Shopping Fail

Just before xmas, I saw a good deal on a laptop on eBay. I especially love shopping on bidding sites where auction deadlines land on major holidays or weekends: there are many fewer competing bidders so I have a better chance to slip in at the last minute to grab a good deal.

Indeed, I won that auction: $330 for a new Asus X501A laptop. The listed delivery date was Dec 29 but I was sure that date would be missed because of the holiday. Sure enough, it finally arrived Jan 4, but we were already on the road to North Carolina so I didn't get to collect it until this morning.

It's the wrong machine. It's an X401U model with a CPU less than half the speed of the advertised model. It also has a different OS.

I've since been back in contact with the vendor who has issued the expected mea culpa and I'm shipping the machine back to him for the correct model. I'm a bit annoyed by the delay but if my existing netbook wasn't still running adequately, I wouldn't have gone the online route and would have sought immediate shopping satisfaction at a local store.

Exactly what kind of rating the vendor is going to get will determine on how quickly I get the correct machine.

First Travel of 2013

This past weekend, the hubbies and I travelled south to North Carolina to visit our longtime friend, Cal, ostensibly to help him de-xmas his house.

Cal has a very large house and has something of an xmas obsession. In all, I believe we stripped down & stored *twelve* trees of various sizes: one 10', two 7', four 4' and the rest 3' or smaller. There were also lights & wreathes around the bushes, shrubs and walkways in the front of the house. And extra figurines, decorations, models, garlands and such along the tops of every cabinet, shelf or display case. Oh, and decorative lights in multiple windows.

Seven of us worked Saturday morning & afternoon to clear the outdoors and have the trees stripped & stored. The three of us plus Cal continued working in different wings of the house on Sunday. We left around 2pm to return to DC but there were still many decorations still scattered in various locations; at least we managed to take down anything which required multiple people or ladders.

Saturday evening, we learned to play "Ticket To Ride." Interesting game! Sadly, I was not able to destroy my competitors. Indeed, while I came in second in one round, I ended last in the second. Not a good trend. Still, I'm learning appropriate strategy and hope to crush my opponents at some future time.

Surprisingly, the traffic returning from North Carolina to DC was relatively light. I expected heavy traffic as everyone rushed home from the weekend if not from an extended holiday vacation but it was not the case. That was a pleasant surprise to wrap up a relaxing weekend.