Shopping Online

OK, so maybe I don't know the tricks yet. I thought doing a little cross-border internet shopping might be fun for a couple of Christmas gifties. Nothing super exciting, but things I can't buy here....

Specifically...Bath & Body Works and Sephora.

Annoying.

First, I tried Bath & Body Works because when I was in the store in Vegas I couldn't find the Exotic Coconut soaps and lotions. The sales girl told me it was probably a "classic" fragrance...meaning that not all of the stores carry it, but it would probably still be available online. I should note that she knew I was from Canada.

So today I go trotting through the website, find the soap and a few other things for good gifties, and even qualify for a cool sample set of a bunch of their products. Only to realize that when I went to checkout, they don't deliver to Canada. Did I mention annoying? I surfed around the site and even though they have stores in Canada now (only Ontario and Alberta) they still only ship from their US warehouse and don't do international. Argh.

But, no big deal, I'll just try Sephora instead. Another place we don't have here or back on the island so it would still make a nice hard-to-get-on-their-own gift. Not as good a selection in the price-range I'm looking at, but I still found a couple of appropriate things that would do just as well as the BBW stuff would have, both on sale for $5 off. Added the things to my cart, qualified for some free samples and free shipping ($5.95 for shipping on orders under $50). Until checkout....yup, switch to Canadian checkout and sure they deliver but now it's $9.95 unless you have a minimum of $120...PLUS the sale prices on the items I chose are now gone. So now it's not worth it....$20 extra on $50 worth of stuff. As DBF would say, this is my unimpressed face.

So back to square one and in-store shopping...which is fine but I was looking forward to bringing gifts that those people may never have gotten on their own at home.

So what's the big deal about online shopping?

I'm Spoiled

Ha! Yet another belated birthday giftie arrived today from my lovely friend back home, Miss Ingmarie. I just love how this birthday keeps on going, and going, and going. I opened my front door today and laying on my porch was a puffy little UPS package. What a way to brighten a day!!

Look at this cute winter-white clutch! (the picture doesn't do it justice as I couldn't get it to show the color properly...it's not yellowy at all!) It's very soft, smooshy leather.

Happy Airmiles to me!

As if all the fun birthday goodies I've received lately haven't been enough....I got myself a treat from Airmiles too. I was online cashing in points for a few Christmas gifties for the family when I happened upon the Cuisinart Griddler...and had exactly enough points left for it! I have wanted one of these for quite a while and although I did mention it as a good idea for a Christmas gift I am pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten one. DBF doesn't like to buy appliances, etc as gifts (which is great...unless it's something I actually really want! haha) and my Mom wouldn't buy it because then I'd have to lug it back from BC with me. So I ordered it for myself. :) Nothing better than freeeeeeeeeee!

And it showed up within like 4 days!! They say allow up to 4 weeks for delivery, but I ordered it on Thursday, it shipped on Friday and I received it yesterday afternoon. Nice!

I see some pancakes & bacon in my menu plan for Saturday!!

Happier Thoughts

Since I'm sure you are all sick of my bitching about the friggin snow-in...I thought I'd share some happier thoughts...via photos!

My girl Tiffaney sent me this coolio belated birthday gift. A Lululemon GC for my Lulu addiction!

My Mama sent me a second birthday card with a second Starbucks GC...for another of my crazy corporate addictions!

The snow might suck but it looks nice with my festive Christmas decorations. That new wreath on the garage door is 42" and pre-lit!

In keeping with the festive theme, I set up our lighted Christmas village last night. We got it last year but never got to use it. I love it!

And because no random photo post would be complete without it, here is a pic of Mr. Stoopy looking tough in the hallway today. Moments prior he had been rolling around in the sunny patch on the carpet.

More bitching about snow...

...argh.

Recap: Saturday I went out again in the afternoon to try to tackle it...by the time I pushed all the snow off my car, I basically had to reshovel everything I had done in the morning. DBF and I park our cars so close together that there was about 4 feet of snow piled between them. Oh yippee. I had to give up. Sunday morning I got up early, made coffee and went out at it again. Thank freaking God my fabulous neighbor across the street saw me and took pity and came and helped. He did the most work (because he's strong enough to use one of those big scooping shovel things) and his girlfriend and I did as much as we could. It was awesome! I had to climb in the passenger side of my car, so I could back it out and we could get at the huge heap in the middle. But when we were done....I was freeeeeeeeeeeeeee! It only took an hour and I was so grateful.

Bullshit: We have sidewalks on our side of the street...which they did plow last year, but this year they didn't seem to be doing. Of course, it's tough to see the difference between lawn/sidewalk/boulevard when you are shoveling 3 feet of snow, so the sidewalk area (on the whole street!) had been filled in with tossed snow. Until 3am this morning!! When those city assholes came along with their little plow and made a ton of racket and plowed the living shit out of the sidewalks. Ya, that's right....making not one, but two huge blockades at our driveways again. Mhmmm. So I just went at it for 45 minutes and maybe got a third of it done. I'm snowed in AGAIN. It's hard and heavy and solid snow now....not impressed.

I would die to hire a kid to do this for me. Where the hell are they all?

Edit: some fabulously wonderful neighborhood elf dug me out!! I just went to get ready to take another stab at it and someone has cleared the huge mess from the mouth of the driveway!!

Edit #2: and then of course, the sidewalk plow just came back and fucked it up again. Seriously...I understand that they have to do the sidewalks, but do they have to keep blocking our driveways?!!!