Enter the BER months

In the home country, Christmas carols can be heard as early as 01 September.

It is to signal the arrival of the "BER" months.

They are not playing Christmas music just yet over here

but I did find Christmas decor being sold at Target today.

Who Gives a Hoot?

They do!

This was a cute chopping board I saw in the store.

I resisted the temptation to purchase it

(such willpower!)

and simply took a picture.

Hungry? Thirsty? Discalced?

Head for the nearest vendo machine.

This one is right outside our office.

There is even a chart on the floor

to help you find the size that best fits you.

Garage Sale Haul

I could not resist getting these from the garage sale last Friday.

For cooking:  Angry Birds Spice Rack

For baking : nesting doll measuring cups

The heads measure 1 cup, 2/3 cup and 1/3 cup 

The bases measure 3/4 cup, 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup

Aren't they cute?  

I love the Russian nesting dolls.  Apparently they are called matryoshkas.

I had seen these in the stores but they were just too expensive to buy at the regular price.   It was a lucky find at the garage sale for this kid at heart.

Oh, The Iron-y

I wish all our clothes were 'wash and wear', especially at this time when I have a pile of clean laundry waiting to be ironed and an iron that turns whites into darks!

Thank goodness it is winter (never thought I'd hear myself saying that) because the kids can get away with un-ironed uniforms worn under their jumpers (sweaters).

I go online to see what kind of reviews the irons out there are getting. The iron we have on hand is something we got cheap at K-Mart several months back.

What did I find online?

Interestingly enough, based on my google hits, it dawned on me that IRON is associated with a variety of things.

a) iron (noun)

b) iron (verb)

c) waffle iron

d) curling iron

e) branding iron

f) the element (Fe)

g) the dietary supplement

h) golf clubs

On a more on-topic note, what I found was -- as with all other products, differing opinions on a variety of products and features of irons for clothes.

Sometimes, I wonder if the whole exercise of checking the internet for a product review is really worthwhile. I must say though, that in the grand scheme of things, in order of interest, I would go for waffle irons, Iron Man, clothes irons, iron supplements ... then maybe curling irons, golf irons and hardly unlikely, branding irons.

Off Target

It all started with this baby -- the H20 Vac Turbo.

I had just lost the bid for the Karcher DS5500 vacuum cleaner, remember? But I still wanted a decent vacuum cleaner that used water to collect the dirt. (Gosh, I wish I had bought that Karcher back in Manila!) Anyway, there was a Rainbow vacuum cleaner up for auction on eBay. It was still going at a reasonable price, except that there were 2 more days to go. I had posted some queries to the seller and his replies were enough to make me dream that I could win the bid.

Well, as can be expected, there is an inverse relation between the price of an item up for bid and the the time left to the END DATE. The next thing I knew, the Rainbow vacuum's price had doubled and was out of my budget.

So I googled WATER VACUUM and somehow this led me to that H20 VAC TURBO, which seemed like a possible solution to my vacuum requirements. And hey, it was available at Target!

There is a Target at Castle Towers which is less than five minutes away. This is good.

While I was at the Target site, I chanced upon Corelle dinnerware. Hey, there is a Christmas Sale and the Corelle sets are selling at a discount.

(Yes, I know I sound like one of my son's Facebook message which said, "I'm not easily distract... ooh a cookie!" and this is essentially what happens when I go window shopping at the malls -- my mind races from one thing to another.)

Anyway, I found this set nice but it was $10 more than the other designs and in these difficult times, every penny counts.

OK.

This other set is fine for $29.
It is fancier than the Winter Frost (plain white) ones and they will match our Country Violets set.

I had seen some Winter Frost Corelle plates at K-Mart the other day and hesitated to check the prices. Truth be told, I shouldn't really be shopping for plates. We would survive on the incomplete set I had brought from Makati plus the plates we had gotten through FreeCycle. That is how we have managed for the past two weeks we've been at Northern Views. We use the Corelle for breakfast then we use the other set for dinner. Everything goes into the dishwasher at the end of the day. The other set is heavy and is glass. I was hoping to get more Corelle plates since they are easier to handle.

Oohhh... I was all excited to go to Target the next day. I wanted to check out vacuum cleaners and Corelle sets and more.

True to the female shopping bug, I kept on surfing. I had tabs with eBay, Target, productreview.com.au, google, etc. After a while, I wondered whether the items I was interested in would only be available online. I worried that if I dropped by the store, they would say that the products had a different price or something.

I went back to the Target site. I decided to check the possibilities of buying it online.

SHIPPING & POLICIES. Click.

SHIPPING & DELIVERY INFORMATION. Click.

SHIPPING & DELIVERY ESTIMATES. Click.

Nothing seemed to be helpful. I decided to try a different tactic.

FIND A STORE. Click.

Enter your city and state or ZIP Code to find a Target store.

NSW 2154

Sorry. The information you entered is invalid or incomplete. Please check to make sure you entered the correct address, or try your search again.

OK. That didn't help.

VIEW ALL TARGET STORES. Click.

Great! I got a list of all the 50 states from Alabama to Wyoming (apparently there is no Target store in Vermont, and Hawaii was not among those in the list) and the heading "We have a store near you".

OH NO!!! I'm in the wrong country for this Target site.
Bummer!

So there goes my dream of getting a vacuum cleaner and additional Corelle for the moment.

What is the moral of this story?

a. When you see the vacuum cleaner of your dreams on discount, buy it!

b. If you think you will be using a dishwasher to do your dishes, have more than one set of dishes.

c. Before you get your hopes up by window shopping online, check the site for your country code.

(I honestly can't decide. Maybe it is all of the above.)