Furniture Shopping 01/31/2006

Settling into a normal life here with Sara at work, the kids in daycare, and me finally being able to get past the technical difficulties to get started on selling some loans. Diapers ain't cheap!

So the kids have finally gotten better. Ethan's still bummed to go to his daycare, but we're looking into preschools now that he should be able to start the beginning of April if he's potty-trained.

We're starting to get the house furnished, but it will be a work in progress for a longgg time. Been able to get a few things from moving sales, and had one kind of interesting experience with that, not because of what we bought, but because of the location and the people. Called up this lady, told me come to this village outside the city, said "come to the left of the chateau of the village, only one in town", I'm like, yeah, OK, whatever lady, see you at the chateau, sure. So we all go there... and it's a frigging chateau. Not a big house, but a chateau... 6 other houses on the property (converted servant quarters I'm sure), a stone bridge that goes over this creek that runs through the grounds, a yard that went as far as the eye could see... I wish I had my camera.

So this woman and her family had the left side of the chateau, a company was renting out the right side, and the owner, a Count apparently who's family had owned the house for generations was in the middle. If that isn't enough, the people that were holding the moving sale are Romanian diplomats, last name was Dragomir, and she answered the door in this long flowing cloak and had this great big head of hair, and it was just all so different from what we're used to... it was just one of those experiences that reminded me I'm in unfamiliar territory here... not bad, not good, just very different. We didn't buy anything from them, their shit was whack yo... but still worth the drive.

On to the more conventional furniture sources, we've had several of the requisite, unavoidable trips to Ikea. I can't figure out Ikea to be honest. Everyone, including us, talks about the stuff we buy there in this disparaging, semi-embarassed tone ("Yeah, had to go to Ikea..."), like it's a trip to the dentist to get some fillings or something, but we all shop there, or at least most of the people we know probably have a couple of pieces of furniture from there. I was thinking about this the other day after putting together several pieces of their furniture and was looking down at that little metal tool that apparently could,



if Ikea had their way, put together just about any man-made structure ever conceived. I realized this callous-creating tool of the middle class had become the bain of my existence, at least for that week, so in need of an Ikea antidote, I went shopping for a dining room table in my favorite part of Brussels, the Sablon, which has a ton of antique stores with furniture with a bit more character.

The Sablon also has all these great museums and galleries, the Royal Palace is a short walk, charming restaurants with outdoor crepe stands in the summer and moules (mussels) stands in the winter, little cobblestone streets with views of an amazing 12th century church if you look down one, and up another little lane the super-imposing Palais de Justice (the equivalent of their Supreme Court building) looms over you. Very cool part of the city. Definitely a must for any Brussels visit.

The antique shops themselves are nuts. You go in some of them, and they go on and on, 4+ floors, and there's so much in each one it makes you wonder how there are any antiques anywhere else besides here... it seems like the entire antique market must be on two or three streets in Brussels. Some of the stuff is garbage of course, but some is so great, with so much character, and it is really intriguing to me to try and imagine the history behind the individual pieces, think about who sat at that table, the meals they had, good and bad times, etc. And yes, I'll finish your thought, I'm a huge dork.


This table above was 1200 Euros (about $1400), and that's just for the table, no chairs. I loved this one, so solidly built, and you know with something that's lasted this long already, if you take care of it, it'll last our lifetimes and can get past down to the kids, etc. But still 1200 Euros is tough to swallow with a whole house to furnish. Pass.

This one below was 575 Euros, had some fantastic iron detail at the base of the table, but because I'm so ignorant on the antiques market, I really couldn't tell if this one is worth it either, so passing for now until I can shop around some more. Would love to get a table and chairs for 500 Euros, but for that price, we may be heading back to the Swedish Maison de Mediocrité... You see that, that's French people... I'm basically fluent.

Quickly some other random thoughts, then I'll end this run-on entry... I've been having a recurring dream of this woman named Elizabeth, who's a mixture between Keira Knightley and Natalie Portman, not that she's like them, but she's actually them. The thing is both are not my type at all, so I'm wondering if this is my mind's weird way of telling me I'm having some kind of separation anxiety from LA. Bizarre.

My Skins lost of course to the eventual NFC representative in the Superbowl. It's a dagger because we had a legitimate shot to beat the Seahawks and then I'm confident we could have beaten the Panthers to reach the Superbowl ourselves, but nevertheless, a much better season than I ever thought we would have, so no complaints. Sean Taylor, our star defensive player, is facing yet another criminal trial and could be sentenced to 46 years in jail for waiving a gun at some people last year, aggravated assault and something else... think he's already on probation for another crime. What a waste if he gets sentenced... so stupid if he's guilty of the crimes. But whether they get him now or later, they'll get him... seems like there's police officers waiting at the games to charge him for a new crime every other week. He's like the Von Trapp family of the NFL.

That's all from here. A good friend from college, Eric Gabrielson, who lives in Amsterdam now with his wife and daughter, visited this past weekend, we had a really good time... I'm going to Bogart some of his photos and add them in with the next entry because he got some good shots. My Dad's coming on Sunday for a couple of weeks... should be fun. Toodles. That's 'French' for bye. Or maybe it's 'Gay' for bye. I always get the two confused. And the offensive final word begins again.