Happy Shopping Day!

Yep, I am an idiot. I went out and did some shopping.

I hoped to catch some early bird specials, mainly Michaels, to get more garland for my tree. The "early bird" specials ended at 10am. I woke up at exactly 9:59am. Whoops.

Headed out anyway. Drove over to Menards... saw the parking lot... and kept on driving. It was a madhouse.

Went over to Michaels and spent about twenty minutes yanking the garland I wanted off the back of the hook things. Of course, the ones in the colors I wanted were way in back behind 20 other hanging garlands, and I wanted four and they only had three. No matter, made my way to the register and with all the coupons it ended up being about 1/3 off rather than 1/2 off. Still worth the price of sleeping in. And there was no waiting at the registers.

Walked around Staples, nothing interesting. I'm in the market for some kind of NAS (that's "network attached storage" to you non-techies) and while everyone seemed to have USB external drives on sale, no ones that you can attach to the network.

Drove past Menards again, and it was still a madhouse. I'm not dealing with a madhouse just for a couple bucks off something. Sorry, retailers of America.

Tried to go to Dunkin Donuts to get some coffee, but they were apparently "out" of coffee coolattes. And this DD can't properly cream and sugar coffee, so I just headed home to get caffeine in to my system.

Putzed around a the house a little, and decided to head back out since TV viewing options sucked, and I might as well get some of it out of the way. Hit Tuesday Morning and got a couple small gifts and some backup Christmas cards, hit TJ Maxx and finally found a new Christmas tree skirt that fits my tastes, picked up Jacques Pepin's "Complete Techniques" at Half-Priced Books for myself, and walked around a few more stores with no success. I think tomorrow I'm hitting Hallmark, Crate & Barrel and some other stores to get some more odds and ends. Hopefully with more success for picking out gifts for others and not just buying myself stuff.

Then - to the online stores!!

Some people in my life are getting sweaters for Christmas. Lame, I know, but they've given no indication of what they want, and I was at the Old Navy site. Looked at Kohls, but their website was waaaaay bogged down and kept losing the contents of my shopping cart, and I got pissed and gave up. Sorry Kohls... learn how to provide enough resources for your site and maybe you'll get some of my business next year.

Then it was on to looking for a present for one of the little cousins... her mom mentioned last night that she wanted a bunk bed for her American Girl dolls. Looked at a bunch of cheap-ass shit that is probably coated with lead paint, and finally found some handmade ones that were decent. But apparently, the market for crafty type-products over mass-produced shit must be going up, because prices are steep. I'm trying to get something cheaper off Ebay, but I know that may work. In any case, I'd rather spend the money on something of quality.

Browsed a bit more, looking for stuff for the hubby. He's a hard one to buy for. I know he mentioned he wanted a couple books off Amazon, but he has yet to give me the list. And I'd like to get him a couple of "surprises"... they apparently did a Shelby GT-H matchbox-type car that I missed (he's driven them in Vegas, twice, and has flat out said he's trade me for that car. And he's serious.

I've also seen a couple things that I think he'd like, but they've been out for awhile, which makes me wonder if it's stuff he's already seen and was "meh" about. Grumble.

And I'm lazy. It was pizza for dinner. But that should be expected on a day where I spend a lot of time shopping and the hubby is sitting upstairs in his underwear until 5pm, playing video games.