I was just reading an article on Ten Things Your Auto Dealer Won’t Tell You, and I think I was tricked by about six of them. The other four were about trade-ins, more trade-ins, leases, and used cars, so they didn’t apply to me. But alas, that’s in the past, and next time I buy a car I’ll be more prepared. I just have to go in there with the opinion that I can turn around and go elsewhere if they won’t give me what I want for the price I want to pay. Oh, and I have to really hate and distrust all salesmen too.

When I went to Ikea on Wednesday, I found a blue armchair that I wanted to buy. So last night I went back to Ikea to get it, and they had sold out.

It’s actually four separate pieces: a birch armchair, a blue armchair cover, a birch footstool, and a blue footstool cover. They had sold out of the blue armchair cover, so as far as they were concerned, they didn’t have what I needed.

I had them look it up in the computer to see when they’d be getting more, and they informed me that they wouldn’t be getting any in the next three shipments (over the next three weeks), so I would have to “check back” in three weeks to find out if it would be included in the following three shipments.

In my experience with Ikea, that means the product is being discontinued and will never return. That’s happened to my mother and I several times. If they tell us to check back in three weeks (because the computer just says that they’re not getting any; it never says why), the product never returns.

On my way out, though, it occurred to me that the employee didn’t check to see if there were any of these armchairs at other Ikea locations, such as Carson and Industry. Sure enough, there were one hundred forty-three of them in Carson and forty of them in Industry.

So I left Ikea Tustin and drove to Ikea Industry. Normally I would have gone to Carson, but I knew there would be more traffic that way because of the time of day, so I chose Industry.

Sure enough, there were forty of them at the Industry store, so I bought the birch armchair, the blue armchair cover, the birch footrest, and the blue footrest cover, and I put them in my car.

Now, the chair cover and armrest cover were wrapped in plastic, and it was sunny, so I could barely make out that they were blue. However, I wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t clash with the blue on my sofa at home, so I closely compared the chair cover with a sofa pillow (which I had put in my car for this purpose). The chair cover was lighter, but it was the same family of blue, so it wasn’t a problem. Pleased with my purchase, I drove home.

When I arrived home, I removed the chair cover and footstool cover from their plastic wrapping only to find that they clashed with each other. They were both labeled “medium blue” on the outside, but on the inside the footstool cover was closer to what I’d call “purple.”

I don’t want to drive all the way to Industry again. So tomorrow I’m going to visit Ikea Tustin and see if maybe, just maybe, they have some of the blue footstool covers in stock even though I know they don’t have any of the blue armchair covers in stock. If they don’t, I’m just going to return the whole thing and look somewhere else. Stupid Ikea.

I’m in the market for a new recliner. I want to get one that will match my sofa, but that’s kind of a tall order since my sofa was custom-made and I don’t think the maker still carries that design. Of course, they prob’ly still carry the same fabric, and that’s the important part.

I might also get a matching armchair and completely rearrange my living room.

I got rid of the orange chair because it was ugly, had a broken leg, and no one ever sat in it. Now I’m planning to get rid of my brown vinyl recliner because it’s just ugly. It’s the only piece of furniture I own that I didn’t choose and purchase myself, so it needs to go. It’s an independence thing.

Anyway, I mentioned that no one ever sat in the ugly orange chair. That’s not completely the chair’s fault; it really had to do with the placement of the chair in my apartment. It was on the opposite wall from all the other seating, and no one likes to be isolated like that in a living room. If they want to be isolated, they go pee. So I’ve decided that I need to move my CD/DVD storage unit into the space where the ugly orange chair used to be, and then I’ll have the wall perpendicular to the sofa available for a chair and a recliner. Then I’ll be using adjacent walls for seating instead of opposite walls, and that’s the way it should be.

Of course, this is a really boring topic except to me. But trust me, my friends will appreciate all of the thought that went into it when they come over to my apartment and sit.

I got rid of my ugly orange chair.

I set it out on the curb with a big sign that said “FREE CHAIR” in huge letters and “(broken leg)” in small letters underneath. That was yesterday afternoon. This afternoon it was still there. Apparently no one else saw the beauty in it like I did.

So today I laid the chair to rest in the dumpster outside my apartment. The ugly orange chair is no more.

I was expecting to go back to Mark’s party last night after getting coffee with Rob, but coffee with Rob turned into a two-hour event.

Rob wanted to get coffee because it was his last day in Southern California, so I felt a little guilty inviting a bunch of people he didn’t know to join us. He knew Traci already, so that wasn’t an issue, but he didn’t know Shauna, and when Brandy and Dustin called, I invited them to join us as well, and he didn’t know them either.

I think he was a little disturbed when Brandy and Dustin showed up because he realized he was suddenly outnumbered by friends of mine he’d never met. But much to my astonishment, Rob and Brandy complemented each other’s conversation perfectly. They both tend to dominate conversation, but they apparently also both enjoy the same topics.

Topics of conversation ranged from the appropriate age for having children, the need for an adoption process for dogs, the distinction between animal consciousness and human consciousness, and finally the topic that stayed with us the longest: poop.

We talked about poop for at least an hour. Human poop. People pooping. That’s what our conversation was reduced to. Brandy talked about some guy at school who had an embarrassing experience, Rob talked about how women won’t “commit” to pooping, and Liz talked about the fact that she won’t poop anywhere except her own bathroom.

So coffee with Rob turned out to be quite interesting for everyone involved despite the fact that one half of the group had never met the other half. I think Rob really enjoyed his last night here, and I have a feeling he’ll want to hang out with Brandy again the next time he comes to visit. You know, to share poop stories.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Microsoft lacks support for its products.

The Microsoft Knowledge Base, a searchable database of problems and solutions in Microsoft products, can help you with even the most complex issues that may arise while using Microsoft software.

Meanwhile, the automated service known as Windows Update keeps your computer running in top condition by installing important software updates for issues found in your version of Windows.

Yea Microsoft!

Apparently hundreds of protestors complained that the new line of Asian-themed shirts from Abercrombie & Fitch were racist and offensive.

You can check out this news story to learn more about both sides of the issue before reading on, and you can see the whole line on this site if you’d like to judge them for yourself.

Last week, before the controversy erupted, I purchased a “Buddah Bash” shirt from the local Abercrombie & Fitch store. I didn’t buy it because I wanted to “perpetuate racist stereotypes of Asian-Americans,” but rather because I thought it was funny and cute. I like Buddah. I like Buddah imagery. And I like the pun of saying “Get your Buddah on the floor” instead of “Get your booty on the floor.”

Of course, immediately after they were pulled off the shelves, people started selling the banned shirts on eBay. Then eBay decided to cancel all auctions of these shirts. The auctions aren’t illegal, but eBay prohibits auctions that “promote or glorify hatred, violence, or racial intolerance.”

Okay, I’m not Asian-American, so I’d prob’ly feel differently if, for instance, they sold shirts with big-nosed Jews hoarding money. Therefore, I’m not angry at the protestors. They have every right to feel offended and to demand action from the retailer. And I’m not angry at Abercrombie & Fitch either. They didn’t mean to offend anyone, so when they did offend someone, they took corrective action. That was nice of them.

However, I am angry at eBay. If the company who made the shirts doesn’t want to sell them in light of protests, that’s their choice. But eBay didn’t make the shirts, and eBay doesn’t sell the shirts. And if eBay is going to stop these auctions because they are “racist,” shouldn’t they also stop auctions of, for instance, The Sopranos merchandise and videos, which portray Italian-Americans as gun-toting mafiosos? Shouldn’t they stop auctions of the book Huckleberry Finn because of its obvious racist content?

I think eBay is dealing with some freedom-of-speech issues here. And in the process, they’re only driving up the value of these banned shirts. Frankly, now I wish I’d bought more of them. Does anyone else agree that eBay crossed the line here? If I don’t think the shirts are offensive, is it still a hate crime if I try to buy or sell one?

It’s a creepy day.

When I arrived at work this morning, the parking lot was half empty (usually I have to park in one of the last few spots). I checked the clock in my car to see if maybe I had accidentally arrived an hour early or something like that, but it was really nine o’clock.

Then I walked into the office, and as the half-empty (or half-full, for you optimists) parking lot suggested, the office was like a ghost town. In my own department, not a single co-worker was present. Kevin had scheduled a vacation day, and both Ken and Steve had called in sick.

So I’m all alone, and it’s really eerie.

Because I love Café Pascal, a French café at South Coast Plaza, I decided to try the Champagne French Bakery Café, which is another French café at South Coast Plaza. My mother and I went there for lunch today. I can sum up our experience very simply: The lack of quality in the service was surpassed only by the lack of quality in the food.

AT&T sent out an independent contractor today to reinstall all of the outside wiring and inside wiring for my cable television (because I’m not getting the interactive guide, the correct time, or half my channels). The reason they wanted to replace all the cables is that the last guy they sent out said that was the problem.

Well, they just left, and after replacing all the cables, it still doesn’t work. Now I have to wait for AT&T to call me (which could take up to a week, like it did the last time) and set up a third appointment, during which they’ll once again try to figure out what’s wrong. Arrgh!