Category: Retail Experiences

March 2023 Recap

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It wasn’t until March came along that I remembered how much I hate March. You start hearing all the birds in the morning so it feels like it should be sunny and warm, but it isn’t. What a letdown!

When we went to the Apple Store in February we had to walk around the mall to kill time and I kept seeing Funko Pops for Five Night at Freddy’s. I had to look it up because I had no clue what it was. Intrigued, I borrowed the game from the library. Umm… I don’t get the fascination. It was mildly interesting, but mostly boring. Of course, I was murdered by 3 am, so ymmv.

This was McDonald’s customer service response to me asking WHY they don’t allow you to pay with the Arch Card (aka McDonald’s gift card) in the app. Thanks for nothing, Jannie.

We started re-watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force and it is as funny as I remember. Well, the first three seasons, that is. Which is where I think we must have stopped because we’re on the fourth season now and it’s getting less funny and more nonsensical.

Based on IMDB reviews it seems some seasons are better than others, so we’ll continue to plow through, but damn. I do love Master Shake, though, because he’s such a unapologetic selfish asshole. And the Moonnites are the best!

Girl Scout cookies from our friend’s granddaughter:

I did not care for the Trefoils or Lemon-ups, but I really loved the S’mores. I bet I could recreate them with some Biscoff, Nutella, and marshmallow fluff/cream.

Decided I wanted to refresh my fake flower collection and went to Michael’s to look around. All the spring floral was 50% off so I got all this for only $4.14 out of pocket thanks to the digital gift card I got from Discover. Retail price was close to $80 which honestly seems ridiculous. I would never “pay” that even with a gift card.

February 2023 Recap

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Learned that the Lombard Roller Rink is shutting down. I had my 35th birthday “party” there and it was packed. Do people not enjoy roller skating anymore? How sad.

Discovered a very funny and unique show on Hulu called Extraordinary. It’s about a girl named Jen, a self-aware young woman who lives in a world where everybody except her has a superpower. 9/10 just because there’s a character named Jizzlord.

Was woken in the middle of the night, for the second time this year, by the Eufy video doorbell going off. Nothing is creepier than the doorbell ringing in the dead of night. If it just detects motion that will send an alert to my phone and I have my phone on DND, but if someone presses the button, the base downstairs will ring. No one was picked up on video actually ringing the doorbell, so it was a malfunction. Or my dead uncle pranking me as my cousin suggested. Either way I find it weird it never malfunctions during the day.

Started watching Party Down again for the 3rd attempt. Could not get into it the first two times I tried even though I like all the actors in it. Was motivated to try harder this time since they recently added a third season after 13 years. It’s funny, but not the best show. But what aggravates me is after finishing the second season I came to realize the third season is only available on Starz. So why the hell are they advertising it on Hulu? I feel swindled.

Streamed the annual Puppy Bowl live thanks to Discovery+ (we don’t have cable). The kitten half-time show was no more than five minutes long and pretty boring but the puppies were as cute as ever. I miss the days where they had guinea pigs in blimps over the field and whatnot.

Paid $69 (plus tax) to Apple to replace the battery in my iPhone 11. Technically they don’t need to be replaced until they hit 80% capacity (mine was at 85%), but I was tired of charging my phone 4-5 times daily, plus they were raising the prices March 1st to $89. We had to walk around Woodfield Mall while waiting 45 minutes for my repair and we were one of the few people wearing face masks. I guess everyone has collectively decided we don’t care that 300 people in this country alone are still dying from COVID every day. Sad. I’m willing to bet if they suffered through the nightmare I did from May 2019 – March 2020 they’d feel differently about risking their health. Long COVID is actually scarier to me than dying because at least if you die the suffering ends.

While backing up some photos I became aware that not only is my secondary drive nearly full, so is the backup one. Instead of buying larger drives, I decided to take on the time-consuming and emotionally exhausting task of reviewing all my photos and deleting some unnecessary shots. No one needs five different angles of the same subject, or in some cases, photos that are either boring, out of focus, or both. Why I kept those is beyond me. Judging by the progress I’ve made thus far, I do not expect to be done with this project for several months. I cannot sit at my computer for as long as I used to when I was working. It’s tiring, plus I get super cold if I don’t keep moving.

Our cookware set is old and some pieces are in worse shape than others. We decided instead of getting a new matching set we’re going to replace each piece as needed. Found this pretty purple 8″ frying pan at Home Goods for $8. I’m really liking it so far.

January 2023 Recap

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Egg prices were outrageous. $7.50 for two dozen at Costco which is considered a deal.

Discovered the Unsolved Mysteries podcast and started binge-listening like a mofo.

Put my Robert Smith Funko Pop on my Cure shelf above my computer desk.

Bitched on Facebook about the fact that you cannot add McDonald’s Arch Card to their mobile app for payment. So stupid!

Made cream cheese strudel for breakfast one day and dare I say it, was tastier than any stupid coffee cake you can buy at the store.

Found the cutest and comfiest slippers on clearance at Walmart ($6 each).

Started tracking my sleep with my Apple Watch in an effort to prioritize it. Gamifying life is the way to go!

Made zucchini bread with walnuts that made me question why I do not make it more often as it’s delicious!

Finished, and started, a few TV series:

Finished Better Call Saul. Final season was a bit of a slog.

Started three new series:

That 90’s Show (Netflix) – 7/10 – Love the nostalgia factor & the one girl reminds me of Alana from Broad City

The Last of Us (HBO Max) – 6/10 – Olivia from Fringe is in it. Based off a PlayStation video game

Night Court (Peacock) – 7/10 – Bernadette from Big Bang Theory is the judge & John Larroquette reminds me of an old Billy Eichner. Loved watching the original when I was at my grandparents house.

Culver’s ruined my day, and all future trips, by switching rom Pepsi to Coke in all their restaurants. Coke is too sweet and rips up my stomach so it’s a sad day that yet another restaurant only serves Coke products. I normally do not get soft drinks when dining out anyway, but the kids meal at Culver’s comes with one and I looked forward to a little Pepsi with my burger. I refuse to buy soda for at home when a case of 12 is $8 and you used to be able to get a case of 24 for $5!

The main tv in our living room (a Samsung 55″, which we got in June 2015) developed the purple spots of death meaning we’ll need to replace it relatively soon depending on how quickly the rest of the backlit LEDs burn out (or how much it starts to annoy me seeing a purple cast on everything). So far it’s just in two spots along the top and left side so they aren’t always noticeable.

Discovered our new favorite ice cream brand – Favorite Day by Target. All the flavors we’ve tried thus far are delicious (Cookie Dough, Peanut Butter Fudge, and Mint Cookies & Cream). Didn’t think to check the ingredients until the third container, only to realize there’s high fructose corn syrup in them. No wonder! Will probably still get it, but won’t go as hard on them moving forward.

Finally added Wish to my vinyl collection. It’s a re-issue that I preordered from my new favorite record store, Mile Long Records. The prices are a bit higher than you’d pay on Amazon or Walmart, but I like supporting a local business and it’s owner, Mike, is really nice.

Decided to stop spending hours every night scrolling TikTok and get back into reading instead. Set a goal of 24 books this year and was ahead of schedule after reading 4 books in January alone. Since my eyes suck and I’ve yet to get bifocals or progressives, I dusted off my old 2010 Kindle and started using that again. Other than needing to be charged more frequently than when it was new, it’s been great!

Refrigerator Saga

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Sunday (09/18) Joe said he thought there might be something wrong with the refrigerator and I might want to start looking at new ones in case it died and sure enough, it died the next day (Monday 09/19). We ordered a few replacement parts off Amazon, but the more research Joe did, the more he was worried there could be too many possible culprits. Not only that, but the fridge is original to the home so it was 31 years old. Reluctantly, we agreed it was time to replace it.

In the meantime we were able to store some food in our friends’ spare fridge in her garage. That saved us from losing a lot of expensive meats in the freezer. Our fridge was quite large (25 cubit feet) and we kept it well stocked. Even with our friend’s help we had to throw out some food, although we did our best to eat whatever we could.

After dropping our food off, we went to Menards, Home Depot, and Lowes looking at refrigerators. We settled on a Frigidaire side-by-side in white ($1200) from Lowes and were able to secure a delivery date for that Wednesday.

Tuesday (09/20) night we got an automated call letting us know our delivery window was 3-7 the following day.

Wednesday (09/21) morning I got a call from a person saying they’d actually be by between 2 and 2:30. I relayed this info to Joe as he planned on working until noon and then coming home so we could move furniture around and he could disconnect the water line from the old fridge and take the front door off the hinges (the fridges are too large to fit through the back door even though that’s closer to the kitchen).

Well, at 9:30 am I got a call from the delivery guy saying he’d be there in an hour. Joe had to leave work immediately and scramble to prepare for the delivery. The water shut-off to our sink and fridge would not actually shut off and water was getting all over the floor. Joe ended up having to shut off the main water to the house. Also, the delivery guys didn’t actually show up until 45 minutes past the time they said they would.

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Bath & Body Works

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Sometimes I want to buy all of the things, which is counter to my desire to own less stuff in general. And sometimes it makes me really happy to get new stuff even though I really don’t want to be that way.

In any case, here’s what I got at Bath & Body Works today after I learned their rewards program is changing on Wednesday, July 20th. Instead of getting a free item after spending $75, you’ll now have to spend $100, and I was only $7.50 away from $75 so I wanted to snag my free item before they moved the goal post.

Therefore, last night I placed an order online for in-store pickup since the soaps were on sale for $3.25 each (and it’s a good thing I did since the sale ended yesterday). I got two White Tea & Sage and one Kitchen Lemon since both scents are neutral ones that can be used any time of the year. I also had a coupon for a free body care item $15.50 or less. Of course one of my favorite scents, Marshmallow Pumpkin Latte, was $16.50 so I couldn’t get that. Warm Vanilla Sugar will have to do, then.

I got a text this morning at 8:39 saying my order was ready for pickup. That didn’t seem right to me, so I called the store. Surprisingly, an employee picked up, but they confirmed what I already suspected – they weren’t open yet. Luckily I thought to confirm that or I’d have been pissed showing up to a closed store. I guess they prepped the pickup orders early which prompted an automated text/email. They really should add some verbiage to them saying to check to make sure the store is open first, or program the system to delay sending the notification until the store is open.

I got there at 10 am when they opened and saw that Halloween stuff just came out. After picking up my order, I refreshed my app a few times until it updated with my free item reward so I could get this cute glow-in-the-dark skulls candle holder.

Skulls Candle Holder

I’m pretty sure this is the first home décor item I’ve purchased this year. Wow, I made it an entire six months without buying a decorative item. Halloween stuff always gets me, though!

I also picked up a new wallflower scent – wicked vanilla woods – to try. I hope it’s good! I had to smell the body lotion to get an idea of the scent and sometimes the wallflowers don’t end up smelling the same. I already have two wallflowers I want to take back and exchange for a better scent once the fall ones are completely out.

Here’s my total “haul”.

I spoke to a very nice employee who helped me with the free reward situation (I wasn’t sure if it would appear immediately or whether I could use it right away) and let me know my favorite scent, Honeycrisp Apple, should be showing up in stores next month.

This place really knows how to drive demand. Every single day it seems there’s a new limited-time sale, and they restrict scent availability to certain times of the year so you can’t stock up on your favorites in a single shopping trip. If you like seasonal scents they have a guarantee you’ll be shopping there at least 3-4 times annually. Who else does this? I’m pretty sure you can get any Yankee Candle scent at any time of the year.

It’s my fault for giving them my business, though. I can’t help myself, especially when everything I get is actually free thanks to gift cards I get via Discover’s cashback bonus rewards. I have a problem.