Laughing all the way...

Remember how I was going to outsmart the holiday rush? How I was going to be the one leisurely ordering all my holiday gifts online in my pajamas while droves of miserable shoppers wait for another checkout line to open at Wal-Mart. What I neglected to factor in is the frustration of finding the perfect gift for my kids, being teased with a picture and description, and it being no freaking where to be found in the cyber-universe. The President & I were looking at bikes, and he found one at Wal-Mart's website that he loved. Of course, it's out of stock. Well, he knows and I know that we weren't going to order that bike anyway. It's for Santa to bring. Even so, he began unleashing his inner drama queen in a big way. Sobbing, wailing, gnashing of teeth...."Those are MEAN people who bought that bike!!!! THEY GOT MY BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!" Then, I had to explain how it didn't matter if Wal-Mart is sold out online, that Santa will find a way. (Oh, crap, why did I go there?!?!) There is one on...never mind, I learned the hard way from Janet that you don't announce you might bid on something....

Then there was the perfect gift for Fat Baby at "a leading toy retailer"....perfect, I tell you...just what I was looking for. "Temporarily unavailable online." Of course it was. You could request to be notified if it became available. So, I did--fully expecting never to hear from them. I had already moved past it. Then, I was just reviewing some of my gift ideas online, and it was AVAILABLE! I added it to my cart and began to checkout before you can say North Pole! Fa la la la la la la la la for me! Entered my info, put in the credit card, submit, confirm.....confirm.....WTF!? Where is my confirmation number?!?! It never came up. Went back to my shopping cart--"There are 0 items in your cart." Called customer service. They will be able to tell me in a couple of hours if my order went through or not. And oh, by the way, in the meantime the item is not available again!!!!

If you need me tomorrow, I'll be at the mall with six thousand of my closest friends.