7 Quick Takes Friday: Birthday Edition

  I managed to break my wooden size 0 Harmony circulars.  This is quite a feat.  I almost wept, having set myself the (slightly unreasonable) goal of finishing a pair of socks in under a month.  Does Knitpicks make emergency deliveries?

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Looks like a rat to me...

Today we celebrated Rachel's birthday - a celebration which necessitated my spending 3 hours in that circle of Hell also known as Chuck E. Cheese.  My good friend accompanied me with her children, and we whiled away the time arguing over whether Chuck is a rat or a mouse.  Please weigh in on this important issue.

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Yesterday I searched for the present I had promised Rachel for her 9th birthday - a boxed set of Harry Potter books. Not being a frequent book purchaser, I had no idea that this could be an expensive proposition.  Imagine my surprise to discover that this particular item costs $86 at Barnes and Noble.  Paperback!  Next thing I know, you'll be telling me pay phones cost more than a dime...

"Look," I said to the sales clerk.  "You're selling it for $50 at B&N.com - I'd like to pay $50 here."

"I'm sorry," she said.  "Those prices are to compete with Amazon."

"Exactly!  I am a customer eager to buy from your store - show me how you can compete."

"You can only buy it for 50 dollars online, ma'am."

"But I need it tomorrow!  If you make me go online, I might as well go to Amazon."

Surprise! The woman being paid $7.50 an hour  really didn't care about my problem.  Having worked the same job in the past, I didn't blame her.  So I went home and checked out the price on Amazon - 49 dollars.  Hmmm...even with one-day shipping, it would still be less than buying it at the store.  But wait!  If I would sign up for an Amazon Visa, I could get 40 dollars off.

Let me digress here and explain that Larry is adamantly opposed to these "special offers" that, according to his defensibly paranoiac view of modern finance, are going to cheat me out of money down the road.  In addition, he hates credit cards that offer miles or points or whatever else.  Life is too complicated already, my beleaguered spouse claims, to have to choose between airplane miles or LLBean dollars every time he goes to pay for a tank of gas.

He's cute when he's crotchety, isn't he?

Anywhoo, Larry isn't home this week.  He's off hiking in the wilderness with David.  And I had PROMISED these books to Rachel for her birthday.  So I signed up for the credit card and got the whole shebang with one-day shipping for 29 dollars. 

Hopefully I can cancel the card before Larry gets back.  If not, I'll have some 'splainin to do...

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I worked a temp secretarial job back in the late 80's, and a guy from a neighboring office told me, "The people I work with are really fun.  We're always laughing and joking - you know, like on Cheers."  Um, no.  No, your office isn't like Cheers.  And you don't look like Ted Danson, either.

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I don't know why I told that story.  Maybe because every time I see a blog post titled "Hysterical!"  or "Funniest Thing Ever!", I know immediately that it won't be.  I think I'll call it the Cheers syndrome.

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I'm cutting this short because it's late and I promised a neighbor that we would go to the Farmers' Market at 7:45 in the morning.  But make sure to drop by Conversion Diary, the host of 7 Quick Takes - don't worry, Jennifer doesn't suffer from Cheers syndrome.


[Chuck E Cheese image: Arcade Heroes]
[Harry Potter books image: Fall and Fly]
[Lucy/Ricky image:  Inner Toob]
[Cheers image: The Daily Eudemon]