In an uncharacteristic moment of assertiveness, Joy has declared this room a "showtune free zone." Now I, for one, can't imagine why anyone would want to go through an entire day without humming a few lines from Kiss me Kate, but whatever.

Maybe those of us who've already tried to customize the entire universe to our tastes should take a lesson. Our efforts to rid the world of everything from reality television to walnuts are failing miserably. Perhaps it's time to ask ourselves, "Would we have better luck if we only conquered one room at a time?"

Picture it: the NO SUV foyer. The NO EMAIL SPAM dining room. How hard could it be to enforce a NO ELIZABETH HASSELBOT rule in your bathroom? I've already had a 12 day ban on the words "edgy" "extreme," and "literally" in my bedroom and it's going great so far. If you're planning to push an elevator button incessantly, talk too loudly at a swimming hole, or build a subdivision and call it a community, you better steer clear of my kitchen.

Once we get the hang of this we could change the rules as often as we want. NO SMELLY, CANCER-SHARING SMOKERS one day. NO ELITIST, HIPPIE-ASS, CONTROLLING SMOKING BANS the next day. NO ADJECTIVES USED AS ADVERBS on alternate Tuesdays and NOTHING BUT CORPORATE SPEAK LIKE FYI, VALUE-ADDED, AND PUSHBACK on national holidays.

All we have to do is drastically reduce the scope of our dominion and we can live happily, even openly, as control freaks. Now, go out there and claim a room.

October Newsletter

We're moving across the street! We're moving to a bigger, better, cheaper space at the corner of 21st and Pearl and we get to share it with the eco-goddesses at Planetary Solutions. We should be over there by November 1st. Life is good.


New Stuff:

We've seen too many chinese character tattoos that probably translate to things like watermuffin and springonionbunny. We've been frightened by plastic-wrapped convenience store sushi. We've been bombarded by ads implying that yoga was developed as a weight-loss method. Exhausted by pseudo-Asian junk, we've dodged Asian design. Maybe it's time to start learning about the good stuff. Step one: A tall, black bookcase with Asian-inspired metal details. Simple and elegant. Perfect for beginners.

Equally out of character, we've fallen in love with a trendy color. So....if grey is cool, and we have grey stuff, could we be....? No. Not possible.

We almost never refinish something and put the old-school hardware back but this old gal wears it well.

It's hard to tell from this photo but Ethan rocked this color. It's the best green we've ever had.

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Simple lines, bright color, almost modern. Don't tell anyone. I'll have to start wearing my go-go boots to work.

We've never had a wine rack before. I feel very grown up.

My sister is the best yardsale shopper in the world. She's the perfect combo of sweet and friendly mom, high-speed junk rejector, and ruthless negotiator. Our pick-your-own-finish stuff is just getting better,

and better,

and better.

Deals: Odds and Ends sale. (Did I mention we're moving???)

I know we're only moving across the street but we're lazy and don't want to take anything that we're not in love with. How about any as-is chair that's not part of a set goes for $25? How about as-is end tables for $40? TV stands for $85? How about you come make us an offer on anything that's been hanging around a while?

Events:

As explained above, we're pretending we're cool this month. As part of that effort we've got John Bunzli playing live music from 5-7 pm on October 19th. We realize that most cool people don't party quite that early but we're hoping it might catch on so we can participate more often. For more info email pegasusbmusic@yahoo.com

Quote of the Month: "As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border." --Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008 Happy Halloween.