BORROW, BIDEN

Now that President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have figured out what color curtains to hang in the White House, it's time for Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, to decide how to decorate the Vice President's Mansion on Massachusetts Avenue Northwest.

They can start by bringing in some furniture.

"One of the interesting things about the vice president's house is that it doesn't have much furniture," Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, points out in a video tour of the mansion. "It's relatively new in the whole history of official houses."

"This piece of furniture here is borrowed from a friend of mine," Mrs. Cheney notes while standing in the dining room. "And there's another piece of furniture in another corner that belongs to me. We kind of borrow things."

Next stop, the mansion's sweeping entry hall, oval in shape and beautifully carpeted, yet virtually empty of furniture.

"So you can do lots of things in here - you can do somersaults and cartwheels," Mrs. Cheney suggests.

(Now we know how Mr. Cheney has kept in such good shape).