What I did for my birthday

I feel bad that I never talked about my birthday on the 6th. Not bad because I have a huge ego and figure that everyone has been sitting on the edge of their computer chairs wondering "What did Susan do for her Birthday? I simply MUST know!" No, no, no, no, no. I like to think that out of all my bad qualities (or would it be character flaws? I can't ever keep those straight) well out of all those, having an overinflated ego has fortunately never been one of them.

No I simply feel that it is important to give credit where credit is due.

First up goes to my beloved husband Don. Don loves me with all his heart. He is usually very good at making up to me.Now by that I don't mean when we fight, although he's always gotten A pluses for that too. Even when I am really the one at fault.

No, I mean that if he goes off to spend a day doing Don Stuff, (for instance he loves car shows, I would rather sit through a root canal.) He has several interests, that unfortunately I do not share. And sometimes I will complain that he is gone all the time and that I never get to see him or do things with him. It's not really fair of me to do this, and I realize that.

After all, I have six days a week to go anywhere I want and do what ever I feel like doing.

He only has after work and Saturday to get to do his things. So I try to not complain too much. But one thing he has always done is make it up to me. If he is going to spend Saturday hitting estate sales and going to swap meets and then going to some car show, he will take me out Friday night to do whatever it is I want to do.

See what a really swell guy he is?

Well for my Birthday he will take the day off just for me and spend the entire day basically being my Yes Man. "Hmm, I want to go to the fabric store" "Sure we'll go, which one?" "And I want to go shopping (shopping can be one of his least favorite activities). "Of course my Sweet any store you like". "And I want to have dinner at OutBack (for some reason this is a restaurant he really doesn't like) "OutBack? But of course we shall go to OutBack! Anything you wish my Darling"

I really do try to not take too much advantage.

Well, we started out the day by going to have breakfast at IHOP. And then I finally had decided to push for the new 37 inch flat screen TV I have wanted for our bedroom for a couple of years.

Donald,( son, not husband), says that a 37 inch is too big for my bedroom and that I will regret it. Well a big raspberry to him. That is what I want!

After breakfast we go to Best Buy to check out their TV's. No luck. It's funny because when you aren't looking to buy there seems to be so many to choose from, but the moment you come in with your checkbook ready to go, they suddenly have NOTHING!!!!

Okay, time for more catering to Susan.

I don't like to leave Shawn home by himself for too long, so I insist that we have to go home and get him and bring him with us on our TV search.

It's not so much the "having Shawn along" that bothers Don. It's more the going 12 or so miles out of our way to do it. The high cost of gas and all you know.

So he agrees, We go home to get Shawn.

It turns out to be a good thing to do anyway (well for me at least) because by now I have realized that I have dressed too warmly for the day and I need to change into something cooler.

Okay, off we go to continue looking for the right TV. "Why don't we just go to Costco?" Don asks. "Oh sure" I answer back. "Of course we will go to Costco, I just want to check out everybody else first."

In case you don't realize, Don is being VERY patient here.

We go to Target. A waste of time, and actually I have already checked out their TV's several times. It just seemed like the thing to do. All right, Fred Meyer! They have lots of TV's there, and besides there is a little bit of shopping I need to do there anyway.

Don, to his credit, doesn't even groan.

Well, a big No to the TV's at Freddies. One bright spot though. I had told the TV guy that I was curious about the new VIZIO brand of TV. He informed me that there are only two stores that carry them, Walmart and Costco. Then he told me to buy it at Costco, not Walmart, because VIZIO custom makes them for each store and the ones they make for Costco are better quality than the ones they do for Walmart.

Good to know.

And I figure this guy can be trusted because he doesn't work for either of them, so it's not like he's going to get anything out of it. I never really trust advice from someone who has something to gain.

Well a big relief for Don. One less store.

By now it's about 3:00. Time to get Shawn something to eat and then take him home so that we can spend the rest of the day and evening more or less on a date. We drop him off. I decide that I would like to go to an early movie. I decide that the movie should be Kung Foo Panda.

I don't actually look, but I'm pretty sure Don resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Well, we get to Carmike in time for the 4:30ish showing, and the parking lot is JAM PACKED!!! I don't like seeing a movie in a crowded theater, unless I am there FIRST to pick the best seat. We were quite obviously NOT first.

Change of plans.

I suddenly realize how early it is. The importance of this is that I have always wanted to know just how early you have to arrive at OutBack on a Friday night to get seated right away. I always see people just so casually walking out of there around 6 or so. I just know that they are smugly thinking, "Yes that's right. You poor schlubs have to wait an hour and a half, while we got here early enough to already be out of here by 6." How early, I have always wondered is that?

We were about to find out.

It is just after 4:40. We park, we go in, and guess what??? We are seated immediately! Alright! Mystery solved. Be there at 4:45 if you don't want to wait.

We eat. We enjoy. We get a to-go box. We leave.

Time to get back to our TV search.

No more messing around. We go to Costco. We debate.

There are two 37 inch TV's there. One a Vizio, one a Toshiba. No contest I say. The Toshiba is only 50 dollars more than the Vizio, so of course we will get the Toshiba. Not so fast says the Coscto guy that comes to talk to us. He talks up the Vizio so well that you would expect that it must also walk on water. Now I am still a little nervous, but of course if you want to bring a TV that you aren't happy with back, Costco is for sure the store you want.

You don't even have to save the box!

So we end up buying the Vizio, and just like Don said, it even fit in the van.

We go home to set up our new TV and then watch a movie on it. Don doesn't really appreciate the challenge of having to start from scratch like this but he is more than willing, as long as I go away and leave him alone. (He is finally starting to show a little wear from his day of all YES) That's fine. I go up-stairs to the family room and get on the computer to read blogs and leave comments.

The TV is finally set up. I go downstairs and we watch our movie. The picture isn't nearly as good as I had hoped. I mention that maybe we should have Donald come over and see what he can do.

This does not go over very well.

It turns out that we hadn't actually simply just bought this TV. It turns out that we are actually auditioning this TV. It takes me a few days to get Don to accept this. He finally does have to admit though that this is not the TV of our dreams. We were going to have Vizio send a repair guy to give us his opinion. I realized how silly that was. We will take it back and get the Toshiba instead. So when Don gets home from work on Monday I inform him of our new plans.

He went along and played the game of "Try out the TV" pretty willingly, well, semi willingly, okay, not willingly, but for all intents and purposes it was still a birthday issue so he gave in.

To make a long story short.
We got to Costco with the TV, all the papers and extras and the receipt.
It turns out that I forgot to grab the remote.
It also turns out that they can't do anything until we get the remote.
Don leaves me there and goes home to get the remote and bring it back.
He finally gets back with the remote.
We complete the transaction (no need for details, but it was not entirely painless).

Home Sweet Home.

I know better than to stick around and offer my opinions so I head straight up-stairs.

Conclusion.

The TV is good. The cable DVR box is bad. I call the cable co. Yesterday they send a repair man with a new box. He hooks it up (properly) (No need for Don to know this).

We are finally happy with our new TV!!!

Don and I are still happily married.

Donald was WRONG. It works great in our room.

Everything is good.

THE END