Tag Archives: shopping

O Christmas Tree

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I don’t normally decorate for Christmas until after December first, although I had Christmas lights on the outside of my house the day before Thanksgiving this year, mainly because my lawn guy puts them up, and it was 82 degrees and windy that day, and since then the highs have been in the low sixties. I did not turn them on until dusk on Thanksgiving Day, however. Anything earlier than that would be gauche.

I’d planned to put up the tree this weekend, or at least unbox it, and let it rest in the house. Even plastic trees, I’ve found, look better if you let them stand there naked for a few days. Well, nearly naked. I’m a long-time convert to using pre-lit trees.

Unfortunately, the 7.5-foot faux Niagra pine tree we’ve used for the past several years had a light malfunction last year, and while Fuzzy managed to fix it by doing essentially nothing (I mean, he touched every unlit bulb, but that’s all), this year, more of the tree refused to function, and we were tired of worrying about the heat from the lights, and fighting with pulling little bulbs out of tiny plastic sockets, so we put the brakes on trying to make it work.

And so, even though the only businesses I typically visit during Thanksgiving weekend are Starbucks and movie theaters, we went to Target this afternoon (it was mostly empty) to look at trees, found one in the price range I’d dictated, and then discovered that our local Target was out, but two semi-local stores might have it in stock. Our purchased there were decidedly un-holidayish: dog treats and a new filter for the vacuum. Then we went to Home Depot to see what they had.

The Martha Stewart trees were lovely and reasonably priced, but they all use old-style mini-lights. There was a 7.5 foot faux tree with white C3 LEDs and the classic teardrop frosted bulbs around them, in a warm (yellowish) white or in multi-colors. I chose the white, because I think it looks more magical. It was less expensive than the Target tree, and it’s now in the dining room, in front of the arched window that faces the street. Or, behind it, I guess, if you’re looking in from outside.

I didn’t watch Fuzzy set it up, but it seems to have been a remarkably quick process. Tomorrow we will shape it, and let it rest a bit more (probably) because even though I’m itching to decorate, I’m also unusually tired and have been all weekend. In fact, as much as I miss church (it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been), I might skip it tomorrow and just rest. I’ve been really tired all day, and I went to bed early last night AND slept til nearly noon. I think I might be fighting a cold, actually,

In any case, we have a new tree, and Thanksgiving was lovely, and I’m looking forward to all of the fun of the December holidays.

Benched

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A couple of months ago in the grocery store, I noticed a display of teak patio furniture including a storage bench with a padded seat. I have no need for teak furniture outside (though I love it) but I wanted the bench very badly, to put in my foyer, against the stairs.

Sadly, we vacillated and the next time we went to the store, they were out of benches.

Then, the night my parents arrived, we went back to do a “light” shopping (that cost $200 – I blame the Milano cookies for that) and they had the bench again. I made Fuzzy grab it, buy it, and take it to the car, while I went around filling my cart. He did, because he likes to make me happy.

The bench, in it’s flat-ship box, sat in the garage until Monday, when, finally Fuzzy put it together. It’s a bit deeper than I thought (the seat, not the storage bit) but I love the way it looks, and yes, at some point, I’ll take a picture.

The problem is…now I kind of want the teak patio furniture, too.

2:33

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I have to be up in roughly four and a half hours and I can’t sleep. I’m not awake enough to write, but a late afternoon nap made me too tired to go to bed at midnight, which is when Fuzzy came down from his office.

So why not blog.

April has been a good month to me so far. I got into the Algonkian workshop, got a part in this season of the fan-created podcast drama Buffy: Between the Lines, and ordered a new laptop because neither my MacBook nor my Vaio are robust enough for daily use, and, except for printing postage or doing the taxes (currently in process), I pretty much just use the desktop machine to store stuff.

Actually, today (well Tuesday, as it’s no longer “today” really) was a red-letter day. Why? Because I found out my computer had shipped, and is likely to be here on Thursday, my new business cards arrived, I managed to write an article I didn’t want to write before bed so I don’t have to stress about being up to do it tomorrow, I got paid (money is always good), I received shipping confirmation on Wil Wheaton‘s latest book, and I found out a flash-fic I wrote in ten minutes a few weeks ago, and submitted to Everyday Fiction is being published, though I don’t know when.

And to make things perfect, as I write this there is gentle thunder, distant lightning and light rain. It’s the kind of weather that makes me want to stay up all night and write.

But my teacup is almost empty and I’d better go to bed, after all.

Mounted

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There’s a sushi place Fuzzy and I used to frequent, and a pizza place we go to now, that have Sony plasma televisions mounted on the walls. I’m familiar with the mounting regular televisions – all that metal tubing and all those big screws, but I’d never paid much attention to how to mount plasma screens until I’d seen a tv wall mounting bracket from DekoMount.

Now, I must caution you that there are some pages of DekoMount’s site that are clearly under construction. However, if you contact them directly they’ll answer any question, and they also offer an 18-month warranty on their product, which is more than I expected from a company that specializes in bracketing systems.

I learned that their products are universal – as long as you get the right size, it doesn’t matter if your television is a Sony, a Pioneer, or any other brand, and that residents of London can pick up their brackets rather than waiting for delivery, if they so desire. To make it easier, you can pick your bracket by television brand or television dimensions, but they do recommend that you know the VESA specs and the wright as well.

The instructions that come with the wall mounting bracket are concise, and easy to follow, and there’s no fear at all of your television dropping onto your head.

Again, their website needs tweaking in a few places, but, if you’ll pardon the pun, DekoMount is going to really amount to something.