Weekend Spree

Nope, not a killing spree, unless you count my checkbook. It was a shopping spree . . . a rarity for me, but since the entire house was bare of any semblance of food and my daughter's ankles and belly were beginning to show from her recent growth spurt, it was time to take out all the stops.

I'm not sure when this happened, but my girl, who measured a modest 5'2 in Sept 07, is now nearly 5'8. It's a source of delight for her to take any opportunity to "measure up" to me and giggle, since she is beginning to tower over her mom. That's a pretty cool thing for a 12 year old to be able to do, actually. I usually play it off, telling her that her tennis shoes are taller than my sandals, or that I can always get taller with more hair teasing, but even I have had to relent this past month or so that she is definitely taller than me. I just wonder how tall she WILL be. It will be fun to watch.

With all of this growing, she has become more choosy and aware of her clothing. Never one to want "hoochie" clothing, she shies away from scanty things, but she dearly loves tights and skirts, so that was the order of the day. Like her mom, Miss Rachael loves a bargain, and she and I traipsed into Goodwill and found 6 Papagallo and Liz Claiborne skirts that seemed to have never been worn, in beautiful colors, for $4 each. New (tall) tights, spring skirts, and plenty of flat shoes (in the next size up) were soon in our possession to get her pretty self ready for spring. She was so excited, she actually got up early this morning and dressed up for school. I wish I had had a camera handy. Hell, I wish I had had lucidity handy, for that matter. I do remember, groggily, that she looked lovely.

Once we had her squared away, she and I moved on to the next order of business . . . feeding the creatures.

Now that we have 3 dogs, we have to provide adequate sustenance for them. The little chihuahua girls have a bit of a tough time with dry food, so we found little packets of gravy and soft meat squares (Pedigree Little Champions) that they love very much. Weenie the Wonder Dog loves them, too, so what it boils down to is that we use 2 packets a day (the little girls split one) along with a sprinkle of dry Science Diet. All of that equals expensive . . . the packets are about 79 cents each, and the dry dog food is 10 bucks a bag. Doing some quick math, I figured that we are spending $65 - $70 a month just on their food, not to mention their heartworm meds, and flea drops (and adorable clothing, another requirement).

ANYWAY . . . not much chance of the dry food getting cheaper, it is what it is. BUT . . . I found a deal on the same packets at the local Big Lots; they were nearly half of the petstore price already . . . and for some reason, Big Lots was having a Customer Appreciation sale this weekend that took an additional 20% off whatever you bought . . . . so Miss Rachael and I did some vigilante shopping at 2 locations.

2 hours later, we were driving home a heavily laden car, with enough dog food packets to last my creatures 6 months (that's a lotta packets, considering we use 60 a month). It worked out to about 34 cents each. Not bad. They are all stacked nicely on a storage shelf in my garage, each with expirations late into next year (I checked).

Let's see . . .what else did we get? Just some odds and ends, mostly, some nice new walking collars and leashes for the creatures, some nice snacks for the kids and their friends, who are ALWAYS starving when they get home, and refills on all of the shampoos, soaps, etc.

And one of the BEST deals I found was on Pilot Dr. Grip pens. I use these pens at trivia every week, and when I could find them, they were 8-9 bucks apiece. For no discernible reason, I have been unable to find them anywhere. Good ol Big Lots had them for 3 bucks apiece, and I got one in every color!

I love that damn place.