on sale

so, if you know me, you probably know that i rarely pay full retail price for anything. i don't try particularly hard, since i find shopping to be rather painful in most circumstances. i keep a mental list running of things i need or will need in the near future, and when i see a good deal... lisa and mike are the same way. for example, we went grocery shopping today and ended up buying some $44 worth of food. we saved over $72. so if we were to pay full retail we would have shelled out well over $100. but we're not into that. often we go to the grocery outlet and save more than we spend, but today was special. we ran across the street (more like a game of frogger on this arterial) for convenience and were drawn in by the deals. and i admit, i splurged.

it is almost october after all, so who needs a 2008 calendar? well, for ten cents, i went for it. wild flowers, come on. i am already scheming some uses for the pretty pictures once the year ends. i threw another ten cents at a pack of gum and was happy to find the only non fruity flavor in the basket. in my opinion, gum and hot tea should never be fruity. there was the thirty some dollar steak we got for $5 or so.

now, i am a little ashamed to admit this, but baby food was such a good deal (14 cents for a 6 oz. jar of apple sauce) that i almost went for it. i was pretty close, i mean big people eat apple sauce too. i like apple sauce. but then i got to thinking about it and looking closer at it and decided that it might be a wee bit over-processed for my taste. more like mush than sauce. so i passed. but then i left the store and started reconsidering the baby food, because couldn't you use the baby stuff in baking... and no one would notice? and then you could offer your special treat to people, and tell them it was made of baby food. or not.

thwarted

the accumulation process can only go so far before it instills a desire to purge. so, today, having had quite enough of all this acquiring of this n'that lately, i was determined to find as many things (starting in my room) that i could to get rid of immediately. it's wonderfully therapeutic. let's begin with the things i know i'll never wear again. how about several pairs of pants that, no matter what i do, will not stay put without a belt, which only makes things worse by bunching them up around my waist. having thyroid is great, but the down side is... i lost my butt and my clothes don't seem to fit anymore. if you happen to see it, will you kindly send it on its way back home?

anyway, i found some pants to give away, some shirts to retire, and a few things that probably should just be thrown away... like the pair of pants i've been wearing since 1998 that don't really have much other than their gumption holding them together at this point. so, i was finding some good stuff... getting a fairly decent pile going when lisa came around. i told her i had some stuff she might want to take a look at before i donated it. so what does she do? first she offered me a sweater that she had shrunk, thinking it might fit me for some reason, though last i checked... there is no conceivable way of stuffing a person over the age of eight into a sweater that small. so then she tried her next move in her ploy to thwart my purging process. she pulled out a long, black wool skirt she thought might fit me, that she no longer felt the need to hang onto for herself. she'd bought it at a thrift store a few years ago. it's handmade. it fit. ooo.... pretty. ahhh!!! i give up, i'll take it.

will i ever have an occasion to wear a long black skirt? sort of doubtful, but i am now fully prepared... and slightly less than successful in paring down my excess...

a very exciting post

so, i lied. this isn't even worthy of being called post material... but i need your help. my cell phone had an adventure and didn't come out so well in the end, so while he's recovering (don't tell him it doesn't look good), there's a new guy. he's still getting the hang of things and could use some assistance. he doesn't know all your numbers yet. he's a little overwhelmed with all the responsibility and it's still his first day. so go easy on him and just this once give him your phone number(s). you know the email address.

of mice and men

i have had 'of mice and men' sitting next to my bed for weeks, telling myself that i should and will read it. it's short, it's a classic, and it's a book i can read and get rid of (which is ideal at this point). yet, for some reason, i never have to urge to pick it up and start reading. there is actually a stack of books next to my bed which i intend to read and discard. perhaps telling someone else about my stash of books will prompt me to actually crack the dusty things and absorb something from them. if you've read 'of mice and men' and tell me i'm missing out, i'm quite sure i will suddenly blaze through it, wondering what took me so long. and if you tell me it wasn't that great, i will may continue to glance at it occasionally, promising myself to one day look at the inside.