Xmas shopping

Forecasting the shopping on the Saturday the weekend before Christmas, it didn't look like a terribly bright idea. It ended up not being so bad.

The main goal was to get Kim what she wanted: a dishwasher. Hey, don't bitch at me. It's what she wanted.

So, the first stop was Sears, with our handy Consumer Reports buying guide in hand. As usual, the model numbers in the guide and the model numbers in the store bore no resemblance to each other. Wandering around and checking out the display was called for. The guide gave Kenmore's high marks, so we concentrated on those, and found one we liked. We then checked Maytag, Whirlpool and a couple of others. Kenmore still came out on top. We purchased. It's being installed on Wednesday, when Kim's parents will be in town if the installer comes after Kim goes to work.

Next: cell phones. We're getting T-Mobile pay-as-you-go phones this year to use in emergency situations. Kim's had one for a couple of weeks and is already expanding her use of it :).

Next task: stuff for the nieces. Most of the nieces are in Philly and we don't see them much, so gift cards are the way to go. The line was long, but move very quickly. Time to move from the mall to Barnes & Nobles across the freeway for more gift cards.

On to Petco for gifts for the animals: beds and a cat tree.

Next stop for Kim: the rehabilitation hospital to visit a neighbor. My task is to go to Half Price Books to pick up another gift card for our local niece.

I make it back to the hospital before Kim's done, so I sit out and read Spider Robinson's "Life House". Once she's done, we head off to a Christmas Tree lot. The lot only takes cash and checks: we have no checks and not enough cash. Off to the ATM. Back to the tree lot to pick out the tree.

Next stop: Rico's mexican restaurant. We'd called some friends and they met us there. We lingered over dinner for about 2 hours and caught up on current events. We hadn't seen them in a bit, so it was good to get the scoop.

Homeward bound, to set up the tree and see how the animals like their beds.