Monday, June 22, 2009

Maybe a gift card?

My husband used to be so easy to buy gifts for; get him a tool. He loves it. He's happy. I'm happy. End of story.

Until this spring.

I decided to get Champs this really righteous set of steak knives for Father's Day; the perfect accessory to his grill and smoker and the luscious meats that issue forth from them. The only problem is that he intercepted the box at the door and I couldn't think of a suitable lie, so I ended up telling him that they were his present. I warned him that now he wasn't going to get any present at all except maybe a few good steaks to toss on his grill. That was the story anyway; all this had occurred a good month before the big day, so I figured I would try again.

I went back to my tool theory. Champs has been wanting a power washer. Now, this is a substantial purchase, so I decided to get him one that would be for both Father's Day and his birthday, which is on July 7. He was given to searching for models on the web, so I had a pretty good idea of what he wanted. When he printed one out, I figured I had him nabbed. Until the next day, when he was on his way to help his brothers do some work at his Mom's house. That's when he unvieled his plan; he was going to Home Depot to buy a power washer that he agreed to buy with his brother. Yeup; half ownership on his Father's Day/birthday gift. I sighed, handed him a 10% off coupon and wrote a check for our half.

I told him the next day that I had planned to buy him one of his own in about 3 more weeks.

OK... so we're getting close to the big day and I still need to get a gift for my hubby. I mean, yeah, he's got two great gifts already, but I have to have something for him, right? Right.

I went to Walmart and decided on a new DVD player. Ours just up and died in February, which means that every movie we've watched has been shown on a portable DVD player temporarily hooked up to the TV. Yeah, that's the ticket; the movie ticket! I got him a box of raisenettes to go along with it and tossed the machine in the trunk of the car.

When I got home from Walmart, Champs struck again.

He showed me what he had found on PetFinder.com - a beautiful 4 year-old male purebred Great Dane in need of a home. Now, we just bought our home in March and this is the first time since we've been married that we're able to consider buying a dog. I don't think the ink on the deed was dry before Champs started looking for a Great Dane for us. And this boy is perfect. He's house trained, gentle and beautiful. And he's in Indiana. And his adoption fee is $200.00. And we have nothing. at. all. to take care of a dog. No brush, bowls, food, toys, shampoo, dog bed, AnyThing.

Now, I'm happy to get the dog (and all the attendant paraphernalia), in fact, we went out on Sunday afternoon and spent a good $80.00 just picking out starter dog stuff. But it did get me to thinking that he should be Champs' Father's Day and Birthday present. All told, we'll put more into that dog than I would have for the steak knives and the power washer combined. I explained this to Champs and he agreed. The DVD player hasn't been opened yet. We might return it... who knows?

But I wonder if it wouldn't have been easier from the get-go if I hadn't just gotten him a gift card?

Monday, June 15, 2009

Backhanded Compliment

Yesterday Champs and I went to Walmart to get ready for our housewarming/birthday party. While we were there we got some beer and wine coolers. The lady asked for my ID and said they have to card for anyone under 40. I said, "well, then, I'm 43, so I'll take that as a compliment. Must mean I look under 40."

She smiled and nodded and was ahead until she said, "well, not that much under 40."

Sigh


Here's the comment from this post:

David said...
some people just do not know when to be quiet