The necklace I ordered from Moppet’s Closets came in the other day and I am as in love with it as I hoped. She stamped the coordinates to my favorite building on it for me. It’s the place I discovered my love for Geography and Maps, my husband, and the building we named our son after. It holds fond memories and has a special place in my heart. What better way to commemorate that than with a necklace stamped with the coordinates? It turned out beautifully. It is the third necklace I’ve ordered, and won’t be my last. Although I think I’ll get a bracelet next time.

But I have learned a valuable lesson today. Before lunch on a weekday? The mall is not so bad! I hit about six stores just over my lunch break. I work close enough to the good mall that it’s less than five minutes there and back, so I knocked out a crapload of Christmas shopping without even the slightest rise in my blood pressure. I had freedom to browse without worrying that the woman behind me would stab me with her cell phone for the last pair of striped leggings. I even had the luxury to ask for help from the employees – who actually seemed happy to help me because, if you can believe it, I think they were bored.

Screw the mall on the weekends. I’m never doing that again. It’s all weekdays pre-lunch all the time, baby. Fare the well shopping anxiety, Hello lines of credit!

[Thanks Sundry Buzz]

Well, it turns out my Canon is broken beyond repair! Yay! Do you know why I’m happy about that? Because that means we can get a NEW one since we ordered the repair plan from Best Buy. This rocks my socks because we have actually been wanting a much slimmer version since the S2IS gets abused in my purse on a daily basis. (Hence the four trips to the repair shop.) Brand new – that camera is $280 dollars by today’s standards, so we’re not sure how that will translate to the models they currently have on the shelves. We’d love the SD 800 since it is more streamlined for purse storage, but the price is a bit higher, so we may have to settle for the SD700. Either way – we’ll be getting a camera much better suited to be bounced around between my keys, my cell phone, and any number of cookies stashed in my purse for Emergency Toddler Freak-Out Management.

(Yes. She did that this weekend.)

Christmas is coming up and I’m kinda thinking the same thing. MrZ and LilZ, of course, are just the opposite. They are seeing commercials on TV and seeing things in the store they want to buy her. We are going to get her another big-girl car-seat for MrZ’s car, and then some small things for sure, but if I’m in charge – that will be the end of it. She doesn’t really need anything, and it seems silly to buy a bunch of stuff when she already has a bunch of stuff to play with and sometimes she acts like none of it’s there. And I know she’ll get stuff from everyone else, and she’ll totally get into helping everyone else open presents…she won’t care what’s inside.

I’m being a Grinch, aren’t I? Is the buying of presents at this age more for the family than for the kid? Should I send MrZ and LilZ out shopping for her and just let them enjoy that part (because I don’t) while I sit at home and nap?

Wait. That’s an awesome idea! Never mind…there’s my solution right there. Dude. I’m a genius.

Antique map wrapping paper. How cool is this? Now, of course I would only wrap the most special of presents in it (i.e. – my own presents, of course) but still! So pretty! Possibly even pretty enough to be framed and hung on the wall instead of used to wrap things with.

Thank you Amber from Awesome! – you totally lived up to the domain you write for.

Lucky for my wallet – I’ve always been able to withstand the temptation to buy. Even stuff as cool as this. But then Megan had to go and start this site. I mean – there’s a Compass necklace! Do you know how much that appeals to the Geography Geek in me? And what about my female Cartographer friends? It’s a perfect gift. CAN. NOT. RESIST.

BUT. I still stayed strong. Sort of. Maybe. How do you define “strong”?

And now? What has Linda gone and done? Started Sundry Buzz. Not only does she talk about cool products on the market (man, I almost wish I had hardwood floors so I could buy a Roomba) – but she tests them out and posts pictures of the results. Do you want to guess what leave-in conditioner I’ll be buying this weekend? LOOK AT THE PROOF!

You people are going to be the death of me. I’ll send you the legal bills when I declare bankruptcy.

Unfortunately, like a dumbass, I opted for the cheaper version in the picture you see above. For five dollars less? I got the biggest piece of crap in the world. The “snapping” mechanism on the tray was awful because you had practically slam it down to get it to latch. It required brute force. Heaven forbid if there had actually been a baby in it.

Now, I will say this: There is a chance that our unit was faulty (heh – faulty unit), but it seemed more to be just lame. And also incredibly dangerous. And useless. When I returned it? They asked if there was anything wrong with it.

Well, it’s not broken, if that’s what you mean. But, it’s an incredibly crappy design.

This is what we bought when we took the first one back. It is such a simple design with a latching mechanism not intended to chop your baby’s fingers off! How novel! I should have listened to you all the first time. I promise not to make that mistake again. Your word is golden from here on out.

Then, there’s our high chair.

I would link to it, but the things I hate so much about it? Are on every model of every other high chair in the mainstream (affordable) market. I hate the reclining function that has so many settings that a few excited jumps at dinner and Nikki is back in the infant position. I hate the grooves on the legs that allow it to be adjustable because they are impossible to clean. The “dishwasher safe” piece that fits on the tray got tossed a long time ago because it also adds notches to hold smooshed carrots. They have so many “parts” and “settings” to allow for use at different heights/ages that they almost require an engineering license to operate. What happened to the plain, solid wood, one-setting high chairs from when we were kids? Do you know how tempted I am to buy this? REALLY DAMN TEMPTED.

I am thinking about getting her a different high chair for her birthday. One that is made of wood, has zero settings, and few grooves to hide food in. Pretty much the kind Pa Ingalls had for half-pint. Zero fancy. Zero plastic. Do you have any suggestions? Or should I order the “restaurant style” one? Because at this point? I’m just holding her in my lap when I feed her. It’s easier than trying to clean the high chair. I only need a good shower to get the sweet potatoes out of my crevices.

And yes, I’m well aware that a high chair is not that great of a birthday present. But she’s turning ONE. I know she doesn’t really care what we get her, so we might as well spend the money on something we’ll all enjoy. MrZ and LilZ would love to know they don’t have to hear me scream profanities at inanimate objects any more. Besides, we ordered her one of those personalized books for children. Those are better this time around, too. They offered me one to review and it came this week and it’s the coolest thing. They colored the main character’s hair and eyes to match Nikki’s and they included all of their classmates names in the story. Seriously. Way better than the ones from when LilZ was a kid. With his, you only picked the name to use, and the gender was neutral so it would work for all kids. I’ve been asked to check out gobs of kids’ books, but this is the only one I’ve actually liked enough to tell you guys about. We even brought it to daycare this week so Nikki’s teacher could read it to the class. It’s totally rockin’.

So, she’ll have at least one “real” birthday present. And we’ll get her a few other things I’m sure, but I really want to get her a new high chair as her “big” present. And if you send me links to ones that fit the bill (read: Does Not Make Me Yell) – then I may order it before her birthday so that the violence against household items can stop in my home. One more night of kicking the high chair (without the baby in it, calm down) and screaming, “QUIT WITH THE DAMN RECLINING ALREADY!” and my family may leave me at the curb with the high chair.

Well – we won our soccer game Saturday! I believe it may have been our first official win. The funny thing was? The other team’s coach was one of those “I’m Yelling At You Loudly And In a Degrading Manner Because THAT is the Best Way To Coach 9-yr-old Boys” type of coaches. They’re are always the funnest to beat because watching them unravel on the sidelines is always entertaining. Especially when they start cursing. Yeah – parents always love coaches that curse at their children.

LilZ and I spent almost all of my extra money at Wal-Mart yesterday. It’s been YEARS since I’ve done that anywhere but Target. I had to go to Wal-Mart to get my oil changed…so we walked around a bit and discovered that they have a CRAP LOAD of DVDs on the 8.88 rack. We replaced a bunch of our VHS tapes from that rack. It’s always nice to take the VHS off the shelf and replace it with a DVD. It clears up TONS more space.

We also walked to Target yesterday morning. Well, I walked while LilZoot road his bike. It was a great walk. We bought bagels for breakfast and browsed for awhile. It was nice. What was NOT nice was buying several items only to find out it was raining outside. Yeah. 1.5 miles seems much longer when its raining and your carrying bags of stuff you dont want to get wet. Brilliant.

I also finished Shellim’s (formerly of www.lifeandthensome.com) new site. Go check it out. It’s centered around her dog. And that ROCKS.

So how was your weekend?