meatball furniture
We made a trek today to Ikea to buy a bookshelf. Man that store is fun to visit, but it sure makes me tired. And every time I go I get a headache, too. It's a good time for all that though; kind of like Disneyland for grownups. I'm a grownup sometimes, and Leah is too, so we like it, and it makes us want to buy a house so we'll have somewhere to put all the great furniture and knicknacks that just leap out at us from the shelves and display floors.
But we fought most of it off today, and besides the bookshelf only bough a dozen glasses and two square baskets and some little paper-organizing boxes. All for a very affordable price too, only the problem was: the bookcase is very big, and it was still very big when it was in its box, and it sure wouldn't fit in the car. Which is why we didn't buy it last time we were at Ikea, in the fall when we bought the desk. So we were planning on getting it delivered but as it turns out that would have set us back fifty dollars; a bit much considering the thing only cost seventy in the first place. Happily, though, when the guy at the shipping counter heard us say we had a roof-rack he volunteered that they provide rope (woohoo, free rope!), which was enough for us to at least attempt to bring it home ourselves. And when we had it all cocooned up in about thirty yards worth of rope, we reckoned it would be safe to bring home on the freeway; and indeed it made it all the way without budging barely an inch.
The only problem with the visit was, I failed for a second consecutive time to try the famous meatballs. It's not that they don't look appealing in theory--I'm sure that if I went to a church supper in Wisconsen I'd eat em right up and go back for seconds--it's just something seems a little odd about eating in a store. A little too theme parky for me, I think. Also, the meatball plate is five bucks! And while that not be much for an actual restaraunt, in the context of Ikea and the dozen glasses we just picked up for that same price, it seemed a bit steep. So no meatballs for me. The bookshelf is great though.
[Also: I would be remiss to write a post about Ikea and fail to link Matthew Baldwin's Morning News strategy guide on the the subject. Heh.]