Of Bertoia, Shish Kebob, and Sputnik Fixtures....

Today, Dear Gentle Readers, I conquered the spectre of the no-mans land off of the laundry and the furnace, and on the way to The Lodge Room.

I've been at sixes and sevens about this space since we bought Chez Vel-DuRay, back during the Eisenhower Administration. Part of the problem was that I couldn't understand what motivated the original owners to put this strange little non-room room in, in the first place: It's certainly no destination, and one has to go through both it and the laundry to get to the interesting stuff in the basement. But one can only question the motives of others for so long before one goes mad, so I dismissed that train of thought, and confronted the space as a challenge.

For a long time, this area had been home to a wooden dining set that I had bought during what I now realize must have been a period of some sort of vague, undiagnosed liver ailment. It was fine, but it was just too big for the space. But for some reason, The Colonel liked it, so I let it be.

However, being finely attuned to the spiritual needs of good furniture, I had a nagging dread in the back of my mind: A few years back, I had scored a Cyclone table by the famous designer George Nelson. These tables sell for for several thousand dollars, and I got mine for $100, for goodness sake. I also had a set of Bertoia wire chairs, and a Sputnik fixture that were crying, just crying, to be let out of their confinement. So out went the table, and up went this:



And there was the matter of the board games: I have a ridiculous amount of board games, and they need to be displayed, and they need to be played. But it's much easier to play a board game at a round or square table (yet another Handy Housekeeping Hint for gratis, dear readers) The little counter thingy between the nebulous space and The Lodge Room had a storage area underneath it with a dreary sliding door. It was filled with a mish-mash of miscellaneous gunk, so I simply RIPPED the door off, cleaned out the shelves, and created a little media center.

The end result is this:


(There'll be more room for games after I get rid of those pesky VHS tapes.)

With that done, it was time for dinner, so I thought I'd use one of my newest aquisitions in my Gallery of Ridiculous Appliances. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you Shish Kebobs from my Farberware "Open Hearth" Broiler/Rottiserie.



Shish Kebobs are both delicious and nostalgic to me: Years ago, long before I met the Colonel, I dated a series of Scotts. Scott 1 and I used to make Shish Kebobs quite frequently, out on the balcony of my old apartment. That was a fun summer.

I have no idea where Scott 1 is now. Last I heard, he was a stewardess for United Airlines. But that's been quite a while.

So there we are, dear readers. Life does, indeed, go on.