In this episode I saw, the folks on the Cylon-overrun planet were standing next to a Humvee. Not a space Humvee or something that'd even give the barest impression that it was designed on a planet many light-years from the planet where Humvees were born (i.e. this one), but a plain old ordinary humvee, painted camoflage.
They didn't even bother to take off the freakin' California license plate.
That's just lame.
We did the newly-opened Ikea store today. It's yet again still another entry in the new phenomenon of "destination shopping". That's where you make a store that's so mind-numbingly huge that it takes you a whole freakin' afternoon just to visit the place, so you've gotta throw in a restaurant so that people don't pass out in the aisles. We just got a Cabela's near us too, which is a similar concept, except for outdoor supplies.
As for spectacle, it wasn't quite as interesting as Cabela's. There weren't giant tanks of fish or an indoor mountain with waterfall. It did have a one-hour daycare for kids, which was a nice surprise. Maggie had big fun climbing on plastic rocks until she tired out, then she headed over to the pillow-n-blanket corner to watch "Finding Nemo" until we returned.
Products-wise, I was fairly impressed. While the furniture was clearly not the most indestructible stuff, the prices were quite good. They were basically Wal-Mart prices but without the creepy oily sheen of cheapness that appears to coat everything in Wal-Mart. Shelly was dutifully restrained, although she did feel the pull to buy a load of kitchen gadgets. She ended up buying a new collander, some nest-able tupperware, a screen-thingy to help you drain off grease from a frying pan, and some magic markers for Maggie. Total cost was under $15, which impressed me. Not the price, but the fact that we got outta there without spending at least $100.
She did find a trendy-looking King bed for $229. It's not made of the best stuff, but considering that the other bed we liked was about $1,200 (at Cabela's, interestingly), it's probably gonna win. Given that our previous bed cost about $300 and lasted 15 years, I'm not convinced that you need to spend a lot of money on one.
Only thing that really pissed me off was that this place wasn't open when I first moved into the house. They were selling light fixtures for half of what I paid for the stuff that's in here now, and it looks just as good. Grrr.
Went out to Sushi last night, as it was Geek of All Mothers birthday. We went to Cowtown Sushi, which is a place Shelly and I discovered a couple of weeks ago. They've got a sushi-boat-for-two special that just comes with an unreasonable amount of food, doubly so since sushi is pretty high in the price/amount-of-food scale. Anyway, after powering down what appeared to be three pounds of fish along with a dozen other little side-items (chicken skewers, dumplings, salted soybeans), Terri was apparently STILL HUNGRY!
Either that or she was feeling adventurous.
Our other dinner guests (the guy who directed that cheapo horror film that I PA-ed on a couple of years ago and his wife) stated that while reading the sushi menu, they noticed some gizmo with a name like "The Roll Of Sooner Than Instant Death". It consisted of some tuna, sliced jalapenos, a generous gob of wasabi, some chinese hot mustard, hot sauce, topped with three colors of roe. It was quite a thing to behold. Terri was the first to try a slice, and she immediately showed signs of distress --maybe from the food itself of from our reactions to us seeing her eat it. I tried a slice next. It was pretty tough going, but I didn't seem to suffer as much distress as Terri. She then had another slice, which in retrospect wasn't such a good idea. She then spent the next 20 minutes in the bathroom and the rest of the car ride home doubled over and meweling like a wounded dog.
Ya know, I remember dare-food from college days. I once ate a whole freakin' shopping bag of "Archie's 39-cent hamburgers". I also remedied the oversight of not having a meal-plan my junior year by helping freshmen purchase beer (our dormatory was fortuitously placed across the street from a 7-11) in exchange for 7-11 hot dogs, and I ate nothing but 7-11 hot dogs for two semesters. Unfortunately, dare-food and being 38 years old is not as good a mix as dare-food and being 21.
Happy 38th, Terri. Next birthday you're getting a bottle of Tums.
