Have A Seat

As of the last five years, we have lived in a house with an actual dining room. In prior living arrangements we've had nooks, alcoves, eat-in kitchens, and the like - but never an honest-to-God dining room.

When we first moved in, we acquired a nice big dining room table. It came with six chairs. We also had four odd little wooden chairs that are old, but wouldn't (at least in my mind) qualify as antiques. They were salvaged from the old cafeteria at the "W" (a nearby women's college that both my parents worked at) some years back. If all ten chairs are crammed around the table, we can seat a good sized dinner party.

In other words, we're all set for dining room chairs...or so I thought.

My brother-in-law and his family have very recently sold a large custom-built home in the Nashville area and moved to smaller digs. The idea was in their constant motion of raising two active and athletic teenage sons (who between them play some manner of sport year round), they needed a smaller house and smaller lot for lower maintenance. Plus, I'm sure they came out OK on the resale of a very desirable house and acreage overlooking a river.

Part of their "downsizing" included an APB to the family to see if anyone would be interested in certain pieces of furniture that they no longer had room for. Like dining room chairs. Six of them.

My wife said we needed them.

They arrived yesterday by special courier (my in-laws had been to Tennesse for a visit and managed to load them all in the back of their truck). Imagine my unbridled glee at adding six more dining room chairs to our collection.

They're OK, I guess, but they certainly don't match our chairs that originally came with the table. They don't really match the little chairs from the women's college, either. These chairs are very ornate, like the kind Louis XIV would sit in for elegant palacial soirees. We tend to grill burgers a lot.

Our dining room is now completely overrun with furniture, but - hey - we can seat 16 people. Never mind that only ten can actually have their plate on a table. Lap eating or TV trays for everyone else.

This means, of course, that any of you reading this should keep a vigil near your phone. We may ask you over for dinner - and you'll most definitely have a chair...