I didn't know West Elm had stores! I thought they were web/catalog only. I love their stuff.

[eta: Uh-oh -- according to their website, they've got 2 in NYC, and both are within easy subway/walking distance from me. Crap.]

West Elm is *very* close to my apartment, but has been still too expensive for the impulse buy.

I guess it's a bad idea to get a bed there, hmm?

Our bed and mattress are both from IKEA.

I really like the mattress (it's an all-foam one), and the bed's okay. Just avoid the pressboard ones.

Things IKEA does well: mattresses; kitchen cabinets; rugs; glassware; the Poang chair; those weird square cheap coffee tables (mine's been very abused, and has held up nicely).

Their dressers always seemed flimsy to me, which is why when we finally got dressers this year (they just came yesterday!), we went to one of those all wood places instead.

I like West Elm stuff a lot, but I can't help feeling it's too expensive for what it is. I.e., way more expensive than IKEA for stuff that looks marginally better than IKEA.

Oh, Plei, the mattresses are good? That's an enormous relief to me, as what the boy is going to IKEA for is a new mattress.

Why do we make stuff that is crappy now? Why can't we make stuff that is good? It sucks to make stuff that is crappy.

Of my "nice" furniture, I have two lovely oak shelves that my dad & I made when I was a teenager that are gorgeous and sturdy and withstand everything including teenager abuse and desert levels of low humidity, and a set of cherry coffee and end tables that my parents had made by some Amish dude that are also gorgeous and sturdy and finished on the top and bottom.

All the rest of my furniture is either crap or was bought at the thrift store. Although some of the thrift store stuff is quite nice. And that reminds me that I need some dining room chairs. I wonder if the thrift store has any. I wonder what hours they're open tonight, because I'm going to have some time to kill before and after the SO's jazz band concert tonight.

We have some of the Sauer and O'Sullivan bookcases and my computer desk. The bookcases *work*, but I really hate them. The best furniture we have would be considered "antiques", but it's really just hand-me-downs, solid woods and sturdy frames. I so envy a friend who has a gigantor bookshelf unit in her living room--solid wood, that she found with about five coats of paint on it, stacked full of paint cans and tools in her dad's workshop. She stripped it and stained it and finished it with a rubbed-wax finish, and it is glorious.

Back to flirting vs. hitting on for a minute (I'm catching up, sue me). My cat flirts, and he doesn't want to get busy, he just wants attention. Babies flirt, for the same reason. And my 97-year-old mother, when I take her to the doctor's office, or anywhere in public where she gets attention from new people, she flirts the same way.

In sum, I tend to think of flirting as a non-threatening method of securing a tacit promise of non-aggression from a more dominant individual. "I'm harmless and cute, see? Don't eat me."

Oh, Plei, the mattresses are good? That's an enormous relief to me, as what the boy is going to IKEA for is a new mattress.

The high-end foam ones seem to be. I asked some friends of the family, who've had their mattress for five years, and they're pretty happy with it. That tipped me over into IKEA for when we upsized.

After the disaster that was our last (Serta and not cheap) mattress, I swore off anything with springs.

Why do we make stuff that is crappy now? Why can't we make stuff that is good? It sucks to make stuff that is crappy.

Rising cost of materials.

Good, good. We figured that even if it didn't last that long, the IKEA was so much cheaper than Serta etc. that it would be OK.

I increasingly realize how much I lucked out with my mattress and boxspring. I bought them used, but in pristine condition (lucky thing #1 -- what was I thinking??). Only $100 and they're still great, seven or eight years later.