A Quest to Find Conservatory Furniture and the Cyclone/Hawkeye Game

Well to start things off you have to realize that yes in the UK lots of people have conservatories...just like in the game Clue, but our is more like a 4 seasons room. Also when it comes to British vocabulary...you pronouce conservatory all jumbled up like "con-serv-a-tree"...sounds kind of like conserving a tree. Anyway I started with the yellow pages, which is almost impossible to find anything in because they call everything something different. So being the techno junkie I am I went to the internet to look for places that sold such furniture and I found two that were close by. My first place was called "Wicker World"...to me it sounded like that RV place in Pontiac, IL - "RV World". It took me a while to find the place because it was out in the middle of no where and my Sat Nav put it next to a pig farm, but I actually ended up calling the place and found it down the road. From the looks of the place I didn't know what to expect, but they had some really nice and modern looking pieces and the sales chap was very nice and helped me load up Addie's push chair (stroller) in the car. I checked out a second place that was hidden back in a scary looking building. What they had really reminded me of one of the "Golden Girls" sitcom episodes. I told the salesman that looking at wicker furniture reminded me of Florida and he asked me "Why?" in a curious manner. I said it reminded me of old retired people who live in Florida that have those tropical prints on the super light and shiny cane type furniture. I don't think he really understood since most Brits seem to think of Florida as sandy beaches and Disney World. Kevin went back to Wicker World with me on Saturday and we picked out a pretty nice set which should be in around 3-6 weeks. When we got home from shopping we fixed up some hot dogs and taco dip and sat around the computer to listen to our favorite Iowa State Cyclones beat the tar out of the Iowa Hawkeyes. It was great to listen to some familiar sounds of home and listening to the commericals was even weirder...an American accent instead of British...it was great.