Stuff

So, what am I doing today?

Well, I'm trying to find something on the L.L. Bean website to buy, since I've got this $10 gift card that expires today. I didn't think it would be this hard, but apparently it is.

I'm looking into a few Ebay alternatives, since their new pricing scheme stinks (to put it mildly). And their "only positive feedback for buyers" is really insane.

I'm hoping that the skies are clear tomorrow night for the lunar eclipse - the last one for North America until late 2010. It'll be too cold here to sit outside for the whole thing - 12 degrees F, 15 MPH wind - but I may pop outside for a few pictures. I was hoping to let El Burrito watch it, since he's crazy about the moon, but at those temps, I think not.

It would also be cool to get a glimpse of the spy satellite that's in a decaying orbit. Spaceweather has a photo that someone in MO took last night. It's pretty neat. However, it doesn't look like it'll be easily visible here.

We went to the credit union meeting last night and had some fun. It's the employee CU for DH's employer, and they have a good annual meeting - door prizes and refreshments. They hand out $1 coins as you walk in the door, but the good prizes are in the drawing after the meeting. They've been doing gift certificates the last year or two, plus prizes for the kids. They usually have enough gift certs for at least half the attendees, then they start giving away the company-logo hats, shirts, and golf balls. And then it's a $15 credit on a "company wearable" (T-shirts, jackets, etc.). Everybody gets a prize, it's just a matter of how fast they draw your name.

This year, we came home with $75 in restaurant gift cards, a piggy bank and matching keychain (shaped like a pig), a folding kid-size chair, and $3 in dollar coins.

There was a new twist this year that I liked. The last two names drawn got a wrapped box - the last person got to choose which box. One box had a $100 gift card, the other had a $50 card. Much better than being the last person and having a choice of another baseball cap or a dozen golf balls (especially if you don't play golf or need a hat). I was one of the last drawn last year, and I still haven't spent my $15 wearable credit.

Decluttering

Or trying to, anyway. I'm going through a tub of stuff that we probably need to get rid of. It's mostly baby clothes - a set of preemie dresses and some other girl clothes that we didn't use for El Burrito (for obvious reasons). And yet I'm having a bit of a hard time committing to letting go of it. Go figure. Even though I'm firmly of the opinion that I don't want to go through the whole pregnancy thing again (much to my mother's dismay, and I swear I can't wait until my little brother gets married and supplies the woman with another grandkid or two). It's that insane little packrat-voice in my head that keeps saying "save it for later, you might need it" even though it might be something I'll never need again.

Anyway, I need to get on the ball with this stuff and at least sort out what might sell on eBay, so I can list it before their fee changes go into effect next month. I may cut back even more on my selling, given their proposed changes. They're touting it as being cheaper, since they are reducing the listing fee - by 5 cents on the lower-priced stuff that I usually list. What they don't mention in the headline, though, is that the final value fee is going up 3.5%, for a total of 9.75%. Yeah, as long as it sells for more than $2, they've made back their measley nickel.

Then there are the three Roper Western shirts that won't go away. Brand new, with tags, but bought at least 10 years ago. By my mother, who doesn't quite have the same taste in clothes that I do, which is why the tags are still on. I don't even know if they're "in style" anymore. I thought I'd sold them to someone in Australia, but when I found out that shipping them would be around $30, she backed out. And I didn't blame her at all.

Speaking of Ebay, I just left my second negative feedback ever. Last time, it was a buyer who never sent payment, even after claiming to send it three times. This time, it was a seller who never sent the DVDs I thought I'd purchased (on Half.com). It wouldn't have been so bad, but their excuse was that the DVDs were out of stock, and they didn't bother to inform me of this until three weeks after I placed the order. Now, Half.com rules state that you have to ship within either two or three business days, so the fact that I didn't get an update until I emailed them is what bumped them from a neutral to a negative. If they'd emailed me and sent a refund within a week, I would have been okay with a neutral. But that didn't happen, and apparently it's a common thing with this seller (or group of sellers, as their "Me" page implies).

***

So, ideas for getting this stuff out of the house:

• see if the local Children's Orchard wants the baby stuff (except that what I've got is mostly low-end stuff, like Walmart)
• find a consignment shop
• Ebay
• donate to the local charity thrift store

Hmm. Off to ponder some more.

Friday!

So, the problem with the Ebay shipping yesterday was my error. Yeah, there's a difference between Parcel Post and Priority, and I wasn't reading carefully. Glad I noticed before I actually mailed it. But it got worked out in the end, and the diaper bag is en route to a new home.

And I've been trying to prep a bit for the weekend. I've got two things that have to be mailed tomorrow, so I need to finish tracking them down, packing them, and getting the labels printed. I've got a shirt and some beads to return also. The beads and shirt are located, along with the receipt for the beads. I just need to find the Sears receipt for the shirt, which seems determined to not be found.

Been following the Heath Ledger news (because you can't avoid it). The fact that his parents and ex-SO found out on the news, instead of getting a phone call or something, really ticks me off. As does the fact that the masseuse who found him decided to call Mary Kate Olsen first, and called 911 almost half an hour later. There are no words for how insane I find that. I know it's not usual to find a possibly-dead body, and panic would set in, but cripes, people. 911 and CPR shouldn't be that freaking hard to come up with.

El Burrito has turned out to be a Muppet fan. He likes his Sesame Street in the morning, although we've been watching the old episodes on DVD lately (Old School Volume 1, until I can order Volume 2). I got the Muppet Show Season 1 for Christmas, and put the first disc in yesterday. He got a bigger kick out of that than he does from Sesame Street. I've got no clue why he found it so funny, but he laughed for most of the second episode.

I started his next hat last night - it's going to have earflaps. I got the pattern from the 2008 Pattern-a-day calendar that he got me for Xmas this year. It's going pretty fast so far, it's probably close to halfway done. I figured out the front post and back post double crochet, although I'm not crazy about them yet. Tonight should get it finished, if I can crochet through the majority of Psych, Monk, and/or House (to keep from seeing the gorier bits of House).

Vacation's over

Our little vacation is over. We're leaving after lunch to go get El Burrito. He's been having a blast with Grandma & Grandpa since Thursday night. Mom says he can say "tractor" now, and got to play with his puppy, among other things.

And now I'm going to go compose a reply to the seller of that Ebay auction, to let them know that I won't be paying the extra $45 in shipping that they want. I realize that it's still a decent price on the puzzles, and that it was probably an honest mistake, being their first sale and all. But it's still twice as much as I thought the total would be, so that's that. I'd really like to have the puzzles, but oh well. Sooner or later they'll all show up on Ebay again; they're not that rare.