A total bargain on brand new furniture, and the perplexing nature of Einstein's brain.

My dog Einstein shares many characteristics with his namesake. I'm assuming the real Einstein was eccentric. If dogs can be eccentric, my canine Einstein is all that and more.

When taken on a walk, Einstein (the dog) will not go along unless my other dog Dutch goes, too. And when I take them both for a walk, Dutch will take the time and energy to "p" on virtually anything. Conversely, Einstein won't grace a fire hydrant with even one drop of his precious fluids.

I guarantee that I could take Einstein on a walk from here to Boulder and he'd let go of nothing.

If Einstein were a person, he'd be agoraphobic, with a gentle dusting of OCD. He'd probably silently count every step he takes from room to room. Maybe he'd do a lot of surreptitious hand washing. He'd be wildly passive-aggressive.

But Einstein's a dog. And because he's a dog, he has few outlets to channel his crazy. Somewhere in his cracked little mind, he decided that the slow-yet-thorough consumption of my furniture would be his thing.

The most recent home furnishing Einstein destroyed was my couch. He systematically chewed almost perfectly circular holes in every cushion and pillow.

I'm sure this may have been enough for more rational people to have rethought the idea of keeping the dog before going shopping for a new couch, but just like his human counterpart, Einstein the dog is oddly lovable.

So I went shopping at Goodwill for a new couch.

Imagine my surprise when I found this overstuffed chair and generously sized ottoman! Both pieces had their original Lane brochures attached, the packing material was still affixed to the edges, and the paperwork on the bottom indicated the pair was manufactured in October of 2010. I sat in the chair, and immediately noticed that distinctive New Furniture smell.

Sure, the chair and ottoman wasn't a couch, but the pair was new, beautiful, and would go perfectly in my living room.

The price tag? $150.

Once I got home with my new set and did a bit of research, I learned that this pair is from the Lane Wakefield collection. The chair retails for $1,099.95, and was on sale for $726. The ottoman retails for 599.95, and was on sale for $396. Buy them together, and they list for $1,689.95, on sale for $1,122.

I call that a bargain.

I love this new addition to the living room, but I continue to wonder who brought this fabulous pair to Goodwill in the first place. What was the circumstance? Who would have given away such pricey, brand-new items? Maybe they were a gift, and the recipient didn't like the color? Maybe someone bought these because they thought they'd look good and simply changed their mind? I can't imagine why or how this set landed at a thrift store.

As Einstein the person would say, I guess it's all relative. At the end of the day, one person's discard was my total score.

You can tell from the photo that I'm doing everything in my power to keep the dogs off the furniture. In addition to putting items on the chair and ottoman when they're not in use, I bought the dogs their own little cushiony beds, and put them right next to Einstein's object of desire.

Genius.