Meet Gracie!

As noted, Barry arrived home from Brazil in the very early morning after all night flight. After working for a few hours, he helpfully agreed to drive me to IKEA. IKEA is in Sunrise, about 50 miles north. For the Prius, its a $5 Drive. For the van, $10...

Why, why why am I returning to IKEA after it stole years off my life in Chicago two weeks ago? OHHH, you don't know about that do you? No, it's not in the blog...yet! I started writing about moving Amy to Chicago, and it turned into pages and pages. Let's just say that after moving Amy's current possessions (which filled my van and the "turtle" on top) into her apartment, we then went to IKEA and re-filled the van with do-it-yourself assembly furniture, baskets, kitchen items, and curtains and moved THESE new possessions into said apartment.

The Chicago IKEA is in Shaumburg, about an hour from Hyde Park, Amy's neighborhood. After we had unloaded her new items, we discovered that the curtain rod was too short (do NOT ask me why we didn't measure. DO NOT!) and one of the dining chair covers was a bar stool cover. Now this was NOT my fault. The bar stool cover was in the dining chair bin (If you've never been to IKEA, many items are on display in the showroom, and then the shopper picks them up in particular aisle/bin/shelf warehouse storage). I acknowledge that it might have been prudent to check all the packaging, but we didn't so do NOT judge me! Since it was late in the evening, a return to IKEA trip was out of the question.

I brought home her receipt and the cover and rod. After ascertaining that my IKEA did indeed have the desired dining chair covers in stock (I'm learning!), we drove in to make the exchange. This went smoothly, and Barry and I only spent an additional $150 buying items we don't need. IKEA is like Sam's Club - you go in with the best of intentions and a well-thought out list, but in the end, you always end up spending $100 or more. It's just the way it is.

On the drive, Barry got a call from a guy doing some work for us on our Clearwater condo. Barry was told to call a woman named Francie to pay for a cabinet. Even though he called immediately, he suffered from an old-brain episode and asked, "May I please speak to Gracie?"

The woman responded, "There's no one here by that name - I'm Francie."

Barry replies - WITHOUT ANY HESITATION - "Oh, my fault! Gracie is my grandchild and I was just speaking to her."

WHAT? I have a grandchild and no one told me! AND Barry's been chatting with her behind my back!? I am hiring a P.I. to find this unknown child and satisfy my granny-lust once and for all!

I haven't seen Barry lie very often, and when he does, he does it very poorly. IF this was a lie, he did it darn well, and with little necessity! Suspicious, suspicious...

I recently discovered that a stained glass box I had for years is missing - all that's left is the lace doilie it rested on to prevent it from scratching the living room table. Everyone denies knowledge of the demise of said box. I suppose they are all going to deny knowledge of Gracie as well!

Never fear! This is JUST like an episode of Burn Notice. I'm hiring Michael Weston (on the show, he lives in Miami) to find my Gracie AND my box!