I am a sucker for Garage Sales. I can’t walk past them without at least browsing, and I like to think I’m doing a good deed by giving a beloved item a new home. If the owner is around to tell me how sad she is to part with an object, that’s when I break down and open my wallet.

So now I have two new cast-iron frying pans, bringing the total number of frying pans in my kitchen up to four. But there’s an upside to it, too: Every time I’ll be using them, or my new cutting board, I’ll remember the cute blond Greek girl that sold them because she was moving to France for a new job.

I wish she’d had some folding chairs. Because what my apartment really needs to host more people for Sunday brunches isn’t an even bigger number of frying pans, it’s more seating.