Sofa Tubers

We have been without couch for a week, which was an interesting experience. I hadn't realized how much it figured into our daily lives.

We're not big TV watchers in our house. Luke likes a good bout of Looney Tunes when he can persuade us to turn on the evil box. My husband catches most the 49er games. I watch more television programs than anyone else, I guess, but I do it on my iPad, so the TV is largely unused, and since our living room dimensions give us little choice, the couch has always been pointed at the TV. There is a good assortment of puffy chairs in the living room in various corners, and big lumpy bean bags sort of things, so how much does one really need a couch? And yet over the course of a week, we all frequently piled in the living room (queue The Simpsons theme song) to pause blinking in front of the big purple comfortable lump that was not there.

But thanks to a buddy with a pickup truck and the furniture wonderland that is Ikea, we have a new couch now (more purple, less lumps) and a minor makeover of the living room.

You never get out of Ikea with only what you went in there for. On the way to pick up the couch, Shawn and I found ourselves standing underneath a display of ceiling lights.

When we moved into our house eight years ago, there were three Ugly-Ass Light Fixtures in the living room, all of which, we agreed, would have to go post haste. Thanks to the internet, a little electrical ingenuity and some awesome inspiration on the part of my husband, we did replace Ugly-Ass Light Fixture the First, but finding interesting lights proved more difficult than we had imagined, and after a while you just train yourself not to look at the casualty hanging from the ceiling. But standing under the brilliance of halogenated light in Ikea we began contemplating UALF II and whether or not now might be the time to put it out of its misery.

"This one reminds me of the Matrix."

"Really? I was thinking about the tubes that came down from the ceiling to attach the Borg Queen to the rest of her body."

"I can see that."

"I like it."

"Me too. Let's get it."

Later, up on the ladder in the entryway, we were positioning the heads of the bright little LED lamps, which made surprisingly sharp little circles of light on the walls.

"You know what we should do?" my husband said.

"Oh my god, that's the best idea I've ever heard."

I love my house.