Latkes, Matzo Ball Soup, and Jelly Donuts

Happy Hanukkah! Tonight marks the beginning of the eight days of Hanukkah... which I marked by having Christy and Tracy over for a tasty dinner of latkes and matzo ball soup. I've only made latkes once, and that was with a recipe a friend gave me. Tonight, I used Missy's recipe for latkes (I love hers- they're the best). In addition to the giant mess that I made (I swear, I'm the messiest cook ever), I made some pretty kickin latkes. They were quite delicious. I topped that off with some hot and tasty matzo ball soup.

Dinner was topped off by the delicious jelly donuts that Christy provided. I don't think I've ever eaten a jelly donut before- I was quite impressed. Good old Dunkin Donuts rarely lets you down.

We got some really great menorah's at our engagement party, so we lit those, in addition to one I already had. Christy took some more pictures- I'll post those when I get them from her. Hooray for Hanukkah!

Why I Love Bed, Bath, and Beyond

I've always loved Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's a huge store filled with so much useful stuff, half of which is crap you would never need.... but you REALLY want it once you see it. Partner that with their amazing return policy and the fact that they always have 20% coupons available, it's really a win/win situation.

Jon and I registered there for about 90% of our wedding gifts. A lot of it is useful stuff we really want/need... some of it to replace things we already have, some of it new. We were really excited about a few of the random items (those ones you really don't need but REALLY want), namely the Garlic Zoomer and the Ice Cream Molds. And to my great surprise and delight, we got a box-of-fun from BB&B from Christy this week... including the Garlic Zoomer and Ice Cream Molds, among other exciting gotta-have-them things!

So after class today, I decided to break into the ice cream molds and make some tasty ice cream sandwiches.

Step one... the ingredients. Vanilla ice cream, cool whip, and cookie dough.

Step two... bake the cookie dough in a thin sheet


Step three... mix the whipped cream and ice cream. I chose to add some chopped cherries for a little extra flavor.


Step four... use the molds to cut out shapes in the cookie once it's cooked.


Step five... put a cookie in the bottom of the mold, then scoop some ice cream in it, add the second cookie on the top, and close the mold.


Step six... put them in the freezer... step seven will be eating the tastiness- stay tuned for the final result!

Big weekend

It was a big weekend for me... well, not really for me personally, but for people I care about...

Alan and Stephanie got engaged! woohoo! I'm excited to bring in a new family member... yay for new sisters! No details yet, but they're hoping for a May 2010 wedding in Wisconsin.

Christy won another Emmy! Recall her nomination in October? The ceremony was this weekend, and she won Emmy number two, and got to accept it in the fabulous purple dress Sarah and I helped pick out. What a rockstar.

The Gators are playing to the National Championship game! And, it's in Miami this year. Not that I can afford the ticket, but I'm sure the post game celebration will be pretty great. Who else would be stoked if the stadium got a "2008" added to it?

$1.86

$1.86- that's how much I paid for gas last week. I wanted to host a party at the gas pump. When I moved to Miami in August, gas was over $4.30 a gallon. I managed to fill my tank with only $26.18. And it was running on empty (like the light was on and I had been driving with it on for awhile). I had to take a picture of the pump because I was so excited.

Yay for being able to afford to drive!

I fell...

... for both advertising and popular culture, all in one whack.

While riding the subway last week, I saw an ad for a free book download from audible.com. Awesome deal. I love audio books, but they're so pricey if you have to buy them. I logged on last night, and found that the freebie was for one audible.com credit, and most books are one credit. As I was surfing through the most popular books, I saw Twilight. I've never had the desire to read it, but I feel like it's all I've heard about for the past few weeks. So I decided to download it. However, Twilight cost two credits, unlike most of the other options. So what did I do? I got a one credit book for free, and paid for Twilight. Still not a bad deal- two audio books for $23.00.... but the fact stands that I fell for advertising in that I paid for a book, which is exactly what the audible.com people wanted, at the same time falling for pop culture telling me what to read.

I will report back when I've finished it, and let you know what I think.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving week in NYC was, as expected, great. The weather was beautiful, it was really fun to share it with the whole family plus friends, and New York is always fun to visit.

Jon and I arrived to LGA on Wednesday night, pretty late, and called it a night. He was staying with his friend Joe, I stayed at Sarah's. Thanksgiving morning started off early with watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which was really pretty cool. I think it may be my one and only trip to see the parade, but I'm glad we watched it. A large midday feast was followed up with a walk through Central Park- the picture of all of us above. I hadn't seen Felicia in over a year, so it was really great to see them. The rest of the week was spent doing touristy stuff- which I always enjoy, but it has come to the point that when I visit NYC, I've done all the really big things, so I like to focus on hanging out and walking around. We got to do a lot of that around Sarah's neighborhood, hitting up some restaurants and sights that she's been telling me about lately. Big fan of Lansky's and Zabar's. Good tasty food :) We got to give Stephanie her first taste of Jewish food, and New York for that matter.

One silly, but amazingly cool thing, that we visited was the Charmin Times Square toilets. I'm not really sure why I was so amused/impressed/amazed with the whole thing, but it was so cool. It had to have cost them a fortune, and was so gimicky. But awesome. I'm kind of a big fan of anywhere in NYC that offers public toilets that are fully stocked with TP (and different Charmin variaties, of course!) and cleaned after every usage. Go Charmin... and the catchy jingle that they play in the building is still going through my head....

We thankfully had amazing weather until my last day- Sunday. We should have renamed it Rainday in an effort to truly capture how amazingly horrible it was. There was a light rain all day, but not really light enough to need an umbrella. And it was too windy to use an umbrella... they kept turning inside out like in the cartoons. Plus, it was freezing and got dark at like 4pm.

Overall, it was such a fun trip, and I'm so happy we all got to get together to celebrate together. I guess the next big, full family adventure is our wedding... I can't wait until February!

Just a Regular White Girl

That's what I've been dubbed by the people I work with. Yes, I know, I live in Miami, where most of the population seems to be Hispanic. But why do I just have to be a "Regular White Girl" (RWG, from this point forward).

A lot of people come into work who only speak Spanish. I understand that living here, knowing Spanish would make my life easier. Wait, no it wouldn't. It would make other people's lives easier. Sigh. We're in America- we speak English. I have WAY less of a problem with customers who don't speak Spanish (let's face it- we've all been to other countries and didn't speak the language) than I do with store employees who don't speak English. (recall my Target story?)

Anyway, climbing off my soapbox.... I was in the breakroom the other day, and one of my co-workers was talking to another coworker about how when he first met her, he thought she was "just a RWG" then he shortly found out she was Hispanic, which made her cooler, apparently. So I asked- "What exactly is a RWG?" To which he seemed to have no answer. I suppose I'm being descriminated against because I have no blatently obvious heritage... as my mom always says, I'm European American. That always gets questioning looks.

Regarding the Hispanic culture in Miami, I've now been here for three months and I have a few observations.

1. Their coffee is tasty. And strong. And cheap. Forget Starbucks, I hit up the coffee places around me and can get amazing coffee for $1. Put it this way- if it's more than $1.50, you're getting taken advantage of.
2. They like to kiss you. Weird. I have personal space issues, so when I first meet people, I extend my hand for a nice handshake. Nope- that doesn't work here. People love hugging and doing the two cheek kiss. Took a while for me to not be totally heebed out by it. It's beginning to grow on me... but I'm still not 100%
3. They call women "mama." It's not just the dudes that do it either- it's girls too. I have NEVER been called mama in my ENTIRE life, and suddenly, it's like my new name.
   
4. Back to the coffee... a lot of times, when you buy a Cuban coffee (just espresso and loads of sugar) they give you these little plastic "shot glasses" to share it with your friends. How fun. I suppose they think that you would have to be nuts to finish the whole thing yourself... I've done it. Many times.
   

Alas... I've had enough of my Miami observations... I'm sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport (thanks, free WiFi!!!) waiting for my flight to NYC... I'll be there soon! Stay tuned for a trip recap and pictures.

I'm no longer unemployed!

Woohoo! I have a job!

I've actually had one, effective October 24, but that was just when we started training for the new Apple store. We had the grand opening on November 8- it was nuts how many people were there. I wasn't scheduled to work the morning opening shift, but since we live across the street from the mall, Jon and I decided to go witness the festivities. There was a line out the door of the mall... hundreds of people there, waiting for the opening. It was exciting! I took this video of the opening.... It was slammed all day, and has been since then. It's nice to have people my age around to work with and hang out with... and to actually be making money :)

My $0.02 about the election

Whether you like him or not, Obama winning the election last week is historic for our country. Even though he's just as much a white man as he is a black man, it's still historic that anything but an old, rich, white man is elected our new leader. I had no extremely strong feelings about either candidate, I thought they were both qualified and would do a good job, I'm just anxious to see if Obama's change platform will materialize. Let's hope so.

In other news, I'm quite embarrassed by California and Florida in their votes on the Gay Marriage laws. It's pretty pathetic.

Rather than go all political about it, I'll let Kieth Olbermann's speech from earlier this week say what I want to say.

So, this election, we saw one step forward for one group of people, and one step back for another. Again... hopefully the change platform really means something.

:::hops off soapbox:::

I'm a lousy blogger

Yea, I need to be better at actually writing... so I will attempt to do some catching up over the next couple days.

Two weeks ago, we had some visitors- Mom, Dad, and Sarah!!! It was great to have them all here for the awesome engagement party that Jon's mom threw for us.

Since Sarah has 1209843094 days of vacation every year, she flew down on Thursday to play with me. We hit up The Big Cheese, home of $9 meals for 2 and the most delicious garlic rolls on the planet. We had some good, quality lazy sister time... it was perfect!

We spent Friday shopping, including buying Christy her Emmy dress- a fabulous purple ballgown. I can't wait till Emmy #1 has some company! Mom and Dad got here at about 6, and we went to Taverna Opa for dinner. Opa is a great restaurant, one where it's not only acceptable, but expected, to dance on tables- and sometimes with the belly dancers!

We spent Saturday hanging out on South Beach, and going to Versailles, home of cheap and delicious Cuban coffee and pasteries. On Saturday, it was also home of a bunch of politically charged Cubans making a last ditch effort to get John McCain elected president. Evidently, the old school Cuban Americans see Obama in roughly the same light as Castro... They even had shirts that said "Cuba wanted change in 1959- be careful what you wish for."

Jon's mom put together a fabulous engagement party for on Saturday night. She had huge pictures of us in Israel and Japan, and pictures of Paris, hanging on the walls. Dinner was sushi, middle eastern food, and crepes made by the French crepe chefs. It was great to actually meet her friends that she's been talking about for so long and so much. We even got to see baby Unay, who has easily tripled in size since the last time I saw him. That is one cute baby.

Dad had to leave Sunday morning, so the ladies plus Jon spent the day shopping and visiting with Jon's cousin. Monday, we went to Ikea, and Mom left. Sarah left Tuesday morning, after I went to vote.....

It was a fabulous weekend!

Think Pink

Today's entry is pink, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

There are very few things that will get me out of bed before 6:30 on Saturday mornings... Day After Thanksgiving shopping, fun trips, and this morning, the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5K. Thousands of people participated, raising probably well over a million dollars (actual figures will be posted when they're available.) Breast Cancer is one charity and awareness campaign that I can really get behind. My grandma is a survivor, and I have two close friends who are dealing with it in their families right now. So this morning I walked for them. Since we're not in shape to run (bad us!), Christy, her sister, her mom & coworkers, and I walked the 5K. It was really fun.... like I said, there were thousands of people participating, everyone was wearing pink... including the men, the dogs, the kids, and everyone else. The survivors wore pink race shirts, and everyone else wore white with pink designs. Some of my favorite shirts had tag lines like: "Cancer Sucks A%@," "I Love Boobs," "Save the Tata's" & "Save Second Base." There's nothing quite like seeing a grown man in a black t-shirt that says "I Love Boobs all over the front of it... in public... and it be completely acceptable. After the race was over, we went to Bay Front Park and shared in the festivities... Yoplait was giving out free yogurt, there were free bananas, music. Overall, it was just a fun morning. Some pictures from the day:

Christy with her mom and sisterMe and ChristyOne of my favorite shirts... it had a bunch of different names for boobs!

Lots of people running for their moms
And to top off the fun day... Christy got a text message that she got nominated for an Emmy... make that 2 Emmy's! She won one last year for a special segment she helped produce on hurricanes. I told her that her Emmy needs some friends... this is the text message she got during the race.

Wedding Bells!

This past weekend, the entire family met in Rome, GA for Kathryn's wedding.

Alan, Stephanie, and I arrived close to the same time into Atlanta, and we spent the day adventuring in downtown. We walked through Olympic Park, went to the Coca-Cola Museum, and Underground Atlanta. We met up with everyone else later in the afternoon and drove to Rome for the rehearsal dinner. We stayed there until close to midnight- it was so much fun to see everyone. Alan has had to miss every similar gathering in the past four and a half years because of deployments, so it was great to have him there. Everyone was excited to catch up with him.

Saturday, we went out to lunch then went back to the hotel to get ready for the 3:00 wedding. The wedding went really well- it was all outside, and we had perfect weather. As always, I love weddings. The reception went well into the night, and fun was had by all. Our family had taken over the bed and breakfast for the weekend, so there was no need to monitor our noise level... which, if you've been around my family much, you know can be quite loud.

I took a ton of pictures- I put some of my favorites on Facebook. I also have the full album available on Kodak Gallery.

Fun on the weekends

I've had two back to back weekends that were both great....

OCTOBER 3-5

We're lucky enough to be friends with Mrs. Diane and Kristy any day of the week, but we're even luckier to be friends with them when Kristy has extra friends and family buddy passes for cheap airfare on the airline she works for. A handful of extra tickets resulted in a last minute trip to New York City to go see Sarah. Woohoo! We had so much fun- I hadn't spent time with Kristy in awhile, and it was fun to see her and hear all about the new business she's starting. We didn't do a whole lot while we were there- just hung out, did a lot of walking, some sightseeing, and a whole lot of hanging out. We happened to be in town the same weekend as two of our friends from London, so that was an added fun surprise. One thing we did that I've never done before was walked across the Brooklyn Bridge- it's quite the view of the city!

Mom and Daughters on the Brooklyn Bridge

Miami by sky

I've been very negligent on posting.... my bad.

So to update on something cool we did last weekend....

It's well known that I get lost everywhere I go- I'm terrible at directions, and never quite know where I'm going. I've had an OK time getting around Miami, but that's 100% due to the fact that I bought a GPS before I left Tallahassee. Anyway, for our 2 year anniversary, Jon decided to take me on a helicopter ride over Miami so I could see where everything is in relationship to everything else... it was really cool. We were in the air for 45 minutes, and saw a whole bunch of cool Miami landmarks, including coming super close to our apartment.

We're in the shorter building to the right of the tower, in the left hand corner of that building.













Although the weather was pretty crummy, it was still a cool view. I've put a few pictures from the trip below... enjoy!

Happy Birthday Oscar!

This is slightly belated, but I wanted to shout out to Oscar, who celebrated his 17th birthday on Saturday. That's right- 17 years. Go Oscar! Before I left Tallahassee, we had a chicken party for him- he loves KFC, so we got him some and ate it all together. He even had his baby bed on the chair so he could sit at the table with us. That dog is the best- he's brought so much happiness to our whole family!

Dad sent me a picture yesterday of his actual birthday party- he got ice cream cake and got to wear his adorable birthday outfit. Go Boo!

The verdict is in- Geico agrees with me- South Florida drivers are the worst!

I got a great email from my insurance company, State Farm, a few weeks ago letting me know about the change in coverage that would be involved in me moving to Miami. She sent me the new premium for my coverage and it had DOUBLED. Yay, just what I need.

Jon recently signed up with Geico, so I called them and got a new quote. Still expensive, but cheaper than State Farm. It was a bit of a time sensitive thing for me, seeing as though my coverage with State Farm ended today. Also, Jon can jump on my policy (his doesn't actually start until October) and we'll both save 25%. So thanks to their cute and clever commercials, they were the first ones I called.

In other news, I have found two more amazingly funny blogs to read- failblog and LOLDogs. If you look on the top of LOLDogs, there is a line of links to equally funny stuff, like LOL News and Politicians. It has, indeed been proven that I am easily amused... but come on- who wouldn't think this is funny:













And even funnier, in relation to the beginning of my post:

Seven Years

It's been seven years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Seven years. I can still remember everything about that day, even down to what I was wearing. I think it's one of those days that people will always be able to tell you where they were when they saw the news footage for the first time, what they did when they heard it, who they called first, and how they dealt with it. I will remember watching Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings being on the air for hours on end, never leaving their news desks. I sat in Broward Hall dorm for hours watching the news with my friends. Nobody really knew what to say or do. We gave blood at the impromptu blood donation center they set up in the basement- even Sarah (who's not such a fan of needles) donated. I remember my brother and his ROTC friends speculating about what might happen when they found out who did it. Speculation turned into action years later, when my brother spent a year in Baghdad, coming home this past spring.

I'm watching "9/11- As it Happened" on MSNBC right now. They're running actual footage from the day of- the second plane just hit the second tower- and they still have no clue what's going on. They're just all sitting around the newsroom, taking calls from people, hearing what's happening. They were in the middle of a conversation with a woman when the second plane hit. I read a lot of articles and looked at a lot of photo archives this morning... it never stops being horrifically sad. The day of and week of deaths at Ground Zero, The Pentagon, and Pennsylvania were only the beginning of a series of events that would result in the loss of 1000's more lives... and sadly, the war is still being faught.

They just took a call, stressing that it was unconfirmed, from American Airlines, saying that they had a hijacked plane. Since I remember the day of, I know Katie Couric and Matt Lauer are about to see and hear the towers fall. I remember my reaction... it's still stunning. It amazes me that people were able to keep their cool during that day. I think of people who lived in New York City then, and I think of Sarah and my other friends living there now. I can't fathom how that day was for people who lived there, people who had friends and family that they couldn't get ahold of right away. The people who had offices and apartments in the area, the tourists who just wanted to see the city, the people who were just going to work like they did every other day. I've been to New York many times- it's a crazy enough city on a normal day... I can't imagine being there in a time of crisis.

Sigh. I could go on and on about the attacks, how they made me sad, pissed off, angry, confused, and so many other things, all at the same time. I could post links to pictures of children waving flags, of firemen crying, of the president speaking, of memorials set up everywhere, of firehouses. But I'll post another picture instead- of what New York City used to look like.... it was so pretty. I don't think about the attacks every day... but I do a lot, because of what has happened in the ensuing years. I do get sentimental when the anniversary rolls around, because it feels more fresh, more real. No matter how many times I see that footage, it never becomes easier to digest.

Someone cares!

I got this email yesterday... woohoo for some sort of response to my job searching! After my shopping spree at the Apple Store last weekend, I thought it would be fun to have them pay for me to love and promote their products... instead of doing it for free and on my own time.

The Email:
Hey Angela,

Congratulations!

You have been selected from the many hopefuls that are interested in working at our Apple Store coming to Dadeland, FL. You possess something that we are looking for and we want to meet you!

What:
• Attend a hiring seminar and interview with the management team of the Dadeland Apple Store.
Learn about the store, the position, interview process, and time line.

We are looking for candidates for the following roles:

Specialist
Concierge
Personal Shopper
Business Partner


It went on to detail the when and where, so I signed up for an info session on September 26th. I don't know when they're opening the store, but I do know that the mall is about a 4 minute walk from my apartment. You can't beat that for ease. The only thing I'm hesitant about is going back to working in retail. Don't get me wrong- there is no job I think that I'm too good/educated for (hello, I once worked the Dunkin Donuts 6AM shift... and that was with a college diploma), it's just that I've gotten used to the whole no nights and weekends thing. I enjoy not having to worry about going out of town on the weekends, and being able to do whatever during the evenings. I also don't know about working the holidays- I already have a ticket booked for Thanksgiving to go see Sarah in New York... the whole family is going. Also on the agenda is Colorado to see Alan for Christmas (the whole family is going there, too). I'm going to Atlanta in the beginning of October for a wedding, and Sarah, Mom, and Dad are coming down the first weekend of November for an engagement party. As you can see, the schedule for the weekends is filling up fast- where is there time for work? I'll check out the info sessions- maybe I can work mostly during the week.

More info to come....

New Toys!

I am now the proud owner of.... a bunch of expensive toys from Apple.

We went to the Apple store this weekend and I got a new computer (MacBook), the Adobe Creative Suite Premium edition, Microsoft Office, and a new iPod Touch. The only reason I got the iPod was because it was free :) Turns out they're running a promotion for students, and if you buy a computer for school, you get a free iPod. Sweet. The price tag on it is $300, so I consider myself quite lucky!

I've been on the job hunt lately. Which I HATE. I've found a few good ones and sent in my resume, and now I'm playing the waiting game. What I have found (that's reassuring) are a bunch of jobs I'm not qualified for. At the moment. But it's nice to know that what I've chosen to go back to school for has fun potential. I've found a lot of jobs that, in a year or so, with a little more experience and a portfolio, I'll be able to get. It's a nice thing to see!

One of my favorite internet listing sites is Craigslist. It's gotten a little SPAM-y lately, but I still go there for job postings. There is some angry person (or some angry people... who knows?) that seems to have gotten miffed about people offering to pay graphic designers what, in his opinion, is a pity sum of money.

A few favorites, for your reading pleasure....
1- Taking the (slightly) high road
2- "50 bucks my ass"
3- "20k- what a joke"
4- a fair (?) warning

And those are just from yesterday and today. Crazy. If you ever get bored, there are a lot of amusing sections on Craigslist...and some of them are very inappropriate... I'll let you find those for yourself

Sounds of South Florida

So... South Florida is nothing like Tallahassee. I've been here a little over a week, and I've seen and heard a few things that I doubt I ever would have back in Tallahassee.

1- I went to Target last week. I couldn't find what I was looking for, so I asked the women in the red shirt with a Target name tag where I could find it. She turns to me with a really confused look on her face, shrugs, points to her tag and said "Spanish?" Now, I applaud Target for hiring Spanish speakers to accommodate the large Spanish speaking community here, but really- you couldn't find someone bilingual?

2- Boob jobs being advertised on the radio... the country station that I was listening to this morning at 9 AM. There was this guy, doing the "Used Car Salesman" shout, selling breast augmentation surgeries with the same gusto that people sell Mazda's that get good gas mileage. "Only $3499!" But wait.... if you want smart lipo, you can add that and get the whole package for "ONLY $5000!" They go on to detail financing options, various interest rates... and the kicker- my favorite part. "Get your breast augmentation surgery here. It's so cheap, you don't even have to go to South America!" Seriously? That would never fly in Tallahassee.

3- I was behind a guy in the line at my neighborhood Publix who bought a $250 bottle of champagne. The cashier asked if he had a hot date, to which his response was... "Not yet. I figure if I have this in my apartment, something good will come." Sigh. It's kind of funny that there are people out there that think the very presence of a $250 bottle of bubbly will cause the ladies to come flocking to your front door.

It cracks me up to hear things like this... I'm sure there will be more!

Adventures in Assembling DIY Sweedish Furniture

So the fun part of shopping at Ikea is the actual shopping. The assembly is a little less fun... although we chose to make it fun :)

After we got back from the store and unloaded all of our stuff, it was at least 8:30. We ate dinner (on the couch boxes) and settled in for the evening to put the couch together. That was the first

 thing we needed to get done, because let's face it... I need a couch to watch my shows, and Gossip Girl was starting this week.

The Before shot of all our boxes...

Jon posing with the instruction booklet. The couch has a funny name, as do all the pieces at Ikea. It probably means "You must be an idiot to buy a couch that's going to take you 3 hours to

 assemble"

Almost done with the couch... me finishing up the storage compartment. The left side also has a pull out bed that wasn't put in in this picture.

Christy came over to assist us in putting together everything- she was on drawer duty. There were 10 drawers total between the dressers and TV stand.... and each drawer probably had at least 6 parts to them.

Finishing up the dressers...

Jon's tired of assembly. And for some reason, Babar the Elephant was the only thing on.

Christy learns the fun of power tools...

Overall, I love the way everything turned out. I promise an after picture post, as soon as we're finished unpacking and cleaning up. Which could be, sigh.... forever...

Adventures in buying DIY Sweedish Furniture

Jon and I spent pretty much all day at Ikea last weekend. For those not familiar with Ikea, it's a Sweedish furniture brand, mostly for small spaces, pretty simple stuff.... and you have to put it all together. Their furniture is really cool looking, some of it crummy quality, but some of it pretty decent. It's the shopping that's the fun part. The store is H-U-G-E. We're talking a two story warehouse style building. The day started off at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, where we picked up our cargo van. That's the thing about Ikea... they keep their prices down by encouraging you to bring your own rental vans, and do pretty much everything on your own. We arrived at Ikea at 11, apartment floor plan, tape measurer, and pen in hand. 

Our first priority was a couch. We wanted an L-shaped couch, preferebly with a sleeper sofa. They had a ton of couches... and we had to try them all out.

We settled on one that not only has a sleeper sofa, but it also has storage. Score. The rest of our six hour jaunt in Ikea included lunch at the cafe... $0.99 mac-n-cheese. 

As we made our way through the store, we got dressers, a desk, shelves, some fun knick knacks, and a TV stand. It was a good trip, and six hours later, we had our van loaded up with all of our stuff. The funny part about Ikea is that once you've walked the entire show room and made notes of all the stuff you want to buy, you have to go to the bottom floor and pull all the boxes of the stuff you chose. They're heavy, they're bulky, and the carts they give you to load them on are very difficult to drive. The knick-knack section (my favorite!) is down in the

 same area, and you can just take all that stuff off the shelves, stuff like candles and pillow cases. 

From the rest of the trip....

The something-skin fake rug... it stayed at Ikea. 

Me, in the beginning of our box pickup.

Our entire haul, minus the couch.  We had to get that a special pickup area.