Lauren Loves Good Food

I swear I had every intention of posting yesterday, but my life got in the way.

And by life, I mean Ikea.

I kid you not when I say I was there for 5 hours yesterday.  And I really kid you not when I say my life will never be the same.  It’s funny because until they started building Ikea in Colorado I’d never even heard of it and kept making fun of the people who were so excited we were getting one.  Uh, yeah, I can see why they were so excited now.

It was an experience for sure.  And I of course took a total of 4 pictures.  What can I say, I was a little caught up in the moment.

The moment, which included traveling into the parking lot, guided by a slew of cones, parking attendants and policemen.  No, seriously, there were police there.

The moment, which included spending 3 hours of oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over showrooms and feeling like a lemming in the crowd of people.

The moment, which included a lunch break that had me feeling like I was standing in line for a ride at Disneyland.  “Can I please get a Fast Pass for this?”

When in Rome Ikea, do as the Swedish do.

Crepes + Lingonberry jam and juice.

I also stole a few bites of Joey’s “Chocolate Overload Cake.”  Verdict: Aptly named. 

In all seriousness, Ikea is amazing.  I found it to be reasonably priced unreasonably affordable, well organized and amazingly thought-out. 

You can pick up a “wish list” of sorts and write down the numbers on the furniture, so once you get to the warehouse you just need to find the aisle and bin number and grab the piece you wanted.

I felt like I was in Gringotts.  You know, from Harry Potter? <—- Nerd alert!

Or maybe Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.

And you can even use the free lockers to store your giant glass salad bowl while you finish your shopping. 

You’re less likely to forget about your locker if you have a giant dice with an elephant on it in your purse.

Apparently, it’s embarrassing to pose for a picture with your cart full of stuff in the middle of the aisle.

I can only think of one thing embarrassing about this picture and it involves a giant whale.

We really weren’t positive we were even going to buy anything but the prices were too good to pass up so we left with an giant entertainment center, a giant mirror, two small coffee tables and a picture to hand over our couch.

You’ll see it all in due time, my friends.

And by due time, I mean when we manage to find a hammer.

Something told me our downstairs neighbors were not going to appreciate Joey using the handle of a screwdriver as a hammer at 11 PM.

In other weekend news, I kicked off the weekend with a trip to Target for some $6 clogs (that I of course did not take a picture of.  Do I sense a theme here?) and headed out with my mom and sister for some Friday night fun.

First, dinner at Turley’s in Boulder.

  Decaf Iced Spice Tea.

So.dang.good.

Veggie burger with sweet potato fries and guacamole.

Meh.

Peach cobbler and vanilla bean ice cream.

Mom, yours is much much better.

But the real event of the night was seeing Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare Festival, which is held on CU campus.

Perhaps it’s because I’m an English nerd and have voluntarily taken not one, but two Shakespeare classes, but I love the Shakespeare Festival.

I can see how most a lot of people might hate Shakespeare and think all those plays are boring and hard to understand, but I happen to think the guy was a creative genius and I love to see the performances and the way the actors chose to deliver the lines. 

In other words, this performance blew me away.  But then again, so did last year’s.

I made sure to take a picture outside the theater, lest I should get yelled at again.

And, for those of you interested…

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This week in half marathon training:

I was scheduled to do another 7 miler, but it accidentally turned into an 8-miler.

Explanation: Joey (who is training for a full marathon) needed to run 15, so we ran the first 6.25 together, then parted ways.  I ran the last .75 miles back to our apartment and once I got there I realized Joey still had the key!!  Joey, you know, who was off running another 8 miles.  I prayed I could catch up to him or that he might realize he had the key so I ran back down to where we’d split, then realized it was going to be a futile search and turned back around.  I waited on our porch for a while until a breathless Joey sprinted up the stairs.  He realized he had the key, turned around early and ran a few 7-minute miles to get back to our apartment as fast as possible! 

Needless to say, I don’t think either of us will be making that mistake again.

Otherwise, all I have to report is that unlike Mr. 7-Minute Miles, I’ve lost all semblance of speed and have been hanging around in the 10-minute mile range during long runs, okay all runs and surprisingly, I haven’t cared one bit.  Speed shmeed.

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Well, I must say, it was one long, busy, fun weekend, but it’s Monday and time to get back to the grind.

The grind for today being hot power fusion yoga and a closing shift at work.

I’m off!

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What did you do this weekend?

Ever been to Ikea?

Someone please tell me they enjoy Shakespeare!!