Ikea

My home has been invaded by Stephan, Mikael, Jules, and Summera. Even though they have Swedish names, they're from the China which is kind of confusing. I guess it explains why they're compact and functional as well as stylish and trendy.

That's what you pay for at Ikea, the supersized, furniture Wal-Mart from Sweden. What you don't pay for is anything you can do yourself, like getting your furniture from the warehouse shelves, transporting it home, and assembling. All this extra labor on your part means nice furniture for low prices.

That's assuming you can get it home, (I had to take the desk out of this box so it would fit in the trunk.) assemble it properly (Read, no study, the manual.), and do it all with out scratching the finish (I'm ordering Ikea stain as I type this.) The other thing that worries me is the "Made in the People's Republic of China" stickers. Is Ikea a sweatshop operation; anyone know?

If you've never been to an Ikea superstore, you should go at least once and experience a new definition of the word 'big'. I literally takes four hours to walk through the monolith of consumerism (with a wife who insists you look at this and that). That's also about as long as it took me to assemble my desk.