friday, part 1

so today . . .  we went to our first angels game of the season.  it was so much fun!  we were so excited!!

and then our tax return popped into our bank account...

"let's go get a tv!" rollie said.

the first time rollie walked into our new house, before we knew it was going to be our new house, he said it knew it was the right one.  he said he just knew it when he walked in the door.  i sort of think he knew it when he saw the gigantic tv on the wall in the family room!  of course that tv did not come with the house, but i know rollie has had visions of a huge tv in that spot ever since that day.

but big tvs are expensive, and not in our operating budget.  income tax returns however, can sometimes cover non-budgeted and non-essential items like big tvs.  so the minute that return hit our bank account, rollie was ready to go.

i, of course, was a little slower to get with the program.  i kept thinking about all the other things we could do with that money.  rollie kept saying, no we couldn't, the money was for a tv--we had agreed.  and he couldn't understand why i wasn't more excited about it, since it was going in the family room which is where i watch most of my tv.  really, this tv was for me!

uh huh...

so off we went.  but our time was limited, because we had a baseball game to go to!!

he wanted to go to costco.  i wanted to go to walmart.  we decided to check out walmart first, then go to costco, then make a decision.  this is the way i shop.  it is not the way rollie shops, but for some reason, today he agreed to my methodology.  which turned out to be a blessing and a curse...

when we got to walmart, it looked like they were clearing out all their tvs!  the tv wall was half empty!  we had decided to get the biggest led tv we could afford.  it probably wouldn't be as big as we wanted, but we didn't have thousands of dollars to spend, so we would have to be content with what we could get!  we found a couple of possibilities to keep in mind as we went to costco.  and then, as we were walking out of the electronics department, we found a 59 inch plasma tv on sale for a ridiculously low price!  i whipped out my phone and started researching online.  rollie whipped out his phone and scanned the upc code.  his way was faster, and in a couple of minutes he discovered that this tv was selling for less than half of its suggested retail price!  bargain!  bargain!!  bargain!!!  but we showed great restraint, walked away, and went to costco to compare.

costco had a lot of tvs, but the one we would have wanted was about $400 more than the one at walmart.  we debated between plasma and led.  we debated the difference in price.  i did some more online comparisons, and we finally decided to get the one at walmart... if it was still there.

and it was.  now we were excited!  we paid for the tv, declined the three year extended warranty, and waited for a store employee to bring the big rolling cart so we could get that thing home!  rollie kept saying, "we are going to have to call diandra and have her come pick us up in the rodeo.  this will never fit in the prius!"  but i knew it would.  i had measured it!  they rolled it out to the car, and the walmart employee took one look at the prius and just shook his head.  "trust me," i said, "it will fit!  i measured it!!"  they both looked at me like i was a crazy person, but when dealing with a crazy person, i guess it is best if you give them what they want... so they picked it up and tried to put it in the car... and it wouldn't fit.

"no, wait!" i said, "you have to put it in straight, not at an angle!"  they still weren't convinced.  i could see it in the way they rolled their eyes.  but i knew it would fit.  did i mention that i had measured it???  so i went over to one side and helped them lay it down flat, and guess what?  it fit.  perfectly.

well, nearly perfectly.  we thought the back might stick out a little bit, but rollie moved a few things around inside the car and found us a couple of extra inches which is all we needed to get the back of the car closed.

while he was doing that, i was dancing around on the sidewalk, giving myself a thumbs up, and saying to anyone who would listen (and even some who didn't quite know what to think of me, including the walmart employee) "oh yeah! listen to the girl!! oh yeah!  listen to the girl!!"

we had bagged and tagged our tv!  and successfully put it in the freezer!  (not really!  it's a hunting expression!  it was actually sitting in the entryway...)  but since we had used my method of shopping (check out every possibility before making a decision,) rather than rollie's method of shopping (buy the first one you see and go home,) now there was no time to install the beautiful new tv...

..because we had a game to go to!

a new collection?

so today . . . i cleaned out my closet. again.

i'm sure you are getting tired of hearing about my closet. i've blogged about it before. more than once. i really thought that when we moved, i had finally cleaned it out for the last time. i got rid of bags and bags of stuff. and then i unpacked into my new closet and realized that i still didn't have enough room for everything...

well, i had enough room for everything, but only if i squished the hangers together so tightly that i couldn't get anything out. and i use skinny velvet covered hangers, so it isn't like those hefty plastic hangers were hogging all the room. i had things stacked so high that i couldn't remove anything without fear of an avalanche. this is not the way i wanted to live! so i cleaned my closet out again. and then a couple of weeks later i did it again.

we have only lived in this house for two and a half months, and i've cleaned out my closet three times...

it seems like i spent my whole summer packing and moving and unpacking. which, mostly i did. but it still wasn't enough time to get completely settled. even though the majority of our stuff had found a place, there were still random boxes and piles of stuff here and there. and where did it bug me the most? in our bedroom! (ok, that's a lie. actually the garage bugs me the most, but there isn't a lot i can do about it right now. it's day is coming, but it isn't today...) so today i decided it was time to get it under control!

i'm sure it is not a coincidence that this happened today, because we are going to be out of town for a couple of days, and you know what that means... yep, clean all night! only this time i can't do that. because this time rollie and i are speaking at this retreat, which means i can't just skip the sessions and sleep. which is what i usually do :-) AND i'm going to need my brain, especially when it is my turn to speak. so i can't stay up all night. i just can't. so everything isn't going to get done to my satisfaction. but the closet is!

i started in on the closet earlier today, but you know my attention span... so i would work for a bit, eat a snack, watch some hgtv (which, btw, is giving me waaay too many ideas, now that i have a house!) rotate the laundry, check facebook (yeah, it's saturday. i can check it all day long. sadly, all my friends apparently have lives, so not much was happening online today...) move some furniture around, move it back, work in the closet some more, play with the dogs... you get the idea.

really, working in our bedroom was a bigger job than just the closet, because our bedroom is really big. so when we moved, i put all the easy stuff away and sort of stacked the rest in the empty half of the room. but then i needed stuff in those boxes full of stuff that i didn't know where to put, and so i would open a box, take something out, see something else and think, "oh, that's where that is," and take something else out, and then leave the box open, because i might need something else in there... i'm sure a picture is forming in your mind... it isn't pretty, is it...

so clearly i had to tackle that stuff too. which i did. but this complicated my closet project, because i kept finding more clothes. that i liked. that i didn't want to get rid of. that i didn't really have room for in my closet.

part of my problem is that i am trying to get by without buying a dresser. we have this big closet (at least it looked big when it was empty!) and so i am convinced that we should be able to get all our clothes in there. really! if we can't get all our clothes in there, then we have too many clothes!

apparently we have too many clothes. actually, apparently i have too many clothes, because i am hogging over half of the closet and still don't have enough room. rollie, on the other hand, seems to be fine. of course, all he has are shirts and pants. he doesn't have shirts and pants and dresses and skirts and vests and sweaters and jackets...

but i am determined. so i moved things around. i refolded stuff so that no space would be wasted. i put two pairs of boots in one box (i know, shocking isn't it!) and i finally got everything in, organized in such a way that i could also get stuff out too. i was feeling pretty happy!

and then, as i continued to put stuff away from the messy side of the room, i found a stack of jeans. five pairs of jeans, to be exact, neatly folded, hiding under some pillows. this was not good, not good at all... i went back into my closet to see what could be done. sadly, nothing could be done. i was out of space. i sorted through my jeans again to see if there were any that didn't fit or were too ratty to wear or that i just didn't like any more. but that didn't work either--they were all perfectly wearable. i should be glad! i had 34 pairs of jeans that i liked, that fit, that were already paid for. but the problem is, I HAVE 34 PAIRS OF JEANS!!!

sigh. when did i turn into my daughter?

because diandra is the queen of jeans. i do not even want to guess how many pairs of jeans that girl has. and when she goes shopping, what does she buy? more jeans.

maybe it is a reaction to her earlier jeans issues. because when she was a teenager, living at home, and i was buying her jeans, we had issues. she wanted jeans that sat below her waist, and i did not want her to have them. tops were shorter then, and my daughter was not going to run around with even the tiniest gap between her top and her jeans! we spent hours in dressing rooms! hours!! she would choose some jeans and try them on. i would say they were too low. she would say moo-oom! i would say you are not wearing those out of the house. she would say but i like them. i would say no. and eventually we would find a pair that we could both tolerate. and then we would go to another store, and it would start all over again. neither one of us would be happy, but at least she would be clothed.

and then she became an adult and started buying her own jeans. amazingly, she still took me along! "want to go to the mall?" she would say. "i need to get some jeans." inwardly i would groan, but since it would mean an afternoon with diandra, i would go. she didn't say moo-ooom anymore, but she still didn't always like my opinion. which didn't stop me from giving it, even though i no longer had the power to just say "no." which turned out ok, because instead of rolling her eyes at me, she started listening to me. and sometimes she even agreed with me. occasionally :-)

jeans shopping was always such an ordeal. and yet still we did it. diandra was always on the search for that perfect pair of jeans... which seemed to be just out of our grasp. we found lots of nearly perfect jeans, seemingly perfect jeans, or but the price is right jeans. but perfect jeans? highly elusive. and so, even though she always had a drawer full, or two, or three, she always seemed to need just one more pair...

i, on the other hand, only had five or six pair total--light blue, dark blue, black, short (to wear with flat shoes,) and longer (to wear with boots.) really. i thought six pair should be perfectly adequate. and it was.

until today. because today i couldn't fit all of my jeans into my closet. i had several stacks of jeans, sorted by style--skinny jeans, "jeggings" (which is the dumbest word ever. i hate to even write it, but it's what they are called,) boot cut, cargo, and capri. (don't worry, i only had one pair of capris.) i tried rearranging them. i tried folding them differently. i tried to get rid of just a few more pair. it didn't help. i still couldn't get them all in the closet. i finally had to put a few pair on top of some shoes...

when did this happen?!? where did all these jeans come from?!?! i hate to buy jeans. hate. it! and yet apparently i have bought them, because they didn't just materialize on their own, and i'm pretty sure denim hasn't figured out how to procreate. and i never purposely go shopping for jeans. if i happen across a pair, while shopping with diandra, i will get them, but i never say to myself, "i need a new pair of jeans. i think i will go to the mall." never. but i also apparently never get rid of a pair either, and so their numbers increase...

i don't know what i'm going to do. it seems ridiculous to get rid of perfectly good jeans that are already paid for that fit me. and i'm certainly not going to give up going to the mall with my daughter (which, let's face it, is really the issue here. because when i go with her, jeans just seem to follow me home...) so i guess there is only one thing to do...

... start planning my takeover strategy for rollie's side of the closet.

:-)

adventures in cooking #1

so today . . . i cooked. it wasn't pretty.

i have this brand new lovely kitchen. it has new cherry cabinets. it has wood laminate flooring. it has stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. it has big windows and is open to the family room. it is beautiful! i love to be in it, so i've decided i should start cooking again.

i actually decided this about five or six weeks ago. it was one of those nights after rollie was staying at the new house, but i was still packing up the old house. all alone. which was ok--i didn't really want rollie to help me pack, because i knew at that point his idea of packing was going to be to throw everything into the dumpster! so i was all alone in a big, not empty enough, very quiet house, but nothing was getting packed. i just kept walking from room to room, picking things up, moving them around, but making no progress. i needed noise.

i cannot explain it, but my brain seems to need noise to function properly. which was a problem, because all the tvs that could get hd programming were gone. all i had left was the small, old tv that i used in the scary room, and it was not hd ready! it only got one channel. but luckily the channel it got was shopping tv! so i flipped it on, and started packing boxes...

i was packing boxes with half my brain, but the other half was watching shopping tv. nine o'clock rolled around, which is midnight in florida. this meant it was time for a new "today's special!" so i stopped for a minute to watch. and guess what? the new "today's special" was a set of cookware. and it came in red...

i have cookware. i got most of it as wedding gifts, so it is kind of old. but it is still in pretty good condition, because, you know, i don't use it all that often. but this new cookware had clear glass lids (the better to see what you are cooking, my dear!) a new type of ceramic non-stick interior surface (good for temperatures up to 850 degrees!!) and did i mention it was red? and sparkly? clearly this cookware was made for me.

i texted rollie--"i think if i am going to start cooking in our beautiful new kitchen, i need new pans. red ones." he replied, "ok."

ok?!?! what kind of a response is that?? i needed clarification.

"what do you mean, ok? do you mean it's ok with you if i buy them? or do you mean ok YOU will buy them? or do you mean ok, yeah, i'll believe it when i see it?!?"

and his response? "yes." (there was also a goofy smiley icon with weird eyes and the tongue sticking out. sadly for you, i can't figure out how to get that into my blog.)

"ok, then i'll take that as a yes! thank you!!"

this was a bluff. because here's how the finances work in our household--rollie keeps track of the money and pays the bills, and i don't worry about it. (although there are written instructions in case something happens to him-like he gets lost in the bermuda triangle, which could happen-and then i would have to keep track of the money and pay the bills.) i used to keep track of the money and pay the bills, but mostly i would spend it. so this way works out much better. which is why i was checking with him before purchasing a new set of cookware.

"well," he texted, "you are working and have some money to spend... or how about this? how about if i buy them after the third home-cooked meal in the new house."

he is so funny...

"it will be too late by then! they will be sold out! but you are right. i chose to buy shoes and jewelry instead... and it isn't like i don't have pans... or like i actually use them..."

i know you can't technically hear 'tone of voice' in a text, but i am pretty sure he detected my not so cleverly hidden whining and sighing. ever mindful of my feelings, he texted back. "oh, it's a sale. ok, how about if you buy them tonight, and i will reimburse you after the third meal you cook in them?"

i was beginning to think he didn't believe me when i said i was going to start cooking more. and clearly he had forgotten that it was summer, which meant i wasn't working OR getting a paycheck. i mean, i had money, but i might need it for something... like, like, well you know, SOMETHING...

i finally ordered the cookware, and it came while we were on vacation. but after we got home from vacation, i was busy still unpacking boxes, and then we had to leave on a business trip, and then my mom and dad came... so not a lot of cooking was been going on...

which brings us to tonight. we had planned to take my mom and dad to eat at ruby's in seal beach. it sits on the end of the pier, and the food is really good, and i thought it would be fun to be at the beach and drink a milkshake! but it was cloudy all day today. all day!! not a great day to go eat at the beach. and rollie was feeling a little under the weather. and my dad had his nose in a book. and my mom and i were learning how to use our new electronic devices. so we decided to eat at home.

we have eaten at home some since they got here--mostly bologna sandwiches. WHICH WE LIKE!! but this was dinner, so i thought it should be hot. and yet, we were all kind of busy... so, toasted cheese sandwiches it was!

i got out the bread and the cheese and the butter. i unlocked the cooktop and turned it on. i got out my new frying pan :-) and proceeded to make toasted cheese sandwiches for my dad and rollie, because yes, this frying pan was big enough to make two toasted cheese sandwiches at once!

here is how i make toasted cheese sandwiches--i butter one piece of bread and plop it in the pan. then i slice the cheese and put it on top. and then i butter the other piece of bread and put it on top of the cheese. then i flip it. typically this works. but tonight was not typical...

because you see, not only had i never before used this particular frying pan, i had also never before used this particular burner on my cooktop, which meant i wasn't quite sure how hot was hot enough. apparently "7" was too hot. because no sooner had i finished constructing the second sandwich for my dad, than i thought there was an awful lot of smoke coming from the first sandwich.

"quick," i said to my mom, who happened to be standing in front of the utensil drawer (because how would she know that was the utensil drawer--we hadn't used any utensils!) "move! i need to get the spatula!" (i never know if spatula is the right word for that flat thing you use to turn stuff over with. i've always called it a pancake turner, but it seems kind of odd to call it a pancake turner when using it to flip an egg or a hamburger or a toasted cheese sandwich.) i opened the utensil drawer only to find... wooden spoons. no spatulas. or pancake turners. and then i remembered...

when diandra moved back in with us three years ago, some of her kitchen utensils were much better than mine (obviously, since i had been "using" mine for over 25 years!) so i had just tossed my old ones out and replaced them with her new ones. but now that she was planning to move out again, i had packed her newish utensils with her stuff. which meant that i had no spatula. or pancake turner. what i did have was a smoking pile of bread, butter, and cheese and nothing to flip it with.

i grabbed the only thing i could find. the cheese slicer. it was small, but at least it was flat. it was not however, a spatula. or a pancake turner. i tried to flip the sandwich only to have everything slide off to one side...

oh nonononono! i cannot have a misaligned toasted cheese sandwich! it might be burned, but those bread edges were going to line up properly and that cheese was going to stay inside! i flicked the now burned piece of bread repeatedly until everything was square, and then repeated the process with my dad's sandwich, which was also threatening to burn.

"you might want to turn the heat down a little," said my mom.

she is obviously the cook in the family.

it hadn't even occurred to me to turn down the heat. i was just trying to keep the sandwiches moving so that at least the second side wouldn't be burned. after her suggestion, i turned the burner down to "5"...

i've been cooking on a gas stove top for the last 20 years. on a gas stove top when you turn the flame down, it is immediately cooler. this is not true of an electric burner. electric burners take a while to cool down--especially if you have already heated them up to "7."

my dad's sandwich wasn't too bad. i can't say the same for rollie's. my mom (bless her little pink heart,) said, "why don't i eat that one, and you can make rollie another one." ok i thought, i've got the hang of this now. surely if i make a third sandwich, it will be perfect...

so i turned the burner down, buttered another piece of bread, and proceeded to make another toasted cheese sandwich, thinking "third time's a charm..."

sadly, it wasn't. not even close.but the good news is, i've now cooked in my new pans three times--i made toasted cheese sandwiches tonight, and i've boiled eggs. twice.

the bad news is, i appear to have forgotten how to cook!

i'm pretty sure that even though i have new, red, sparkly pans in my cupboard, they are not going to forget our names at rubio's...

let the wild rumpus begin!

so today . . . i am alone in my new house, all by myself, for three whole days :-)

i love my family. they are my favorite people on the planet. so i'm not quite sure why, but i occasionally need some extended solitude in my own house.

when we lived in oregon, rollie used to leave me fairly regularly. he would make short out-of-town trips every few months. but since we have moved to southern california, it almost never happens. because all of his meetings are now less than an hour away. unless traffic is bad. but traffic is never bad enough that he has to stay overnight somewhere...

this has been a craaaazy summer. between packing and moving and unpacking and going on vacation and starting school three weeks later than i normally do, i have completely lost track of time. which is how i find myself sitting here tonight all by myself...

...because several weeks ago, rollie was asked to speak at a retreat this weekend. he said yes. the retreat is for the church where my school is, so i thought it would be fun to go for at least part of it. but we are leaving on tuesday for a business trip and won't be back until saturday. which isn't a big deal, except my mom and dad are coming to visit NEXT FRIDAY. before we get home. so i have a lot to do...

and then, as i mentioned, i am not going to start working until the end of september. a perfectly capable substitute will be teaching my class. my wonderful assistant will be there to assist her. so i decided i was not going to even try to whip my classroom into shape. i decided i would just leave it alone and deal with it at the end of the month, and instead use the time to finish unpacking. and then, i got the class list...

for the first time, i will have more pre-k kids than kindergarteners. i am not thrilled about this, but that's the way it goes. at least i still have a job! but this change in enrollment is going to be a problem unless i make some changes in the classroom. so i spent almost five hours cleaning and rearranging furniture this afternoon. and i'm still not done. i'll be going back for a short (i hope!) time tomorrow morning. because i am almost done. i think.

and then, rollie asked me if i wanted to teach one of the sessions at the retreat. he asked me this about a month ago, and since it would help him and it's easy for me, i said, "sure!" i said this a month ago when i thought i was almost done unpacking (which clearly i wasn't!) so now i have to make some notes about what i am going to say tomorrow night. i know what i am going to say, and i don't get nervous about speaking, but if i don't have notes i tend to get off track--which can be entertaining, but sometimes i forget to say what i had planned to say...

...which is exactly what is happening on my blog tonight!! this was supposed to be about being home alone, and look what i've written so far! sheesh...

ok, so i'm home alone. i worked at school until almost 8:00 tonight, and then went to target. at 8:00 at night!! probably not a good idea. but i knew since i would be home alone, i was going to need snacks. and new nail polish. and while i was there, of course i wandered about. i found a perfect lamp to put on my piano, and it was on sale for only $13! but then as i looked at it, i realized that i was going to need to buy a shade. so i looked at shades, but the shades cost more than the base! the base!! the part with all the electrical parts (and a bonus free light bulb,) was cheaper than the part consisting of a wire and a bit of fabric. which was bad enough, but then i couldn't figure out how to attach the shade to the lamp. i thought maybe that was why it was on sale, but there were lots of lamps with no visible way to attach a shade, so i don't know...

and then i saw these.pillow pets of the anaheim angels rally monkey!! (ok, i know they are now the los angeles angels, but really, i don't know how anyone who calls themselves a fan can refer to them that way! los angeles has a team--the dodgers. angels stadium is in anaheim. they are, and always will be, the anaheim angels. it isn't rocket science, people. it's marketing.) i love pillow pets! i have loved them since i went on a hunt to find one for my nephew at christmas. they are cute and soft and cushy. the main reason i don't already have one, is that i haven't been able choose just one. but i think now i have--this is the pillow pet for me. sadly, it didn't get to come home with me today, because i was already carrying nail polish, cheetos, a shade-less lamp, and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. (oh, did i forget to mention the cookies? they weren't my first choice, but i couldn't find the devil donuts.)

i wandered back to the lawn and garden section by way of the school supplies. thankfully my hands were too full to pick up any pens or markers, but there was a giant CLEARANCE sign above the outdoor stuff. i don't know what there is about clearance signs that make me suddenly feel the need to purchase something. i was looking at gardening tools (even though we have a gardener who takes care of our yard,) decorative pots in all sizes and colors (even though we have all these empty plant beds around the edges of our yard just screaming for me to plant something in them,) and grilling accessories (even though we don't have a bar-be-que yet.) i managed to talk some sense into myself and headed for the cash registers. without any clearance merchandise.

and then a miracle happened (other than making it out of the store without buying any clearance merchandise)...

...because i have a track record at target. it doesn't matter what line i get into, the people ahead of me in line inevitably have problems with their transactions. my line is always, ALWAYS the slowest line in the store. always. but tonight i found a cash register with no line at all! the cashier was just standing there, probably counting the minutes until the store would close and she could go home.

it was pretty exciting for me.

i got home, pillow petless, but with snacks and new nail polish. i let the dogs out, watched some tivo and ate my sourdough jack. i was home alone. in my new house. and feeling pretty good.

and then i needed to go upstairs...

i don't normally get weird about being home alone. but i started up the stairs, and then realized that the back door was open. the back door was open, because we don't have a doggie door installed yet. so when we are home, we just leave the back door open so the pups can go in and out whenever they want. but it suddenly occurred to me that if i went upstairs, and the dogs followed me, then someone could come in the back door unnoticed. and i watch enough tv to know that when someone sneaks in your back door, it never ends well.

i turned around and closed and locked the door. i started to set the alarm, but then remembered that i can't set the alarm if the upstairs windows are open. since we have a big covered patio, our upstairs windows are apparently vulnerable to intrusions. although, it seems to me that by the time a crazed criminal could scramble up onto our tiled roof and get through a window, the dogs would have alerted the whole neighborhood and mia would be waiting to eat him. or her. but who am i to argue with the security company...

so here i sit. all alone. by myself in my new house.

for three more days :-)

the perfect carry-on bag? only time will tell...

so today . . . i bought my first backpack.

well, technically rollie bought it, but i picked it out. well, TECHNICALLY, i am the one who handed over the visa, but rollie will be paying the bill...

ok. the truth is, rollie drove me to the outlet mall, and then sat in the car figuring out how to use the sirius radio while i chose a gift for myself. because yesterday was our anniversary, and anniversaries mean gifts...

at least, they mean gifts if you are me. sadly for rollie, we got married at the end of august, and since i don't get paid during the summer, by the end of august my purchasing power is pretty much maxed out at 7-11. rollie, on the other hand, saves most of his expendable cash, so i am always the lucky recipient of something wonderful. yes, life just isn't fair :-)

so this morning off we went to the outlet mall.

i could spend all day at the outlet mall, but i didn't want to do that today. we don't have a doggie door installed yet, so our pups were going to be "imprisoned" in the house while we were gone, and i didn't really want to test their limits! this meant i needed a plan, a goal, a purpose. i didn't have time to scour the racks in all my favorite stores looking for the best deals--today, i needed to shop like a man! today i needed tunnel vision! today i needed to decide what i was going to buy, find it, pay for it, and take it home.

when we recently flew to new york, it became clear that i needed a new carry-on bag. i almost killed myself more than once, schlepping my suitcase, carry-on, and handbag through airports, onto shuttles, and into motels--especially since two of my toes were broken! (and before you say why wasn't rollie handling my bags, he helped me as much as he could, but his hands were full too! i wish i had video of trying to go up the escalator ahead of rollie, tipping all my bags over, and nearly taking him out! i'm lucky he stayed within ten feet of me after that!!)

my current carry-on bag is the result of lots of research and thought--of course. until the last few years, i rarely flew. but when it looked like diandra and i would maybe be making a trip to portland every summer, i quickly decided i needed a better carry-on bag. because i didn't own a handbag big enough for everything i wanted to take on the plane with me.

needless to say, i don't travel light...

i need a lot on an airplane. it doesn't matter if i am flying for two hours or twenty hours, i take a lot of stuff with me. first of all, there are just some things that i don't trust in my checked baggage. you hear stories about valuables disappearing out of people's luggage all the time... cameras, computers, jewelry. and so when i travel, if my bags are going to be out of my sight, i feel compelled to carry my "valuables" with me.

and that includes the cords to all my electronics. yes, that's right, i don't even put the cords to my electronics in my checked bags. my luggage does not end up at the same place as i do an inordinately high percentage of the time. i'm pretty sure i can live for 24 hours without clean clothes or a comb, but if my electronics go dead and i can't recharge them? let's just say, it won't be pretty...

(rollie does not get this at all. he travels with a tiny little bag that pretty much holds his ipad, a set of earbuds, and maybe a few snacks.)

in addition to my "valuables," i also have to take hard candy (if i don't vigorously suck on hard candy when we start our descent, i am pretty sure my eardrums will explode,) magazines (because they won't let you turn on your electronics while the plane is taking off and landing. which, btw is totally ridiculous! one time when we flew, i thought my phone was off, but it wasn't, and everything proceeded according to schedule--the airplane's instruments did NOT go crazy!!) snacks (that tiny pack of snack mix is just not enough. if you are sitting next to me on an airplane, you might not want to go to sleep until you have your snack in your hand. otherwise, your snack might end up in my hand. and then my mouth,) and my inflatable travel pillow.

oh, and my polar fleece blanket--even in the summer.

i don't travel anywhere without my polar fleece blanket. but when i fly, my blanket serves two purposes, the obvious one being to keep me from freezing when they crank up the a/c on the plane. the not so obvious purpose is to hide my handbag from the flight attendants. for some reason, the last few times i have flown, they say EVERYTHING has to be stowed either in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you. but there is never enough room for my carry-on bag AND my handbag under that seat! but if i put my bag in the overhead bin, then i can't get to my snacks and magazines and electronics and inflatable travel pillow. so my solution is to put the carry-on under the seat in front of me, and then hide my handbag behind my back or in my lap and cover up with my blanket. then when the flight attendants walk through the cabin, checking for take-off infractions, they just think i am cold and they move on... so far, rollie hasn't turned me in, but i fear that one day he is going to feel compelled, for the safety of the rest of the passengers, to point out my deception to the flight attendants. of course, that will be the last time we ever fly together...

which is just another reason that i need a better carry-on.

i really thought that if i could find a carry-on with wheels, my problems would be solved! so a few years ago i went to the orange county swap meet with my list of requirements--wheels, cheap, big enough to hold all my necessities, yet small enough to fit under an airplane seat, and cute. because if i have to carry something around with me all day, it had better be cute! so i was ecstatic when i found this bag!it was perfect! i bought it and prepared to fly to portland...

but as it turned out, it was not the perfect bag. the wheels were better than having to carry it, but i had trouble maneuvering it and my larger bag. i could get a lot in it, but it fit so tightly under the seat that i couldn't get anything out of it. and yet i kept telling myself, through gritted teeth, that it was perfect.

and then a couple of weeks ago, we traveled to new york.

i couldn't balance my bags. they kept tipping over. they would get stuck every time i had to roll them over a gap to get onto an elevator or a tram. and then they fell down the escalator, smacking into rollie, almost taking me with them, and holding up everyone behind us.

it was not my finest moment.

it was suddenly clear to me that i needed a different type of carry-on bag. and i needed it before i took another trip. which is happening in about a week!

so i did what i always do when i need to buy something--i got on the internet. i searched. i googled. my requirements had changed a bit (i decided instead of wheels, i needed a really good cross-body bag or backpack,) but i still couldn't find anything! i haunted discount stores (because it's the end of august and my bank account is dwindling!!) with no success. and our next trip was getting closer and closer. so when rollie said, "let's go shopping for your anniversary present. what do you want to look for?" i immediately thought about a new carry-on bag.

rollie has a backpack. it's a nice medium-sized black leather backpack. it is very nice, but i really didn't want a backpack. rollie really wanted me to get a backpack. he thought it would be the easiest way for my to carry my stuff and still be able to drive my larger suitcase. but i didn't want a backpack. i wasn't going to get a backpack. all the backpacks i saw either looked like they should be carried by a 12 year old girl or a man. or the fabric was awful! so even though i considered backpacks, i ended up rejecting them all...

instead i looked at tote bags. i looked at large handbags. i looked at messenger bags. i looked at cross-body bags. i even looked at laptop bags. but none of them were perfect. they were too big to fit under the seat, or too small to hold all my stuff, or there was no outside pocket for my phone, or the fabric was too floppy to hold it's shape. or they were just too ugly!

i finally bought a backpack.

the one i decided on is pretty cute. the fabric is a nice heavier weight. the size seems just right (i think.) i didn't have to pay for it, because it was my anniversary gift. i think carrying it on my back will make it easier for me to get my larger bag where it needs to go without knocking anyone down or hurting anyone who might be behind me on an escalator. i think it is going to be the perfect travel bag......if all my stuff will fit into it...

super store? or nightmare at 10:00 a.m.?

so today . . . i went to a "new" wal-mart super store. i felt like the dumbest rat in the maze...

one of the things i love about wal-mart is that they have just a few different floor plans for their stores. i like this. i like that i can go into a wal-mart in long beach, california or woodburn, oregon or orlando, florida, and i know where things are. usually i do not go into wal-mart to shop--that's what target is for! no, usually i go into wal-mart to buy what i need quickly and get out...

but not today. because today i had the unfortunate "pleasure" of finding myself in a wal-mart super store.

i like the concept of a super store. i like being able to go to one store to get groceries, toiletries, dvds, shoes (ok, not really. i don't buy my shoes at wal-mart. but i like knowing i could, if i wanted to!) plants, and car parts. the problem is, in a super store i can't seem to find anything...

maybe there are also just a few floor plans for the wal-mart super stores, but i don't know them yet. this is only the second super store i have been in! the first one was a couple of years ago when we were in orlando. i couldn't find anything then, either, but since we were on vacation it wasn't such a big deal. i wasn't in a hurry. i didn't really have an agenda. i just went in to see what i could find. today was a completely different story...

today i had a plan. and stuff to do!! i couldn't spend all day exploring and wandering around this new wal-mart!! i just needed a few things--milk bones, toilet paper (for the new house. i noticed the supplies i had already taken over were diminishing...) vinegar (which i had read online would degrease kitchen cabinets. i don't know what those people cooked in that kitchen, but there were some stubborn grease splatters to deal with,) and a spray bottle for the vinegar. i went whipping through the store, tossing my purchases into my basket... well, maybe whipping through the store is a bit of an exaggeration, because the first thing i noticed about this super store was that there wasn't a lot of room between aisles for carts. i prefer to navigate through stores without a shopping cart. but today, even though i was only buying four things, one of those things was toilet paper. and whenever i am forced to buy toilet paper, i buy a LOT of toilet paper, my goal being fewer trips to wal-mart. so i had a cart.

i quickly discovered that today there were a lot of people with carts in wal-mart. i don't know what is the matter with everyone!! didn't they have enough excitement yesterday??? didn't they have company over for bar-be-que or battle the crowds at the park to watch the fireworks or spend the day out in the heat???? why wasn't everyone at home recuperating from the fourth of july?!?!?! clearly, the independence day celebrations weren't celebratory enough!

but i am a big girl. i have lived in the shadow of a metropolis for ten years. i know about crowds. so as i maneuvered at a more moderate pace than normal, through the unfamiliar aisles of the wal-mart super store, i just kept saying to myself, "at least you are not at work today. at least you only need a few things. at least you get to move into a beautiful house in two days..." AAACCCKKKKK!!! TWO DAYS?!?!?! ok, that didn't help. i just needed to get my stuff and get out of there! i had the toilet paper (24 double rolls, thank you very much!) i had milk bones. i headed to where i thought the empty spray bottles would be. but then i detoured through the kitchen section...

(i hear you, wendy. i hear you saying, "why would you even go into the kitchen section? you hate the kitchen. you don't cook. there can't be anything in there that you could possibly need or want!!!" and to that i say, au contraire my friend, because i am moving my stuff into a new kitchen! this opens up all kinds of opportunities for new ways of organizing things--because while i might not like to cook, i do like to organize!)

i started throwing things in my cart. i had a bamboo silverware organizer (good for the environment and HALF the cost of the exact same thing at lowe's!) and then i saw some cool looking black and tan plastic modular drawer dividers (maybe not so good for the environment, but the colors would go perfectly in my new kitchen!) and then there was a RED dish drainer (and before you ask, yes, the new house has a dishwasher, but i find that it is easier to wash the dishes by hand since we mostly use glasses and silverware.) there was shelf paper, because you know, one cannot move into a new residence without installing new shelf paper. and then i started to throw a bamboo corner shelf unit into the cart, when i finally stopped myself. "wait a minute," i said to myself, "what am i doing here! what am i going to do with this cool corner bamboo shelf? just because it is cool, doesn't mean i have to buy it! i probably don't really need any of this stuff. and i have a budget! a budget!! if i buy all this stuff, i am going to have to do without something else! put it back! put it all back, and go get vinegar and a spray bottle! do it now before i have to threaten you with thoughts of no new carpeting!!!"

sometimes i am no fun at all...

so i put all the extra stuff back and went in search of a spray bottle. i thought the logical place to find it would be with the paper goods and cleaning supplies. i had already been back there once to get toilet paper, and i didn't see any spray bottles, but i thought maybe i just hadn't looked very carefully. (i would like to mention here that in a REGULAR wal-mart, not a super store wal-mart, i would know just where to find everything! sadly, i was not in a regular wal-mart.) i did not see any spray bottles. so i wandered a bit more. i found myself in the grocery aisles (perhaps i should tell you at this point that i had not eaten breakfast yet. when i left the house this morning, i was just going to do a couple of quick errands and then treat myself to mcdonald's. it would have been a good plan if the super store didn't currently have me in it's evil clutches!) and i was hungry. i thought it might be a devil donut kind of day, but i couldn't find the kind i like. curses!! so i bought baby carrots with ranch dressing, and apples with peanut butter. and then i threw in a small bag of crunchy cheetos for nutritional balance. and then i happened upon the vinegar, so i tossed that in my cart, feeling virtuous, because vinegar was on my list!

so was a spray bottle, but i was having no luck finding one.

i decided my only hope was to find a wal-mart employee and beg for help. i pushed my cart through the narrow, crowded aisles from one end of the store to the other, and i did not see one employee. not one. it's like somebody called ahead and said, "there is a lady in a 2001 red old navy fourth of july shirt and denim shorts (which have seen better days,) looking for help. RUN! HIDE! DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT!!!"

ok, maybe i am just slightly paranoid, but i am telling you, i could not find ANYONE in a blue jacket to help me. but i did not give up! oh no i did not! although, i was starting to consider buying a cheap cleaner and dumping it out, just so i could have the spray bottle...

i finally found a guy stocking shelves. before he could scuttle away from me into the next row, i said, "EXCUSE ME!" (i was thinking, "don't even TRY to get away from me. i will run you over with my cart and not experience one second of remorse. i need help! and you are wearing a blue wal-mart jacket and a walkie-talkie. you are REQUIRED to help me!!") he looked at me like i was going to accost him (maybe he could read minds...) but he didn't move. so i continued. "can you please tell me where i might find empty spray bottles?" i said this very nicely, and smiled. he quickly said, "i think they are with the paper goods and cleaning supplies. or you might find a small one in health and beauty." and then he bolted. he was quick.

ok, well i had already looked in paper goods and cleaning supplies--twice--but maybe i had missed it. so back i went. i looked carefully at every product on the shelves, and found exactly zero empty spray bottles. by now, i decided even a tiny, travel sized spray bottle would be better than none, so i took off toward health and beauty. and found nothing.

perhaps i should not have said "might find..."

i had now been wandering around wal-mart for an hour. i was tired. i was HUNGRY. and i had just discovered that when they turned the wal-mart into a super store and added all those groceries aisles, they took out the mcdonald's.

i was not enjoying my morning...

if i was going to get out of this without someone getting hurt, then i was going to need help. serious help. i don't like to ask for help when i am looking for something in a store though, because my friend becky used to be a secret shopper for a chain of grocery stores. i went with her once, and the thing i remember from that trip was that when she asked an employee where something was, they were not just supposed to tell her how to find it--they were supposed to take her there. i remember that every time i have to ask for help. and i hate it, because they always take me from point a to point b in the quickest way possible. what if something catches my eye, and i want to stop and check it out? what if i see someone i know? (ok, i never see someone i know. but it could happen...) what if i change my mind, and they have wasted a trip clear across the store, and then they stand there and look at me like 'really? do you think i have the time to take you on a tour of the store today? i have work to do, you know. serious work. and now you have just wasted five minutes of my valuable time. don't even look at me! i am going on my break!!' but today all those concerns went out the window. i needed a spray bottle, and i needed it now. but the "bait" was no longer enticing me to navigate this stupid superstore maze by myself. i was starting to feel like the rat that says, "the heck with it," and starts crawling over the walls. so i grabbed the first employee i found, and asked if she could help me find an empty spray bottle. and she did.

she took me right to them. they were with the ironing boards. THE IRONING BOARDS!!! i would think a plastic bottle of any kind would be the last thing you would want near a hot iron, but since they haven't asked me to organize the wal-mart superstores yet, i guess that is where they are. i thanked the kind lady in the blue jacket profusely and headed toward the cash registers with my list complete.

i did not pass GO. i did not collect $200. i did not stop at mcdonald's.

i did, however, decide that in the future perhaps i should avoid wal-mart super stores at all costs.

a plan is only as good as it's implementation...

so today . . . i went shopping with rollie. just to clarify, I went with rollie--HE did not go with me...

friday afternoon, i went to rollie's new office to help him hang stuff on the walls. yes, even the kobe jersey. but as sometimes happens, one project led to another. we started looking around and rearranging things, and soon it became apparent that he might need some furniture for his office.

he inherited a huge desk and a giant leather desk chair from his predecessors. by the time we got done moving things around, that was just about all that was left. so i came home and started shopping online for a couch and a couple of chairs. but i quickly decided this time the internet was not going to be my friend. we were going to have to actually go into a furniture store. or six...

so today was the day. we knew what we were looking for--a black "leather" couch and two chairs. (i say "leather," because we didn't want fabric, but this couch isn't going to get a lot of wear and tear, so faux leather would probably be ok.) we walked into the first store. it was empty except for a lone salesman. and so we got lots of attention--way more than we wanted! while he was very helpful, i was ready to leave the store long before we were able to disengage. because once he found out what we were looking for, he did not want to stop showing us possibilities...

on our way to the next store, i said to rollie, "ok, we need a better story. we cannot tell them what we are looking for, or they won't leave us alone. so here is what we will say. we will say that we are going to be moving in a couple of months (true, i hope,) and are looking for some furniture (also true,) but we don't have a place to put it until we actually move (definitely true.) that way, they will know we are not going to buy anything today, and we will be free to look around without all the unwanted help." i thought it was a brilliant idea. and so we walked into the second store. "and what can i help you find today?" asked the very nice saleslady. "my husband needs a couch for his office." that was me talking. that was me, telling her what we really needed, instead of the brilliant story i had concocted. and so, she proceeded to help us...

on our way the the third store, i said, "ok, i don't know what happened back there. i don't know why i told her what we were really looking for. but don't worry, next time i will just tell them my story and we will be free to wander about on our own."

we made it through the third store without talking to anybody--fortunately the salesperson was talking to someone else! the fourth store was about the size of our living room. we probably wouldn't even have gone in, except the side walls were covered with mirrors, so the store looked huge! it wasn't. but it was very disorienting. the guy at the fifth store didn't even look up from his desk at us--and while i wanted to be left alone to look, i was just a little bit offended that he didn't even acknowledge us! maybe word was getting around...

we got to the sixth store (yes, rollie went to SIX furniture stores. he was probably starting to wish he hadn't asked me to come along. if i had stayed at home, he would have just bought something at the first store and been happy with it. in fact, i was beginning to think we were going to end up back at the first store anyway. apparently black "leather" couches are not really in style right now...) we walked in and were immediately met by two salesmen. it was a big store. this would be the perfect time to pull out my "we are moving" story. "what are you looking for today?" we were asked. "a couch," i answered, "for my husband's office."

what is wrong with me?!?!?! i formulate a perfectly good plan, but i can't seem to implement it! i spilled my guts and told the guy we wanted a black leather couch. he said, "oh, we don't have any of those." see what i mean? what kind of a furniture store doesn't have even one black leather couch?!?! apparently brown is the popular color now, but that doesn't help us--we need black!

it was not our lucky day.

fortunately i had taken pictures of all the couch possibilities. (i even took some video--although it was totally an accident. and i was going to post it, for your amusement. but blogspot still won't let me post video!! i am starting to get annoyed about it...) we went to eat dinner, thinking we would talk about what we had seen, and then make a decision. we looked at the pictures. we compared price and style and size. and i am still not sure which is the best choice.

wait. i take that back. i know which one is the best choice, but guess what? it is also the one that costs $1200! i am pretty sure that one is not going to be living in rollie's office (even though it would be perfect!) i think rollie is going to pick the couch we saw at the first store. i think. but maybe not. maybe he will pick the one from the fourth store. either way, he should have a couch and two chairs in his office by the end of the week.

which is good, because all that shopping and thinking and deciding was exhausting. i am going to need a place to sit...

how much is enough? part 2

so today... i have ten minutes to blog. TEN MINUTES!!!

i have never written a blog in ten minutes before. i think my quickest time to date is about 40 minutes. usually it takes me much longer. of course, that is because i write a bit, play facebook games, edit, check my email, write some more... you get the idea.

but i am determined to be headed to bed by 11:00 tonight, and it is already 10:48...

(ok, technically i know that is twelve minutes, but i have a picture to upload, and that will take a couple of extra minutes...)

so here it is--my ten minute blog. this isn't going to leave me much time for editing and careful word selection...

anyway, i am starting to think perhaps i have a problem. i tend to buy things in multiples. if i find a top or a sweater i like at a good price, i will buy it in black or white or gray, and then also in at least one color--sometimes two. i was going to say that the only thing i don't buy in multiples is shoes, but then i looked in my closet--two pair of "ugg" like boots, six pairs of sketchers, two pairs of identical high-heeled boots, two pairs of tone-up sandals... i could go on, but you see the problem.

this is true for food too. i like to have meat in my freezer and food in my pantry. do i cook any of it? no. but i like knowing it is there. and even when i am grocery shopping, i look at the shelf of canned chili and think, "how many should i buy?" one or two doesn't seem like enough, but what is enough? four? six? ten? they are small after all, and i can eat chili by itself, or over fritos corn chips, or in a chili dog... so how many should i get??

and whatever i decide, once i get home, it never seems like enough. i am constantly saying, "maybe i should have bought more..."

so today i was at walmart, buying toilet paper and tissues, and i decided to take a little detour through the discounted christmas stuff. because you just never know what kind of treasures you might find on the clearance racks. i looked at almost a whole aisle full of empty goody containers. they were such a buy! twelve containers for $1! i wanted to fill my cart with them! except, since i don't really bake much, i grabbed myself by the throat and quickly dragged myself to the next aisle... which was filled with bags of bows. this did not tempt me at all, and i was almost ready to head toward the cash registers, when i saw this:
these are the most delicious peppermint candies ever! diandra introduced them to me before christmas. they only cost 88 cents a box, and each stick only has 45 calories! of course, it is 45 calories of pure sugar, but still... so before christmas, we bought several boxes. and now they were on clearance!

i grabbed one box and went in search of a price scanner. when the red laser lights stopped dancing over the upc code on the box, it told me that each box only cost 22 cents!

haaaaalelujah!

i went back and bought them all.

i thought about only buying half. i thought about only buying $5 worth. i finally thought i should just take them all! and so i did.
when i got them home, rollie couldn't quite figure out why i bought so many peppermint sticks. of course, he hasn't tasted them--he doesn't know how delicious they are! and he is not going to taste them! because if he liked them, then we would have to share. and by my calculations, if diandra and i each eat only one peppermint stick every day, they should almost last us until walmart again puts them on the shelves for christmas 2011.

you notice i said "almost" last us. maybe tomorrow i should go to another walmart..

***(and in the interest of full disclosure, this did not turn out to be a ten minute blog after all. i am not sure that i am even capable of writing a ten minute blog. maybe someday...)

how much is enough?

so today . . . i replaced the lotion that the evil tsa agent stole from me, and it ended up costing me almost $30!

call me obsessive/compulsive if you must, but i just can't let it go. i was going to replace it while we were in portland, but then i saw the line at the cash register in bath and body works! not even the "50% off" and "only $3!" signs could entice me to stand in that line! so i came home, lotionless.

and then today, when we got done eating lunch (at rubio's, of course,) i stopped in at the bath and body works at the town center. the "50% off" and "only $3" signs were there, but thankfully, the long line was not. my first thought was, "great! $3! i can replace my lotion for just a few dollars." i looked at the selection of lotion i could buy for only $3, but i did not see white citrus (which was the scent of the lotion that was taken from me.) so i kept looking. at the 50% off table i found some delicious smelling stuff. and at 50% off, it was only $2.50--an even better deal!

...and it would have been a better deal, if it had been lotion. but it wasn't. it was anti-bacterial soap. this was not the first time i had mistaken soap for lotion. and it is not something i want to ever do again--it makes a big mess! (just ask diandra.) so i put the soap back in the bin and moved on...

i had left rollie in the car. i had told him i would only be a minute. i had told him i was not going to shop--i was just going to go in and buy a replacement bottle of lotion. i knew exactly what i was looking for. it should only take me a minute...

...but i quickly realized that it had been a loooooong time since i had been in a bath and body works store, and a lot had changed. they don't just carry lotion and shower gel anymore. they have shampoo and conditioner and body butter and spritzes and sprays and aromatherapy and LIP GLOSS! really. lip gloss. (somehow i think lip gloss belongs at ulta or sephora, not bath and body works.) and so it wasn't quite as simple as just running in, grabbing a bottle of lotion, and getting out. decisions were going to have to be made. and you know how i am about decisions...

i continued on... and then i found it--the white citrus lotion. and it was not on a sale rack--it was on the "new arrivals" rack. this did not bode well for my wallet. i picked it up, flipped it over, and looked at the price.

$10.50.

oh nonononono. i am not paying $10.50 for an 8 ounce bottle of lotion! now i was really annoyed. i hadn't had a $5 bottle of lotion confiscated--it was a $10.50 bottle!!!

in my mind, i was out $10.50.

but i was already in bath and body works, and i did need lotion, and i was surrounded by sale signs. so you know what happened next.

yes, i bought lotion. from the $3 sale rack. and it is the most wonderful smelling lotion i have ever had--"night blooming jasmine!" before i knew what was happening, four bottles had jumped into my arms. and then two bottles of body spray followed them! i decided i should go to the cash register before anything else took a flying leap toward me...

...because really, how much would be enough. my intent was only to replace the ONE bottle that was now in the possession of my favorite tsa agent. but they were on sale! really, really cheap!! and that made me think that maybe they would be discontinuing the delicious scent that i had just discovered! so maybe i should stock up... definitely i should stock up! but how much would be enough?

then i turned around and saw a whole bin of "night blooming jasmine" lotion. a whole bin!! i didn't have the last four bottles of lotion after all. now what was i going to do?!?! i couldn't afford to buy them all!

i decided i could spend my emergency $20. (i keep $20 hidden in my wallet for emergencies--you know, if i need gas or if i need to contribute to something at work or if i get unexpectedly asked to go to lunch... but i am finding that usually my emergencies are shopping related...) i was already holding four bottles of lotion and two bottles of body spray. i decided that would have to be enough. for now.

i went to the cash register and handed over my emergency $20. as i was walking out of the store, i walked right past the $10.50 white citrus lotion. i mentally added that to what i had just spent, and decided that my confiscated lotion had now cost me $30. because if they had just let me keep my lotion, i would not have had to go into bath and body works...

of course, that means i would also not have four bottles of lotion and two bottles of body spray of the most wonderful smelling scent either.maybe instead of a bill, i should send my tsa agent a thank you note!

the thrill of victory!

so today . . . i accomplished the impossible--i found and bought a turtle pillow pet. and i only paid the suggested retail price of $19.96!

my nephew wants a pillow pet for christmas. and not just any pillow pet--he wants a turtle. his mother has looked for one. his grandmother has looked for one. but the only turtle pillow pets to be found were on the internet for $40!

so, of course, i decided to try and find one.

yesterday i looked at my local walmart. they had a whole bin of pillow pets--penguins, dolphins, and pandas. but not one turtle. and then today i heard that my friend jessica was interested in pillow pets. i tracked her down, told her what i was looking for, and asked her to let me know if she found one...

...and she did. at the mall right by my house. it was $35! BUT she said it was a limited edition, and that is why it was more expensive. i decided to do some further internet searching...

i found the official pillow pets website. the turtle was listed as "temporarily out of stock," just like the frog and the pig. there was no mention of anything special or limited about the turtle. i deduced that the kiosk person probably just kicked the price up because the turtle was popular, and they had one. i guess that is ok, but i was not going to pay that inflated price! at least, not until i was out of options.

my next idea was to try the "as seen on tv" store, since these cute little pillows were originally sold on tv. of course, that meant getting in my car and driving to a different mall. which i did. because i was on a mission. i endured holiday shopping traffic, finally found a parking space, and went in. i walked into the "as seen on tv" store and saw a pile of pillow pets--again, penguins, dolphins, and pandas. (apparently penguins, dolphins, and pandas are not as desirable as turtles, frogs, and pigs.) i desperately asked the sales clerk if any place else in the mall might have any more pillow pets. he said no. and then he asked what i was looking for. when i said the turtle, he told me that he had just seen one at walmart. "just seen one?" i asked, "like in the last day or two, or a couple of weeks ago." "just a couple of days ago," he said.

ok, there was no guarantee that it would still be there, but i had to check it out. i got directions to the walmart where he had seen the turtle, and was a little alarmed to find that it was quite a distance away. i was getting further and further from home, and did i mention that i had to be back at school by 6:00 tonight for our christmas program? yep. i checked my watch, and decided that if traffic wasn't too bad, i might make it. so once again, i got in my car, endured holiday shopping traffic, and headed for yet another walmart.

this particular walmart turned out to be a superstore--you know, the ones that also have a grocery store in them? and so the layout was totally different from my neighborhood walmart, which was somewhat disorienting. i wandered quickly about until i found the toy section. and there, at the end of an aisle, was a huge bin half-filled with pillow pets. and right on the top was a turtle--the only turtle in the bin, as it turned out.

i grabbed that turtle, checked for all the proper tags (to be sure it was a real pillow pet,) paid for it, and quickly secured it in my trunk. then i fist-pumped in the air. uh huh, i did! i felt powerful, invincible. i had found the elusive turtle pillow pet and only paid the suggested retail price of $19.96. i could do anything! i was wonder woman!!

because this wasn't just shopping, people. this was war, and i had won! i had found the thing they said didn't exist, and made it mine. bwahahahaha!

and the spoils of war? one happy little boy on christmas morning :)

things to do, places to go...

so today . . . we got seriously down to business and found a wedding venue. i think. i am pretty sure...

diandra and i did a lot of internet searching for a venue for her wedding. it is going to be in las vegas, but she doesn't want it to be a "vegas" wedding. that narrows the choices considerably. thank goodness! i am of the opinion that most of the wedding chapels here look more like funeral parlors. they are draped in hundreds of yards of white satin with enough clear twinkle lights to power a third world country, and so many fake flowers and greenery that my allergies feel threatened. let's just say, this is kind of how i picture death.

not a good feel for a wedding.

we had four places to check out. we sat in the car, making a plan. where should we go first...? we decided on the premium outlet mall--which was not on our original plan. our original plan was to GET SERIOUS and do wedding stuff today! but we ALWAYS shop on black friday. so we decided to skip the three venues that were going to charge astronomical fees if we chose NOT to use their photographer, and headed for the premium outlet mall :)

we "shopped" for a bit, ate some lunch, checked out a really great venue, and then found our way to the neon boneyard.

diandra is in love with the neon boneyard. it is the place where old neon signs go to die. it is visually very interesting, and having pictures taken there was the first wedding decision she made. we thought it might be good if we knew where it was before she tried to make a timeline for her wedding day. so we followed the gps... and ended up in an empty abandoned building's parking lot. "this can't be right," she said. um, no, i'm pretty sure it is not right...

so she did something to the gps, it gave us different directions, and soon we were there. of course it was closed, but you could still see through the gate. diandra wanted to look through the gate, but it isn't in the very best part of town. but it was daylight. we looked around, and saw that there was no one close by. and came up with a plan...

i parked on the street as close to the gate as i could get without putting the suv into four-wheel drive and climbing onto the sidewalk. i kept the engine running. diandra left her door open. she ran to the gate and snapped a few pictures. i played lookout, ready to yell in case anyone started our way. diandra was prepared to dive headfirst into the car and hang on tight, if necessary, while i made a fast getaway...

fortunately, it was not necessary.

we were on las vegas blvd, but a long way from the strip. we decided to take the boulevard all the way back to our hotel instead of going on the freeway, and i am so glad we did! yes, there was a lot of traffic. yes, we saw a seedier side of town. but we also got to see some of those places you just see in location shots of las vegas. it was interesting to put all the pieces together into one picture.

we went back to our hotel to meet rollie for dinner, only to find out that the ducks game was on. (i would say oregon ducks, just to be clear, but if you have any knowlege of college football--ANY knowlege--you know who the ducks are!) so diandra and i decided to make good use of the time by going across the street to... shop.

(lest you think all we do is buy stuff, we didn't actually make very many purchases. we went in a lot of stores, picked up a lot of stuff, put it back, and moved on. there are a lot of very exclusive, expensive stores here. we have these same stores at home, but we don't spend much time in them, because they are a bit beyond our pay grade. but it was still fun to look...)

we hadn't been in this particular mall yet, and we didn't have a lot of time. and yet somehow, we got horribly turned around! when it was time to go, we couldn't find our way out of the building. and i don't mean we couldn't find where we came in--we couldn't find any exits at all!!

i tend to get a little claustrophobic from time to time, and this just about did me in! it didn't matter that we were in a huge mall with high ceilings. it didn't matter that it wasn't all that crowded. the problem was, we were trapped! there was no way out!!

it was the elevator all over again...

we finally found a door that led outside, and we took it! we looked around, and knew we were on a different side of the mall than where we came in. we didn't care! at least we had escaped!! i looked above the mall at the names on the tall buildings, and figured out where we were. sort of. and then we started walking. again.

we walked, and we walked, and we walked, until our hotel came into view. when we got on the bridge going across the street where i could look around, i realized we had walked almost all the way around the mall. THE MALL!! and the almost funny thing is, if we had turned left instead of right when we came out, we would have been much closer to finding our way home. much closer.

our feet and legs hate us.

i usually have an exceptionally good sense of direction in shopping malls and their parking lots. but apparently las vegas is oriented differently, because i seem to be having trouble finding my way out of places. for some reason, when we get in these shopping areas, my sense of direction leaves me. completely. i think it is all part of some evil plot...

we did, however, find the world's largest forever 21 store in the world! IN THE WORLD!! and as we found out, the world's largest forever 21 store makes it almost impossible to buy anything! who can even think when surrounded by so many choices. but it was ok--it was only 9:00--we figured we had a couple of hours to navigate the store before closing time. and then we found out that the store closed at 10:00. P.M!!!

are you kidding me?!?!? the forever 21 that is a mile from our house stays open that late. we are on the las vegas strip!! where are the shops that stay open all night?!?! what is the matter with these people!!!

it turned out ok, though. i think i found a dress for diandra's wedding--yes, at forever 21! and when we went in to the mall the second time, we paid closer attention to where we came in, and so we didn't have any trouble finding our way home.

we went over the river and through the woods and back to our room, where we found rollie--still watching football. on espn. a channel that we don't have at home.

i guess las vegas does have something for everyone...

"dude! i need some wicked cool shades..."

so today . . . was a perfect day in the o.c! and lucky for us, once again the planets aligned juuuust right so that we could go to the swap meet!

(i am just going to warn you, this is probably going to be a photo-heavy blog. so if you don't want to see a thousand pictures of sunglasses, you might want to log off right now.)

as you know, we love the orange county swap meet. i don't know why--it just sucks money out of our pockets. but we always have a fun time. and we always have an agenda...

today's agenda was mostly rollie's. he went to the eye doctor last week and is giving contact lenses a try for the first time. they are giving him fits, but he is doing his best to adjust to them, because he is concerned about his ability to see the basket when he plays basketball. (you notice his reason has nothing to do with anything even remotely humanitarian. it isn't like he is going through all this agony to save the world...) and so, now he needs sunglasses--really cool sunglasses--(which i think might also be a factor in the whole contact lenses vs. glasses debate.)

before we made it to the end of the first row at the swap meet, he had already bagged four pair of sunglasses, diandra had three pair, and even i had one. (i only bought one, because they were 2 for $10 and diandra had an odd number...)
it wasn't as easy as it sounds though. we had trouble before we even left the driveway. somehow diandra was in the car first, but when i walked out, she was already making a sad face. i whipped out my camera to take a picture... only to realize i didn't have my camera! thankfully, we were still in the driveway. i went into the house, retrieved my camera, and pointed it at her. but by then she was smiling... i tried to get her to make the sad face again, pressed the shutter on my camera... and nothing happened. as always, i pressed it over and over and over again, before finally giving in to the thought that my batteries must be dead. so, i went back into the house for fresh batteries... which also didn't work. now i was starting to get worried. i took the batteries out and put them back in again. i turned the camera off and on and off and on. and then i finally realized... my camera was set for viewing photos, not taking them.

maybe i should just choose a care facility now...

we finally made it out of the driveway, stopped at mcdonald's for an unhealthy breakfast, and made it to the swap meet by about 9:30--which may be the latest we have ever arrived at the swap meet. ever.

we have a set pattern for shopping the swap meet, but today when we walked in, there was a booth with sunglasses right in front of us. so instead of turning right and going up and down the rows in an orderly fashion, we went down the center aisle! i would have thought rollie would get hives over such a brash move, until i realized that we were following him straight to the center aisle...

at the first sunglasses booth, he was like a kid in a candy store. when you have worn glasses to correct your vision for your entire adult life, wearing regular sunglasses seems to be an unattainable luxury. you look at the cool sunglasses in the store, knowing you will never be able to wear them, (unless you are me, in which case you try to make the cool sunglasses fit over your regular glasses... with mostly disastrous results.) and so this was his first opportunity to put sunglasses directly on his face.

it was hysterical. he would put a pair on, look at us with a big smile on his face and say, "what about these?" to which one or the other, or sometimes both of us would reply with some form of "no." he had some very specific ideas about what he wanted, but we were mainly concerned with how they looked. rollie was all about function, and we were the style police. then diandra said, "here, try these!" this worked much better. we would choose glasses (and when i say "we" i mostly mean diandra,) and then rollie would try them on to see if he liked them.

by the end of the first row we had purchased eight pairs of sunglasses, (well, when they are only $5 a pair...) i had spent all my money (not just on sunglasses,) and diandra was ready for a soda. this was not our typical day at the o.c. swap meet!

rollie and i sat at a table while diandra bought a soda, and this is what happened.doesn't he look happy?did i mention how excited rollie was to have normal sunglasses? and lest you think he went a bit overboard, he was quick to inform me that each pair of glasses served a different function--one was for very bright light, one was for partially cloudy days, one was for driving the convertible on the freeway (the wind, you know...) and the last pair? ok, that was just because he liked the blue lenses :)

these are my new sunglasses. it is kind of hard to see it in this picture, but the side edges are all sparkly!! let me just say that i succumbed to peer pressure when buying these glasses. first of all, i do not wear contacts, so sunglasses are an issue for me. but these fit pretty well over my regular glasses, they were jeweled, and diandra said, "come on mom, get them!" so i did. (have i mentioned that i have very little sales resistance? especially on items costing less than $10?) and yes i was wearing a tank top--it was a beautiful day! rollie even wore shorts!!

as soon as we got home, rollie left to do an errand.
i think maybe he just wanted to take his favorite new sunglasses for a test drive...