When I first walked into the IKEA (eeek-ayyy-aaah for the snobs*) store I was blown away. First, by the designs, then by the prices. IKEA being a Scandinavian company features European designs for people on a budget. Comparing an IKEA design with a clunky American design, there i(wa)s never any doubt in my mind which one I would pick up.

Until recently, all our shopping at IKEA was from the kitchen and bathroom sections, we never bought any big furniture. The kitchen stuff is amazing, I've been using frying pans, plates and bowls, cutlery, bar and stemware, candles, shower curtains, tablecloths for a few years now with no problems. And the prices and designs just CANNOT be beat.

Recently we decided to buy some beds. We're renting, and I'm one of those who buy something and regret it almost instantly, so buying $1000+ beds for a house we didnt even have yet was really out of the question. Of course we decided to go IKEA! Mostly because the beds were cheap, were in designs that were modern, came in black so they would match our overall decor and were just very elegant to look at.

So, we chose the IKEA Hemnes (~$299) bed frame for the master bedroom and the cheaper MALM (~$129) bed frame for the guest bedroom. Assembly was pretty easy, in fact BigB and I were awed by it, the design seemed so clean cut. The bed was held together with some slightly flexible metal rods (so that when we were done, the metal rods looked like a diamond within the rectangle of the frame). Marvelling that this was all that was needed to hold the bed together, we put the rest of the stuff in place. Duh!!

That was 3 months ago. Last night, as I sat on the side of the bed I heard a hideous crack followed by a vision of my papaya legs waving in the air. The darned thing had fallen apart!!!! And, it WASNT because of me ... I'm NOT overweight. Besides the embarassment, I think I'm angrier at myself, since when did something cheap ever mean good quality and how many times have I drummed that into my head these past couple of years.

So there! New resolution made, no more furniture buying at IKEA and no more browsing thru the showroom section at the store in case I severely test my new-found resolve. Oh, and if you are ever a guest at my house, you know what's in store for you, right ??? You cant say I never warned you .....

* how you can be a snob about a store for cheap furniture beats me, but live and learn ...

So Aaron won the Next Food Network Star finale last night. I was cackling when someone (Susie?) mentioned Big Daddy's Kitchen was a unique idea for FN. No, really, Guy's Big Bite has spiky-haired loon, this guy is bald!

Dont have much against Aaron, he is absolutely approachable and his food makes me drool even though I wouldnt eat half of what he cooks (clogged arteries anyone?), but his TV personality is so blah. I really hope his show is better, but, yet again, it's going to be NOTHING new and this is just what FN needs in their lineup.

I am tired of seeing all my fav in-the-kitchen shows pushed to daytime slots when I cant watch them and the evenings filled with overhyped stars and their over-exposed reality-format shows.

Lisa had an amazing pilot, I've really warmed up to her these past couple of weeks and I wanted to cook that fish and leeks recipe. Maybe not the unpronounceable, unspellable yolk sauce (at least show us the name of the dish, would love to know how to spell zabaglione(?) ), but she has tons of creativity and I would just tune in to see what she was wearing.

And Adam's was the pilot I genuinely liked the most, he was so at ease and had so much fun with it. Didnt feel like the audience laughs for his segment were scripted (really, what was up with them laughing their guts off, BigB and I were so weirded out). Adam was of course, sabotaged by Bobby Flay hating him - watch the Vegas buffet when he's in line for Adam's food, his expression speaks volumes.

Anyway, I had the inkling that Aaron was going to win when he fell flat on his face in the Vegas challenge and the judges pushed him through to the finale anyway. The rationale was that they couldnt kick off a consistent performer which to Aaron;s credit he had been so far, but if they had been true to their show they would have kicked off the non-performer that week.

And they didnt. Which meant that they had pre-determined the winner all along. And, they didnt mention at the start of the season that there was no audience poll either. Which means that I just spent abt 9 weeks wasting my time.

Grrr .... But, what will I watch next Sunday night?? :(