36: Damn monsoon

We have a large TV room that adjoins our smallish kitchen. We have a dining room but don't use it as often as we should -- mainly when we have company. So we eat a lot of meals sitting on our couch with our plates on the coffee table. This is not ideal for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it's not so good for anyone's back to spend so much time hunched over like that.

Since we bought this house, we have been saying we needed a better solution. The ideal long term solution was that we wanted to open a pass-through into the kitchen, add some cabinets, and extend the counter into the TV room as a bar-style table with bar stools. But that clearly involves a lot of effort. So our short term plan (which I expect will be the only plan) is to get a table and chairs to put at one end of the TV room. But there's not a ton of space because of the door to the back porch and the door to the half bath. And we want a table big enough for four people (in no small part so that we can both sit on the same side and watch Jeopardy while we eat). And in three years we hadn't found anything even remotely acceptable. And I was sure we'd looked everywhere.

Somehow I forgot we had an I*kea, or forgot that I*kea sold things that could be useful, or something. (Admittedly, I've never been to I*kea.) Apparently I*kea had the perfect table all along. And this was going to be our weekend to make the drive out there to get it. Until the Noachian flooding hit, making the thought of going outside, much less driving 45 minutes to pick up a piece of furniture that would have to be loaded into and unloaded out of the car, decidedly unappealing. Damn monsoon. I wanted to stop eating on the coffee table!!!