Furniture Meltdown

Easy to assemble my ass!!! The Harrington chair from Furniture at Work (one of the pieces I bought at Office Depot) is an absolute nightmare. I've been struggling with it for two days, trying not to tear the upholstery while forcing bolts into holes they really don't fit. The ONLY way to get anything to fit is to put the chair sideways on the floor, and since I don't have carpet it's getting all scratched up before I even take a seat. Highly disappointed.

I haven't taken my desk out of the box yet -- I might just return everything if this damn chair doesn't work.

I'm going back up to school tomorrow to work on about a million little things, and hopefully get my office organized before the semester starts. I want to be ready to roll when I 'officially' start work on Monday.

My diet is going so-so. I started using DietPower software again because it tracks nutrition, not just calories or fat. I've discovered again, as I discover every time I use the software, that I'm not getting enough of a bunch of stuff, including potassium, dietary fiber, sugar(!), calcium, iron, vitamin D . . . looks like it's time to invest in a good multivitamin again. How fun. I wish I wasn't so picky about them -- I want a one-a-day solution, not a "with every meal," but I want it to make up for all the dietary inadequacies possible. The best vitamin I found was a Whole Foods vitamin, but it was a FOUR-a-day solution. Yeah, right.

(8:17)

Damn it, I hate this chair. It's assembled, but it tilts forward. Just what I need, a chair that wants to pitch me out on contact. I'll have to tense my muscles just to stay in the fucker.

I'm starting to think the Office Depot guy ordered the wrong one. I remember the chair at the store being ugly but comfortable. This chair isn't all that ugly. And the chair at the store looked like it had a cushion sitting on top of it, but this one doesn't.

Great. Now I have to deal with a return, and they probably won't return it because the order shows one thing, even though I ordered another. Damn, I just checked their website. My chance of getting a refund are nil.

(11:30)

Grrr. This evening has gone from bad to worse. I decided to start assembling the desk, but the box was so heavy I had to open it in the hallway, and then carry all the pieces to the study for assembly. Worst of all, the desktop was so heavy I couldn't get it to budge. It's still in the entry.

Desperate for SOMETHING to go right, I decided to install the GFCI outlets I purchased months ago. I finally managed to get the power turned off correctly, and then unscrewed the face plate, only to find out that the outlet underneath doesn't have simple wires wrapped around screws, the way I expected. Instead it has little slots on the back. I called Dad and found out I shoud wiggle, pull, and twist to get the wires out of the outlet. Barring that I should cut the wire. Well, as I expected, wiggling didn't work. And after cutting the damn things I didn't have any bare wire to work with. And no, I don't own a wire stripper.

Off to Wal-Mart. I made it back, stripper in hand, and struggled to strip. As expected, I wasn't highly successul, but eventually the coating came off. The next step is to get the bare wire in a C shape, and then get the wire looped around the screw on the outlet. (Strippers and screws -- is this a man's vocabulary, or what?)

It's absolutly impossible to do. The wire just won't go where I need it to go. I've given up. This evening SUCKS! Let's hope I can get something accomplished at work tomorrow to make up for it.