Current Mood : Happy and relaxed
Man, what a day. I was on my way to an 8am yard sale about 9 or so, figuring they might need extra set-up time. Boy, did they. I got there, and there were a few stuffed animals and baby items set out, and a couple boxes of clothes. And about a dozen empty tables. Huh. The seller kept going in and out of the house, along with her really old mother, and they spoke something other than English, French, or Spanish between them. I asked about boys' clothes, and she brought out a box of mostly 4T items, much too small for Dearest Son. I have no idea what happened to the Barbies the ad mentioned, when I asked about those, I got a blank look, and none ever appeared. Her two daughters watched every move I made, why, I haven't a clue. It's not like I could steal anything valuable.
I just wanted to leave, so I decided on a shirt I doubted Dearest would ever choose to wear - sincerely, a long-sleeved mesh shirt ? - a musical doll I didn't much like, and a stuffed lamb in an outfit maybe the LDPs could wear. $5. was a bit much, but I was ready to go already. But, guess what, seller had no change. Not even for a $10. Her husband was due home from setting up signs, and he'd be around any minute, maybe he'd have some. Well, I walked around some more, trying to avoid the daughters' tracking skills but failing miserably, for ten minutes, and finally put stuff down and left. I knew once I got in the truck, I wasn't going for change, I was going home. And I didn't even really want the stuff I picked out. I felt sorry for them, and miffed that I dragged my big azz all the way across town for nothing. Once on my way, I felt relief that I hadn't spent that five bucks.
After breakfast, I went out again, this time with the culled DVDs. I could trade ‘em for store credit at a chain video/book/game store. But first, I wanted rice crackers from Target, and participate a bit in the ‘last Saturday before Christmas' madness. I hope that next year, someone clips me upside the head when I come up with such a stupidly romantic and completely ridiculous notion. What a zoo. I ended up getting a cart for personal defense - my big hips were targeted by every other d*mned idiot in the store pushing a red, half-filled crap wagon. They were too busy debating what Teighylorre and Brytiannye really wanted for Christmas - especially since the overpriced plastic on their lists had been sold out since before Halloween.
The rice crackers had gone up from $5.50 to $8., so I won't be getting those any more. I wouldn't have bought them today, but I was geared up for ‘em. I found chopsticks and white cheddar cheese popcorn seasoning on markdown, so I got those too. Thank Everything I parked down at the cell phone store, or I'd probably still be waiting to get out of my parking space.
Heather at the video store was so nice - we got over $35. in credit, so I got the 20th Anniversary edition of A Christmas Story, as Beloved Hubby suggested. I also snagged a Wall-E coloring book and a Tale of Despereaux storybook as small bonus gifts for Dearest. And I still had more than $7. in credit left ! I'd been in there over an hour, looking at books and toys and magazines.
I then had another stupid idea - hey, let's visit Big Lots ! <clip!> If anything, they were busier than Target. Overheard parents discussing a fluffy pink dress-up gift for their daughter, especially Mom's comment that she'd love the fake fingernails. When Dad asked how they attached, she said it was double-sided tape. Dad advocated stronger adhesive, but Mom exclaimed, ‘There is NO WAY I am letting you put super-glue on our three-year-old's fingers !'. With that, I decided I'd had enough. Snagged two boxes of the gingerbread men we all like and hit the registers - behind the world's most tenacious discount shopper.
Somehow, she'd found one shirt marked $4., then two more marked $6. - then ask if all the shirts were $4. The bored, hired-yesterday cashier was not even gonna go out on a limb for her, and said he had to go with what they rang up as, which was, guess what, one at $4. and two at $6. Did she want them ? We all had to stand there as she decided. Then, after she shoved the rejected items into the snack display, she hauled up three blankets...
The fourth time she did so, I decided to just bag it. We didn't need cookies that badly - and she had a cartload of crap for her ongoing game of ‘Is The Price Right ?' that I was just unwilling to play studio audience for any longer. If she'd bought half of it, she had about $300. worth of stuff. But they opened another register, and I wasn't in that line long. Just long enough to watch another customer open a kids' play-kitchen cabinet, and have the door come off in her hand. It was worth it to see her with the door hanging by the hook in her fingers, looking around frantically for some idea of what to do with it. And I got the damned cookies. Looking behind me, I saw the door get shoved into another playset and the discount freedom fighter going for another round with some thermal underwear. Idly, I wondered what the impulse purchase area of that register looked like by now...
Once home, we watched Christmas Story and I ate half the jar of rice crackers. Bliss.
Went out on a bid with Beloved in the afternoon, and got tasty, delicious coffee on the way home. And Chinese for supper. While tooling around online, I found the ‘Star Princess' paper dolls on a photo hosting website. I'd been wanting a set of those on my computer for a while, so I set out to download ‘em. And I couldn't. They flat wouldn't, unless I asked the album's owner to be my ‘friend'. Ugh. So I fired up PaintShopPro, and unleashed the mighty power of screen-grabs on ‘em. Twenty minutes later, I had that set, a Ballerina Barbie set, and several Disney Princess ones. Digging further on the host site, I found many, many paper doll sets, all just waiting for me to hit a few keys and have my own copy that won't vanish or get thrown off the site. Was up much too late, but there's now 85 new images on the ole hard drive, and I love each and every one of ‘em. I'll probably spend most of tomorrow downloading more. I just love freebies !
Checked several bookstores, and have found all of one calendar I like. If it's half-price after New Year's, I'll consider it, but otherwise, I have a Mal-Wart pharmacy freebie, and I'll either make my own calendars, or I'll tack new date grids to last year's. It's ridiculous how expensive those things are. And I haven't really found any I'd really cross the street to get. Surprisingly, most of the usual haunts for cheap date keepers - Dollar Tree, Dollar General - have sold out of their buck specials already. Love it when people new to the sport think that spending 99c on a calendar is sooo frugal.
Surprisingly, Target still has about a dozen Barbie advent calendars. At full price ! I may pop by, either the 24th or the 26th, but they still have Halloween dolls for $9.99 !
It's funny. Our family Christmas is so low-key, I feel like the holidays are over when school lets out. About all I have going on for the rest of the year is cleaning house and putting up the tree. Oh, and wrapping up a few things !
And, forgot to mention - the ‘Melody' doll lot arrived yesterday. Just haven't had time to open the box ! Here's hoping I'll find time tomorrow !
