time and money
Another day, another few episodes of television!
We also had veggie burgers for dinner last night. After forgetting for like three work days in a row, I finally brought home a sample from work that Scott gave me and which I gladly took because I knew Shobhit would be into it: its main ingredient base is beets, which is a vegetable Shobhit is weirdly obsessed with. He fucking loves beets. I was not overtly interested and I still have Field Roast burger patties at home, so I made that for myself.
But, and this was after we had just been shopping at Costco, I totally spaced that we were out of hamburger buns. God damn it! I already had the patties frying on the stove when I realized this. I hate having to have burgers without actual burger buns! However, Shobhit suggested we use the baguettes we had just gotten from Costco. I decided that was a fine idea; that bread is much firmer and would hold the condiments way better than the regular sliced bread we were otherwise going to use. And in the end, it did make for a fine and tasty burger.
Shobhit's verdict on the beet patty was that "it fell apart, but it was good."
I heard that a little while later though, because I took my burger into the bedroom to watch this week's episode of Watchmen, which Shobhit has not been watching with me. After that, I came out to the living room and we watched this week's episode of His Dark Materials, after which I remarked that I'm getting impatient that we still haven't seen the polar bears. When are we going to see the polar bears! Anyway then I finally got to finishing the second episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+ while I got ready for bed. I'll be going down to Columbia City to watch episode 3 with Gabriel at his place after work on Friday, while Shobhit is working.
Oh! And how could I nearly forget mentioning this? It was actually around 7:00 before we even got home, and Shobhit and I actually met at Costco. It took him longer to drive there from the Total Wine & More at Interbay after getting off work at 4:45 than it did for me to bus down from work after getting off at 4:30, but not by much. Still, it was enough: I was able to pick up this year's calendars without him being able to see them, which was what I wanted. I was a little nervous about how they would turn out, and it turns out I needn't have been. They are beautiful—arguably better than the ones I ordered from Apple the past 11 years!
Costco's website was much more difficult to navigate when dealing with these than Apple's iPhoto app had been, especially when dealing with placing the orders, but the lady who rung me up gave me a couple of pointers that made it sound like using their app for the ordering process might be easier. And more importantly. Costco's calendar design template allows for greater freedom of design, which makes me very happy. I was really, really happy with how they turned out.
The best part? Costco's base price, $19.99 per calendar, is the same as Apple's—but, ordering from apple adds on shipping charges, which I avoid completely when ordering for pickup at Costco. I should have thought of this years ago. Given I had to do these calendars in seven separate versions that would have had seven separate shipping cost amounts had I ordered them again through Apple, I almost certainly saved at least a hundred bucks this year by switching to Costco. And the glossy prints of the large photo for each month actually looks better on these calendars than on the Apple ones, in my opinion.
The young lady ringing me up remarked on what a great gift idea this was, and I told her it's what I've been doing for over a decade. It really does make a whole lot about Christmas way, way easier than it would be otherwise. I never have to rack my brain thinking about what to get a bunch of different people for Christmas, and the only decision I have to make each year is what the theme will be. The recipients all love getting them, and basically bank on the reliability of it anymore; it's no surprise that they get the calendars, but I always keep what the theme will be a secret. (The one year I made the theme "goofballs" and included a bunch of hilariously unflattering photos of family members was maybe the one time I was a lot more amused than everyone else. That said, it was suggested last year that sometime I fill the calendar with mug shots of family members, and I am actually dying to make that one a reality. I just don't know how realistic it is, or how likely it is that 12 different people in this family have actually been arrested. I could get creative with that though.) In any case, it's a very effective and very efficient holiday gift giving system I've got going on—if increasingly expensive: this year the combined total cost me $375.
Once Shobhit arrived, we put the calendars (which were all hidden inside cardboard covers) in the trunk of the car and then did a bit of shopping. After that we stopped at the nearby UPS delivery center where Shobhit had a package to pick up and then we headed home.
[posted 12:17 pm]