I Guess This is Good-Bye, Old Friend

This is my old reading chair:


My parents gave me the money to buy a reading chair for Christmas five or so years ago. Inspired by a similar chair at my friend Annie's house, I picked out this over-sized chair-and-a-half and I've loved it. Natasha has, too, as you can tell from that picture. See her peeking over the red cushion? That's her favorite napping spot. You can also see the corner she shreds and the stain left from a little fight she got in with Roman (Andy's cat).

The chair is really too large for that room, and it's been well-loved; so I finally gave in and decided it was time for it to go. Oh! It was comfortable, though.

The problem was how to get rid of it. It's awkward to move by itself, let alone hoist up into a dumpster. I got the ottoman out without any stress; then I pulled off the cushions and took a pair of scissors to it to see if I could break it apart, make it smaller.

45 minutes and a hacksaw later, and I had this:


The back view isn't as neat:


Next was the seat:


Which I also attacked from below:


Two hours into it, and I finally had it split in half:


Almost.


I suspect the only function of that red wire is to annoy me. But I shall not be foiled!

I fetched a file and some wire clippers and, finally:


I hauled the two halves out to the dumpster and crossed my fingers that I wouldn't get in trouble for disposing of a chair in the bin.

Next up, I cracked open the boxes for my new chair from Ikea. When I cut the tape and lifted up the flap, a red spider dropped from the packaging onto the chair parts. I squashed it with a flip-flop, wondering if it came from Sweden and whether it had a name like "Årächne".

I had spent the first part of the afternoon sorting through my music on iTunes. That's another big project I had been putting off. I found an app that lets me control the music from my computer via my iPhone - nice, right? But for putting a chair together, I wanted to watch something. I have been slowly catching up on the "So You Think You Can Dance" (DANCE, Dance, dance) I missed while in Utah, but I wanted something I could listen to without being glued to the set. Browsing the On Demand listings, I found that some episodes of Series 3 of "Torchwood" was listed as complimentary. Mmm... John Barrowman....

This is a picture-laced post, so I'll find one of him for you, too.....


Yummy, right? Captain Jack ties the dear Doctor David Tenant for cuteness in my book; and although I haven't tried "Torchwood" yet, I was certainly game for some more Captain Jack.

What I didn't realize is that Series 3 of that show was done as a 5-episode story arc. I'm almost to the end of the third episode now, and I'm wrestling with whether to stay up and watch the whole thing, or drag myself to bed at a reasonable hour to nurse my blistered thumb. It's my last week of summer, so I'm thinking the first option will win.



Oh, yeah. It's going to be a late night.

(Also? You youngins can keep your Edward. I'll take the musical John Barrowman over Robert Pattinson any day)

I did get the chair assembled, though. I moved my Turkish rug into the room as well, although I'm skeptical about the outcome:



It's an improvement, space-wise, but the layout isn't quite right, is it? The rug is a little small, and I'm not sure about the light wood/dark cushion combination. What do you think?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm being summoned....