Rite of Passage

I am now officially a yuppie - I bought stuff at Ikea. As I mentioned in a previous post, after the unfortunate meeting of El Kabong and Bear Stearns, I was in need of a new floor lamp and coat rack.

Personally, I've noticed that finding coat racks is actually difficult, in that a lot of places don't carry them. Well, my sister suggested I try Ikea. I did and they do in fact have coat racks. But having never been in Ikea before, let me tell you about it. (Those of you with frequent shopper cards there can skip the rest of this.)

First, I have to say that whoever designed the floor layout was a genius. The showroom is literally a maze, and you have to walk through everything (at least the first time) to find anything. This is great for extracting profits, since now I know Ikea has bookcases.

At any rate, after twenty minutes, I found a suitable floor lamp. Alas, I took another fifteen minutes trying to determine if the box contained a lampshade. It did, but I didn't discover that until I got home. Then I went off and found my coat rack, which involved using their in-store web locator.

Eighty bucks lighter, I decided to have lunch in the store. I found the cafeteria quite comfortable, and the food good. The chicken-rice soup was especially to die for. Well-, if not to say over-fed, I departed to do my assembly work.

First, the coat rack proved to be Made In China (so the sticker said) but with four legs (and 28 screws) it should last forever. The floor lamp was a simpler job, although in both cases the assembly instructions lacked words. Any words. Just pictures and the occasional number. Fortunately, I'm not a complete mechanical klutz, so I am now racked and lighted.

Word Count for Space Rescue
Complete (33.5K) Goal (80K)
41.87% complete
Since Last Post = 900 words

Things accomplished in fiction: One target acquired.

Other thoughts: I need to think about the next scene or two, which involves inserting spies into the enemy's camp, or at least town.