Tag: #Ikea

  • Site Update, and What Am I Doing?

    After I posted the ODDS and ENDS blog on Friday, I decided that it was time to start monkeying around with the blog site. The old site was just the blog, and an ABOUT page. It was more basic than basic, and thinking back to when I originally started this blog, I wasn’t too concerned about how things looked. But, being that I am blogging twenty times a month now, and on some days have four views, I decided that I needed to step up my game. Hence, the new:

    matthewgroffblog.wordpress.com

    I have a Home page now, as well as an updated About page. There is a dedicated Blog page, which I will talk about more later. I created a page specific for The ALGOT Blogs, which are my most popular posts, and now the three-part story is in one location. (Also, Ikea discontinued the ALGOT line of products, in case you haven’t heard.) Last, there is the Archive page, so you know, you can read my progress as a blogger.

    And the Blog itself. I decided that it was time to drop the “250 Word” theme. I don’t think the four of you that were reading this were here because of the concise word format I chose to use. The original idea was to train myself to write effectively, while using the fewest words as possible. Not sure if I have attained that skill, but I have started to move away from the idea that I need only write 250 words.

    The last thought that I had, as I was finishing up the site on Sunday night, was should I bite the bullet and buy the domain, and stop using the free WordPress.com site? That question raised some other questions that I haven’t answered yet, but am still thinking about. Spending money on this site is like saying that I am taking it seriously now, so am I serious about this? I have been doing this for a year, going from one view to four views on average, so what do I hope to achieve with the purchase? I’m not setting the world on fire here, so what’s the point?

    The point? For me, I’m a stay at home parent now. I take care of my family, especially my daughter, and I need a creative outlet. I need something that I can work on, look forward to, that is for me. I need to do something that validates my existence in this very strange and odd world that I live in. So… Do I need to pay to attain that?

  • Another IKEA Blog

    I think I do have a problem when it comes to IKEA. But in my defense, I wrote a blog back in July 2020 about IKEA’s Algot line that got discontinued, and man, that’s the little blog that could! I keep getting hits on that thing weekly if not daily. So, there is a demand out there for people to hear stories about IKEA.

    That having been said, we had another IKEA weekend, sort of. We are trying to finish off our daughter’s room before Christmas, which we will clearly achieve. This weekend, we had to flip the ladder from the left to the right side of the bed. I then had to take all the shelves down, and patch up all those holes, because we are going to repaint her room. Also, we moved her wardrobe from the corner of the room to be closer to her bed. Basically, that was my job.

    The wife’s mission was to run out to the Paramus IKEA to pick up the ELVARLI shelving unit. (Also, ELVARLI might be an elvish language Tolkien created.) The IKEA website said there were a few left in stock, and what that really meant was that none were in stock. The advice she was given was the check online for the availability, as they aren’t sure when things will be back in stock. (Supply Chain.)

    There are few corporations that have this much pull in my life, and IKEA is one of them. There is the bank my money is in, the media company that controls my internet, and then there is my furniture supplier, who keeps feeding my desire to put all of my life in neat tiny boxes, which will make my small space feel larger?

    I think I am admitting more about myself than I was expecting…

  • ODDS and ENDS – Sadness Bowls, DnD, and Algot

    “Odds and Ends” is my continuing series of random thoughts and follow ups…

    The other morning, I saw a commercial for Panera Bread which offered their Mac n’ Cheese served in a Bread Bowl. I did what any American would do, which is go on Twitter and make fun of it. After I posted, I immediately remembered Patton Oswald’s “KFC’s Sadness Bowl” routine. I wasn’t trying to steal a bit, but I do think Panera’s Carb-n’ator meal is like a slightly fancier KFC Sadness Bowl. What they have in common, other than shorting your life, is that they both taste great while weeping in your bath tub at 2am.

    I am thinking about writing a fantasy Dungeons and Dragons type of story. Not from the perspective of some noble heroes trying to save their world, but from the vantage point of people living in a small village dealing with the randomness of a world that can be destroyed by magic, or dragons, at any moment. I have a feeling this has been done before, but I haven’t been able to find it. Or as I sit here, I had a thought; what if there was a story about a fantasy world were all the NPC’s have been killed off, and there is nothing but heroes and villains left. Wouldn’t that world grind to a halt?

    Thank you to all the people for reading my “Algot” series of posts. I had no idea that Algot would be the gift that keeps on giving. Also, we might just buy more IKEA stuff…

  • A Home in the Country

    We are going to get out of the City for a long weekend, and I think it is long overdue. I could be wrong on this, but I don’t believe we have slept outside of our apartment since June 2020. A good friend of ours has a little house upstate. It’s in a small subdivision of a neighborhood, and has all the feelings and trappings of suburban bliss, from about 1970. The family friend is out of town, and has offered the house to us. We jumped on the opportunity.

    When we stay at this house, or when we Airbnb/VRBO a house that is in a neighborhood, I play this game in my mind of wondering what my life would be like in the suburbs? I have lived in New York City now for fifteen years, and I am thoroughly City-ized. And by that, I mean, I can live in a very tiny space, and have people on top of me all the time. Having lots of space is now very foreign. Could I function with so much room?

    It reminds me of a story. We have some friends who used to live in NYC. They owned a small one-bedroom apartment, and when their kid was born, they knew they had to move. Very fortunate for them, their tiny apartment sold very well, which allowed them to move out to the country and buy a house. When we went to visit them after their move, their modest house was sparsely filled with furniture, and pictures on the wall. “We have more house than stuff,” they told us, “but we don’t want to buy stuff just to fill it up.” Their house is still scantly decorated.

    I think we would also have a home with nothing in it, a little Scandinavian Style. (You know I have an IKEA fascination, right?) I’m not excited about owning a house, but the older I get, I find myself wanting a yard. Well, a back yard actually. Not so much for me, but for the kid. A backyard and an imagination is a pretty awesome thing to have as a kid.

  • IKEA Sofa Beds, And Supply Chains

    See, we need to replace our sleeper-sofa, which is from IKEA (Have I mentioned I’m a little obsessed with that place?) and we have been having some issues with ordering a new one.

    As we live in a tiny New York City apartment, we only have so much room for a couch. Also, we want to have a sleeper sofa to allow us an extra sleeping space, just in case. You know, if one of us were to get sick, or the fact that I snore and the wife kicks me out of bed, there will be another place to crash. Anyway, we need a very specific sleeper-sofa, which is FRIHETEN, and we could also deal with HOLMSUND.

    But as we tried to order one of the two sofas online, we kept getting the error message saying delivery was unavailable in our area. Then, when we went to the Elizabeth, NJ IKEA two weeks ago, they told us that they couldn’t guarantee delivery to us in Manhattan. I really didn’t understand their reasoning behind it, but what they offered was for us to book an appointment with their Design Center on the Upper East Side, as that place could order the sofa for us, and guarantee the delivery.

    Last night, we had our remote meeting with a person from the Design Center. She was very friendly, and tried to solve our delivery problem. What we found out is that the sofas we want, which are the only ones that will fit in our livingroom remember, are out of stock everywhere. None are available, and it is unclear when they will ever come back.

    Why? Because there is a foam shortage. Look what Furniture Today has to say about it. Seems like this has been building since last summer, and has been complicated by weather, and, this is my two cents, with everyone sitting at home. There has a been a rush of people wanting a better-quality sofa to sit their butts on, which means foam is in high demand.

    The pandemic is affecting the world in still new and surprising ways. But for us, we might have to go through Wayfair… which makes me feel a little dirty, like I’m betraying a friend.