Day 229: Groceries, another Lampshade, a Genie, and more

Total spent today:  $405.14

Okay, ladies.  Are your hus­bands impos­si­ble to shop for?  I really want to know.

The Husband’s 73rd birth­day is fast approach­ing.  Shop­ping for this man has got to be one of the most dif­fi­cult and frus­trat­ing tasks I face every year.  He never wants any­thing.  He has no hob­bies and no vices.  He doesn’t col­lect any­thing.  All of his favorite authors have died off over the past few years so even find­ing him a new book has become next to impossible.

On the face of things, The Hus­band should be the eas­i­est per­son in the world to shop for.  He’s per­fectly happy get­ting the most mun­dane things like under­wear and socks.  He’s just as happy with a gift that cost $10 as he is some­thing that cost $100.  He’s even happy receiv­ing gifts that are really for some­one else (like that vac­uum cleaner he got for Christ­mas a few years ago).

But he’s got all the under­wear, socks, and t-shirts that he needs.  More, in fact.  And we don’t need a new vac­uum cleaner nor any other house­hold appli­ances.  What’s a wife to do?

Luck­ily, The Hus­band hates sur­prises.  He loves being con­sulted about what to get him for his birth­day so at least I don’t have the added pres­sure of com­ing up with gift ideas while try­ing to main­tain an ele­ment of surprise.

So, last night I asked him what he wanted for his birth­day.  He thought for a few min­utes and then said he wanted a new garage door remote.  His remote died ear­lier this week and, like Humpty Dumpty, no amount of kings nor horses is going to bring it back to life.  It’s an ancient remote that trig­gers an ancient opener on a 30-year-old badly-in-need-of-replacement garage door.  Well, I don’t con­sider myself to be a prima donna or any­thing but I’m not sure I can see myself want­ing noth­ing more than a garage door remote for my birthday.

There­fore as part of my errands today I stopped in The Home Depot to check out the garage door remote selec­tion.  Can you pos­si­bly guess how much those pup­pies cost!?  Come on, I dare you.  Take a wild guess.

Well, they cost between $25 and $35.  Did you come close?  Can you believe that?  Twenty-five smack­ers for a new garage door remote.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Twenty-five bucks is way under what I’ve bud­geted for The Husband’s birth­day.  It’s not that I object to spend­ing $25 on his birth­day gift; it’s that $25 for a garage remote strikes me as ridiculous.

So I didn’t buy one.  Nope.  I bought a new garage door opener instead.

Is it just me or does spend­ing $200 on a new garage door opener, com­plete with two remotes, wire­less key­less remote entry pad, safety stop laser thingy, and wall acti­va­tor with a life­time war­ranty on parts and on the motor — isn’t that eas­ier to take than spend­ing $25 on a new remote?  A generic remote that, once we do get around to replac­ing the ancient and badly-in-need-of-replacement garage door and with it the garage door opener, will be com­pletely obso­lete and no longer needed?  And what about how incred­i­bly con­ve­nient it would be to have two remotes so that I, too, can open the garage door when I come home even though I don’t park The Tank in the garage.  Not to men­tion the fact that the exist­ing ancient garage door opener doesn’t have any safety beams or safety off func­tion­al­ity (just ask our trash cans what that’s like).

Yup, I took the lib­erty of upgrad­ing his birth­day request.  I’m not sure how the idea’s going to fly though.  It’s cur­rently under con­sid­er­a­tion.  If he decides he really just wants the remote, I’ll take the opener back and exchange it for a remote — no harm done.

So, here’s what I spent today:

Music Store — $24.64

• Suzuki cello book 3
• accom­pa­ny­ing, but optional, CD

The Son is not yet done with Book 2 but his teacher wants him to pre­pare one of the songs in Book 3 for his audi­tion next month.

The Home Depot — $305.96

• Genie H8000 garage door opener — $227.00
• 10″ lamp harp — $3.97 (for my bed­room lamp and new shade)
• 2 60watt par30 flood ligh­bulbs for base­ment track light­ing — $7.97/ea.
• 48″ Rub­ber­maid Fast­Track rail — $9.97
• 24″ Rub­ber­maid mesh bas­ket — $9.99 (on sale)
• Rub­ber­maid ver­ti­cal ball rack — $9.99 (on sale)
• Rub­ber­maid wheel­bar­row holder — $7.49 (on sale)

Tar­get — $21.61
Well, I stopped here to see if they have a “touch” lamp to replace The Daughter’s lamp that recently broke.  I didn’t find any touch lamps (you know, they turn and and off when some­one touches the metal base) but I did find the per­fect lamp­shade.  I liked the one I found at Tues­day morn­ing ear­lier this week but I love this one.  The Hus­band even likes it.  Did I men­tion it’s per­fect?  You tell me, what do you think of it?

This means, of course, that I’ll have to return both the Tues­day Morn­ing lamp­shade and the 10″ harp I bought ear­lier today at The Home Depot.  But that’s a small price to pay for the per­fect lampshade.

Wild Oats — $17.62
Wow, that’s a lot of money.  Can you believe I spent all of that money on meat for din­ner tonight?  No won­der we don’t eat like this more often.  But it was a great meal — chops, rice, a large fresh salad for the girls, and cooked car­rots for the boys.

• 2 bone-in pork chops — $10.28 (for The Hus­band and The Daughter)
• 2 “blade” lamb chops — $7.03 (for The Son and I)

Kroger — $35.31

• green leaf let­tuce — $1.49
• broc­coli — $1.02 (saved $1.29)
• cel­ery — $1.65
• green onions — $0.89
• car­rots — $1.00
• sugar snap peas — $3.64
• but­ter­nut squash — $3.22
• oranges — $4.10
• pears — $3.78
• bananas — $1.28
• Odwalla B Berrier — $2.00 (saved $0.99)
• Breyer’s choco­late ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• Breyer’s french vanilla ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)

Related posts:

1. Day 234: Gro­ceries & An Electrician
2. Day 227: Food & A Lampshade
3. Day 255: Book & Sunglasses
4. Day 14
5. Day 233: Returns, Choco­late Milk, the Den­tist, and a Strap­less Bra