Friday Date Night

Oh, the joy!

I needed another four-cube cubbie for my scrapbooking room. That's exactly what happened when I was doing the school room. There seems to be a pattern evolving.

So Hubby said he would take me on Friday night. He hadn't been feeling so well for a couple of days, so I said I'd wait, although I had a list going already of what I needed. That was all the encouragement he needed.

Now at this point I just looked at Hubby and told him I'd always had a list. Granted, sometimes it was a little more vague like 'some kind of cabinet for towels', but I did have a list.

I also reminded him that the last two times he'd taken me, the last of which was for my birthday, that he had not been too happy when we left. After about an hour he goes downhill fast. But he said he was up for it.

When I go in the Ikea store, the first thing I do is ride the escalator to the upstairs portion. It's where all the room displays are set up and some of the kids' items you can purchase are located. I always start out straight and then take a left and make the circle clockwise. I have never even thought about it.

We are about halfway around and Hubby asked me if I realized I was always going against the flow of traffic. Now I am not normally a ditzy person, but I've never noticed. I suppose I am just too entranced. Hubby proceeds to show me the very large circles on the floor with very large arrows in the middle that are pointed in the opposite direction to which I always go. These things are somewhere between 12" and 18" in diameter. They really shouldn't be hard to miss. But I did. Next time I'm taking a picture.

My answer to Hubby was, "This is a foreign store so they walk the wrong way just like they drive on the wrong side of the road." At least it's wrong to me. We'll see if I twitch the next time I go and walk around the way the arrows show me I'm supposed to.

Well, one of my favorite things at Ikea I purchased for the first time when Monica was visiting in December. They are plastic bookends.

I purchased four in December to use in Sparky's room. She has some of her books on top of her two dressers and no way for them to stand up. This was a very inexpensive and almost invisible option.


When Hubby took me back for my birthday, which was at the end of December but I didn't get to go until after my in-laws left in January, I bought ten more. I used some of them up on top of the cubbies in my scrapbooking room to hold albums and things upright.

There is also a single bookshelf located in our rec room where I used a couple.

I had too many books for the shelves, but based on how I was organizing them these particular books needed to be with this shelf. So I put them on top with the plastic bookends holding them up.

This time the plastic bookends were marked down even cheaper than usual — 39 cents each. I bought 20! I figured I would use them eventually, and I'm afraid the markdown means they are discontinuing them. I found a solution while I was there for the two shelves we have in our master bathroom, but I'm going to post about that separately another day. I also kept fairly well to my list, Hubby didn't walk off and leave me behind, and he was pleased that we walked out of the store before it was officially closed.

He was proud of how well he did, but seeing as how we didn't get there until right after 7:30 and were there less than and hour and a half, I don't think that counts. Let me take him on a Saturday and really test his resolve!

The funniest thing that happened while we were there was when I spotted another couple. We were down on the bottom floor in the home organization area. Hubby and I will usually walk down the larger middle aisle, and then I'll float off down the sides to check stuff out. This other couple was walking down the middle, she left him there to look at stuff, but as she walked off she looked back with this twinkling in her eye. I imagine it's somewhat akin to the twinkle I have in mine when I'm there. Her Hubby was just standing in the middle waiting, hanging over his cart, much like mine does. I pointed it out so Hubby would realize we weren't alone, but he saw it all take place.

And to hold me over between visits, this beauty: