Spending Spree

I got my taxes done early this time around.  I've noticed in general, people who are expecting a refund do theirs early, while people who have to pay out put theirs off to the last minute.  Of course, there are exceptions, but still...

I got my my refund this week, and as promised, the bulk of it was applied to my credit card debt.  H&R Block has this thing, though, where if you get part (or all) of your tax return on an Amazon card, they'll pay you a 5% bonus.  Knowing there are things I wanted to buy, I chose this option for part of my refund.  I received the code for the card Tuesday, and promptly went on a spending spree.

I'll get to that later.  First I want to show you the much more subdued spending spree that went on at Wal-mart this morning.

*Ahem* I can neither confirm nor deny that I may or may not have bought enough half price Valentine candy to make the checkout clerk gasp and ask, "Is this all for you?"

OK, moving right along...

I'd bought myself some new house shoes last October, and have been extremely disappointed in how fast they fell apart.  I'll wear them until it warms up, then toss them.  In the mean time, for those slightly less chilly days, I found some slipper socks on clearance.  I got Baby Groot,

and Ariel.

Those seashells look really weird, but they'll do for wearing around the house.

Once those were safely in my buggy, I wandered over to the garden center and picked up a new pair of gardening gloves, seeing as how my old pairs were getting quite worn out.

While I was there, I got some Lily Of The Valley roots.

I'd had some at my old house, but they never really took off.  I'm not sure if it was too muddy where I had them or what.  I love the flowers, though, so I'm going to give them another try.  The only conundrum is where to plant them.  The package says partial to full shade.  The only shade I have is in the back yard, where they are likely to get dug up by naughty dogs.

I might try putting them up by the house, where all that English Ivy was before I ripped it out.  The dogs don't dig up there, so they may do OK.  Plus, I have some border stuff left over.  I can make them a slightly raised bed, which may help keep the dogs out. 

I also inadvertently discovered that the best time to go to the store is 6:30 AM.  There was hardly anyone there.  Of course, I'm usually at work by then, but still.  It felt weird to have my major chore for the day done by 8:30 and have most of the day still before me.  I felt like I should get some house work done.  Alas, it was not to be.

Shortly after I got back home and got the groceries put away, the mail carrier came.  And what did she leave me?  Here's a hint, it was the first item I bought with my Amazon tax refund card.  Have you guessed yet?  It was....

THIS!!!!!

My record player!  My record player is here!

I carefully pulled it out of the box and unpacked it,

then ran into the bedroom and grabbed the top record out of the stack.  It just happened to be the Ed Ames Christmas album.  I put it carefully on to the player and voila'!  Music! 



Real music!  Not that sterile, clinically clean music of CDs and digital downloads, but real living, breathing music!  I ought to be ashamed of how giddy I got over this, but I'm not. 

Never be ashamed of what makes you happy.  And if people laugh at you, just remember, it's because they're miserably unhappy themselves. 

Next step will be to figure out how to install the software and convert all my records to MP3, so I can listen to them without wearing out the vinyl.  And also, share some of my favorites with you. 

So, there I was, happily listening to National Geographic folk music records when I happened to glance out the front window and saw the FedEx truck pull into my drive way.  Huh?  What had I ordered through FedEx -- or rather, what had I ordered that would be delivered by FedEx?  Amazon and Wal-mart usually deliver by USPS or UPS. 

I stepped out and got the package, and when I saw the return address, oh yeah, I remembered what it was. 

See, me and my friends Kristine and Sue seem to have this round robin enabling thing going on.  Last week, there was a discussion in one of our FB groups about ads that appear in your news feed.  It would seem, because of our recent obsession with fountain pens, a mutual friend had been seeing fountain pen ads in her feed.  We all had a good laugh about it, then Kristine mentioned that the featured pen was one of her dream pens. 

Sigh, guess who had to go and order one.  Yep, I have another new fountain pen!

This is one of those high dollar pens, but they were offering it in a Valentine's Day deal, which included the pen, five pink ink cartridges (plus the black one already in the pen), and a bottle of refill ink, plus that refiller thing.  It has a name, but I don't remember what it's called at the moment.  All that for less than the regular price of the pen.  Naturally, I had to take advantage of that. 

I want to show you one cool thing about this bottle of ink.  It has a little roll of blotting paper in the bottom!

Isn't that cool? 

I'm understanding why Kristine called this one of her dream pens.  It writes sooo smoothly!  I don't ever want to stop writing with it. 

Now, I've got to go dig through my address book...