Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Gratis.
for father's day i asked my wife for a poker set. i wanted a really nice one that had the right sized chips and a case.
since i was so particular about what i wanted (11.5 gram chips) she decided to just give me the money and let me pick out the set i wanted.
i so love this way of gift giving.
the giver doesn't waste all kinds of time trying to figure out what to get and possibly get it all wrong and get their feeling hurt when the givee kind of gets that "look" when opening said gift. it just gets rid of all kinds of guilt.
guilt for giving the bad gift.
(i am a bad giver, unless you want movies or music or some form of entertainment, i don't have a clue what to get you. because, what else is there?
Justification.
so i look online to find a nice poker set. my budget is 30 dollars. i figure on ebay i can find a nice set for that including shipping and handling. texas holdem is all the rage lately, so the market has to be saturated with bargains.
bargains, yes. ripoffs, even more so.
i was finding tons of nice sets for "buy it now" for $14.99 and $9.99.
but the shipping and handling was never less than $35.00
so.... no deal.
then i remember that jim got his chips cheap at swap-o-rama (flea market) so i plan a trip to go there.
the plan:
go to church. kidnap matt. go home. eat. take kid so i can give mommy a break. head for swap-o-rama. pay dollar. get in. find guy selling poker sets. buy poker set. leave.
reality of "the plan"
matt and i take the kid to the flea market, i took the long way so she can get a nap in. that part worked. she slept peacefully while we drove and listened to Mortal.
we get there and start a shoppin! but man! is the place packed. and matt and i, we both really really hate crowds.
plus it's hot, so that just adds to the frustration. my daughter did very well. she held my hand and walked and i did carry her alot cuz it was just easier. both matt and i were ready to start swingin and stabbin. cuz man! people are just stupid and dangerous in numbers. my kid told me she was scared cuz of all the people. but lo and behold, we could not find a single vendor selling poker sets. i figured with the crowd we were in, they would be at every table. i know most of the people there were probably hittin the gambling boats soon after the flea market kicked them out.
but just like gambling in Canada, NO DICE!
we found one guy, but his chips were crappy.
then, just as we are about to give up (actually, we gave up several times, but i needed to justify walking in circles for so long) we found the guy's booth who was selling the same chips jim had. at this point i was tired and not thinking staright, and in no shape to haggle or bargain or to put it bluntly, "jew him down". also, i was misreading the price tags. he was selling stacks of 25 chips for $3.00. i wanted to buy the case and chips. most of this is a blur right now by the way. my recollection gets hazy cuz i had just about had it with swapping any type of ramas any more. he wanted 60 dollars for the case w/ chips inside. (later on matt told me the guy was selling the case by itself for $17.00 which i would have done, and then filled it with chips as i went and so on and so forth.
so out of pure stupidity, and wanting to get out of there and as far away as possible for matt and kiddo's sake, i bought 2 sets of 25 chips for (sigh, the asking price) $3.00 dollars a piece. keep this number in mind.
Revelation.
so now, we are running just in time to get matt back to the church for a meeting for the trip he's going on to save souls in Chile. i get the bright idea to go to the jewel store by my place cuz my wifey said she found a nice poker set there for 30 dollas. i still had to drop off the kid at home. this had bad idea written all over it. so we get to jewel, look all over the store, finally ask a clerk and she leads us right to them.
here's the sad part. jewel is selling the same exact chips that i travelled to a hell hole flea market to buy for a lot less. how much less? they had 100 chips for $4.00.
ouch.
but wait, it gets worse.
we look on a higher shelf, and they have them on sale buy 2 100 chip sets fo $5.00.
matt laughed at me for a long time.
alot.
remember that for later, it will come in handy.
plus, they had a nice case that held 300 chips for 30.00
almost bought it.
didn't.
it wasn't going anywhere.
Ennui
so i drop off the child at home, now i need to rush matt to church cuz he's reallllly late. course, that's what being kidnapped is all about. it just ruins your whole schedule.
get to church, he rushes off to his meeting.
i get bored and decide to set up my entire DJ setup, lights and all outside the church building.
...for no apparent reason.
leave a cd playing, go talk to michelle about chicken quesadillas.
matt finally gets out of meeting. we break down the equipment, and head off to wal-mart.
and yet again, they have the same chips!
and also, they have really nice cases. we find a 500 chip case for 39 dollas.
i'm almost all set to buy and matt jumps on it. i decide i want to check out k-mart by his house, so the plan is to check out k-mart, just to have a clear conscience that i bargain hunted to the last drop, and then release matt into the wild.
after that, if not being lucky at k=mart i can drive back to wal-mart and buy the 500 piece case and give up two lunches that week.
Poetic Justice.
we make our way to k-mart and head to the game aisle. and matt feels good about his purchase. cuz all they have there are crappy 7.5 gram chips for way too much money. so we start to head out and there it is!!!!
right there on an endcap by the cash registers!!!!
the same exact set that matt purchased...
for only 30 dollars!!!
hey, i have 30 dollars!!!
no need to skip lunch!
which is good, cuz skipping lunch makes spacey angry, and you won't like me when i'm angry.
grabbed the box, held it up expecting light to shine down from heaven and an angelic choir to start singing "AWWWWWW"
none of that happened, some of the cashiers, looked at me funny. but that's it.
but man, the most priceless thing was the look on matt's face.
so i laughed at him for a long time.
alot.
so i wasted $7.00 and a lot of time and gas.
he wasted $9.00 and a lot of time!
CIRCLE OF LIFE!
which i believe i yelled out loud in k-mart. again, funny looks from cashiers.
well, there's a short story made long for you. hope you enjoy it!
End.
for father's day i asked my wife for a poker set. i wanted a really nice one that had the right sized chips and a case.
since i was so particular about what i wanted (11.5 gram chips) she decided to just give me the money and let me pick out the set i wanted.
i so love this way of gift giving.
the giver doesn't waste all kinds of time trying to figure out what to get and possibly get it all wrong and get their feeling hurt when the givee kind of gets that "look" when opening said gift. it just gets rid of all kinds of guilt.
guilt for giving the bad gift.
(i am a bad giver, unless you want movies or music or some form of entertainment, i don't have a clue what to get you. because, what else is there?
Justification.
so i look online to find a nice poker set. my budget is 30 dollars. i figure on ebay i can find a nice set for that including shipping and handling. texas holdem is all the rage lately, so the market has to be saturated with bargains.
bargains, yes. ripoffs, even more so.
i was finding tons of nice sets for "buy it now" for $14.99 and $9.99.
but the shipping and handling was never less than $35.00
so.... no deal.
then i remember that jim got his chips cheap at swap-o-rama (flea market) so i plan a trip to go there.
the plan:
go to church. kidnap matt. go home. eat. take kid so i can give mommy a break. head for swap-o-rama. pay dollar. get in. find guy selling poker sets. buy poker set. leave.
reality of "the plan"
matt and i take the kid to the flea market, i took the long way so she can get a nap in. that part worked. she slept peacefully while we drove and listened to Mortal.
we get there and start a shoppin! but man! is the place packed. and matt and i, we both really really hate crowds.
plus it's hot, so that just adds to the frustration. my daughter did very well. she held my hand and walked and i did carry her alot cuz it was just easier. both matt and i were ready to start swingin and stabbin. cuz man! people are just stupid and dangerous in numbers. my kid told me she was scared cuz of all the people. but lo and behold, we could not find a single vendor selling poker sets. i figured with the crowd we were in, they would be at every table. i know most of the people there were probably hittin the gambling boats soon after the flea market kicked them out.
but just like gambling in Canada, NO DICE!
we found one guy, but his chips were crappy.
then, just as we are about to give up (actually, we gave up several times, but i needed to justify walking in circles for so long) we found the guy's booth who was selling the same chips jim had. at this point i was tired and not thinking staright, and in no shape to haggle or bargain or to put it bluntly, "jew him down". also, i was misreading the price tags. he was selling stacks of 25 chips for $3.00. i wanted to buy the case and chips. most of this is a blur right now by the way. my recollection gets hazy cuz i had just about had it with swapping any type of ramas any more. he wanted 60 dollars for the case w/ chips inside. (later on matt told me the guy was selling the case by itself for $17.00 which i would have done, and then filled it with chips as i went and so on and so forth.
so out of pure stupidity, and wanting to get out of there and as far away as possible for matt and kiddo's sake, i bought 2 sets of 25 chips for (sigh, the asking price) $3.00 dollars a piece. keep this number in mind.
Revelation.
so now, we are running just in time to get matt back to the church for a meeting for the trip he's going on to save souls in Chile. i get the bright idea to go to the jewel store by my place cuz my wifey said she found a nice poker set there for 30 dollas. i still had to drop off the kid at home. this had bad idea written all over it. so we get to jewel, look all over the store, finally ask a clerk and she leads us right to them.
here's the sad part. jewel is selling the same exact chips that i travelled to a hell hole flea market to buy for a lot less. how much less? they had 100 chips for $4.00.
ouch.
but wait, it gets worse.
we look on a higher shelf, and they have them on sale buy 2 100 chip sets fo $5.00.
matt laughed at me for a long time.
alot.
remember that for later, it will come in handy.
plus, they had a nice case that held 300 chips for 30.00
almost bought it.
didn't.
it wasn't going anywhere.
Ennui
so i drop off the child at home, now i need to rush matt to church cuz he's reallllly late. course, that's what being kidnapped is all about. it just ruins your whole schedule.
get to church, he rushes off to his meeting.
i get bored and decide to set up my entire DJ setup, lights and all outside the church building.
...for no apparent reason.
leave a cd playing, go talk to michelle about chicken quesadillas.
matt finally gets out of meeting. we break down the equipment, and head off to wal-mart.
and yet again, they have the same chips!
and also, they have really nice cases. we find a 500 chip case for 39 dollas.
i'm almost all set to buy and matt jumps on it. i decide i want to check out k-mart by his house, so the plan is to check out k-mart, just to have a clear conscience that i bargain hunted to the last drop, and then release matt into the wild.
after that, if not being lucky at k=mart i can drive back to wal-mart and buy the 500 piece case and give up two lunches that week.
Poetic Justice.
we make our way to k-mart and head to the game aisle. and matt feels good about his purchase. cuz all they have there are crappy 7.5 gram chips for way too much money. so we start to head out and there it is!!!!
right there on an endcap by the cash registers!!!!
the same exact set that matt purchased...
for only 30 dollars!!!
hey, i have 30 dollars!!!
no need to skip lunch!
which is good, cuz skipping lunch makes spacey angry, and you won't like me when i'm angry.
grabbed the box, held it up expecting light to shine down from heaven and an angelic choir to start singing "AWWWWWW"
none of that happened, some of the cashiers, looked at me funny. but that's it.
but man, the most priceless thing was the look on matt's face.
so i laughed at him for a long time.
alot.
so i wasted $7.00 and a lot of time and gas.
he wasted $9.00 and a lot of time!
CIRCLE OF LIFE!
which i believe i yelled out loud in k-mart. again, funny looks from cashiers.
well, there's a short story made long for you. hope you enjoy it!
End.
