Heart Attack

In a recent, epic frugal fail I caved and impulse bought a portable DVD player from a store, not on discount.

It was an urgent matter. I hadn't planned ahead enough to buy one online on the cheap and we were getting on a bus for a long trip to Canada in t-minus three days. There was no way I was going that far with Dave without Elmo and his entertaining friends to keep us all company. No way at all.

About $200 later we had a nice DVD player from Best Buy, plus the warranty Luke insisted on getting. I'm not big on the warranties because I feel like they are a big waste of money. I also know, however, that we break stuff and by "we" I mean "I." Warranties can be a good idea.

Enter yesterday, when we installed the DVD player into the car and turned it on to make sure David would, indeed, by entertained by it for hours on end during our Really Long Roadtrip To Georgia.

.... and that was the moment I saw that the DVD player LCD screen is cracked. Like majorly cracked.

Now obviously I'm thinking the extra money on the warranty was a good idea. But I was also absolutely furious. How could this happen? We JUST bought the stupid thing and have only used it a hand full of times! HOW could I have allowed it to be in a place where it got a little smashed (or something)?

... so I was mad. I was mad at the DVD player. I was mad at Best Buy into tricking us into spending so much money and then having a good reason for it in the end. I was mad at Luke (because he happened to be there). I was mad at myself.

It's going to take several weeks for the thing to get fixed, so we're just going to live with it broken on the trip because Dave isn't picky about Elmo having cracks in him and there is NO WAY I am leaving this state without that thing securely in our car. No way at all.

If I was really a frugal person I would make sure and take care of our stuff. ... that way we wouldn't break our DVD player after a month or have to replace the pots we got for our wedding already because the teflon is peeling because we bang them together and Some People (ahem) use metal silverware in them.

I feel like such a moron

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In other, more excellent news, I got a call from the housing office on Benning this morning (where we are moving) and they have housing available for us -- and not just housing available, but the housing we WANT. Woohooo!!! Talk about a relief.