Spent the past several days shopping for furniture to fill the house in anticipation of eventually closing the deal.  Uncle Sam (in the guise of HUD) is taking his sweet time, although the contract offer has been accepted and approved.

Once I actually take possession I’m going to have to have the interior painted and new flooring installed before I actually move in.  But when that day comes, I’ll have the living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture I’ve now purchased delivered.

I won’t bore you with the details of my shopping experience (at least any more so than I already have), but I will relate a little story that I thought was kinda funny.

I had looked at a leather couch/love seat combo I rather fancied at Ashley Furniture.  About twice as expensive as the leather blends that are quite popular, but I’m hoping to make this the final furniture purchase in this lifetime.  So I had to consider quality over price, at least to the extent I could afford to do so. Still,  I wanted to stew on the decision for a bit before pulling the trigger.  A few days later I found a bedroom suite that filled the bill at Value City and I completed the purchase transaction with my salesman, Maurice.

Having now made up my mind to go with the leather at the Ashley store, I hooked up with Eva, the salesperson who had assisted me on my previous visit.  She asked me if I had bought a bedroom set at Value City the previous day. I was somewhat taken aback, but confessed that I had in fact done so.  It turns out that Maurice is Eva’s husband.  Apparently he had told her about his “big sale” (these folks work on commission) and I guess his description of us rang a bell with Eva.

Anyway, I thought that was a pretty amazing coincidence.  I mean, the sales staff in both stores just grab the customers randomly as they enter the store.  What are the odds that I’d just happen to get both ends of the married couple?

I guess I made both of their days. And Eva said she’d be sure and remind Maurice she got the bigger sale.  Me?  I’m feeling quite a bit poorer for the experience.  But I got some nice stuff.

Everybody around here seems to talking about that age old question of which came first, the soup or the bowl.   It seems fairly obvious that you couldn’t possible invent soup unless and until you had a bowl in which to place it.  But that’s just me.

Anyway, I understand that the issue is to be decided on something called a gridiron today.  Seems these soup packers from Green Bay or going to attempt to fill some steel bowls made in Pittsburgh or something.  Everyone is getting together at my daughter’s house to watch the action.

I’m not sure what all the fuss is about.  I’m not that hot on soup anyway.  Now, some good ol’ chili is always nice.  Especially in a steel bowl.