A FRIDAY FUNNY

FREE BOOK FRIDAY

This week’s Free Book Friday title is The First Love Cookie Club by Lori Wilde.  Looks kinda perfect for winter, right? :winkwink

To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment to today’s post that includes the code FBF—for “Free Book Friday,” of course—to let me know you’re interested in the drawing. (U.S. residents only for the prize, please, but everyone is welcome to chat.)

Winner will be announced during our Happy Sunday post on…well, you know, Sunday.

Winner is responsible for contacting me with her mailing information—i.e. I will not be contacting you—so be sure to check back in or you might not even know you won! :curses

(If prize isn’t claimed within 14 days, another name may be drawn or item may be tossed back into the goody bag to be re-used for a future giveaway.)

Last time on “Merry Christmas to me (from me)“…

You remember, right?  I was recapping my super-awesome post-holiday shopping binge.  The one that singlehandedly renewed our economy & provided jobs to millions of previously out-of-work store clerks.  Yeah, it was that kind of spree. :peekaboo

The bills for which I am just now being asked to pay. :Huh

What I really want to share, though, is my absolute delight over something I’ve been wanting, but did not think I’d manage to get for another couple of Christmases…at least not at a price I was willing to pay.

SUPERNATURAL!!!

Seasons 1 -6!!!

Oh, yeah—this is about as happy as I’ve been in a really long time. :twirl

So here’s the story:  I’d already been “monitoring” them at Amazon & Barnes&Noble & such, thinking I might be able to catch a sale, even if I had to start small & buy them out of order.  Then, for some bizarre reason, I decided to check Walmart.com.  I think to see how much they likely were at my local store…just out of curiosity.

Well, imagine my dismay (i.e. the shock that nearly sent me falling out of my chair) when I discovered they were on sale for only $10 each.  $10! A season! :jumping

Could this be real?  Could I really get nearly the entire Supernatural series for only $10 per season?

Oh, wait, here’s the catch—they were completely sold out.  Of course.  To be filed under either “Story of My Life” or “Can’t Have Anything Nice.”  :sick

And can I just tell you that this kept me up at night?  Literally on Christmas Eve, I could not sleep…& it wasn’t ’cause I was waiting for Santa to come sliding down the chimney.  I was mentally banging my head against the wall.  Why me?  Why couldn’t I have discovered that sale just a day or two earlier?  Why, why, why?!  Then my brain clicked into Scorpio Gear.  There has to be some way to fix this.  There has to be some way I can still get these :curses DVDs at that price.  Never give up, never surrender!  (Oh, wait, that’s from Galaxy Quest.  Well, Commander Taggert most likely was a Scorpio.)

And I came up with this:  Perhaps they were also on sale in-store.  I would call first thing in the morning.  Which means I barely slept from that point on & was up at the ass-crack of dawn.  On Christmas Day.  To call Wal-Mart.

Except that Wal-Mart wasn’t open Christmas Day.  Wal-Mart!  The 24-hour, always-open, work-their-employees-to-the-bone Wal-Mart was closed.  Seriously?!

Rough twenty-four hours, let me tell you. :runrun

When I finally was able to call, the DVDs were not on sale.  They were, in fact, $30+ each.  Pffffft.

Back to the drawing board.  (No, I hadn’t given up, I was merely at an impasse.)

Another fitful night, this time in Winnie-the-Pooh mode:  Think.  Think.  Think.

It took me another twenty-four hours, but I came up with another idea!  You know how Wal-Mart with price match if you have a flyer from another store showing an item on sale at a lower price?  Well, if they’ll do that, why wouldn’t they be willing to price match their own sale from the website?

Yes!  This might just work!  So as much as I despise leaving the house (especially in the winter), I got dressed & did just that, my trusty little printout from the website in hand.  I prayed all the way there.  Yes, I know God probably has better things to do than further my obsessive-compulsive tendencies by helping me add to my TV-on-DVD collection, but I prayed nonetheless.  I also promised to make an equal donation to the animal charity of His choice, if He helped me succeed.  That way, everybody wins; the materialistic side of my personality is appeased & homeless animals (of the ASPCA, it turns out) are helped. :blowkiss

So I walked up to the Customer Service desk, my heart pounding a mile a minute.  There was a line, so I had time to school my breathing & rehearse my little speech.  Then it was my turn.  I smiled big, creepy Sheldon smile, took a deep breath, & dove in.  And all I did was ask if they could price match a sale I’d discovered at their own website online because the items I wanted to order were out of stock.  The women barely blinked—Sure, she said, just tell the clerk when you check out.

Really, that’s it?  I had to take blood pressure medicine before leaving the house, I was such a nervous wreck, & all I get is a less than enthusiastic Sure?  Well, okay.  Not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.  I swallow my yip of joy & skipped—literally skipped—my way back to Electronics.  (Note to self:  It is perhaps not a good idea to exert yourself quite so physically so soon after major abdominal surgery.  I did feel that the next morning. :sick But it was totally freaking worth it, & that’s what heavy narcotic painkillers are for! :muahaha )

You should have seen me once I got back there.  I was like a kid in a candy story.  A Sex and the City girl at a shoe sale.  A cocaine addict with a straw, a mirror, & a pile of the white stuff.  I was grabbing, grabbing, grabbing, stacking the sets in my arms & using my chin to keep them from falling over.

Season 1 — check.

Season 2 — check.

Season 3… Where is Season 3?  Where the hell is Season 3?!  Nooooo!…  Oh, there it is.  Whew.

Season 3 — check.

Season 4 — check.

Season 5 — check.

Season 6 — check.

Season 7…  Not yet released. I shall put that on next year’s Christmas List. :winkwink

Oh, happy day!  And a Christmas miracle, to be sure.  (Though not the kind they’re going to tell stories about a hundred years from now.  But in my book, it totally counts!)

I smiled like a damn loon the entire rest of the day.  And clutched those DVDs like a newborn baby.

And here’s the ironic part—I’m still watching the episodes TNT is playing because I haven’t actually seen them all yet.  I’m totally on board, though; cannot imagine a day I don’t love just about every episode of this show.  I also don’t want to break through the pretty plastic wrapping any sooner than I have to.  So as long as they’re running repeats or brand new episodes on TV, I will catch them there.  Because I’m funny that way. :drinkup

I was so happy afterward that I also decided to stop at the State Store, & they actually had some flavored vodkas on sale!  Woot!  Vodka is my favorite, & flavored vodka is even better!  Got me some Pink Lemonade & Green Apple.  Haven’t opened those yet, either, but aren’t they purty together?

So maybe now you can understand why I’m still dancing around singing, Merry Christmas to me!  Merry Christmas to me! :twirl   Oh, yeah, it was a good one, even if I did have to do most of the heavy lifting myself. *G*