Weekend update

I finished a manuscript and sent it to my agent. Full disclaimer: it took nine months in total, but even procrastination eventually runs its course.

We bought a Christmas tree.

I wasted most of the afternoon looking at vintage lamp shades on eBay.

Yesterday Jen and I walked by the antique store on 79th, and I said to the owner, "I see you finally sold that Art Nouveau ceiling lamp that was in the window for so long." I'd been coveting it for a year. He grumbled, "No, I've still got it, I just haven't been able to sell it."

But, even marked down, it was still $750, which...you know, if pressed, that's probably NOT what Jen would say she wants to get each other for Christmas. So we decided to go online and see how much it would cost to just buy a vintage Quezal lamp shade (sans lamp) and attach it to our existing ceiling fixture.

The answer is $70. We are now the proud owners. Don't tell the guy at the antique store.

The best moment of the day was when Jen told me that we could get rid of our piano. No one has played it in five years; it simply serves as a dumping ground for every box, handbag, backpack, coat, piece of mail, or set of keys that comes within six feet of it. It makes us look like hoarders.

I'm the anal-retentive interior decorator in our household; Jen and the boys are the dorm room slobs. I love quarter-sawn oak, vintage leather, dupioni silk, and antique Quezal lamp shades. Jen and the boys are happy so long as they have a TV, a laptop, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a path to the front door.

I took the dogs for a walk this evening. I was happy with my new lamp shade, and my finished manuscript, and my impending lack of piano. It was snowing, and the Christmas tree vendor was still open on Columbus Avenue, and it suddenly felt very Christmasy.