Filed under: living while not working, stuff | Tags: Asus eee pc, cheapskate, distracted, economic stimulus check, frugal, materialism, patience, stupid, Woot!
So I used my economic stimulus check – actually, I used it TWICE, but that’s another story. I’ve been drooling over the Asus eee pc:
Small, 7-inches wide, comes in PINK (I know, I know….), boots in 15 seconds, and is dandy with the wireless. Woo hoo.
The 2GB (Yes, 2GB – if you want to save anything, get a real laptop or stock up on those handy-dandy SD cards from Woot!) runs about $249.00.
So I reason that a smart phone will put me back at least $249, and then a monthly data subscription on top of that would be about $300 annually. Right? So now, look how much I would SAVE….
And then I start pricing the 4GB – then the 8GB, so I’m up to $400 or so, but still no monthly subscription, and Verizon won’t be carrying the iPhone anytime soon – so this still sounds like pure genius. To my ears. No one else seems to grasp the beauty of the technology or the plan.
So, the stimulus check comes and lo and behold – Asus has just come out with a 
20GB, with better screen resolution (no horizontal scrolling) at roughly the same size – fits in my Butler Bag. Look at the size of that screen, baby!
This new 900 model, with XP (which eats up 8GB out of the 20GB, so it’s actually 12GB) is $549.00.
Because, at heart, I really am a cheapskate, I spend two days trying to find the lowest price, shipping cost and promo codes – and who the heck has these babies in stock. Amazon is one to two months out. Buy.com: in-stock, $10 off and free shipping.
So I bite the bullet because I’m dizzy with the prospect of being able to surf the web at family gatherings and airports and coffee shops…. I go through Google check out to get my $10-off, I dutifully type in my CC secret code, and wait. And wait.
So I don’t receive any email confirmations – not from Google Checkout, nor from Buy.com. I wait three days, check my CC statement, and order again. Yes, someone should have stopped me right at the beginning of this paragraph. I was dizzy I tell you, dizzy with the prospect of tiny keys and wireless magic, 24 hours of web access, instead of my usual 12 to 18.
At some point I wise up and send an email explaining the lack of any info from Friday’s order (it is now Monday) and that I just ordered again. They find my order from Friday, actually call me (nice, but short-lived fuzzy feeling) and I cancel Monday’s order.
Status still says “Ships in 1 to 2 Days”. Whew. I don’t know how long I can wait- now it’s four days into first order, and they are just releasing it. (Wait. What? When did I get this stupid? There aren’t even any coffee shops around here…)
So – of course, after my order is released (?) I get an email that says it’s backordered. No time frame. Order status on website still says “To Warehouse – Will Ship in 1 to 2 Days.” Ummm – which is it? Uncharacteristically I hope that the web status is right and they are just silly gooses.
Buy.com are not just silly gooses:
Item #208017730 was delayed in fulfillment. We do not have an estimated shipping date at this time. However, confirmation will be sent via e-mail once your order is shipped.
Thank you for your patience. (Italics and irony, all mine.)
I knew I had to leash him before we reached the Beaver Pond yesterday, as all the grass burrs have been making a mess out of his paws. The descent to the Beaver Pond is a not-too-steep hill, prime lady slipper country, and torturous to careen down with 165 pounds of sniffing on the end of a leash. We checked out the grass situation and it’s still a mess – so no wading for the big boy today.
I take advantage of Hamish’s total bewilderment that he’s not going in the water (What did we come this far for, if not to frolic in the muck?), and his protestation of it – a nice hefty “sit” in the middle of the path, to peer around the tree bases for any new growth.
And there it was – a new lady slipper.
And then, some four feet away a flowering lady slipper. And again, a few feet away from her – just leaves coming up through the pine needles.
So I think on three things: lady slipper alley will be glorious, I learned when to start looking for the plants pushing up through the forest mulch (MID-MAY, MID-MAY…), and I simply can not explain why this discovery has provided me with so much joy.
I found myself thanking God for the beauty that surrounds us, and thankful that we had taken time for “the long walk” on a busy day when neither of us seemed up for it.
I also learned that when taking close up pictures, laying on the ground in the forest, with a heavily-panting leashed dog - the camera shakes with the breathing. Bonus: the ground smelled so strongly – a nice woodsy, floral, sweet musk that can’t be replicated in a perfume.
We walked home – tired, hot, but satisfied with our findings – he with his smells and tracking, and I with my lady slippers.
And then I found two ticks on me, and spent the rest of the day feeling phantom tick crawlies.
Filed under: living while not working, nature, thoughts | Tags: birds, Dog, Hamish, nature, woods
Much of my monotony is spent in the woods and on the trails around our house walking with Hamish. We are surrounded by about 100 acres of woods, trails, brooks and a few ponds.
Behind the house is the area I call “The Killing Fields.” It’s where the animal screams come from, and where Hamish finds various body parts to chew on (all animal so far.) Having only moved to the woods a year ago from the city – well, Massachusetts*- I’m still unsure of what is doing the screaming, why there is screaming, and whose parts are being found (and chewed.)
So, we’re tromping through the Killing Fields about a week ago, and I’m threatening the dog as he runs from one pile of deer poop to the next – gobbling as much as he can before I catch up, and I look down and see the white of the underside of a neck bone. 
I nudged it and overturned the top-half of a skull. One canine tooth was missing, and there is this thick whisker-type piece coming from the roof of the mouth out across the opposite canine – that would drive me mental! So I don’t know who this skull belonged to – maybe raccoon or fox? I had my Crocs on, which have holes in them, so got skeeved out and stopped nudging it with my foot.
We had a pair of Orioles here this week too. I put out some orange halves, but so far, no takers. Beautiful birds – they flew over our heads and didn’t seem bothered at all by our talking and staring at them. Vanity.
The hummingbirds seem to be the most fascinating for everyone. They fly right near us, almost in-your-face – especially when we were hanging the new feeder – like,
“get out of the way…
hurry up or I’ll creep you out by getting even closer next time!”
I was disconcerted.
This feeder has spots for them to rest on while they eat – when this one flew away there was bright red orange color around his collar.
* I’ve come to learn from the locals anywhere in Massachusetts is city. Anywhere. And then you find out that 90% of the locals are immigrants from Massachusetts. I’m not sure when the statute of limitations runs out. They won’t tell me that yet.
Filed under: stuff | Tags: butler bag, keen shoes, money, obsession, ocd, shopping, spending
so my husband goes to visit his parents for a few weeks, and apparently this leads to all kinds of CRAZY spending on my part..
Big mistake – I just jumped on over to AmEx to check my balance. Eeeuuufff.
Keen Presidio shoes.
They’ll hopefully last a few years,
they are comfortable as heck,
and I got them 20% off,
and used my dividend at REI.
Justified.
nice, right? Yup.
I also bought pedometers – one for me, one for my mother.
Green tea bars. Yummy.
A new hummingbird feeder.
Emu oil for Hamish.
And the best, I think – a summer pocketbook.
I’ve been using a Jen Groover Butler Bag – Hybrid in Espresso. Great bag, but huge – and really dark for summer.
So I got a smaller lighter one – the Classic, in toasted almond.
This isn’t a picture of my bag, but it gives you a good idea of what the inside of a Butler Bag looks like, and it’s major selling point. My father looked at the inside of my bag and said “all you need now are alphabetized folders.”
So now my OCD is lovingly stroked – everything in it’s own place IN MY PURSE!
You know I’m obsessed when I buy something this pricey – yes, pricey – TWICE.
My last bag was from the Brookstone outlet and cost $4.99. It actually had a Brookstone label on the front – well, a plastic thing that said “BROOKSTONE” glued on the front flap. Classy. I thought that bag was organized. Ha. Amateurs.
We’re getting a kitten in June. Since the original plan, way back when, was to get a cat for Hamish to play with, I suppose it is only consistent that I get a new kitten for Fergus. The whole Hamish-Fergus best-friends plan never really took off. I’m hoping that like follows like and the new kitten will keep Fergus playing and crazy for a while.
This is the new little bugger in April. I made the fatal misstep of calling him “Yoda” because of his ears – my mother and Peggy both latched on to that, and now refer to him, inexplicably, as Yodi.
Um. No. This is Finnaeus. Finn for short, even though I’m not normally a fan of the nickname. I think Finn will make a fine name for this scrappy little guy. And I do like having a more formal, you’re-in-trouble name…. FINN-AE-US! I should have given Fergus and Hamish middle names for when I yell at them. It would make much more of an impression, I’m sure.
Since the other two beasties are massive brutes, relatively speaking, I assumed I would be coming home with the biggest of the boys.
After watching 11 kittens squirming, feeding and playing for a few hours, this pint-sized mini really impressed me. He was smaller than all the other kittens, but eager to explore his surroundings, interested in everything, and seemed to enjoy batting everyone else in the head. All character traits much admired, and much required when coming into our home.
The difference that one month makes is amazing. I can’t wait to see him interact with Fergus and Hamish. Good luck, Finn. May the force be with you.
time zones, dialing seventy-three numbers and THEN not making a connection, loud metallic noisy connections, delays – I hate them all.
I couldn’t get through this morning, and I have to go into the office – so no call today. Bummer. First day of no communication out of what…. 15? I guess it’s not so bad. I’m still listening to my “funereally morbid” playlist on my way to work though.
Every time Cris goes away for a long time, I find myself thinking about how I would get through if he weren’t around to do this with me. I’d have my ‘funereal misery’ playlist looping, and wouldn’t want to get out of bed – ever. Yeah – that’s a given. But who would walk the dog? And clean the litter box? And pay the bills? I dislike the notion that the mundane will trump my melodrama – but I think that’s probably what makes survivors. God’s grace and paying the bills. You have to keep moving, or you’ll die.
I see how a blog can have it’s pros and cons. For a perfectionist, with obsessive tendencies, committing words and phrases to print is making me a little worried. On the other hand, the freedom to share some of the thoughts swirling around in my tiny little mind theoretically sounds like a good thing.
I hit the delete key more often than not, and have been obsessing for two days over the use of punctuation, or lack thereof, in my first post. I’ve said repeatedly that I’m an editor, not a creator. The jury is still is out on whether I go back and edit every post to death.
I was in church a few weeks ago, and the speaker, Josh Peigh referenced Ecclesiastes, which is my favorite book in the Bible. (Am I supposed to have a favorite?)
The idea that Solomon could be so cynical warms my heart. I very much enjoy reading that the wisest soul deemed most pursuits “spitting into the wind”, and that honestly, there is nothing new under the sun. This is generally my mood on any given day.
During the same sermon, he spoke about our daily monotony – specifically, inviting the Creator of the Universe, the all-knowing, all-seeing God into my own personal monotony. Pure genius, I thought when I heard those words – my own personal monotony. That’s what I live out every day, and need to constantly remind myself that God would desire to be part of it – my own personal monotony. Not new, certainly, but a continual relevation to a cynical soul.
There you go.
