It keeps snowing outside, and I think someone forgot to tell the winter gods that we have enough snow already. Because there are piles and piles of it, and it's getting quite ridiculous. Did you know that it's summer in New Zealand now? Well, it is. Those lucky, lucky bastards.

Ikea got me again. And this time, I even came properly prepared. But they still got me.

What happened? Well, usually when I assemble furniture from Ikea I make some sort of fatal, and stupid, mistake, and I have to take things apart and put them back together again. Or I'm missing a crucial tool. Or something breaks. In two. Or I get really, really angry and give up. Hey, I'm a writer, not a carpenter. Anyway, this time I came prepared. I had everything ready. I read the instructions first (and not afterwards, as I usually do). I took it slowly. After all, I had the entire afternoon. And everything did go swimmingly. Until I raised the cabinet from the floor and realised that I'd nailed the back wall on the wrong way around...with close to thirty nails.

I wasn't in a mood to pull it off and nail it back on, however, so it's going to have to stay that way. And while it's not a catastrophe, it's horribly annoying, because this always happens with Ikea furniture. I think that's their insidious Swedish plan - to annoy the world. They ought to include a carpenter in the package.  ¶ 22:38