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miko2Today's lesson is: Bath and Body Works rocks, The Body Shop sucks.
Today's good news is: I have presents for everyone. Except my stupid brother-in-law.
I left for work early today, stopped at Ballard Market to buy a dozen or more Seattle Chocolates chocolate bars to put in the stockings at work, got a lunch from their salad bar, and hit my credit union. When I got to work there was a lot of food in the spare room -- I'd failed to realize that our Christmas potluck party was on Thursday and not Friday. I got some food, not that I needed it with the lunch I'd brought. Then the phones started ringing and I missed out on most of our "white elephant" gift exchange. It was very very busy, considering that we expected (read: wanted!) business to die down the last 2-3 days before the holiday weekend.
The white elephant thing was the most civil white elephant gift exchange I've ever been involved in. I was #8 out of 11 people, and when my turn came, absolutely nobody had stolen a present from anyone else yet. I decided to do so just because someone had to. I mean, that's the whole point isn't it? So I stole a milkshake maker -- now I can make milkshakes in the privacy of my own home, not like I couldn't do that with my blender. :p
As for why I took it -- Jodie had her two daughters pick it out because it was Bart the Terminal Manager's turn and he was downstairs. But someone said that they thought that this (the milkshake machine) was the gift Bart had brought. So it seemed like a good idea to take it, since Bart probably wouldn't want his own present. Of course, he showed up right after that and told Jodie's daughters to keep whatever they picked out for him next, which happened to be the present I bought. This was two books -- The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, and Naked by David Sedaris. I have no idea what they'll think of those two books. :p
After me only one other present got stolen -- and that was only because the last person, Jake, was left with a choice of steal an opened gift, or select the last gift under the tree, which happened to be his. So he was forced to steal a gift -- a box full of really cheap beer. The person he stole it from opened the last gift and got an electric screwdriver set, which he was actually happier with.
So. Pretty ho-hum for a so-called cut-throat gift exchange.
When my lunch time came I wasn't very hungry but I wanted to get a golf umbrella for my sister, so I went over to Fred Meyers and looked all over for them, but couldn't find any umbrellas. I had to ask information. It turned out they were out front near the pharmacy, which was on the other side of the cash registers. Well, I had other things in my hand and I couldn't just walk past the cash registers to check out the umbrellas, but as far as I could see, they didn't have what I wanted anyway. Then when I was checking out I got a much better view of them, and they DID have golf umbrellas, so I ran over and grabbed one.
Afterwards I was feeling kind of conflicted. The umbrella I bought was $14.99 and had a plastic tip -- I was begining to wonder if I'd grabbed a really cheap umbrella in my haste, and if there weren't a better one to buy, if I'd only had time to really look at them. So I had to go back to Fred Meyers after work. This was complicated by the fact that we were very busy and extra short-handed at night, and I really felt like I should stay longer and help out, so I hung around an extra 40 minutes and billed, and then I rushed over to Freddy's and took a look at all the umbrellas they had. As it turned out, all but one of them were the same price and the same basic design. I decided that what I'd bought wasn't a bad choice after all.
So I drove home, stopping at Northgate Mall. It was just after 10:30 pm and I knew I didn't have a lot of time, but I wasn't really sure if I'd bought enough for my two sisters yet. (My one sister has a birthday in December so I was really trying to come up with two gifts for her). The day before I'd stopped in at The Body Works, because my sister had said that they both liked lotions and that sort of thing, the kind of stuff you find at the "bath and body shop". Well, The Body Shop was not only expensive (various bottles of lotions or shower gels ranged from $14 to $16) but also they didn't seem to have a complete set of any one fragrance, or any gift baskets or gift sets. For example, they might have a Lavender body lotion and a shower gel, but no bubble bath or any of the other options for that particular scent. Another scent such as Vanilla might have a facial scrub or bath salts but no lotions. That sort of thing. It was kind of a sad store, understocked, overpriced, and nobody offered to help me or anything.
Tonight I checked the info kiosk because my sister had also said that she wanted a bath pillow. Well, as it turns out, there is a "Bath and Body Works" store a little further down from The Body Shop, and this is the place I should have gone to in the first place. One, they had a wide variety of options for any given scent/style, and their lotions and shower gels were all priced around $8 to $10. The shelves were stocked very well so that they weren't likely to run out of anything. They had tons of gift baskets and the like if you didn't want to pick out stuff yourself, and they had a lot of people who were very friendly and helpful -- I got asked two or three times if I needed help, and then one of them just brought me a basket to put things in when I was juggling several items.
And they had the bath pillow my sister wanted. ^_^
Now I've probably spent too much money on my sisters. Well, I can still give one of the other things I got at The Body Shop to my mother. But basically, I'm set, aside from my stupid brother-in-law, and maybe an extra item for my nephew.
Today's good news is: I have presents for everyone. Except my stupid brother-in-law.
I left for work early today, stopped at Ballard Market to buy a dozen or more Seattle Chocolates chocolate bars to put in the stockings at work, got a lunch from their salad bar, and hit my credit union. When I got to work there was a lot of food in the spare room -- I'd failed to realize that our Christmas potluck party was on Thursday and not Friday. I got some food, not that I needed it with the lunch I'd brought. Then the phones started ringing and I missed out on most of our "white elephant" gift exchange. It was very very busy, considering that we expected (read: wanted!) business to die down the last 2-3 days before the holiday weekend.
The white elephant thing was the most civil white elephant gift exchange I've ever been involved in. I was #8 out of 11 people, and when my turn came, absolutely nobody had stolen a present from anyone else yet. I decided to do so just because someone had to. I mean, that's the whole point isn't it? So I stole a milkshake maker -- now I can make milkshakes in the privacy of my own home, not like I couldn't do that with my blender. :p
As for why I took it -- Jodie had her two daughters pick it out because it was Bart the Terminal Manager's turn and he was downstairs. But someone said that they thought that this (the milkshake machine) was the gift Bart had brought. So it seemed like a good idea to take it, since Bart probably wouldn't want his own present. Of course, he showed up right after that and told Jodie's daughters to keep whatever they picked out for him next, which happened to be the present I bought. This was two books -- The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell, and Naked by David Sedaris. I have no idea what they'll think of those two books. :p
After me only one other present got stolen -- and that was only because the last person, Jake, was left with a choice of steal an opened gift, or select the last gift under the tree, which happened to be his. So he was forced to steal a gift -- a box full of really cheap beer. The person he stole it from opened the last gift and got an electric screwdriver set, which he was actually happier with.
So. Pretty ho-hum for a so-called cut-throat gift exchange.
When my lunch time came I wasn't very hungry but I wanted to get a golf umbrella for my sister, so I went over to Fred Meyers and looked all over for them, but couldn't find any umbrellas. I had to ask information. It turned out they were out front near the pharmacy, which was on the other side of the cash registers. Well, I had other things in my hand and I couldn't just walk past the cash registers to check out the umbrellas, but as far as I could see, they didn't have what I wanted anyway. Then when I was checking out I got a much better view of them, and they DID have golf umbrellas, so I ran over and grabbed one.
Afterwards I was feeling kind of conflicted. The umbrella I bought was $14.99 and had a plastic tip -- I was begining to wonder if I'd grabbed a really cheap umbrella in my haste, and if there weren't a better one to buy, if I'd only had time to really look at them. So I had to go back to Fred Meyers after work. This was complicated by the fact that we were very busy and extra short-handed at night, and I really felt like I should stay longer and help out, so I hung around an extra 40 minutes and billed, and then I rushed over to Freddy's and took a look at all the umbrellas they had. As it turned out, all but one of them were the same price and the same basic design. I decided that what I'd bought wasn't a bad choice after all.
So I drove home, stopping at Northgate Mall. It was just after 10:30 pm and I knew I didn't have a lot of time, but I wasn't really sure if I'd bought enough for my two sisters yet. (My one sister has a birthday in December so I was really trying to come up with two gifts for her). The day before I'd stopped in at The Body Works, because my sister had said that they both liked lotions and that sort of thing, the kind of stuff you find at the "bath and body shop". Well, The Body Shop was not only expensive (various bottles of lotions or shower gels ranged from $14 to $16) but also they didn't seem to have a complete set of any one fragrance, or any gift baskets or gift sets. For example, they might have a Lavender body lotion and a shower gel, but no bubble bath or any of the other options for that particular scent. Another scent such as Vanilla might have a facial scrub or bath salts but no lotions. That sort of thing. It was kind of a sad store, understocked, overpriced, and nobody offered to help me or anything.
Tonight I checked the info kiosk because my sister had also said that she wanted a bath pillow. Well, as it turns out, there is a "Bath and Body Works" store a little further down from The Body Shop, and this is the place I should have gone to in the first place. One, they had a wide variety of options for any given scent/style, and their lotions and shower gels were all priced around $8 to $10. The shelves were stocked very well so that they weren't likely to run out of anything. They had tons of gift baskets and the like if you didn't want to pick out stuff yourself, and they had a lot of people who were very friendly and helpful -- I got asked two or three times if I needed help, and then one of them just brought me a basket to put things in when I was juggling several items.
And they had the bath pillow my sister wanted. ^_^
Now I've probably spent too much money on my sisters. Well, I can still give one of the other things I got at The Body Shop to my mother. But basically, I'm set, aside from my stupid brother-in-law, and maybe an extra item for my nephew.
