Vernacular

An apartment without tables is not much of a place to live, so Coyne and I decided it was time to buy some furniture and household goods. We were off to Ikea with Kristin, who worked with Coyne at World Vision this summer, and who would prove very useful in helping us get everything done. We wandered through the maze of the Ikea showroom, searching for coffee tables, gawking at couches we couldn't afford, and watching kids run around and climb on all the furniture. We found a great "Lack" coffee table with a shelf almost right away, and headed down to the bottom to pick that up and browse for utensils, cups, and other fancy kitchen extras like pots and pans.

That wasn't all I was hoping to pick up at Ikea though. Like my friend Andy, my brother, and just about everyone else I know, I have a "Malm" dresser from Ikea. Mine has a bit of a problem though. You see when I was assembling it about two years ago, one of the horizontal slats going between the drawers on the front was… weakened. After opening the rather full drawer below it one too many times one side had broken and would hang off if I didn't hold it in place when I rolled open that drawer. Ikea has an "As-Is" section where they have damaged furniture and parts you can buy on the cheap if you need to replace something. If you are lucky enough to find the specific part you need, in the right color that is. I optimistically walked in and started on my quest for a new piece of Malm. After just a few minutes I was lucky enough to find the exact part I needed for 20 cents and I walked over to the self checkout with a very satisfied look on my face. We made a few more stops and came home to assemble our new purchases, play some Rock Band, and fall asleep on our living room floor watching season 4 of Lost. We still need a couch, and the internet gets here Wednesday.