Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

Long, long ago, Discover was running a promotion: Sign up for a credit card, and get a free GPS for your car. (This was well before cellphone apps.) "Great!" I said. "Sign me up!" As soon as I got the GPS, I canceled the credit card.

The Discover ran another promotion: Sign up for a credit card, and get a $200 Disney gift card. "Great!" I said. "Sign me up!" As soon as I got the gift card, I canceled the credit card.

Sometime soon after that I learned that opening and closing credit cards like that could hurt your credit score, so I stopped doing it. But I got a GPS and big gift card out of it, and my credit score is outstanding now, so no harm done.

The problem was, it was a Disney-only gift card. Now and again I went into a Disney store and checked the online store, but there was never anything I really wanted. Then one year I decided to just give it away, but that seemed like too much trouble (same with using one of those giftcard exchange sites), so I tossed it into a drawer.

I've really, really been liking this new The Lion Guard show, and what better way to show my support of it than buying merchandise of it? So I decided to buy this set. To be honest, I wouldn't have bought it if not for the card. I only want two of the figures out of it, and it doesn't look as well made as it might be, but... free. And a test to see if a 15+ year old card would even still work (it does, yay!).

When I first got the card, I had thought I might take a trip to Disney and use it there, but that never came to be. Hopefully more Lion Guards items will be added though, and I'll be able to keep chipping away at the balance.

I buckled down and did my taxes today. On one hand, it wasn't as bad as last year. Last year I owed $600 federal and $250 state. This year I owed $400 federal and got back $100 state (but the Turbotax fees were $60, so...). I swear, last year Turbotax was free for federal and they just charged you for state. Oh well, at least it's done now... other than the forever worry that they'll audit me.

But before that, I started my day with an early trip to Sprouts (grocery store, like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's). I'm totally out of chicken for the coming week and have nothing to cook this weekend. Unfortunately I still have nothing to cook this weekend (nothing caught my eye), but I'm all shopped for the coming week.

WoW kept me busier than usual today. I use arcane dust in one of the items I make for money, and all of it was overpriced on the AH. I used to have a max level enchanter, but I dropped it off him (ugh!). Not wanting to pay for the overpriced dust, I decided to level a new one.

I paid more for the rods that enchanters need than I would have paid for dust for a year.

If I had remembered how annoying enchanting is to level, I don't think I would have dropped it. I only got up to 250 in a whole afternoon and I spent a crapton more than I would have liked to. (Thankfully I have a tailor who can make things to DE, but cloth is all so overpriced lately -- not enough people leveling and flooding the AH with it.)

RP: I swear, I think WoW knew I was serious about quitting. "What? You mean she really... she was serious about quitting? Had an application nearly finished? Was looking at other games? THROW RP AT HER NOW! NONSTOP!" Every night since then I've gotten RP. Knock on wood, I haven't come up empty one single night yet. And more than that, it's almost always good. Even yesterday, where the player had some... questionable... ideas (A DK so liked by the Lich King that he gave her the power to create purple-black fire from her bare hands!), she was still able to write a darned good post. And know what? I can live with that. She wrote well, so I was able to stretch myself and write well as well. I so often feel that RP is like a muscle -- it feels good to use it and stretch it and challenge it. Feels awful when I don't use it. (Says the person who can sit like a lump in front of the computer for twelve hours straight...)

Tonight I was able to catch two people I used to RP with at different times in the past. One used to RP with Haken a lot, the other RPed with Keen on and off. It was interesting to catch them both together on Thistle! The RP went really well, there was a nice connection. :)

So! Day: good. Hopefully tomorrow will be good as well!

I sure do wish LJ would fix its spellchecker. I worry I'm missing typos and errors! D:

Edit: Apparently I've joined the 'No LJ email notifications' club. Sorry if I'm slow replying to comments.

I went to the mall today. I haven't been to a mall in fifteen years or more. I dislike shopping (and crowds of people), so really, staying away from malls works best for me. However, when I ordered my iPad I ordered a case as well. Unfortunately the case was due to arrive 2-3 weeks after the pad. Since the pad is basically one big touchscreen, it kinda needs a case. So off I went to the closest Apple Store! (In Valley Fair Mall, for those in the area.)

What a wacky place. I felt like it was for some species totally different than mine. Every designer had a store (I saw Devil Wears Prada, so I knew them all!). Jewelry stores (Cartier, Tiffany's). Stores with nothing but just one designer's handbag. There was an entire store just for eyebrows. Seriously. Hollywood Eyebrows. An entire, full-sized store just for shaping eyebrows. Endless designer shoe stores. Fashion stores for newborns. Gah.

It just boggles me so much. You can be as not-naked when wearing a $20 pair of pants as you are when wearing a $500 pair.

Irony of this trip? The store was out of cases. Luckily they found one in the back for me!