What happened is this: yesterday when Kurt got home from having duty the day before, he said he had to go pick up my present. I went with him downtown, thinking I could just browse around my favorite antique store while he picked up my gift. I thought he was going to pick something out at a local jewelery artists' boutique for me since I'd dragged him in there a few times. But instead he followed me in to the antique store.
Come to find out, he'd bought me the lovely wood and glass pendulum wall clock (circa 1930s) I have been drooling over for months!! The lovely lady behind the counter wrapped it and boxed it up for us, and we went on our way. Kurt gave me the key to wind it up, and I carried that with me all day because I was so excited that the wall clock was finally mine! I'd take it out of my pocket, show it to Kurt, and grin.
Last night we found a place for it on the wall in the middle of our family photos. It looked damned good too, let me tell you! Unfortunately, we couldn't get the darn thing to work. We leveled the clock over and over again, and it didn't matter how level or how cockeyed the clock was, the pendulum quickly stopped swinging. I looked on the internet, and it gave us a few ideas that we tried, but we just couldn't get the pendulum to continue swinging.
This morning we decided to take it back to the antique store to see what the lady could do for us. It had been in her own house; they'd taken the old works out and replaced it with new works. Those new works were good quality; they were of a brand that kept coming up when I was doing searches on pendulum clocks. She couldn't get the pendulum to keep swinging either. It sounds like the pendulum rubs along the shelf that holds the works in place. So the lady refunded our money, which made me sad, but she encouraged us to buy a new clock, as they're much less touchy.
There were some cool clocks that I really love at the Navy Exchange, in particular the one you see here. It plays music when it chimes, and the face breaks apart shows other gears moving along. It's pretty neat! Plus you can easily change the chime when you get tired of one particular song. They're about the same price at the NEX that Kurt spent on the antique clock; they're just not as old.
We went to the NEX, after getting my sister's birthday (8 December, in case you were counting!) and Christmas presents downtown, in order to look at the clocks. But instead of buying me my Christmas present, we found everyone else's!! So now I have a gift for my in-laws (although they're also getting cross-stitched "day of the week" hand towels that I finished almost a year ago), gifts for my parents, and a birthday and Christmas gift for my brother! I went sort of out on a limb with my brother's gift. I hope he likes it. Let's hope, anyhow.
So now everyone's gift is bought. It feels weird not having Christmas shopping hanging over my head anymore; I didn't expect to have ANY Christmas shopping done by now, let alone all of it.
And the best thing we bought today?? An alarm clock with a monkey on its face that makes monkey calls!! Grace loves it.