Yesterday, my family went to Palo Alto IKEA store to get a new desk for my son because he will be starting junior highschool this fall.  Last IKEA I visited was in Berkeley, so this was my first visit to this store.  Parking was confusing but we had fun; chief Don leading his tribe through the jungle of furnitures and people.  Desks were cheap so I let my son have his pick.  Thankfully, he chose a corner desk that costs only $129.  Chairs, however, weren't cheap and there weren't many choices in the 'reasonable' range.  So we punted on the chair for now.

Today, my wife and I put the desk together.  Hmm.  The desk looked much bigger than it seemed at IKEA.  Maybe they should put warning labels around IKEA showrooms:

Furnitures May Be Bigger Than They Appear at IKEA.

While recouperating from IKEA Aftermath, I ordered some Moleskine notebooks from ShipTheWeb, one for each member of the family, to complete the shopping cliche.  Frankly, I immensely enjoy not shopping but I don't mind sacrificing my virtues to make lasting impressions on my son.