Amazon - This evening I was a bit burned by Amazon. As a man whose family obligations keep him from being able to shop very often, I've been a regular user of online ordering, especially via Amazon. I joined AmazonPrime when it launched February 2005.
So how did I get burned? Last night we were ordering Christmas items. Knowing Michelle as I do, I opted not to "check out" for a while, just in case she had any other last minute items. I told her that our selections would be in our "shopping cart" until I explicitly remove them or buy them. Michelle asked, "well, what if they aren't available by the time you check out?" "While that could happen, I've never seen that happen before," I answered.
Lo and behold when I logged in tonight to add a couple of items (I was right about that) I found one of the items was no longer available from Amazon (Michelle was right about that). Luckily Amazon recommended several associates from which to order it.
Sierra Trading Post - On a related but different front, I mentioned that last month mom, dad, and I went to Weston, Vermont to visit the Weston Benedictine Priory and shop a bit at the Vermont Country Store(VCS). There were several nice winter clothing items at the store but I just bought a single shirt from a vendor called Moose Creek. There were a few other nice warm shirts I could have bought, but at a "sale price" of $30 each, I stuck with just one. A few weeks afterwards I went online and found the same shirts at Sierra Trading Post(STP) for far less. Whereas the list price for the shirts was $38, VCS selling at $30, STP was selling them for $19.
I ordered two and a pair of flannel lined jeans I'd had my eye on. Total bill was $58 plus $4 shipping. My package arrived in the mail today. Everything looked satisfactory, so I wanted to give them a plug if you're looking for affordable clothes to get you through the winter.
Thanksgiving - Our Thanksgiving had its plusses and minuses. When I took the kids to see Happy Feet, the theater was closed. I was amazed at how well the children took the news. I was relieved that there were no tantrums on the drive home. Once home I set up the DVD with the newly released Ice Age 2.
The weekend had other highlights. Our friends, the Nixes, came up the day after Thanksgiving. I also got a few honey-do's taken care of. The gutters are clean, the Odyssey's oil is changed, the Christmas tree is up, and I setup an inexpensive Dolby Digital 5.1 speaker arrangement on the first floor. The little LCD TV we have in that room has really weak speakers — so much so that at times you couldn't hear the movie over the children. (That makes it seem like we must have really noisy children.…)
We did not go shopping on the day after Thanksgiving. We never do. We already tend to dislike shopping but doing so amidst large crowds is an even bigger turnoff for Michelle and me. Instead we went out Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. I expect in about a week Michelle is going to send me to a packing/shipping shop to send out the assortment of wrapped packages for the cousins...