Yesterday turned out to be Shopping Day. After our breakfast, Amy & I did the dishes. Then she took a nap & I geeked on the computer. Rachel got home around 12:30, so we headed off to Ikea. Ikea is across the street from the Mall of America. So it’s a bit south of where the girls live. We headed up to the cafeteria for lunch so we’d have the energy to shop. I got the Swedish meatballs (with potatoes, gravy, and lingonberry sauce), salad, and Sierra Mist. The girls got the chicken marsala. I got us the lingonberry mousse and Amy picked up some cookies for dessert. The meal was quite nice – turns out I like lingonberries. 🙂 (My second “new” fruit for the day – the first being marionberries from marionberry preserves at breakfast.)

Once fortified, we headed into the furniture store. I found a few pieces that I thought would work, however forgot to record the aisle and bin number of the piece I liked best, so we wound up going around 3 times before we were done. Then downstairs to the descorations and stuff. I picked up a pair of those thin plastic cutting boards for under $2. The girls got me a pair of slippers for when I visit & some lightbulbs. We went to the aisles & bins to check on a few things, then checked out, hoping to get a catalog. No go on the catalog – they were out and the new ones won’t be in until the second week of August. No matter, I thought, I’ll just order the piece I want online. In the Swedish food shop, I bought some cookies with chocolate hazelnut filling.

Next stop was Best Buy (with Rachel headed on to Borders) so I could buy Amy & Rachel’s birthday present, finally. Their birthdays are in May just 4 days apart. (4 days and 4 years apart.) I had so many ideas and talked myself out of so many ideas for their birthday gifts that I never did get them something. Amy thought maybe I could get them the stuff for a wireless network at home & set it up. Sounded like a great birthday gift idea to me!

I picked out the D-Link gold router & PCMCIA card and it was just in the price range I’d intended. Then we went to the audio/video section hoping to find a solution to Amy’s VCR recording problem. (She can’t record with her VCR since the Coax-in plug is sheared off.) The saleslady said that maybe an RF modulator would do what we needed, so Amy bought that.

We headed onto Borders to meet Rachel & look at books. I saw a few things I might want, but had the good sense to say “no!” So we returned to the car and headed north.

A stop at Amy & Rachel’s co-op for milk and a few other items (I got some cream soda & seasame sticks while there) and then we were finally home. We collapsed for a bit. Amy fiddled with the RF modulator, but no luck on recording cable. We decided that, if we were going to be hot & bothered anyway, we might as well walk to Brit’s Pub for supper.

It was oppressively hot on our walk to Eat Street (Nicollet Ave) and Brit’s Pub. The walk would have been quite pleasant if it had been 15 degrees cooler. The pub was air conditioned, thankfully, so we didn’t have any problems waiting 20 minutes to be seated. The girls got beers and got me an amaretto sour (which I later spilled – whoops!) while we waited.

For supper, I decided upon steak & kidney pie with chips. I’m not a kidney person. I don’t want to eat the body’s filters, so kidneys and livers are right out. However, the pie sounded very good, so I ordered it anyway. Rachel got a Cornish pastie and Amy got the fish & chips. Everything was wonderful and the chips were big & thick and perfect for soaking up vinegar. Since the girls have been such gracious hosts (and took me to a pub) I bought the supper. They’re a cheap date, really. 🙂

We waddled in the (slightly cooler) hell that is Minnesota in the Summer towards Target. We got some other necessary items and a switch for their cable/VCR so they didn’t have to keep swapping cords. Another stop at the video store for a movie (Tristram Shandy) and back to home again.

I set up the wireless network, which worked like a charm – yay! Then we put the movie on. It’s an odd thing, but it was neat to see a lot of British actors that I recognized. Naomi Harris, Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry. And I’m still trying to rectify Mole from Mr Toad’s Wild Ride with Steve Coogan/Tristram Shandy. Same actor (Steve Coogan, oddly enough) but he was a lot cuter as Mole. 🙂

We didn’t get through the movie before folks just got too tired, so we’ll probably finish it later this afternoon. (Movie is due by 7pm tonight, I believe.) I spent some time online before heading off to bed. And I slept in until after 8am. Had some odd dreams – one of which was a murder mystery with the 7th Doctor promising to solve the murder of a woman’s nearly born child. I always think “I’ll be able to remember this later” but I really can’t remember anything more than that!

Rachel made us blueberry (and plain) pancakes and Amy cut up some peaches & a nectarine. It was a very yummy breakfast. These girls sure know how to treat me! 🙂

I’ve done some searching online this morning and discovered that the shelves that I want from Ikea are not available online. Bugger! So now to figure out how to get them to me. We have to take the RF modulator back to Best Buy, so maybe we’ll get down to Ikea once more this weekend. Wonder if they can ship from the store to my house? That would be lovely.

Plans for today? Visit to the library, doing stuff downtown, maybe a stop into Crate & Barrel, folks coming around this evening. At some point this weekend, we’ll be getting Galactic Pizza (delivered by a super hero!) I’ve been having fun with my girls with more fun to come!