Good haul at the farmer's market this morning: we bought rainbow chard, braising greens, pea shoots, and a heart shaped cake for tonight. We will also have the pea shoots tonight since they probably need to be eaten right away. I have mixed feelings about the pea shoots: on the one hand I love them and I'm glad to find them. On the other hand, I have a panicky feeling of "oh no, the growers at the market already have pea shoots and I haven't even planted my seeds! I am so far behind!!!" Georg pointed out to me that they probably have cold frames allowing them to plant very early, and I shouldn't expect my own hobby gardening to be up to the standards of a professional farmer. In which he is right, of course.
We took Jane with us, and again she did really well. A little boy came up and asked if he could pet her. Score one for well-behaved children! I told him yes, just to be gentle because she's shy. He was really good about patting Jane lightly, not trying to manhandle her. Then he kissed her head (which was adorable) and tried to hug her neck (less so, but he wasn't too pushy about it). While this was going on the boy explained to us that Janey looks like a coyote, and that this makes sense because dogs are a subspecies of the grey wolf. A polite and smart child. Jane wasn't crazy about the extended interaction -- she kept turning her head away so he wasn't right up in her face -- but she handled it well. And she needs more practice dealing with people who are friendly and not overbearing.
After the farmer's market we drove out to Ecko and bought a couch and chair! This is actually our Christmas gift to ourselves; we decided last December to buy something for the house instead of expensive presents for each other. Our old living room set is very old and very badly in need of replacing. I bought them from a coworker who was moving away. The furniture was in good condition but didn't really suit my living room. My house is a small post-war cottage, and this is big overstuffed furniture meant for a bigger, newer space. Now, 9-10 years later, the furniture still doesn't really fit in our living room, plus it's completely worn out. The seat cushions are all cracked and so mashed down, you feel like you're sinking into a cave when you sit down.
So we picked out a nice couch and chair from Ecko. The couch is about the same size but without the overstuffed style, it both looks smaller and also provides more space for sitting. (Neat trick, that.) They're having a floor model sale and we got a good deal on a leather couch. They said the leather has been treated so we won't have to condition it. I'm happy about the leather because it won't attract dog hair (of which we have a lot around here) though we'll still put a blanket on the couch when we're not home, to prevent Janey from scratching the leather.
The new chair is cloth, a nice light green color, and the guy at the store told us that this tight weave of fabric would be easier to vacuum than a chenille in which dog hair would get embedded. The new chair is genuinely smaller rather than just seeming smaller. We brought it (the chair) home today and it's kind of amazing how much it opens up the room. The old chair took up so much space and the room looks so much bigger without it.
We've decided to get rid of the loveseat entirely. It takes up a huge amount of space for the amount of seating it provides -- generally only one person would sit on it unless the house were crammed full of people. So we're going to move the TV to where the loveseat was, and maybe get another small chair to put next to the TV. Or maybe just enjoy having all this extra floor space.
I made an appointment to take the truck in on Monday -- it's been sitting unused for about half a year, and already needed new tires before that, and who knows what else it needs by now. Battery replacement for sure -- and then the plan is to pick up the couch on Wednesday. I can take the chair to the dump on a weekday, and we can drop off the old couch and loveseat together on the weekend.
We've been making do for so long that it's kind of a thrill to get a couple of nice pieces of furniture. I suppose that in the current economic crisis we ought to be saving our money. But it's just two pieces. It's not like we ran out and refurnished the entire house.
In the current economic conditions, the best thing you can do for the economy as a whole is large durable-goods purchases. Saving money is counter-stimulus. So go go America!