There were two choices for celebrity death of the week. While I have nothing specific against the man, Phil Rizzuto spent his career with the Source of All Evil in the Universe, so I will, instead, honor Merv Griffin. Merv's most significant achievement, in my opinion, was the creation of Jeopardy! which provided an opportunity for me to get not only my 15 minutes of fame but at least part of somebody else's. The sequel to that story is that I later got to be a test player for a game show based on Scrabble. (They invited people who had been on Jeopardy! or on Password.) Each time we went down to play the game it was different. One time, I got to meet Merv himself, who told us about how big a crossword puzzle buff he was. The game show which eventually aired was different again from any of the versions I'd played and turned out to be a notable flop, by the way. It was still interesting to see how these things get developed.
While I am on the subject of television, I turned on the TV this past week to have some background noise while knitting, and saw the most appalling reality show yet. Namely, Fat March. The notion of a group of fat people having to support one another during a walk from Boston to Washington isn't inherently a terrible one. But it can't possibly be a sane idea to have people who haven't been exercising start out walking distances which leave their feet bleeding and toenails peeling off and so on. In the episode I saw, which was the second one, one of the participants was hospitalized after a convulsion from low blood sugar. Apparently, the first episode had somebody else collapse from dehydration. And the weigh-in suggests the problem. It's simply impossible for anybody to safely lose 30 or more pounds in two weeks. I was also annoyed that they berated people for eating a half slice of pizza. While it may have a reputation as junk food, pizza is not necessarily inherently unhealthy. Oh, I'm sure that what they had to tempt them was not ideal, but you can make pizza with whole wheat flour and use low fat toppings on it (e.g. skim milk cheese or even no cheese, lots of veggies, etc.) Bottom line is that the health message allegedly being sent by this show is seriously flawed. And that I should just put on music and not the television if I want to knit at home.
I did get out to knitting group today, by the way, which is notable mostly for my having given away a bunch of old crafts magazines, dating back as far as 1959. These are ones my mother had bought at garage sales over the years and then passed on to me. I kept a few which had patterns I might use, but most of them were just clutter. And moving is a good way to get rid of clutter.
And I am getting closer to moving. The sellers came in with a counteroffer about where I expected it to be, so I accepted and have a ratified contract. The home inspection went well. Basically, the only thing the inspector found was that the furnace filter needed to be changed. I didn't see anything in the condo documents to make me balk (though I admit to having skimmed much of the legalese), so all is moving along. We'll be closing at the end of September, so I really need to step up the pace on getting rid of things I don't want to move.
My biggest dilemma with respect to that has to do with my sofa and loveseat. The loveseat is barely used, but the sofa has been worn hard and needs reupholstering if it's to be usable. My inclination is to replace it, instead, since I'm not really in love with it for several reasons. I did a quick look at the new furniture store at Pentagon Row and saw some things that would be acceptable, but not ideal. What I really want is a Mission style sofa and a matching tile top coffee table. Genuine Stickley is the fantasy, but probably not affordable. (I do intend to look, since there is a place near work that sells it.) But someone told me today that J. C. Penney has a lot of Mission style stuff and would, obviously, be far cheaper. I did also go and look at upholstery fabric and saw something I love, but it goes for $97 a yard. I might yet buy a yard or two to use for pillows, especially as I also want to redo the cushions for my rocking chair. (There is nothing actually wrong with them, other than that I want a different color.)
I also need a new mattress and more bookshelves. I will probably eventually have a wall unit made. I invested in good hardwood bookshelves about 15 years ago and I'm really happy I did that. But I have ever more books and I also want some glassed in display shelving to minimize the dusting on my various tchotchkes. And I'll need to paint one room (although it might just need the trim to be a different color) and do different window treatments because brown shades are too dreary and so on.
In short, I will be terribly House and Garden (except for not having a garden) for months, if not years, to come.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel