I really hate shopping...

I really, really do! I wanted to get some pillows for my daybed, maybe a throw rug, something with orange. Simple? HA. I also wanted to get bedside table lamps and perhaps a throw rug for the side of the bed -- well, that item was the easiest. The rest were a total fiasco!

No orange, nothing, so maybe dark blues, dark greens -- no, too drab. What colors do you put with bright orange? I did see some burnt orange and dark brown that I thought might work, picked a throw rug that had lots of tans. Probably these will be okay. Onward for a lamp.

We went to a different store for the lamps. I had noticed before that Lowe's had lots of lamps so we went there- "we" being me and Mom. I wanted a 3-way. I knew enough about shades to notice if it had the little thingy that snaps on the bulb or if you have to use a wand. No shades had the snap thingy, but very few lamps had the side hooks for the wand. Geez. Okay. I pick out a lamp, two alike, then how hard can it be to put a wand on it and a 3-way socket. So, there's a kit for that,pick up two of those, and then find a shade. I have no idea what size lamp to put next to a bed. The lamps I've used have been fine, but they're ceramic, heavy, big in diameter, and not right for the look I want in my room. I don't want them so tall that when you lay in bed you look right up under the shade into the bare bulb. So, I choose something smaller in scale. These say about 20" with shade, so sounds good enough.

We check out, get lunch, take it back to her house and try to remake one of the lamps. The shades are wrapped with cellophane so we do go ahead and take all that off them - get ahead of the game. The socket on the lamp will not come off the rod that goes down through the body of the lamp. It just won't! We tried everything and finally decided to take a hammer and knock it off! Well, the part we were trying to get off still was stuck on there, but we were getting there, rethreading, leaving off some piece, taking it apart and doing it over -- only there was no way to secure the wand where it wasn't floppy. This was a huge ordeal. I don't even know how long we jacked around with that stupid lamp before we finally decided it can't be done. I've done this before. Why is this so blooming hard!

We put the remaining lamp that we hadn't destroyed back in the bag, put the wand back in its bubble package, measured the shade (10") so we'd know what size it is, and went back to Lowe's. It's dark by now. But I was determined I would not spend tomorrow on this "simple" project. I had left Tommy outside; so we circled back by my house simply to put him inside so he could eat, and then headed back out to Lowe's.

We find the shade I bought and notice it's a "I" style. Neither of us had ever encountered letter styles of shades before. How we bought lamps before without knowing this I don't know. But we looked for a lamp that would fit a 10" I shade. There was only one style! I wasn't crazy about it, much more simple than I wanted, but whatever. Thankfully they credited me with my returns and it pretty much equaled the purchase of the two new lamps.

Back home again, drop off Mom and pick up my things I had left there. I told her to throw away the screwed up lamp and she said, "Take the wire out of it and use it as a paperweight, a nick-knack." Good idea. I ripped the cord out and put the body of the little lamp in my bag and headed home, unloaded all my new pretties and the orange is totally the wrong orange. Mine is bright orange. That was dull and even clashed. Brown was totally wrong because I have too much black and white in the room. Ugh! That goes back! The throw rug for the bedroom was pretty good. And the rug I got to put on the table the TV sits on was good colors -- could have been bigger, but I'll keep that.

Then the lamps. Well, they're little all right. Too little, I think - not sure. Maybe it's because I'm used to seeing the big fat ones and these are almost like a candlestick. An "I" shade doesn't even need a wand. I go to put the shade on the lamp and -- surprise! I don't have an "I" shade! I don't know what mine is because we threw the wrapping off them away, but it's not an "I." So, I get out the wand and, whew, it fits okay. I guess we saw a lamp shade same material and shape and size, but different style and didn't notice that. But this is okay. Then I went to put the 3-way bulb in it (yes, I bought those, too) and another surprise -- when you screw the bulb into the socket, the socket is too short for the threaded part of the bulb. ??? What the heck! The height of the bulb is almost to the top of the wand. I look on the box the lamp came in and find in small print, "Use style "A" lightbulb." Oh, my gosh! It shows a picture of a size A and it's shaped more like a candalabra bulb rather than the standard light bulb. Well, the standard works for now. When I return the orange and brown stuff, I'll find "A" bulbs!

By the time I get through with this whole dreadful experience, it's 9:00 at night. I picked Mom up this morning about 10:30 or 11:00. I really do hate shopping! Such simple things to want, and what an ordeal it turned out to be!

Well, here is one of my lamps and my little knick-knack that will forever have a little story behind it to tell.


Last night I got an email back from James Callas stating that he would work me up a detailed contract, but he didn't know when he would be able to get to my work since he has end of year taxes and stuff to do and it would definitely be after Jan 14. This really ticks me off. He knew when he first got here I wanted a completed exterior. All along I would say I wanted him to finish the eaves, talk about what material to use for the patio cover. I've had it with him! I called Tommy and he said he would be out tomorrow to give me a bid on what I need done. Keep your fingers crossed that he will give me a fair price. If it's reasonable, I'll tell James to please mail me my $30 credit and bid him adios.

I'm listening to MSNBC as I'm typing this, and they're announcing that the rest of the miners have been found alive! What a miracle! Thank God for those men and their families!