Meet Lloyd

Oddly enough, of everything we've done with this house I think I'm happiest about my new bathroom sink. (The Lloyd pedestal by Toto)

I've got to clean the floor, get switch plates and outlet covers on, and wash the new gray towels we got to replace our khaki colored ones. The last piece is having the glass guys out to measure for the shower enclosure. Oh, and I may need something new for our toothbrushes.

It's just so much more pleasant to brush my teeth or wash my hands here rather than a tattered blue or purple sink with wonky old faucets that spray in odd directions.

Resto finally makes a move

For a long while now I've been completely apathetic towards Restoration Hardware. They have some handsome furnishings of course, but nothing I thought was especially inspired, and nothing I was at all anxious to own. And while I know that choices are good, the streamlining of things into collections, with every frame available in every fabric, it just rubs me the wrong way. It's like they sucked any little bit of specialness out of everything they offer. Until today.

The catalog came yesterday but I didn't pick it up until a commercial during Wipeout tonight, and I'm completely serious when I say that the first 65 pages made me squeal. Reclaimed wood, aged steel, architectural and vintage inspiration, chunky proportions, lighter colors, polished chrome...wow. Finally some pieces with some attitude. I won't comment on everything, but I wanted to post some favorites. Enjoy.

And this doesn't include the upholstered pieces covered in what looks like vintage linen with that gorgeous, chunky texture. I'll stop in this weekend and see if it's all as good in person.

The best use of a frigid, wet, snowy day

In 1999 I leased a car. It was a 4 door Chevy Blazer 4X4, and I loved it. Pewter metallic paint, with a charcoal leather interior, it was the nicest thing I'd ever driven. Sunroof, CD player (with a cassette deck I never did put a tape into), power everything, I was in heaven.

By the time the lease was up, things had changed quite a bit, and buying the car made the most sense, so I did. Shortly following that, the engine blew at 59,000 miles. I fixed that, then the alternator, brakes, and a host of other little things, which seemed to keep coming, over the years.

The last time I had it inspected for renewing my tags, the U-joint needed work to pass and the bill was over 600 bucks. I'd also lost a hinge pin from the drivers door, and had run into a deer on the highway. (The deer I hit just enough to skew the grille but not enough to make it worth taking to a body shop).

The point of all this is that until today, I was driving a 10 year old car that had slipped well past unsightly, and squarely into unsafe. It's time to renew my tags again, and paying for another repair (which I knew there would be) seemed silly, when what I really needed was a good used car. So I did my research, and in the end, I got a smokin deal.

My silver LR3 with black interior is a 2006, with 33,000 miles on it. The sales staff at Mercedes Benz of Kansas City couldn't have been nicer, or more professional. What's more, on a rainy, snowy, generally nasty last weekend of the month, they were ready to sell a car and when I left I think we were both happy with the transaction.

Next, Brett's lease is up in June. He's got the bug, we'll see if he makes it that long!