FURNITURE!!!!

That's right, we have furniture! May God bless and keep IKEA safe from the Southern California wildfires....

We were going to go shopping Friday night, but for reasons that shall remain nameless we went on Saturday. We got up bright and early (7:30 am) and headed to the giant IKEA in Carson. This means we have to take what Californians call "the 405." (Don't ask me why they refer to highways as "the" whatever. They just do.) This is the freeway from hell, just so we're on the same page. We arrived, our Excel spreadsheet in hand. Click, click, click, we are writing down bin numbers and picking up self-serve items as we go along. Lunch in the bistro. Back to the showroom. Then, we are ready to pick up our furniture. This is what we bought: kitchen table, four kitchen chairs, 2 large bookshelfs, one small bookshelf, TV stand, endtable, two storage shelving units, a six-drawer dresser, a bed, an underbed box, and all the other assorted bits and pieces to put them together. The pile of cardboard boxes was really impressive. I wanted to pay for delivery - it's usually next day or the day after. Jay wanted to take it home RIGHT NOW. So he began loading the car. When I say loaded, I mean if there was an available space it had an IKEA product in it. Even tied to the roof. We had a small group of onlookers gathered to see just how much he could actually attach to our car. I had to sit in a small spot in the back, holding more items. We went 25 mph down "the 405" highway from/to hell. I wish I had pictures, because I bet Subaru had no idea how much cargo an Outback can really hold. It was terrifying. But we got home safely, got unloaded, and went to the Japanese Curry Spaghetti House for dinner (food fusions are all the rage in LA right now, and I had to try this one). On the way home, we bought the TV replacement. A flatscreen HDTV. My husband was on cloud 9. He was at Best Buy on his lunch break buying it accessories - it's so sweet when they're still in that courtship phase....

We will post pictures of the furnished apartment once we get everything assembled, put in place, and the boxes cleared away.