I'm no dumpster diver. I swear.

But when I saw a nice long coffee table on the sidewalk not even a block from our apartment, I did a double-take.

I wasn't the only one. Another woman stopped at nearly the same time, but luckily her eye was on another table that was sitting with the trash. She wheeled that one (yes, it had wheels) to her place while I called Paul.

In a few minutes he had the table in our living room while our old "coffee table" (really just a wooden trunk, filled mostly with our financial papers) was dismissed to the corner of the room.

It's not the best table in the world-- it certainly has a few scratches, and the top is certainly not real wood. But the price was right for something I expect will be left behind whenever we move out of this apartment.

So to recap: Yes, I will take a coffee table from the side of the road. No, I will not pick through garbage. For anything.