A visit to Icky-Uh

As I may -- or may not -- have mentioned, my family has a habit of tweaking corporate names. Just our minor form of rebellion, I suppose. (Or pathetic attempts at wit? You decide.) So, we tend to pronounce Ikea as ''Icky-Uh.''

The Lady decided that since The Bub is now in a climbing stage -- she can stand by herself for a few seconds at a time, and can crawl up onto some chairs and sofas (depending on the height) -- that it'd be nice to get her a little kid table-and-chair set. We wandered all over the local shopping center, but surprisingly, no one sells little kid tables and chairs. Huh! You'd think the toystore, or Target, would. But, nope!

Ran into The Lady's mum and dad in the food court (or rather, they had to flag me down -- **I** didn't see 'em!). They suggested trying Ikea, since The Lady's sister had found a nice, reasonably-priced set for their kid.

So, we drove on over. We got to eat at the restaurant, where they have Swedish ''comfort foods'' for sale, plus Swedish meatballs with gravy. I asked if they had lingenberry sauce for them -- and they did!!! Ahhh! (I'm one-quarter Swedish. Good stuff.) Unfortunately, they didn't have any lingenberry juice on tap at the soda fountain (the Seattle-area Ikea does) -- but the nice lady behind the counter said they might be having it ''at the new store.'' (Hm!)

The Lady preferred wooden chairs to plastic ones -- fair enough! Likewise. Found some pre-painted red ones for (IIRC) $79 each. And a wooden table for a similar price. But also found a two chairs, one table set for (IIRC) $59 for the set. They were made out of slightly thinner pieces of wood, but still seemed sturdy enough. And they were un-finished -- we'd have to stain, paint, or varnish them ourselves. But, that'sa alright -- kinda fun! :)

WIFMD(TM), I'd like to custom-make a wooden chair for The Bub. Get a chance to try out mortise-and-tenon joints and finger joints. (Chisels R fun!)


--GG