The lack of posting yesterday and today's earlier short post were the result of my first trip to an IKEA store, specifically the one in Stoughton.

IKEA, in case you're not familiar, is a Swedish company that makes home goods and furnishings that are known for their design, low prices, and furniture that you have to assemble yourself. A couple of years back we mail-ordered some cheap nightstand-type things from them, but with the in-laws being down for the weekend and my sister-in-law living pretty close to the IKEA store, we spent most of Saturday on a family outing at their huge three-story building.

The first thing we did when we got there was eat, it being roughly lunch time. I'd heard much talk about their dining options, and went with what I'd suppose is their most iconic entree: Swedish meatballs served with potatoes, with gravy and a lingonberry jam on the side. For food served in a furniture store, it was pretty good. The lingonberry beverage (not a soda, but I don't think it was juice per se) was also tasty, if a little sweet. Certainly, I'd eat there again on a future trip.

As for the store, I'll admit sensory overload as we wandered through its showroom, given the number and variety of displays. We spent a lot of time looking at the room set-ups, and found a couple of kitchens that we'd be happy with when the time comes to renovate (though we'd probably opt for their installation service, given our lack of skills). We also found what we came for in the first place, a TV stand. The wife was sick of our last stand (which is really an end table), and that we both found one we liked was a miracle in and of itself.

Once we meandered through the showroom, it was downstairs to the marketplace, which is a cavernous maze of non-furniture home items, from kitchen utensils to bedding to window shades to framed pictures. We picked up a floor lamp and eyed some Roman blinds, but otherwise spent a lot of time trying not to get lost.

Then it was into the self-service furniture area, where you pick up the rectangular case containing your deconstructed item. And while we both found a TV stand we liked, apparently a number of other people did, too. They were out of stock.

This led to my second-ever trip to IKEA today, as the info desk noted that they'd be getting more of the TV stands today. Rather than follow the arrows that lead you through the store, we cut right in to the markeplace via the self-serve furniture. This is not as easy as it sounds, as most people follow the arrow-laden path through the store. Throw in the weekend crowd and it's another opportunity to feel what a salmon feels when heading upriver to spawn (we skipped the spawning for another look at the Roman blinds, which we passed on).

So we finally got our TV stand (and another floor lamp) and went home to put it together. Now, I appreciate the cost savings of unassembled furniture, and like the improved design and (in most cases) quality of IKEA furniture versus the kits from China. However, there are two ways in which IKEA could really improve things:

1. Instructions for assembly do not use words. It's all pictures. There are also no labels on pieces to indicate sides or the difference between the front and back of pieces. And while most folks would be able to sort this out based on where the holes are in the pictures, some of us aren't so smart. In my defense, there were three holes going vertically and horizontally on the pieces, and I just went in the wrong direction.

Still, I was sort of missing the labels and "helpful" Engrish instructions.

2. Make the screws out of better metal. Those screws I put in the wrong holes didn't like being taken out and put back in again, and in one case a screw stripped itself before I got it in halfway the first time. The wife was able to get it out and put it in its proper hole, showing more patience and better language choice than I did.

(Oh yeah, giving up cursing for Lent? Didn't go so well today.)

The wife is generally better at putting this stuff together than I am, as I get exasperated pretty easily. OK, "exasperated" may be the wrong word for something that repeatedly triggers the less savory part of my vocabulary. Not sure why putting furniture together pushes those buttons, but it does.

(Aside: the year before my mom was diagnosed with cancer, she had some work done on her knees, the result of which was that she had to spend a lot of time off of her feet. This came right after Christmas, when one of her presents was a VHS/DVD cabinet. Given her knees, I was tabbed to put the thing together, and for a couple of hours she got great entertainment from my adventures in assembly. It really was funny, in retrospect, and one of the last really funny times we had together before she was diagnosed with cancer. I know, way to bring down the room, but it's the way it goes.)