2006年7月16日 星期日

IKEA

After moving to College Station, I thought it would be a while till I can visit a IKEA store again. I knew that there is one near Houston but heard that it was small, so I wasn't really looking foward to go there.

 

We needed a dresser and some shelves for our new place, and after doing some research, I found that the dressers at IKEA is much affordable and better for the price. So I told Sam maybe we can go to the Houston IKEA and pick one up when he has time. Out of my surprise, Sam said "Let's go right now!!". Well, I'm not going to let this chance go by, so we jumpped in the car and took off. The store was outside of Houston but it still took us 1.5 hour to get there.

 

I was really surprised to see that this store is actually fairly large. It was relocated here in 2004 so everything looks new and clean. Sam never been to one he said so it was an interesting experience for him, too. He said he wasn't a big fan of furniture shopping before, but he liked the stuff there cause everything looks interesting. We tried out all the chairs and sofa even though we are not buying it, and even had dinner there. Most people don't know that there is actually a food court in IKEA, their food is ok and the most speical dish is their Swedish meat ball.

 

There was a history wall by the food court, and while we were there, I actually learned that IKEA is really thinking outside the box. I think the reason that they are so successful it's because they are not afraid to expereince with different materials, and never think furniture the same way others do. They work with manufacturers that make supermarket curts to make sofas, use interior door materials to make side tables (so they are light weight and durable), and use the same plastic material that makes plastic beach buckets to make chairs. All this happened in the 70's and 80's. There were also a world map showing all the IKEA stores. We found Taiwan of course (I didn't know there were 2 stores in Taiwan), and was surprised to see that there are none in Japan or Korea. I thought it will be very popular there since space is a issue. 

 

Anyway, after debating what we should get, we got a 5 teirre drewer and a long book shelf. We thought since we only spent $10 on our sofa (plus the $40 we spent on the slip cover...), we could spluge a little here in IKEA. Can't wait to start assembling them!

 

p.s.: while we were moving the heavy boxes out of the car last night after we got back, I twist my ankle!! Gee, my luck really sucks lately......  Poor Sam had to carry all the boxes all by himself!!

2006年7月11日 星期二

衰....

昨天在整理東西時竟然被放在地上的燈絆倒, 跌了個狗吃屎, 真的超痛的!!! 還好是肉最多的屁股著地, 但是右手還是摔到了, 還好沒撞到旁邊的鏡子.... 發現人老了真的禁不起摔, 今天起來後右邊整個都好酸, 脖子也好痛, 超慘.... 在這裡又不知哪裡有推拿, 不然就去給他推一下.

 

昨晚和Sam 去幫我們的$10沙發買椅套, 真的超貴!!! (沙發很舒服, 但是賣$10不是沒道理的, 因為椅套很髒, 洗都洗不乾淨.....) 一個椅套要七八十塊美金, 再貼一點都可以買新沙發了.... 勉強找到$49的, 但是顏色選擇不多. 我喜歡紅的Sam喜歡綠的, 最後因為紅的沒我們要的尺寸只好拿綠的了.... 其實我也蠻喜歡綠色, 但這個綠實在綠的不美, 看在它便宜的份上只好睜一隻眼閉一隻眼囉!!!

 

後記:

剛剛這篇打了一半, 掛在電視機上面的掛鐘竟然掉下來, 這就算了, 還剛好砸在電視插座上, 結果整個客廳的電都跳掉, 我還以為電線燒掉了差點沒嚇死, 還好電工剛好要來修浴室的插座, 他把電源扳回去就ok了. 其他電器也都沒燒壞, 真是謝天謝地....

2006年7月5日 星期三

Finish Moving.... Finally....


We had a very busy and exhausting weekend moving and cleaning. In fact I was still packing at the last minute before the move. I can't believe that we have so many things!!! Ok, most of them are my stuff.....

We started our Saturday morning by picking up our new bed. The apartment we had came furnished and the one we just moved in is not. Plus, I was really tired of the soft bed we had so we splurged a little on the new bed. We chose a foam bed and it's soooo comfortable that I don't want to get up in the morning!!!!

 

Now back to the moving. After unloading the new bed ourselves, we started to move some stuff into the new apartment. Sam asked some of his friends to come help us later in the afternoon so that it won't be so hot. What we didn't expected is that it started pouring. It cool down alright, but moving in the rain is no fun. The guys were all wet and I felt so sorry about it. We finally got all of the big stuff into our new apartment, good thing that the 2 places are not too far away. We stayed in our old apartment that night cause the new bed is not set up yet, and it is weird to see that apartment so empty!!

 

Sunday was cleaning day. We scrubbed and mopped, and I can say that the apartment has never been this clean before! Of course, just as we are done with cleaning and was packing the last few items into the car, it started raining AGAIN!!! We finally got everything in our new place and it is a mess now. The following days were unpacking and trying to bring life back to normal. Moving is really a lot of work and I really hope that I won't have to do this again anytime soon....