Surfergeeks

Well, we made it down to Ikea on Monday. We went down to buy a crib and a change table. We ended up picking up a nice crib that converts to a “junior bed” once the kid’s too big for a crib. They have a matching change table but it was sold out (good thing too – i’ll explain below). We also bought a couple stuffed animal things for the kid – a bear and rat. The other thing we bought for the baby was an inflatable hedgehog. It’s cool.

For us we picked up 3 DVD storage shelves since we were pretty much full to overflowing. They were on sale and fairly cheap. We also got a new cutting board. The coolest thing though for us was we picked up a Duvet cover and pillow cases to finally make our bed look like it belongs in the room. I’ve taken a couple pics and will post those soon.

We haven’t put the crib together yet (too hot) but we’re hoping to do it tonight or tomorrow night.

So the reason it’s a good thing that they were out of stock on the change table was we simply wouldn’t have had room in Nikki’s car to get everything home. In fact, one more box would have probably put us past the breaking point and simply wouldn’t have fit.

So, we get home, hop onto ikea.com and proceed to order it online. While online we also ordered a bathroom shelf that we forgot about while we were there (good thing too). The confirmation email stated that someone would call us within 48 hours to let us know the shipping cost and firm up the order. Sure enough, Tuesday we get home from work and there’s a message from Ikea asking us to call. Nic calls to confirm everything and then gets to the part where they tell us the shipping: $171.xx. That’s right, $171 (and change) – didn’t add an extra ’1′ in there anywhere. To ship two boxes. From Burlington. To London. (Ontario – not England). We politely said thanks, but no thanks.

So, we’re going to keep an eye on the website and as soon as we see that the change table is available again in Burlington we’re going to drive down and pick it up.

And in other news: A big Hello! to Mike a.k.a. Phronk. Haven’t heard from him in ages and he’s finally started keeping his website/blog updated. He raises a good point that applies to me as well as him: we’ve both been “blogging” before blogging existed.

My love affair with Sony is nearing its end.

Anyone that knows me knows that I’ve been a die hard Sony fan for many many years. That’s changing. The odd thing is that the change isn’t being caused by my having direct problems with Sony. I haven’t had any – my Sony equipment works great.

The problem is my customers. We get folks calling in with Sony DVD players, etc. and when we try to find the manual online to do our best to assist them we get nothing. It is NEXT TO IMPOSSIBLE to find a user guide/manual for Sony products online. Try it. Go to Sony’s website and try to find the user guide for the DVP-NC600B DVD player. Won’t find it. I’ve yet to have success in finding the user guide for a product I’ve ever needed. I was considering (and, to be honest, still am, but its quickly losing favour) Sony for my next A/V receiver (specifically the STRDE998) but I’ve tried to find the user’s guide for it online as well so that I can decide if that’s what I really want. Hell, I can’t even find a decent picture of the front of the unit. The back of it, where all the components are? Forgettaboutit.

Sony may have a flashy website that promotes all their latest and greatest gear but that’s all it is – flash. It is next to impossible to find out any real information on the products that Sony offers. Contrast this to Yamaha or Harmon-Kardon (my other two considerations for the receiver) and it is like night & day. Both of those companies offer high resolution pictures of front AND back. They also offer easy access to the user guide online.

My next TV? Not anticipating it for a while but when it comes – probably not going to be a Sony.

So Rob and I purchased Roman Blinds last week-end. We were getting really sick of the orange curtains, and seeing as they came with the house, it was time to get rid of the last vestiges of the previous owners.

We decided to head to Blinds-to-Go. Within 20 minutes, we had the blinds pick out and purchased. The roman blinds were a must, it was just deciding on colour and style. We went with a classic style in a burgandy colour. Rob wanted something darker and I had no real preference.

We had to wait for the blinds, they had to be custom made. Some of our windows are quite odd in shape. Blinds-to-Go, called us yesterday to let us know they were in. I picked them up today and Rob installed them.

They look amazing. I just love the look of roman blinds. And it turns out the Burgandy fits this room perfectly.

And for a final update, as it hasn’t been mentioned yet. The fire pit is completed. We’ve lined it with rocks. We just need to pick up some fireword and we are good to go.

For all you Simpsons fans out there, here is the offical site that has a map of Springfield.

http://www.mapofspringfield.com/