Recent Shopping Addictions

The other day I walked eight blocks to the downtown library and loaded up with a bunch of interior decorating books. Halfway back, I stopped at the farmer’s market and bought a couple bags of fruit. Despite my heavy burdens, I managed to eat most of the grapes by the time I got back to my office. I cannot believe a) how good they were and b) how cheap they were. I’m now hooked on this farmer’s market thing. I doubt I’ll ever buy fruit at the grocery store again, if I can help it.

One of the books I got from the library, called Interior Designing for All Five Senses, has really inspired me to think differently about decorating. Although most of design is visual, it also involves so much more. Now I just have to figure out how to convince Kevin to let me get canaries and scatter herbs all over the living room. (Just kidding, Kev!) This book also contains many interesting tidbits. For instance, today I learned that red is a good color to use in eating places because it makes people hungry and when people see red, it increases their metabolism by 14 percent. This is useful information. You know? (I’m just wondering why those diet commercials don’t mention this?)

Anyway, to get to my point . . . I liked this book so much that I went on half.com and bought it (brand new) for $2.66. I was very happy about this since it retails at $30.00. I had never used half.com before. But now I doubt I’ll ever buy books at Barnes and Nobles ever again. I’m hooked. Simply hooked.

In other news, today we had a home inspection done. It was fascinating, to say the least. It was a time for me to take off my rose-colored glasses and realize that our house actually has a few flaws! Much to Kevin’s relief, they weren’t serious or expensive. We will probably only ask the seller to do a few things. For instance, replace all the missing screens that the dogs had chewed up. (Today I added to my list another reason why Dogs are Evil.) Although the things we have to do aren’t expensive, some of them will be time consuming. As the inspection guy was going through everything with us, I turned to Kevin and said, “Well, there goes all our free time.”

And . . . today I achieved a minor victory. I talked Kevin into taking me to lunch at Wiener Works. (I’ve been trying for months.) Although we both dislike hot dogs, I’d heard that this was a great joint. Even though our lunch looked like a heart-attack-on-a-plate, when all was said and done, Kevin said it “wasn’t bad.” (This means that he secretly liked it and wants to go back. I’ve got him all figured out.)