Back in the good-ole days of Windows NT (circa 1998) I was a member of IT support at a large multi-national corporation. The campus I worked for was about five thousand people large.
Background: Windows 98/98/NT 4.0 had a neat little utility to send pop-up messages to specific machines. It was a front end to the net send built-in command, and messages would appear almost instantaneously on the recipient’s machine in nice little window. (Similar functionality still exists in more recent versions of Windows, but the messenger service no longer starts by default.)
So, one slow day a bunch of us were shooting the shit and getting a little rowdy. I think there were some flying objects and maybe a nerf gun involved. One of the upper-level techs, who shall remain unnamed, fired off a message to someone else: “John, look out behind you”.
Only, he didn’t get the machine name right. He broadcast it to the entire campus. 5000+ machines.
A lesser-known feature of the net send command, and therefore of the messenger utility, was the ability to message an entire workgroup or domain. To do so, you only need to specify the workgroup or domain name in the recipient box. And that’s what he did – he intended John’s machine name but the domain was the default in the box — and he forgot to change it.
Hoo boy, that was some trouble, and being a political organization it nearly took the form of someone’s-getting-fired-type trouble. It took the ‘lizard king’ email storm to finally let it die down completely. I’ll save that story for another day, when I dig the entire email chain out of archives and obfuscate some details.
We wanted — nay, we needed — a new couch. The old one is sporting a dip so deep that only the dog can curl up comfortably. (Oddly enough, come to think of it, it is slightly dog shaped. Why that little…)
We cruised the local furniture stores for months but we had a hard time agreeing on a particular style. Megh kept stopping in the local Lovesac store, though, “just to sit down for a few minutes”. I eventually got the hint that she was interested in their ‘Sactionals‘.
After much hemming and hawing, I was forced to admit that a) the furniture in the showroom is comfortable, and b) the concept — free-floating furniture that you can rearrange into chairs, couches, lounges, beds, etc. — is intriguing.
Making the Decision
We don’t currently know anyone that has anything from Lovesac. We even asked all our Facebook friends, but nothing more solid came through than some “I really want one of their fuzzy beanbags!” At $600 for a beanbag, no wonder that it remains in the want-to-have category.
That brings us to the price. Sactionals are an expensive way to get furniture. I figure that compared to a similar-quality couch that doesn’t fly apart, we’re looking at a 30% premium. Not as bad as the beanbags, but that’s still a steep price to pay for the possibility of sitting on a fabric Optimus Prime.
Lovesac’s business model seems to involve putting their showrooms into malls and other places where you might want to take a load off and sit for spell. Paying high mall rents may explain the price — that, and the novelty.
Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this blog post if this remained an expensive pipe-dream. We did indeed take the plunge and buy something.
What You’re Getting
As mentioned before, Sactional furniture comes as pieces, one of two types: bases and sides. One base and three sides makes a complete chair (or one base and one side for an armless chair); two bases and two to four sides makes a couch; and so on. Every piece also gets a removable, washable cover so you can purchase the color and fabric style you want. You can spend a little more (or a little less) on the covers to upgrade your furniture.
We purchased two bases and three sides, to make a couch with an open end (it seems more inviting that way).
We also purchased the standard cover, which is also one of the cheapest options. We liked the material more than some of the fancier velour- or velvety-type covers.
The Delivery
Your furniture is delivered via FedEx. Everything comes in flat boxes, Ikea-style, with no piece being too large for an able-bodied adult to man-handle into the house.
Our new Sactional couch post-delivery and still in boxes, with a cat for scale. The couch it’s replacing stares forlornly in the background.
We didn’t get a tracking number until the same day everything arrived, which was a little annoying. I rushed home when Meghan gave me a heads up, so it wouldn’t sit on the front step all day. At least it wasn’t raining that day.
I got everything moved inside, and drove back to work.
I’m out of work and home before Meghan, so I teased her by sending photos of the of the boxes, one at a time. She can’t stand the fact that I can wait for things.
Total time from ordering to delivery: about a week. If we had ordered fancier (custom) covers we would have had to wait longer.
The Unpacking
After dinner we got down to business. After moving the old couch to an empty corner of the house, we unpacked the first box: a base.
The cushion for the base is stuffed inside the base itself, and held in with a pair of wooden planks (well, sticks really). You have to slowly rotate each stake until it comes out. Doing so releases the cushion, which then uncovers the hardware and some instructions telling you how to remove the stakes and cushion without damaging them.
Fortunately for us the process was somewhat intuitive and we didn’t damage anything in our ignorance. We unpacked the other boxes in similar fashion. The covers come in their own box.
The Assembly
The first step was to attach feet and stick on no-scratch pads (which are included). There’s enough pads to adequately cover the “shoes,” which help connect the pieces, as well.
The instructions emphasize that getting the slipcovers on straight is very important, and it is. Getting them on at all was the hardest part of the entire process. The covers fit tightly, and there’s no “give” if you get them on crooked. We had to start over on a couple of pieces because they were obviously wrong, but when you get it right it’s just as obvious.
The pieces don’t clamp together nearly as easily as they seem to in the store. It’s probably because the floor models are taken apart and reassembled frequently, so everything stretches a little. I wouldn’t say they were difficult, but they do require a strong hand.
I was pretty satisfied with the whole assemble-your-furniture experience, but then again I like Ikea, too. I read some other reviews about assembling Sactionals, and we seem to have had one of the better experiences.
Total time, from unpacking to sitting my ass down: about 75 minutes.
The Result
Our newly-assembled Sactional couch
I’m only writing this the next day, not enough time to provide an informed opinion about longevity, but the couch feels about as comfortable as the store’s floor model — maybe a little firmer and tighter, but all new furniture does that.
It looks as good in real life as I hoped. The kids have given it their seal of approval as well.
In the picture is our Sactional couch with one of our old pillows and a Wii-mote. On the left side of the picture the wooden beam is part of our old futon, with a similarly-colored cover, facing the other way.
I’ll probably revisit this in a few months with our thoughts on it long term – worth the purchase, worth additional purchases, etc.
Alpha playing the part of one of the “thespians” in High School Musical
Shortly before the new year, Alpha surprised us by trying out for a part in drama club – High School Musical. She made it into the supporting cast.
For months she has stuck to a busy schedule of rehearsals in between school, karate, and regular activities, mostly without complaint. (though not entirely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) She tried really hard, though.
Tonight was opening night, and the whole show was fantastic – Alpha was great, but the rest of the show was great too. No disasters, not even a missed line, and the leads had really strong voices. It felt more like a high school production than middle school. Most importantly, the kids really looked like they were having fun (especially the kid who played ‘Ryan’).
Next year the high school is going to see some great singing talent come in. And Alpha? She’s talking about trying out for the next show.
Beta on the Altitude climbing wall. She dropped into the foam pit a moment after this photo was taken.
The morning after a sleepover, I took Beta, Alpha, and Alpha’s sleeping-over friend Rho to Altitude, an indoor trampoline park. (Fun fact: once upon a time they were called “jumpolines” until your mom got on one.)
They have a field of unadulterated trampolines for jumping, plus dodgeball (on trampolines), basketball layups (on trampolines), long jumps with trampolines (landing in a foam pit), climbing walls (over foam pits), and pugil sticks on a balance beam (again, falling into foam pits).
It’s pricey, as you’re charged by the half-hour and it’s $9 per person per half-hour (discounts apply for longer blocks of time). You also must bring special Altitude-branded non-skid socks or buy them for $2/pair.
It’s a really good time despite the price. I recommend not more than an hour at a time – the kids really started to flag after about 45 minutes. They slept well that night, too.
Alpha has officially taken her karate to the logical next step, and put herself on track for a black belt. This puts her into ‘Doshi Kai’, which basically means she’s not trying karate out anymore – she’s a serious student.
Here’s a segment from the promotion ceremony:
Missing from the video is me giving her the gold belt, and a short kata demonstration. Her kata are now crisp and confident.
The northeast region of the US has been in a (relative) deep freeze for weeks. Last night we bottomed out at -12° F.
Pictured is our oldest child trudging across the desolate, Hoth-like expanse that is (was?) Silver Lake. Most of the snow has blown off, leaving a crusty powder that almost, but doesn’t quite, support you.
Not pictured: the tauntaun that I split open to keep the children warm overnight.
We have a new nephew, named Kappa in this blog, so we made a road trip to Maryland to meet him (and support his parents, Tim and Kelly, for a bit). We dropped Butter off at doggie daycare, rented a minivan, packed ourselves and Baba into said van, and headed out.
Little did we know that the D.C. area was set to get the coldest temperatures of the winter (teens and single digits), and a winter’s worth of snow, while we were in town. It was almost like we never left home.
Day 0
Though the trip down could have gone less eventfully (we hit snow in New Jersey that followed us, off and on, through the rest of the day) we arrived in Frederick, MD safely and in pretty good time. It was the end of the day so we headed off to a very early bedtime after having dinner at the local pizza chain, Ledo Pizza.
Day 1: The Baby
We were in town for one reason, and one reason only: the other-other white meat. After a surprisingly-decent free breakfast at the motel we headed to the Fox residence to meet the new nibling. He wasn’t the happiest kid when he was awake and ate a lot, so no photos as that’s the only sure-fire way to avoid accidental boob shots.
Side note: right before we left town Kappa was prescribed Zantac. It’s given to babies that spit up a lot, which allows them to keep more food down. Who knew. At any rate, it’s making the niblet happier since he’s not so hungry all the time.
We had a great lunch at a local BBQ joint called CarterQue Barbeque and Grilling Company (it’s next door to a veterinarian, which just doesn’t seem right) and a great home-cooked dinner at their house.
Day 2: The Extended Family
We woke to find out that some of the hotel’s pipes had frozen overnight (due to single digit temperatures overnight). Our rooms weren’t affected, fortunately. Megh and I were on our third room and I think the staff would have been mortified if we’d had yet another problem. (The first room stank of air freshener and we immediately requested another, and the second room didn’t have a working shower as the faucet had broken before we took the room, so we moved yet again on our first morning. Kudos to the staff for handling it professionally.)
We had lunch with Meghan and Tim’s uncle, aunt, a couple of cousins, and her cousin’s children – a total of 15 people, including ourselves. It’s worth mentioning here that Meghan’s uncle Tom is a former rear admiral.
Highlights of the day include: the alpha nibling (Delta) getting his fingers caught in a stationary bicycle crank, then walking into a swing while our own Beta child was swinging; and Meghan flooding the bathroom with an overflowing toilet.
Uncle Tommy finally became talkative as we were about to head out the door, so we stayed longer than we intended, as more snow started falling, to hear his stories. The man is fascinating and we started planning another trip just to spend some time with him.
Day 3: Washington, DC In The Snow
An accidental halo over Beta’s head
Almost six inches of snow fell overnight, which pretty much closed the state. We’re old hands with the snow, however, as we’ve received record snow back home (nearly 100 inches so far, with more snow in the forecast). The federal and local governments shut down, but we bravely headed out on empty, heavily salted and therefore mostly snow-free, roads. We had the city to ourselves!
The Smithsonian only opened three museums: the Air and Space museum, the Modern Art museum, and the National Portrait Gallery. They were limited by the number of people reporting to work so they opened the museums most popular and/or easiest to staff. We never quite left the Air and Space museum, though.
Alpha has had a passing interest in World War Two history, and became deeply interested in the V2 rocket display. She also had fun in the 747 cockpit on display. (It’s the real nose of a 747 and the cockpit is available to step inside, but not to sit.)
Meghan, Baba, and Alpha watched D-Day 3D. I dislike the narrator’s voice (Tom Brokaw) and Beta child was feeling restless, so she and I headed outside to play in the snow and walk around a bit until the movie was done.
Side-Story: Baba and I sat on some benches while Meghan and the kids stopped into the gift shop, and continued an ongoing conversation about current political events. I had mentioned that I felt some congressional intransigence was due to racism against President Obama more than just typical Democratic/Republican squabbling, and our conversation continued.
Several minutes after my comment, the man next to us abruptly stood up, rudely inserted himself into the conversation by saying that not all Republicans are racist and that he really thought that Colin Powell would be the first black president, and left before we could say anything. Apparently I had hit a nerve. :/
We ended the day at Tim and Kelly’s house and some takeout chinese food. Unlike the previous day, nobody was worn out or particularly angry and we actually had time to talk.
The kids broke up their sleeping arrangement when we got back to the hotel, by deciding that they must sleep in separate rooms. Beta stayed with us and went to bed immediately, while Alpha got to stay up late watching a movie with Baba.
Day 4: Touring the Capitol Building
We returned for a second day in the capitol and sightseeing. Baba had scored a tour of the capitol building by contacting her senator, Chris Murphy, so we had a date in the early afternoon.
We rolled into town and spent some time at the museums before our tour. Meghan and the kids went to the American Indian museum (and had a great time, and a great lunch); I went to the National Gallery of Art; Baba went to the National Museum of American History.
Waiting in Senator Murphy’s office for our Capitol Building tour
We made our way to the Hart Senate Office Building in time for our tour. The congressional staff was very pleasant and professional – a pleasant counter point to the daycare center that Congress is portrayed to be.
After getting checked in we were taken though the tunnels (with a mini-subway system FTW) to the main capitol building.
Highlights of the tour include the original Supreme Court chambers, the original Senate floor, the “Whispering Room” (the original House chambers), and the atrium under the dome (currently being restored but some of the artwork is visible and is gorgeous). Though congress was not in session, we sat in the gallery for a bit.
Interesting to note: you need a ticket to visit the gallery, but the tickets remain good for the rest of the session. Our tickets were free to us. We may re-use our tickets any time for the next few months!
We also had the obligatory self-guided tour of the Capitol gift shop before heading out for the streets again.
We ended our day with dinner at Jaleo. Meghan and I discovered it on a trip to D.C. before we had kids, and were delighted when we discovered that it’s still there. They serve Spanish-style tapas in a funky-yet-hip atmosphere.
We weren’t sure what to order, as all the foods on the menu were unfamiliar to us, so we gave our server a budget and let him choose. Baba had this funny idea that our budget would be around $35 total; I had to butt in and recommend $120 for the five of us (she was shocked and glad that we were paying). The food was fantastic and well-worth the money, though I’m still not sure what I ate (though I know I wouldn’t have ordered it on my own).
The Waze app gave us a tour of the city both coming in and going out, as it routed us around traffic snarls. I don’t think I’ll go road-tripping without it again.
Day 5: Heading Home
Heading home was mostly uneventful, as all such trips should be. The Delaware “tax” was limited to tolls – on nearly every other trip there’s some kind of bad highway situation in Delaware to make the expensive tolls even more painful.
Baba showed distrust in technology and thought that the estimated arrival time that Waze provided was much too optimistic. She loudly doubted the suggested route around Baltimore (taking I-495 South to I-95, instead of taking I-495 North to I-95 which the traffic map showed to be a parking lot). When Waze suggested the Lincoln Tunnel would be faster, Baba offered a bet that it was wrong; when Waze later changed the route again (all long before leaving the New Jersey turnpike) she welshed on the wager.
The wager came and went as we made our way through the city – Waze found an interesting way to get us from the turnpike to the Merritt Parkway, but we arrived at Baba’s house a couple of minutes sooner than the original estimate – just over six hours from door to door, while bypassing some bad traffic snarls.
After dropping off the rental car and retrieving Butter from doggie daycare we made the rest of our way home. We made it in the door an hour before bedtime, with the house still standing and the kitties very glad to see us.
It’s too cold for playing outside – even sledding isn’t any fun today – so the girls made a fort in the living room where they could watch movies on a tablet.
