or "I Swore I Wouldn't Buy More Wrapping Paper, But..."

For some idiot reason, we stayed up late last night, even though James had to work today, so when that alarm rang we were both shell-shocked. I had intended to take Tucker out before I left, but even he wasn't awake yet. So I left and went up to Town Center with various slips of paper and coupons on me. At Bed, Bath & Beyond, with a 20 percent off of everything, I bought an oven thermometer, a bottle of "Cola Free" for James' Soda Stream, and some new wooden spoons. They gave me a coupon for $5 off $20 at Cost Plus World Market next door, so I went in, got the free Downton Abbey cup, and bought some crackers for the Twelfth Night party, little bottles of clotted cream for Christmas morning, some baker's twine in red/white/green, and some Christmas candy (rock candy cuts in different flavors). When I got home I put the latter in a bowl, and it's our first Christmas decoration. :-)

I stopped at Target for something, and reminded myself why Target frustrates me so. They seem to not have anything, but yet appear untidy and crowded. I did find a new rubber bone for Tucker, and I looked at the Christmas trees (goodness, nothing under 7 feet!) and lights, but I wasn't there long, just long enough for me to go into Best Buy (which wasn't crowded at all) and pick up season seven of The Big Bang Theory. I did notice they had Samsung Galaxy 5 phones in an exclusive color, steel blue.

With a 25 percent off everything (including sale items), I bought a few small things in Michaels, and a new library tree, pre-lit and 4-feet high. After all the discounts it was $15. Then I hopped next door to JoAnn. I swore I wasn't going to buy anymore Christmas wrapping paper, but $3.99 rolls were 99¢ each, and then I had a 25 percent off everything (including sale items) coupon, so four of them ended up costing me $3.00. Also got a few small things and "Cross Stitch Collection."

By then I was starving, so I beat feet over to the Barnes & Noble and had some hot cocoa and a bagel. I used my 30 percent off coupon to buy How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to-Dusk Guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman, who was part of the crew on the BBC's Victorian Farm, Edwardian Farm, Wartime Farm, etc. I love her because she's not afraid to experiment with all aspects of historical life. You won't hear her whining about not being able to wear makeup like those twits on Frontier House! Also picked up three magazines and a remainder book about A Christmas Story.

And then...yes! I went next door into CD Warehouse and found a nice used copy of An Adventure in Space and Time!

Came home through Kennesaw National Battlefield Park and downtown Marietta, immediately took Tucker out upon arriving home, and, after putting about half of my purchases away, conked out on the futon for almost two hours. (I found out later from the FitBit that we'd only slept four hours and forty minutes!)

James arrived home about three o'clock. Now, yesterday, my stupid phone had gotten on my last nerve. We had to get to Leigh's house for Thanksgiving dinner and remembered the house, but not the precise directions. So I put it into the GPS of my phone, and right as we needed to make the essential turn, the stupid phone rebooted. I was tired of not having GPS access in the afternoon on my way home from work, too. Anne and Clay had mentioned they liked their Samsung Galaxy 5 phones, so I told James about the blue phones at Best Buy.

Holy cow, the place was packed! Everyone must have come over after work, and there was a line to get to talk to the cell phone rep! Was a blue phone worth it? No. So we drove across the parking lot to the Verizon store. They were loaded for bear: someone met you at the door and put your name on a waiting list. Everything was done on iPads. We didn't wait all that long, and, although the activation and the transfer of a few of James' pictures (he had some old photos of Willow he didn't want to lose) took a bit, we were out of there by seven o'clock.

Oh, and we didn't get the Samsungs after all. They had several free phones, but when I said we were looking for long battery life, we were shown the new Motorola Droid Turbo. It's running the latest build, KitKat, and had all sorts of bells and whistles and supposedly the battery lasts for fifty hours. I don't believe that, but if it lasts all day at hard (i.e. DragonCon) use, it's worth it. You can't swap batteries, but I feel better about that since I have one of those battery-charger sticks and it does work. So bye-bye went the Nexuses without a qualm.

Plus, the new phones are red!

They also had a new tablet that was free this weekend, the Ellipsis 8. James took one look at it and fell in love. The only charge we paid was the taxes on the phones and money for a tablet cover.

Dinner was from Dragon. I also finished repairing the turkey Tucker had savaged with the help of needle and thread, two black beads for eyes, and a brown Sharpie. Spent the other parts of the evening reprogramming the new phone!

Labels: books, crafts, electronics, magazines, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:20:00 PM

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