SAFTIG, VERKTYK, and BOFINK

A couple weekends ago, I got to visit the happiest place on earth.

IKEA.

I'm telling you, that is the place to be. What's not to love? The low prices. The cool-sounding Swedish product names. The people from all over the world shopping there. The room displays.

So much to look at! To sit on! To play with! To smell!

Okay, maybe not to smell. Unless you're over by the food...Swedish meatballs and lingonberries, anyone?

It's possible that I contemplated forgetting about the rest of my life and simply living in IKEA. It's easy enough to forget that you have a home to go back to when you're sitting on a kid's bunk bed and admiring all the storage space in decorative bins and racks.

The only problem I ran into when I was at IKEA was that I could only spend an hour there, due to circumstances beyond my control. Have you ever tried to be in and out of IKEA in under an hour? Well, it can be done. But not without heartache. It's tough, but if you need to go through quickly just follow the arrows on the floor and keep your eyes peeled for things you actually need.

Like this:



I mean, how do you walk past these guys? Must...have...cute...plasticware...

I had a very successful trip. Despite only being there an hour, I scored some great stuff for my new apartment. And there was only one disaster...a scary moment of almost doing the splits after slipping on what may or may not have been a lingonberry.

You've been to IKEA, right? If not, get yourself there! Then you'll understand...