Kitchen

K-Pop pulled a near all-nighter yesterday assembling K-bao's new KidKraft Large Play Kitchen, shown above. Admittedly, a part of it had to do with K-Pop's circles of competence, which pointedly do not include arts, crafts, engineering, woodwork, furniture or any related subjects. Perhaps other contributors to the plodding pace were the multiple episodes of the latest season of 24 playing in the background and the couple glasses of red wine.

But in K-Pop's defense, the KidKraft instructions clearly countenance the high possibility of irritation, vexation and ill-humor on the part of the customer while assembling this product. In fact, the instructions start off by saying, "Before getting frustrated and returning the product...PLEASE LET US HELP!" (emphasis in original). Indeed, the "please let us help" part is then repeated 3 times in bold and large font. Never a good sign when the manufacturer assumes that its products will lead to exasperation and abandonment.

K-Pop found himself asking throughout the evening how many years K-bao would need to play with the product to make this initial grunt labor worthwhile. The number bumped up as the night went on. By the time the last screw went in, K-Pop was planning play dates for the little one and her kitchen through the end of 6th grade.

This morning K-bao woke up to her brand new kitchen and played with it for 3 straight hours. Good start. 9 years to go.