BruceHartman.net

Ginny and I made the run north to Ikea this morning. The drive was reasonably uneventful. The store was right where we left it. I found most of what I was looking for, but a few key pieces were out of stock… which was a bit aggravating. The heat was also an issue (I’m not sure the Swedes know what air conditioning is).

We walked the upstairs showroom areas in about an hour. Not much had changed up there since our last visit, so it was easy enough to cruise through with wasting too much time. I did find a dining room table and chairs that I would have brought home had it been in stock. And now that I’m home, I can’t even find it on their website. It’s smallish, square, and higher than your normal dining room table. Instead of chairs, it had stools that fit underneath the table. It would have been a great solution for my tiny dining area for $300.

The biggest let down was that the HOLS coffee table was not in stock. I got the side table (that I’ve already converted to a cat nest for Glue), but I’ll have to go back again for the coffee table.

I did pick up one of the Tullsta arm chairs. It fits the living room well enough, but I’m sort of second guessing my color choice. Ginny mentioned painting the natural colored one, but I sort of laughed off the suggestion, but now I’m thinking it would have been the smarter move, since I could have painted it the same red as the wrap around wall. As it stands (or sits) now, I brought home the dark gray version, with the intent of it eventually matching the color I end up painting the rest of the living room. Frankly, it’s inexpensive enough that I could pick up another the next time I go up. Whatever the case, the cat has already adopted it, sleeping there for most of the afternoon and evening once I put it together.

After our two and a half hour trip through the store, we stopped at a Chinese buffet for lunch. It was fine, except for the floors that were very, very slick, and again, a lack of sufficient cooling. It took us a bit longer to drive home thanks to the random phantom traffic slow downs. Once we passed Fredricksburg, it was pretty smooth sailing.

I’ll likely be going back in a couple months to get the coffee table, and a few other things I saw while I was there. I had been planning to make my own desktop for the office, but I was pretty impressed by the Galant table top, so I might just go with that instead.

The shopping list for trip #2

• Galant Table Top (left side return) black-brown $159.00
• Signum Wire Baskets $12.99 ea
• Hol Storage Cube Coffee Table $69.99 ea
• The Dining Room table set I can’t find on the website

I really wish someone would explain to me why HVAC installers would think it’s a good idea to put the thermostat right in the middle of a living room wall. There’s only two usable walls in my living room to begin with, and the one that faces the front door basically has a big wart right in the middle of it.

I’ve had pictures on that wall for a while, but there wasn’t much structure to the layout, so when I got some big prints made of a couple photos I took over Easter, I decided to finally get things right.

It took me about two hours. First I tried to do an unstructured layout, but it just looked bad. Then I finally decided to go with the symmetrical layout shown below.

The only problem was the damn thermostat. After a couple of nonstarters I ended up here. Rather than try to ignore the thermostat, I worked it in by making a fake one out of thick cardstock to ensure the layout was completely balanced (the thermostat on the left is the fake). It’s basically the same size and stands about 3/4 of an inch off the wall. The screen could be a little darker, but as doppelgangers go I think it looks pretty good. I still need to get some prints made for the 8×10 frames, and some 4×6s the quad frame in the center.

I’m pleased with the result, if not with the strafing of pin holes that now adorn the wall. I really need to get to work on the balcony addition so that I can finally patch and repaint the walls in the living room.

This afternoon I emailed the organizers of the MMA fight I’m going to next weekend about taking my camera. To my surprise, the guy who responded almost seemed happy for me to bring my rig, going so far as to ask that I keep them in mind for copies when I’m done.

So, if you see a big guy, with a big lens and a big grin on his face, sitting in the front shooting the fights, that’s probably me.

Be sure to say hi.

Monday’s really suck. Nothing in particular happened…. just Monday.

So it was nice to come home from work to find a present from Dave in my mailbox: a copy of Watership Down. We had a brief conversation about the book a few days ago in which I revealed that I hadn’t ever read it.

Also in my mailbox was a thank you card from a friend who came to dinner last weekend.

Thank you to both of you for brightening my day.