The secret internal terrier of consumerism is let off the leash.

So about a week ago, Paul approached me about shopping in bulk, since we now have the space to stock pile. I hemmed and hawed a bit and basically landed on: as long as we don't have more stuff than we can get rid of in a year we can do it. We are hoping to be leave the country next year to finally get started on our work in Singapore. (God willing) But I do understand that it is cheaper to buy in bulk and so I agreed we should get a membership somewhere. Paul tried to go this weekend, but failed to find the store. If you knew the mall it is located in, you'd understand how easy that is to do. So today I made a second attempt and eventually found Costco.

Now we considered Sam's Club, but I've been a member before and I didn't really feel it was anything special. And everyone I know out here does Costco. [Expect for the folks doing amazon direct mail order shopping, another good option if you like to have more than one kind of cereal.] So I went in and got the card; got the AMEX card since they apparently don't except any other credit card and the service representative was dubious about my credit union debt card; got my picture taken; got the membership. I'm not overjoyed about taking out another line of credit, but we are pretty good about keeping on top of that sort of thing so I went forward.

Then I got into the store. I can tell you now, my secret internal terrier of consumerism was ready to shop. I could have easily gotten out of there with 2 cartloads. And I tried to just buy the non-perishables like TP or Kleenex but how did that Toblerone candy bar six pack get in my cart? What am I going to do with 5 lbs of dried apricots? I totally overestimated what I could get into our little freezer, so we'll be serving a few things to friends in the next few days. I'm not even sure if I saved money. But I've got 48 cans of V8 which should keep at least into the summer to prove...well I've forgot what but I will never wish I had had a V8 for the rest of the winter.

But - Costco was missing items that we use. This is a bummer since it means I will still need to make a run to the regular store at some point. What I gain in savings, I loose the convenience of one stop shopping. Also, who knows what Paul is going to bring back with him, once he gets his card. We may have to make furniture out of cans.

been flying silent again for the last few days. Just wanted to post that our apt management people are some of the strangely 'time-challenged' people I have ever seen. Wednedsay morning we had scheduled them to clean our carpets after the big leak. So when I got off work early this afternoon (tuesday) i came home to move furniture....to find they cleaners had already been through...wet-vaccuming around our card table, catan game, laundry, etc; probably swearing under their breath about these crazy tennants who did *nothing* to clear the apt for cleaning. They even picked up a stray goldfish cracker from under the table and set it on top, you know, in case we were saving it.

The management wanted to know if we wanted them back on wed morning, even though they had *always* been scheduled for tuesday and never been scheduled for wednesday. never. They would be doing me a *favor* you see. My first reaction was, I really don't want any of you back in my apartment in case you forget some crutial fact like, "fire is bad", or "electricty is not to be triffled with". As guru pointed out, his mom is required to teach all the kids in her class the days of the week...in first grade!

In fairness (what little I can continued to maintain) they did clean the part of the house most damaged by the leak, so I called it good and said, "no, we'll just let it go this time."

I now wait with baited breath to see if they show up again wednesday morning, as scheduled.

Tomorrow we will get a chance to finally review our money situation with a finanical friend to find out if and what we can afford to buy and if that is a wise decision. Keep us in your thoughts.

EDIT:
I just realized this post sounds a bit anal, but this was actually just icing on the cake. I called them after 24 hour drying out period to schedule someone to come fix the leaks. I was told they will be there Friday,er no, Monday. They still come by on Friday, in theory to bring in a pin for my storage area door, only to leave me a sticky note saying, we're sorry we brought the wrong size door. Door? I just need a hinge pin? I'm not sure what they did, but this was the day I found my fish catatonic (I thought he was dead) from the amount of noise they were making trying to get the large door in the small doorway.

Monday cames around and no work is done, on the leaks or the door. I march back over there and ask what happened? I was met with surprise. [Wha??? How can this be that we didn't show up when we said we would???] Apparently the all imporant Bill was not in on Monday which means nothing got done. We try again for Tuesday and succeed. Apparently you must bother people at least 3 times to get anything done with the new management. Awsome. So it's not the first time, and I dread what's going to happen when we try to get our deposit back.