sun, shopping & saturday

i spent saturday out shopping for a small, square table with meghan. you have no idea how difficult it is to find such a beast. they’re either the right size, but round or too big & rectangular. you’d think there would be at least some market for a square, four-legged table.
after driving across town and visiting three neighbouring furniture stores (and practicing quite a bit of restraint by not going into the “computer warehouse” which was right. next. door.), i suggested we go even further across town to ikea, as i’d seen a table which i thought would fit the bill the last time i was there (and is actually the same table i want for my own kitchen — i should have bought one, but i settled for a replacent for the bowl i broke months ago and 100 tea lights).
of course, by this time it’s near three in the afternoon and neither of us have eaten and the lineups at ikea were beyoned insane (i managed to get a fun ikea twisty toy from the man handing them out to kids. yay!). the gum we were chewing had lost its flavour and was just serving to remind us of how empty our stomachs were. luckily, we had three items between us and had found special, swedish vehicle parking for her volvo, so were able to flee quickly in search of sustinance once the checkout constipation passed before us.
meghan had asked directions to the pub we’d decided we wanted to eat at (because she had a coupon, of course), so we even managed not to get lost on our way there. we did take a longer route which served as a reminder of why you don’t want to drive in richmond. they drive like maniacs. you’d think it was a whole different world.
we had fish & chips and a couple of nice, cold pints while sitting at the marina, under the flight path of 757’s coming in for a landing at vancouver international. the sun was shining, the wind was absolutely howling, and we had a great time. (i did get a reintroduction to the fact that men will pay more attention to tall blondes than short brunettes, though. *sigh*)
after successfully completing our table mission, we headed back for a night of cards. of course, we first had to assemble the table. the boys kept asking, “you need any help?” meghan answered, “of course not. we’re women.” we did a spiffy job once we figured out the sneaky way ikea has of coding it’s dowels.
it was a great day, even if i was super paranoid i hadn’t turned the lentils off before i’d left and kept expecting to come home to a burned-out ruin of an apartment.