Metrolink to Burbank
Click here to see the train we left Palmdale on.
It was a gorgeous fall day, cool and clear, so we decided to take the Metrolink, a commuter train line that services LA's suburbs. The Antelope Valley line runs over the San Gabriel mountains to Lancaster and Palmdale. We live in Lancaster, but left from Palmdale's Transportation Center because it's likely to be a better place to have a car parked all day.
The trip through the Soledad Canyon is really pretty.
You can't really see here, but this is an animal sanctuary with lions and tigers and bears (oh my).
Burbank is styled after Disney's MGM Studios theme park in Orlando.
We wanted to see The Great Indoors, a home decorating and design store that we had only seen once before on a trip to Ohio back in ought two.
I lived in a dorm back then, so we were just dreaming about decorating a home. It's a store that has all the appliances (like $6000 fridges that are displayed in pairs that are intended to go together) and slate tiles and bathroom fixtures. It's cool, but not as cool as we remember it from Ohio.
It caters to those with taste as well as those who would go and do some stupid bulls*** like this.
Then we went to Ikea, a store that does the same things as The Great Indoors, except exclusively for people who would go and do something like what is shown above and are college student or just left a 20 year marriage and want to date college students.
They have things there like this sofa.
It costs about $300 and is targeted to sororities, as far as I can tell. Can you imagine this fuzzy couch after just three weeks in a college dorm? The ramen noodles crusted into the fur, the makeup stains from when Rhoda had to crash there, and the stains after the night Gina learned how to make Cosmopolitans? Ewe.
Ikea is Swedish, from what I remember, so they specialize in making things cheap, ugly, and uncomfortable. Like this.
GAWWWD! What are these people thinking? But Ikea is a good company who is making profits all over the world, even in Long Island. But the closest Ikeas are either in Ottawa or Toronto for most of our readers. Canadians love this stuff. But they also love hockey, so don't go rushing to Ottawa.
They have all sorts of household items at Ikea, even sporks. It's Kelly's half of a new American Gothic.
Guess what stupid crap people will buy if you package it?
That's not a brand name for cologne. That's a product description. You can buy designer gravel for $9.00. Or you can throw $9.00 into the sink disposal and walk outside and grab some rocks. It's your choice, the result's the same. No, not really, the rocks shown here are taxed, so it's like throwing $9.85 down the disposal and knowing that $.85 of that will somehow come back to haunt you and make your life more difficult with some new law.
When I see things like this, I think that a year from now, when the dollar will be worth 1/10th what it is today and we're all crying for the Amero to be implemented, just like they want us to, that maybe we all deserve what's coming. Because if we're willing to trade nine dollars for a few inert rocks, we don't think much of our dollars.
We rushed back to the station for the 4:26 train, which, like the morning train in Palmdale, showed up eerily on time.
Click here to see the train we went back to Palmdale on
It was a gorgeous fall day, cool and clear, so we decided to take the Metrolink, a commuter train line that services LA's suburbs. The Antelope Valley line runs over the San Gabriel mountains to Lancaster and Palmdale. We live in Lancaster, but left from Palmdale's Transportation Center because it's likely to be a better place to have a car parked all day.
The trip through the Soledad Canyon is really pretty.
You can't really see here, but this is an animal sanctuary with lions and tigers and bears (oh my).
Burbank is styled after Disney's MGM Studios theme park in Orlando.
We wanted to see The Great Indoors, a home decorating and design store that we had only seen once before on a trip to Ohio back in ought two.
I lived in a dorm back then, so we were just dreaming about decorating a home. It's a store that has all the appliances (like $6000 fridges that are displayed in pairs that are intended to go together) and slate tiles and bathroom fixtures. It's cool, but not as cool as we remember it from Ohio.
It caters to those with taste as well as those who would go and do some stupid bulls*** like this.
Then we went to Ikea, a store that does the same things as The Great Indoors, except exclusively for people who would go and do something like what is shown above and are college student or just left a 20 year marriage and want to date college students.
They have things there like this sofa.
It costs about $300 and is targeted to sororities, as far as I can tell. Can you imagine this fuzzy couch after just three weeks in a college dorm? The ramen noodles crusted into the fur, the makeup stains from when Rhoda had to crash there, and the stains after the night Gina learned how to make Cosmopolitans? Ewe.
Ikea is Swedish, from what I remember, so they specialize in making things cheap, ugly, and uncomfortable. Like this.
GAWWWD! What are these people thinking? But Ikea is a good company who is making profits all over the world, even in Long Island. But the closest Ikeas are either in Ottawa or Toronto for most of our readers. Canadians love this stuff. But they also love hockey, so don't go rushing to Ottawa.
They have all sorts of household items at Ikea, even sporks. It's Kelly's half of a new American Gothic.
Guess what stupid crap people will buy if you package it?
That's not a brand name for cologne. That's a product description. You can buy designer gravel for $9.00. Or you can throw $9.00 into the sink disposal and walk outside and grab some rocks. It's your choice, the result's the same. No, not really, the rocks shown here are taxed, so it's like throwing $9.85 down the disposal and knowing that $.85 of that will somehow come back to haunt you and make your life more difficult with some new law.
When I see things like this, I think that a year from now, when the dollar will be worth 1/10th what it is today and we're all crying for the Amero to be implemented, just like they want us to, that maybe we all deserve what's coming. Because if we're willing to trade nine dollars for a few inert rocks, we don't think much of our dollars.
We rushed back to the station for the 4:26 train, which, like the morning train in Palmdale, showed up eerily on time.
Click here to see the train we went back to Palmdale on
I am guessing that most of your readers aren't hard-core readers who get notices about updates via the RSS feed like I do, but I, for one, am really enjoying the way you change the title of the blog every day. My bloglines has maybe 40-50 blog titles in it, and every day when I scan it whatever crazy thing you've come up with always sticks out and makes me click on it. I can only assume that's part of the goal.
When we were in Baltimore last weekend, we could have gone for a ride on the B&O Railroad. How cool would that have been? We ran out of time for it, though, alas.
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But I LIKE IKEA! Does that make me a bad person? And a furry couch sounds like heaven. Hrmpf. Maybe I am bad...
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We love Ikea too. Have you actually bought anything there? We've been to the one in Toronto, possibly twice, and the one in Ottawa once, and now the one in Burbank. The only things we've ever bought are some gross meatballs in gravy on noodles and some brandy snifters. The snifters were the only color that they carry that doesn't make me want to vomit, clear.
The couch looks sort of cool, but though it costs $300, it feels like it cost a lot less.
Adrienne, the RSS feed thing is a delightful surprise for me. I really only wanted people to look over someone's shoulder who has the site up and think, "is she really searching for Air Supply's greatest hits?"
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There is an Ikea in New Jersey, near the Newark airport. There are public bus lines that run between there and Port Authority in NYC. I personally don't like Ikea, but I get why people here like going there: lots of cheap stuff to help organize small spaces.
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They had one display that was called "Living in 400 sq. ft." I've done it and can tell you that is isn't easy.
They have some great ideas for drawers and small kitchens, but the styles are so ugly and the furniture is so uncomfortable. I also don't really like the way you have to go through the display floor, then enter the warehouse to purchase things. It's like if Walmart were a maze. I sincerely hope and Ikea never catches fire during business hours, because no one would know where to go to get out. And all that particle board, plastic, and nylon would be rather toxic burning.
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I couldn't view the train but am wondering if it is the same one that went through Carlsbad. Papa and I stayed there for a week one T'giving. Wanted to take the train to town, but it would have been too much walking for Papa and then it was a long time before the return train. We drove up to see the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove per Papa's request. He was thrilled. We also went to the Ikea store to window shop. Lots of my friends in Tucson shopped there & I was curious. It was overwhelming with all the departments. It was near LA. Don't know if you went to a different one or not.
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I promise that I will brush my hair and put make-up on before our next adventure. I don't appear to be camera-ready in these photos, but Chuck still loves them. He's weird.
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Why don't you grab the camera and start taking his picture as well?
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Ok, so if you are seriously considering becoming a homeowner, you'll need to do something else with your $9.00. Throwing any paper product down a garbage disposal will gum it all up and will end up costing you about $60/hour and a view of one large plumber's butt crack, plus the $9.
Of course, you'll probably try to fix it yourself so it will end up costing Kelly the view of YOUR butt crack, three hours of swearing, the purchase of a new disposal after you've ruined the gummed up one, plus a probable trip to the hospital for your mangled hand, plus $60/hour for the real plumber, plus HIS butt crack, plus the $9.
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You are totally on with this JJ. Very funny.
The Gravel product makes me think of some of the ridiculous boutiques I sometimes see around NYC. Heather and I joke about them. We take on a German accent and pretend we work at a store called "Shoe" which is one of those stark white rooms with five or six sales people and only four actual items in the entire store, all of which are highly conceptual and black. We passed one the other day called "Stuff."
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Sorry Jeffrey, but did anyone else picture Christine during her college years on that couch??
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I totally thought of the same thing. And with memories of two different apartments this could have been in. Yuck.
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Mom and Dad had an actual sleeper sofa that they lent me for our college apartment...and then wanted BACK after. Ewwwwww. Luckily, it never did make it off the porch once it went home.
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Why are you up so late, Chaley?
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Not up so late, up so early. Were you still up when you replied????
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Someone should note how early I get up these days.
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Yeah, I didn't get to sleep until 6am.
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And you are up again already. Yikes!
And Chuck, we are very proud of you!
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Actually, I realized that Chuck's time here is Pacific Coast Time, so the hours are 3 hours back of EST. I was in bed by 6am and up again at 11am EST.
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I would not want to be there
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