End of Year Clearances

'Tis the time of the year to take advantage of the sales that many different kinds of businesses offer.

As a knitter- my favorite end of the year sale is at the local yarn stores. Here in Dallas, we have had several stores with great sales this week - The Shabby Sheep on Boxing Day, PassionKnit all week long and even the Knitting Nook over in North Richland Hills on Monday. Of course with this boot on, I've not been able to take advantage of any of those.

However, the granddaddy of them all is at the Woolie Ewe - last Saturday of December - the sale of all sales! This year, they opened at 5 AM ! Thankfully, I have a friend who is as crazy as I am - so we got there at 3:15 am. We weren't first in line - Missy was. (But she's a crazy college student who can still camp out overnight without worry.) But, we were second and third.

I took my Christmas cash that had been given specifically for the sale - and my debit card (which was cringing at the thought of such a sale) and we hit the door at 5 AM along with a throng of other people.

And when I say "throng" - I mean crazyknittingpeoplewhowouldgetupandshopforyarnat5AM.

That store was PACKED. But, as usual, Jill and Sue had the Ewe running like a top and while we did have to wait in line, it was fairly swift moving.

Best of all - I came out with some change - a whole $3.97 - and the debit card gave a sigh of relief!

After the sale and breakfast with the other crazy knitters, I came home and tried to sleep...only to wake up every few minutes having dreamt about either this one yarn I didn't buy (Ella Rae Palermo) or being pushed around stacks of yarn. I guess it was PTYSD (Post Traumatic Yarn Sale Disorder). I thought of going back for the Palermo, but decided that I didn't really need it and was good.

And then - after an annual end of year luncheon with some friends - Alek and I did something we seldom do - we went shopping together.

See what we came home with??



She makes me smile...

...I can't decide whether it's 'cause she is so pretty - or 'cause she means that the POS Cruiser is now out of our lives and no longer draining our wallet. (I've been told it's not enough that the ads show it big enough to fit an alpaca in the backseat - and that I needed to read the fine print that the alpaca was sold separately.)

I have to say, this was the most pleasant car-buying experience EVER. (I didn't know it was possible to type "pleasant" and "car-buying experience" in the same sentence without an "un" thrown in there somewhere!)

If you are ever going to buy a Honda - big or small - I highly recommend Robert Kurlan (sp?) at Honda Cars of McKinney. I never felt pressured to buy something - when we walked away back in September, I had told him he could call me to see if we had changed our minds and he didn't abuse it - just would call when I had told him that it was ok to check back with us after "X date" and then call back when I told him it'd be a little bit later in the year before we were ready to deal. It was so nice to deal with someone who wasn't overbearing and loud - didn't try to rope us in with feel good stories and loads of crap - just patient and knowledgeable about his product. I wasn't buying the top of the line car - in fact, their smallest model - but you would never know it from the way he treated us. I'd buy from him again in a heartbeat...and recommend him to anyone.