A few things make an update?

1) Today, I managed to mention to a higher-up at work during the course of conversation that Toby's building me a desk and storage out of various IKEA parts, so that there's "lots of banging and screwing going on." Luckily, she took it in the spirit it was intended and we both pretended the sceondary meaning there wasn't present and went on to other topics.

2) Speaking of which, Toby's building me a desk and storage out of various IKEA parts! We've got the desk and a hutch over it frankensteined together out of kitchen cabinets, a floating BILLY shelf and a desktop and drawer set. (and had a few panicked moments over max load until we found out that the max load is listed PER LEG. I'm still not planning on storing my comprehensive collection of lead weights on the desk or anything like that.) Next up: a 5x5 and two 1x5 EXPEDIT cases. CUBBYHOLES. CUBBYHOLES EVERYWHERE.

But yes, I have an awesome husband. (Toby told me to say that. But it's true. And he's getting a red velvet cake out of the deal.)

3) I keep forgetting to mention that we rickrolled our guests at the reception, putting Never Gonna Give You Up on the playlist. I wasn't sure that anyone noticed it until looking through the guest book later, when someone rickrolled us by putting the chorus in there.

4) Trader Joe's opened up this weekend! We drove by on Saturday and saw that not only was the parking lot full, but they had cops directing traffic and people were parking around the block. So we skipped it that day. I woke up early on Sunday and figured might as well go shorty after it opened. I managed to find a parking space there, and it was moderately crowded inside. Verdict: it won't be replacing Cetnral Markup, but it will have its uses. The produce section was comparatively small, and the prices I remembered from CM weren't too different there. But where TJ excelled was, as I suspected, in their collection of TJ-brand frozen and other items. I got a few things to keep in the freezer to use as side dishes to go with main-dish leftovers when we're not inspired. I also got a loaf of whole-grain bread after overhearing a passer-by tell her husband that TJ's bread was good. And yes, it is. So for sandwich bread, I think it's a go, although it's not going to replace the acres and variety of fresh-baked loaves at CM.

5) At IKEA, in addition to the office stuff, we found two HEMNES bedside table that were tall and leggy and looked like they'd go next to the couch in the living room. They did, and now we have side tables, and lamps after a run to Lowe's, so we can actually USE the couch now! Woo-hoo! And it really needs to be sat on a lot because it's shiny new slippery leather and really really needs the leather to be broken in so that it's nice and soft. Probably take years, but at least we can get started on it,

Aaaaand that's pretty much what's going on at Camp Telophase.

(no subject)

If you are having a bad day, or just a bad hair day, here is a baby bat with the hiccups.

A complaint

Emailed in on the restaurant's website.

My husband and I ate at the Hulen restaurant in Fort Worth tonight, and had a much worse than usual experience. We arrived at 6:30 and ordered drinks and our meal at the same time shortly thereafter. It was 7:00 PM by the time we had our food! And my meal had obviously been sitting under a heatlamp for some time - the steak was well-done (I ordered medium well), the mashed potatoes were cold and the toast was so soggy from sitting in the juices that the bottom part was disintegrating. Our server, while a nice girl, wasn't very good at organizing or prioritizing her tables, and hasn't yet mastered the server's trick of scanning all the tables in her section looking to see if anyone was trying to catch her eye so it took a LONG time for us to get her attention when we wanted to check on our food and when we wanted our bill. I note that when the hostess seated us, she said that [Name1] and [Name2] would be our servers, and there was no sign of [Name2] the entire time. Was [Name1] the trainee? Because that would explain things. We didn't complain there because, like most, we hate confrontation and would rather just slink home and complain online. But she should know why we tipped 10%.

Nobody bitch at me for ordering a steak medium-well: it's a texture thing and if I eat a medium or less steak I start gagging and retching a few bites in, which is not pleasant for anyone. Which is why, when I go to steakhouses, I ask the server to tell me which cut stands up to medium-well the best. (But this was not at a steakhouse, this was at a generic chain, which isn't going to serve great steaks anyway.)