life with a recliner

I discovered this weekend that my strong opinion regarding recliners is not shared by the majority of the population. I'm unique. I was certain a large percentage of the people had an immediate and strong response to the word 'recliner'. Again. Just me.
Matt and I have been in the market for another piece of furniture to complete our living room. The random swivel chair and the couch were not creating the most fabulous movie/television series watching situation. On Matt's ride home from work he passes through an area that has several furniture stores. He spotted a recliner and felt that it was perfect for our casa. I never in my life thought I would own a recliner. I'm just not a fan {in case you didn't catch that from the first paragraph of this post}. I know they are wonderfully comfortable, but the look just does something to my brain and I have a bad reaction. However, going with the theme of our Latin American lifestyle {the flow, I'm going with the flow} and trying to be adventurous, I went ahead and gave the thumbs up on the recliner. With the side note, that this may very well be the only one the McQuinn's own. My husband came home everyday this week, staring at our living room, and discussing his future recliner, salivating about the idea of watching football from the recliner. There was a whole lotta of recliner going on. He carefully considered the price and determined a top number he was willing to pay.
Saturday afternoon comes, we had a driver in a truck lined up to take us to the furniture store and haul us and our new recliner home. Matt made his way immediately to the chair he saw all week in the window. When he sat down and attempted to test drive it by pulling the lever to release the leg lift {obviously I am completely unfamiliar with proper terms for recliners} we were informed that the recliner had to be plugged in. Note: something less attractive than a recliner, one that must be plugged into a wall. As the sales associate searched for the cords, we made our way through the store and spotted two more chairs. One leather, the other one some kind of fabric {Can you tell which one I preferred?} After my husband sensed that Sarah was not bringing the furry recliner home, he spoke with the associate about the cost, which was under his price limit. Then the Mr. Mc-liner who has been fantasizing over the idea of bringing home a recliner starts trying to barter... Did I mention the driver has his hazards on outside the store and is waiting for us? We had already established that we were leaving the store with a recliner. After the sales lady schooled him and made him eat his offer {that may be slightly dramatic, the sales associate was kind, but was not budging on her price, even when Matt pulled out the line about buying right now if she would sell at his price} I inquired about his negotiation tactic. He assured me 'that's what you do' and after a few more questions I discovered 'that's what you do' is from Matt's Book of Wisdom and not  by recommendation. Moral of the story: Bartering in furniture stores is not customary in Colombia



In the theme of the recliner we had a lovely relaxing afternoon. This is what it looked like:




We headed to the Old City to find a new spot to dine. {actually for the second weekend in a row we decided to try out a highly recommended restaurant without a reservation. When we arrived to our destination, they told us the restaurant was closed for a wedding reception... we're 0/2}
We took our time and wandered a bit....






We ate at a Peruvian restaurant and both had an amazing meal. We started out with some ceviche and each had entrees of fish. Matt had some kind of black rice & seafood and mine was served with a pumpkin puree {hea-ven}. I was too excited to remember to take a pic before hand, so for your viewing pleasure, here's what our plates looked like after our culinary experience.


Unfortunately, what was a wonderful dining experience, turned out to be a horrendous evening for Matt. He got food poisoning and was up on the hour, every hour after 12:30am. Poor boy. Yet, he still wants to go to the restaurant again.  look, I am not complaining, the pumpkin puree was that good folks.
So we had one of those wonderful Sundays that years from now we will think fondly of and wonder how it was ever possible. You know, the Sundays where you eat breakfast {& lunch} in bed, while reading the paper {on an ipad}  in between watching tv series marathons {Modern Family & Pawn Stars} and the news. We ended our Sunday with a movie {Matt sat on the recliner} and pizzas. Homemade pizzas.

As I look back over this post there appears to be a lack of adventure {although I might argue buying a recliner was an adventure} and a lot of random details. But those details are more for me. Because this weekend was one of those weekends, nothing extra special, but oh so nice & memorable.