IKEA hell

Today we popped in to Ottawa to pick up some Jetta parts.  The original plan was for us to go in tomorrow, but the weatherman is calling for snow and since today was clear, mild and sunny, we figured we'd go ahead and make the run today.  Nice day for a drive.

I also wanted to combine the trip with a quick side trip to Ikea and Cosco.   Well, we went to Ikea first - specifically to look for a kitchen item.  Well, the new (and improved?????) Ikea is gi-normous!!!  Ikea was always a bit of a bitch to try to get from point a to b without meandering all through the store.  Well, let me tell you the new and bigger store is 10 times worse - I swear we walked over a mile following those stupid arrows - of course, if you don't FOLLOW the stupid arrows you want up going in circles, so we walked, and walked and walked (3 floors by the way) only to reach the kitchen area where we discovered they no longer carry the item I was looking for (or maybe I saw it at another store....shhhhhh don't tell Rick)  Anyway, I find the store so big, it's daunting - or maybe we're just getting old.   I know the purpose of the layout is to make one HAVE to view ALL Ikea's products whether one wants to or not - but I sure wish they'd indicate short-cuts to get out quickly!   Rick swears (a lot hahaha)  that he will never darken their doors again unless they get (a) segways (b) moving walk-ways (like the Jetsons had) or (c) a Star Trek "beam me up" machine.  Guess we're not going back to Ikea...

Then as if we haven't punished ourselves enough,  off we go to Cosco (duh!!!!)  which is nearly as freakin' BIG!!!!  Actually EVERYTHING is big at Cosco - it's like a grocery store for giants!   I've never seen such large packages - my God, what does one do with 4 dozen bagels - sure, they're a bargain, but......!    And you can't tell me you keep 1 dozen and freeze the rest, cuz, you'd need a huge freezer to fit in all the stuff you buy - wieners come in 3 packs of 18 (that's 54 wieners!!! - I'm not kidding 54 wieners!!!)  We bought a 2 lb pack of Starbucks coffee for Rick - which was the reason for going and $150 worth of other giant items.  I'm wondering though, when you buy food in such large quantities, does it last longer or do you just eat more???
So, all in all, an exhausting day and if I learned one thing, I learned that I better get me a pair of comfy running shoes for our next shopping spree!
Today's pictures are not any of mine - just a picture of a doggie I'd love to have - a Cardigan Welsh Corgi and something we need for our fat cat, Missy - a pet treadmill - which, incidentally costs almost as much as a people treadmill, leading me to think we should buy one for ourselves and share it with Missy!