so, after looking at the options available to me, i decided that the cheapest option in front of me was actually to get a table shipped to me - for free - from walmart. i'd be paying almost exactly the same price for virtually anything on kijiji, but i'd have to find a way to drag it here. if shipping is free, i'd might as well take it.

so, i got a 40"x20" table to put the monitor and speakers on for $30 and a 20"x20" end table to put the receiver, cd player and laptop on for $15. there's $5 in tax. i'm not going to do better than that, and it comes straight to my door - and free of smoke.