European fashions and cattle chutes

Friday afternoon The Boss came home from work a little early and we headed out to the brand new IKEA store that opened a couple of days ago. The weekend crowds had not fully engulfed the store yet, and we were able to get in easily enough. And that is about where the fun ended.

The store is set-up like a mouse maze. Everyone is routed through the store the same way, guided by arrows etched into the concrete floor. No real problem, until we realized that we had missed something. Then we had to swim upstream to catch that section. Not fun. Especially since the crowds had fully attacked the store in that time.

Later, the kids were getting hungry, so we doubled back AGAIN, to grab some hot dogs at the cafe. Didyaknow that they have TWO places to eat in there? Yep. No hot dogs at the cafe, Those are available by the checkout stands, in a little bistro. Youbetcha that made me really happy, to have to get back into the crowd current again and swim for the end of the store.

We did find some cool lamps for the living room, and a mattress for The Talker's bottom bunk. He has been sleeping on a big air mattress since we set up his bunk beds.

The kids and I pretty much blew past the end of the store tour, to sit and eat hot dogs and ice cream. Turned out to be the best part. But FYI, skip the IKEA potato chips. They suck.

$65 washer ride

My cell phone survived the ride through the washing machine, but the battery died in the laundry. After 13 stops, including two stores that were not opened this today and 11 stores that either didn't sell batteries for cell phones, or did not have the one I needed, I finally found a replacement battery this morning.

For a little under $65. My only other option was to upgrade my our contract and to extend it for two more years to get a new phone at a discount. All in all, the $65 might have been a good deal.

The Boss Lady carries the same phone, so even if my phone does not last forever, the extended capacity battery that I bought today should come in handy.