledgeable about stuff like that.  And he needs an all-in-one place to put his clothes.

I like everything about this piece--the wood, the hardware, the fact that the front has a slight curvature to it.  It's neither too busy nor ornamental--good for a guy.

Here's the other lamp with it's new shade.  Not as fancy as the first shade, but neither is the lamp.  Again, good for a guy.

Well, that's it for now.  I'm going to try to do a better job of posting here at The Complaint Department.  Maybe I'll shoot for weekly posts.  If I can do it over at Fat Chat, I can do it here!

Anyway, thanks for popping by.

Comments

[Margaret]

That lamp(and shade) are luscious--in fact, your house is beautiful!! As I've probably mentioned, I need new carpet in most of my house but it's exhausting to think about. It sounds like a great day with Pam!! P.S.Commode is the French word for dresser. :)

[Pam Jones]

It all looks great! And I can appreciate how much work went into it.

I hesitate to say this but maybe some of your skills in attending to home repairs and decor might rub off on me. You set the bar high though so we'll see.

And you give me far too much credit for the shade selections. Let me record here for posterity that the nice 90-year-old lady who sold you the shades offered us a LOT of advice and opinions. She's been selling lampshades at that location for 65 years and attributes her spryness to moving around a lot and swimming four times a week. She told us another secret to her youth but we promised not to tell anyone.

[Karenth49]

Ladies, you can't just TEMPT us like that. There is need for a contest.

Winner receives a private e-mail divulging the "other" to the lampshade lady's youth.

Particularly fond of the "man" lamp.