Last Weekend

Okay, so I know it's a bit late in the week to be posting about weekend events, but here it is none the less.

On Friday, I had posted a list of tasks for the weekend over at TracyMichelleUnplugged. I am happy to report that I completed all tasks...and did it in one day...Sunday. Well, there was only one day left after we had decided on Saturday to embark on a journey like never before.

A good friend of ours called on Saturday to ask if I still wanted to go with them to the brand new Ikea store an hour and a half away. That may sound like a far distance but she was also meeting another friend who was travelling over two hours...yes, just to go furniture shopping.

They had been planning this, along with their significant others (and me to a lesser degree) for weeks but I had forgotten all about it. Which meant also forgetting to tell Mrs. Pheasantly Fascinating. The plan was for me to go with them and take the 3 year old along with and the wifey would stay home with the newbie; being less than 2 months old, the pediatrician doesn't want us taking him into crowded stores. Well I shared the plan with the wifey and she said she wanted to come along even if it meant staying in the car for an hour with the baby.

So off we went. We headed up the turnpike following our friends in their car. I am as green as the next tree hugger but with 4 adults and two car seats, using 2 cars was our only option. Not knowing exactly where the Ikea was, I followed closely behind. After traversing through two counties, we make a right turn and that when I saw it on the left side of the road. A huge mecca to all those that yearn decent furniture at very, very low prices. That's also when I saw the entire left lane of the street backed up for a quarter mile trying to get into the parking lot. That's also when I saw the temporary road sign flashing that there was overflow parking available at the stadium (two miles) up the road.

As we're following our friends to the stadium, wifey reminds me that the baby can't really be in throngs of people and that she'll just sit in the car two miles away from the store. So, weighing my options carefully, I call our friends cell to tell them that we are heading back to the store to try to find a parking spot. Forty-five minutes later we have completed one and a half parking- attendent-guided loops around the store when our friends call to say they're in the store. That's when I threw caution to the wind, disobeyed one of 30 some-odd parking attendents and turned down a parking row to find a spot waiting for me...kind of begs the question what use were the parking attendants. Normally I would've been ruffled by now...but I was so darn happy to have found a spot, the kids were behaving very good (per their norm, knock on wood), and the wifey was looking especially radiant. So I grab the three year old and head inside and met up with the gang.

Damned if those Swedes don't know how to lay out a furniture store. It was really neat inside. After an hour, we stopped for lunch in the Ikea Restaurant. Okay, while I would not call a walk-up counter where you order one of only 6 items a restaurant, I must say that the food was quite tasty and very cheap. The lil' one ordered the kids meal of Swedish Meatballs (really) and I order a veggie wrap for me and for the wifey. I also got her bottled water. 5 bucks and change. I scarfed down the wrap and went out to make the swap with the wifey so she could experience furniture Nirvana. I spent the next hour and a half in the airconditioned car reclined with the little one on my chest listening to a podcast of This American Life. We made it home by 5. Will we ever go back? Heck ya! We saw lots of neat furniture at very low prices...we're just going to wait a few months.