Remember that time we met on a Sunday night at Ikea for like 20 minutes?  You were wearing maroon pants and a black shirt, and I was wearing maroon pants and a black shirt?  Was it a dream?  Did it really happen?

Things have been crazy at our real jobs, and at the last minute we each got a little breathing room.  Mera flew down to Portland on a whim to surprise her sister for her birthday.  Serendipitously, Katie and her friend Kori had plans to drive up to Portland for a whirlwind Ikea trip to help outfit the Chamber of Secrets. And so we met, over a steaming plate of veggie meatballs, in the Ikea cafe.

Mera had just come back from camping with her sister and friends for the weekend.  After unloading the car and dropping Opal off with her sister, she braved the Portland traffic (and the woefully inaccurate iPhone map that led both her and Katie to the departures gate of PDX instead of Ikea).

Time was short, but we – evidently wearing the RHW uniform – managed to faux-blog at the Ikea computers for the sake of the camera.

We checked out the Ikea light fixtures on Katie’s Chamber of Secrets list.  Check back in two weeks to find out if she chose this one! (Pretty much the best cliffhanger since The Italian Job, right?)

Katie also investigated a few couch options for one of the rooms in her house she hasn’t shared on the blog yet – the TV room.  Mera, ever helpful, did a TV-watching test drive.

Mera didn’t have anything specific on her Ikea list, but managed nonetheless to leave the store (literally 45 minutes after arriving) with a suitcase full of stuff.

Only a mother’s love could make Mera extricate herself from the Scandi-Labrynth (and Katie’s loving arms) after such a short time.  Katie and Kori emerged hours later, disoriented and blinking mole-like into the setting sun.  Ikea is not unlike a casino–no natural light, no clocks, and yet everything you could ever need in one place.

It was such a brief and dream-like moment together, it almost doesn’t seem real.  We’ll be back to our normal lives and regularly scheduled programming next week!