The Family Girl Blogs (aka "The New Working Girl Blogs") Blog #9: The shopping excursion of death! or  "Killing your credit card with kindness" To see all of Bobbie's Family Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs

Last weekend was Labor Day Weekend, as you all know,  which as most know is when sales usually happen.

As some of you might also know, my room mate and I moved out of our apartment last January and moved into a real house in a small suburban community a few minutes from the city (the papers were finalized April).   It's a colonial-type house with a brick face, built in the late forties, two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, an attic (strictly for storage), a living room with a fireplace, a   kitchen, dining area & breakfast nook, another bedroom and a bathroom.   The basement has lots of space, and that's where we have our "office," where we do our writing et cetera, and where we share our office with the electric water heater, washing machine, drier and   ironing board.   It has its own cellar door that opens to the back, where we have a little patio surrounded by a couple of trees.

It's actually a relatively small place - my folk's house is probably larger by half, and don't get me started on my sister's place.   

Our place was largely untouched by the recent hurricane, tho Moe's beloved front yard (apparently very few Japanese homes have yards, and Moe just loves the fact that we have one) was covered by a lot of debris - leaves and tree branches mostly.   She immediately had it cleaned as soon as she could, as well as our back yard, and the front yards of our immediate neighbors as well. It cost a lot more but Moe insisted, and I learned to just agree when she gets into that kind of mood (which she was only in verrry infrequently, thank god).   Besides, helping clean our neighbors' yards got us props, and we are now on first-name basis with most of them.

I guess it's a little cliche to be so house-proud (it's the 21st century, after all), but I guess that's how first-time home owners tend to be.   At least we don't hang around the house with aprons cleaning endlessly.

Anyway, back to last weekend...

We've been in the house since January but have yet to really furnish the place - aside from the big polished-oak dining table, the fridge and the built-in stainless steel kitchen stuff, the place was bare, and we have survived these last seven months with the few pieces we brought from the apartment.   Our plan was to save the money we had earmarked for the house for the past months and blow it all in the upcoming Labor Day sales.  

But as many can attest, the labor day weekend sales weren't too good.   I made the feeble remark that maybe we should wait for Black Friday, but we decided to bite the bullet instead of waiting two more months.   Moe didn't offer to help pay with her trust fund since she knew it was a point of pride for me (and I loved her for it), so we used up what we had saved and broke our credit card "moratorium."

Macy's on 12th (the old Hecht's) didn't really have the best sale, but they had everything we intended to get, so that's where we shopped.   

We started Saturday after lunch, after visiting with my folks and the new pup.   The first thing we bought was a three-piece burgundy couch set (Moe brought the tape measure), a couple of matching teak-colored end-tables, lamps with off-white shades and a coffee table.

We also got a medium-large electric oven, a four-burner induction stove  and a whole mess of flat-bottom stainless steel pots and pans for the stove (we also bought a butane-powered camp stove in case of power outages, plus a spare butane bottle) and a real nice dishwasher.   We didn't need other kitchen stuff since we were okay with our old microwave, blender et cetera, and the fridge that came with the house was great.   We did, however, needed to buy a complete set of knives, spatulas, et cetera.

We did get a little two-foot tall fridge that only cost a hundred, which we put in the "office" (along with the chocolate maker I got from the office guys last year).

We also got a small sound system, a forty-inch flat screen TV and a mounting rack for it which we put pounded into the wall above the mantel (we could have saved some money and mounted it directly, but the salesman recommended the optional mount because the brickwork can heat up which might damage the TV).   We also got a smaller eighteen-inch one for the bedroom, so we moved my old one to the "office," and would move it to the guest room only when we have a visitor.

We also got a whole bunch of DIY kitchen & bathroom fixtures and knicknacks (Moe likes refrigerator magnets, go figure).   By then we had our own salesman following us around ("just to help," he says - aparently, even with the sale, business was slow and I suppose they didn't want to lose a couple of marks... I mean, "good customers" heehee).    We also bought some power-saver lightbulbs, fancy, high-tech brooms, mops, mop heads, dustpans, a garden gate, a plunger and reusable shammys and rags.

We also got some foldable patio furniture that we'll probably be keeping folded in the cellar, excuse me - "office", most of the time, an enameled backyard barbecue grill with a firebox, a bunch of barbecue utensils and a starter set of barbeque condiments, and a couple of sacks of charcoal briquettes.

We spent time looking at china.   I suppose, in all families, buying the "family china" is important.   In my house, we would only use the "good dinnerware" when we had company over, or during Christmas and such.   Anyway, we spent half an hour looking at patterns and designs and ended up picking an eight-place-setting from the Oberon Collection (very hoity-toity, huh :))  that had green and orange and gold ivy/vine-like designs.   So I guess this will be the "family china."   We also got an eight-place silver "american bead" set of flatware.   We also got appropriate "stemware," serveware," "drinkware" and "barware."   I wouldn't even have known those words if Moe didn't use them.   "Stemware?" I go, "well, of course, we need stemware."   I hung back and whispered to "our" salesman, "whatinheck are stemware?"

Well, after spending more bucks on the fancy cutlery, we bought a bunch of cheap, "kid-freindly" micro-wavable plates, bowls, mugs, glasses stainless steel spoons, knives and forks.   Moe insisted on oversized mugs like the ones they use in the coffeeshop in Friends.   I agreed, although my mug would have chocolate instead of coffee half of the time...

We also bought a lot of linen, curtains, lace curtains, drapes, bedclothes, pillowcases, slipcovers, towels, et cetera, all in different shades of cream, yellow, white and maroon to match the house   (except for those for the bedroom and Moe - she likes periwinkle, blue and violet).

We also decided to buy a pair of bicycles - nothing fancy, just a pair of small department-store women's steet bikes that were marked down as well as discounted ($600 for both) and two sets of safety helmets and pads.

The last thing we did was buy groceries, with "our" salesman pushing the cart.

At the end of the day, as they tallied our purchases and made arrangements to deliver everything and we sat waiting, pooped, in the manager's office, we sipped coffee and smiled at each other.   We had fun buying and shopping.   The stuff we bought was a bit girlie, but it's our place so I don't care what others will say.   

I guess there really is a basis for saying that the need for, and the pleasure in, the acquisition of things is genetic.   A female malady, for sure.

When the bill came, it took my breath away.   I asked them to split the bill, and Moe and I used our cards.   The delivery fee was waved, and we got complimentary house VIP discount cards.   Everything was included in the delivery, except for the groceries, and we went home.

As I drove us home, I felt bad - I guess the both of us will be paying for our stuff for months to come, and I guess I will need to economize in my day-to-day expenses for a while.   But I guess I can take that.   Now I can, at least.   And the fun we had was great.   But, I guess, what makes it more than okay was that our house was really home now, or as much as material things can.   All that's left is to start living in it now, and start accumulating memories.

It sure has been a long time since SRS, and I guess, in my own way, I've really gone far.

Our stuff arrived at nine the following day, and we made short work of setting up everything.   The security company we hired a month ago put some of the preliminary stuff, and mounted the horizontal security bars Moe asked for.   With the lacey curtains mounted, the bars went over that, so people on the outside of the house couldn't see them and the drapes inside hid them completely.   And because they are thin and horizontal, and were like eight inches apart, they didn't look too bad, even with the drapes pulled back.

The security guys would be coming back today, as well as the cable company to put some more outlets in the other rooms.  

We christened our bikes this morning (good thing there was no rain this morning) and realized we needed baskets for the steering bars.   As it is, we had to bring the bags with our bagels hanging from the bars.   If my old jogging buddies should decide to come over for our old Saturday jogs, or if it's raining, then we won't use the bikes, but until then, I think I like biking more than jogging.

Mom n dad are coming over for a look-over tomorrow, and dad is bringing weenies (no jokes!), rashers of canadian bacon and burger patties,  and ma's bringing some veggies and home made rolls, and the new puppy, as well.   (Tell you about him later.)   Dad sez he wants to try the grill n Mom sez she wants to try the induction stove.

So that's the latest news over here at Casa Bobbie's, except for some developments at work, but I'll reserve that for Blog #10.

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