The massive quantity of sunshine outside doesn't hurt either. I love me some good sunshine.
Anyhow, so this weekend we spent shopping. Well, not entirely, but all day Saturday we shopped. Anyone who knows me in real life knows I like to shop. It's not so much an acquiring thing, and I don't have to have the newest and best and most expensive of something, but I do love to get a good deal. And I love to see the new products and styles that are out there. This is why my default tv channel is QVC.
I did manage to score some awesome deals while at the mall. We went to Sears first, where I became the proud owner of the Kenmore bagged upright vacuum cleaner, which earned the Consumer Reports top rating in its last report of vacuums. The Dyson got the #9 spot, which made me giggle. JD has a Dyson, and she swears by it, but I can't fathom spending $500 on a vacuum, for crying out loud! (We're not going to mention a certain someone's purchase of a Rainbow vacuum for well over a grand...) Besides, I like the Hoover commercial where the people say that their vacuum makes them look good, and their vacuum appeared in a fashion magazine (and of course, they're talking about the Dyson). Then a normal, every-day woman comes on the screen and says that HER vacuum (the Hoover) outcleans the Dyson, and that's what matters at the end of the day. Too true. I had planned on getting the Hoover, which got the #3 spot on the Consumer Reports listing, but once I tried the Kenmore I loved the features it had. The only slightly bad thing is now I have to wait for it to be delivered to my Sears store. They can't seem to keep it in stock ever since Consumer Reports came out. I do still have my old $80 vacuum, but it doesn't really pick up much. After I've vacuumed, I look around my floor and it doesn't look like I touched the darn thing.
It also makes me giggle that folks in the UK call vacuuming "hoovering." I don't know why.
I also stopped in at Macy's, where I found an $80 Laura Ashley navy blue 100% silk party dress for a piddling $20 in a size 2T. Could life get any better? Of course I had to buy it; I buy almost anything blue that I see in a girls' outfit to match my baby's baby blues. Since the dress is blue, it's not specifically a holiday dress, so I can make it do double duty as a generic party dress for her second birthday or next year's Christmas party or what have you. It's also insanely long, which means she should be able to wear it for at least two years.
I'm just shocked that I actually bought something that requires dry cleaning for my daughter. I don't even buy me clothes that require dry cleaning! The only time we go to the dry cleaner's is twice a year when we have Kurt's uniforms dry cleaned before they're put into storage for six months. Not like he wears his uniforms anyhow, but that's a kettle of fish of a whole 'nother color.
I also found myself a cool new watch. I'd seen a multi-dialed watch on QVC one day that didn't just tell time; it also told the day of the week and the date of the month! How cool is that? As a housewife, I never can remember what flippin' day it is, let alone the day of the month, and I'm tired of looking at either my cell phone or my computer to figure it out. I found something quite similar at Penney's that tells me 24-military time (which I usually think in anyhow, being a Navy brat/spouse), the day of the week, and the date of the month. However, the whole watch is goldtone (I wanted a metal band), which makes me feel quite gaudy. But I usually only wear gold jewelry, so it matches.
Me... matching. How odd.
I am starting to notice a rather disturbing trend in stores lately, however. It seems as though stores are trying to go for "one-stop shopping" convenience, which is actually not a good thing. Sometimes you need specialty shops in order to find a specific product that a general store wouldn't carry.
Point in case -- Best Buy. Or as we'd like to call it when I worked at the computer store in northern Virginia, the Evil Blue Empire.
When I got my new computer, I realized I did not have a PS/2 port on the darn thing, which meant I either needed a PS/2 to USB adapter or a new keyboard. I was somewhat loathe to buy a new keyboard because it's hard finding the ergonomic version nowadays, and forget about trying to find a wired one. I already have a wireless mouse that I love, and I didn't want to have interference between the two of them.
I had sort of poked around Walmart and Target to find a new keyboard and wasn't really surprised when I didn't see anything I wanted. But they're not computer stores; why should they carry something a little more specialized? So it was off to the Evil Blue Empire.
They had a total of TWO non-gaming wired keyboards, both of which were some cheesy brand (which I was told was the Evil Blue Empire's personal brand... blecch) and neither of which had the extra keys I wanted. I wasn't about to spend $20 on a new keyboard when I could simply continue to use the tiny Dell model I got with my computer.
Everything else on the shelf was a wireless desktop -- both the mouse and the keyboard sold together. What the heck?! I already have a mouse I adore; why should I buy a new one because the keyboard and the mouse are packaged together? I couldn't believe that was all that the Evil Blue Empire would carry, so I turned down the next aisle only to be confronted with blank CDs. Sure enough, they had nothing else!
Finally we cornered a guy in a blue shirt, who pointed out a wired ergonomic keyboard in the flyer that they didn't have in stock at the moment, and when he tried to put in an order, he found that there were no more in the warehouse either. At this point, I very nearly shelled out $100 for the wireless desktop that featured the mouse that I have currently with the idea of sending Michele the mouse I am currently using since she needs a new one anyhow. But then it looked like that desktop was out of stock as well!! It was only till I started pawing around the display that I managed to find the last wired ergonomic keyboard shoved in the back, and since it was just $35, that's the one we went with.
Sorry, Michele. But I tried!
Then it was off to find blank CD labels. I finally found the area of the Evil Blue Empire that sold labels, and I was shocked to find that as with Walmart, they only sold one flippin' brand!! I stopped a guy in a blue shirt and basically asked, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! Who in the world likes the Memorex labels anyhow? They're not compatible with most labeling programs because they're set up on the page weird. The first thing the guy asks me is do I have a printer already? Ummm, DUH. If I didn't have a printer, why would I be looking for blank labels on which to print? He tried to convince me to buy an Epson printer so I could print straight onto the CD. But that's not what I wanted to do. Grrr.
So anyhow, I am totally in shock that an electronics store (since you can't call the Evil Blue Empire a computer store) wouldn't have but one brand of labels and a shockingly small selection of keyboards and mice. Unfortunately we don't have a computer store around here, one of the downfalls of living in the boonies.
Sometimes I just can't wait till I move back to Virginia!! Only four more years...!