What Do a Gaggle of Goddesses, an Antique Admiral TV, and a Doorknob Have in Common?

After a year, I had given up hope of ever finding what I did with the knobs to my 1940s Admiral television. For well over a year we've been looking at the partially assembled television, despairing that we'd ever locate the one-of-a-kind knobs. I was convinced they were lost forever. But tonight, while clearing out boxes in the basement in preparation of removing the last bit of skanky ceiling board, I found them, hurray! They were packed away with an assortment of odds and ends from our condo kitchen. Why I thought that would be a good box to have packed them in, I don't know.

Isn't it a beauty? It's dated 1948, if I recall correctly, and stands about waist high. I won the TV on eBay and drove all the way over to the Quad Cities to pick it up, which is about three hours one way from Chicago. The cabinet is made of a single piece of bakelite, so there was no way I was going to trust that to a shipping company. I read somewhere that it was the largest piece of bakelite ever cast, at least up to that time. Mom and I gave the TV to my dad for his birthday. After he passed away, I ended up with it. It now sits in our dining room, next to the sideboard. It was working pretty well until a couple of years ago, when the picture disappeared. One of these days, I need to take it in for a proper restoration.

Other goodies in the box include a doorknob from my bedroom of one of my first apartments in Chicago. Yes, I admit it--I stole it. I was a foolish stunt by a 24-year-old. The apartment was this kinda run-down three flat circa 1910 located in the Southport corridor before it became cool to live there, and the landlord was a bit of a jerk. Okay, a major jerk. I know I should feel guilty for going to Ace Hardware and buying a plain doorknob to swap it out with, but I don't really. (They later gutted the house completely.) I'll probably use it on my office door at The Box House, if I can get it to fit.

But this is what really makes me smile! My collection of goddess magnets (and a coupla gods) that I got on clearance from Sacred Source, a great little online store with all sorts of figurines from world mythology and religion.

And that picture of Ted? It's the first one I ever saw of him. Would you believe we met on Match.com seven years ago this month? Well, we started corresponding then, and met a month later. Remind me to tell that story sometime...