Having guests over is one of the best (and, unfortunately, well-worn) excuses for laziness that I've found in quite some time. Got a project that needs tending? "I've got guests coming" is one of the prettiest reasons to toss one's code by the wayside for a few days in favor of infinitely more fun activities, such as sitting up late and gossiping.

You know you've found your home in a gaggle of geeks when you can actually have conversations about a) the yumminess of wireless networking and b) the yumminess of Colin Firth with the same person.In the meantime, code temporarily abandoned, I've begun work on the reading room, which appears likely to also turn into a gaming room. A brief snoop in the land of unfinished furniture stores turned up some solidly-constructed mission-style tables that, with a little bit of work on my part, will work quite nicely in that room.

While wandering about, we found ourselves saying to each other, "We don't know what, exactly, we want, but we'll know it when we see it."

In fact, we did: we walked right in front of it and said, "Hey, now that's an idea." Instead of the standard rectangular or oval coffee tables, this one was square. It didn't seem to make much of a difference, until Jeff pointed at it and said, "If we got something like this, we could set up Settlers here and everyone would be the same distance from the board."

We stood there for a few moments, imagining laying out board games on this table, then turned to each other, decision made.

"Yep. This is what we need to get."

A few more minutes of hunting turned up the companion end tables - also, thankfully, reasonably priced. Plenty of clean, straight edges for me, the amateur refinisher, to work on without fear of mishap. In my head, the visions of finally having a completed reading room danced behind my eyes. Sofa. Papasan chair. Tables. Bookshelves hung on the walls.

Hang some photos and a bit of artwork on the walls, finally move the halogen lamp out of the guest bedroom and into this room (its real home) and suddenly this room goes from the "room to store boxes in" to "another room we'll actually use."

Stay tuned; we have to remove the connecting door between this room and the kitchen. Should be entertaining, to say the last.

Tomorrow, I return to code.