Good, bad, ugly, sad

Good: Wedding party on the weekend for my brother-in-law and new sister-in-law!

Bad: Eight days and counting of being sick with the flu.

Ugly: The sky thought it would be funny and threw down snow this morning, and it has not melted by afternoon. It is still October. I am not amused.

Sad: That the little old lady selling clothes in the mall thought her pair of knitted socks were worth 23€ (circa $30).

Good (2): K-market had a nice pair of thick, warm boot socks for 10€.

Good (3): New phone! Woodiddles! (Thank you Amanda for that word.)

Good (4): On the first day of light snow, the mall was already gritted. I am not a fan of slippery ground, so this is great (and surprising).

Best $10 Ever

I'm not usually what anyone would call a model parent. Like everyone else, I have my faults, and one of them seems to be a severe lack of parenting genes. At times I think the *only* parenting genes I have must involve the presence of ovaries.

My sister gave me a voucher for Christmas, to a particular online store. While thoroughly enjoying despising the heat we've had all through January, I decided it was Time To Buy A Pool. (Hot tip: Celsius. Yeah, these are around 95 - 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, "hot tip" was a pun. I just barely managed it with this sweat happening.)

The online store had the pool. 2.4m wide (8 feet) and about knee deep. The usual price was $100, and it was on special for $50. Awesome! (Adds pool to shopping cart.) Then we need the filter. (Adds $60 filter to cart. Calculates shipping. Total price: $140.00.)

At that point I um'd and ah'd. And then I did what any tightarse parent does. I checked eBay.

I found one for sale, but it was listed as faulty - the pool had a hole. Undeterred, I figured that I'd take a gamble on this auction, throw the pool away, and if the filter was ok, I'd then buy the pool alone with my voucher.

So I won the auction for $10. Even after delivery, this made the filter pump cheaper than new.

Then I opened the pool. The previous owner had even circled the holes with a pen. They were pinprick size. I started wondering if perhaps the pool was salvageable - I could just go buy a repair kit. This pool was bigger - 3.05m wide (10 feet) and 70cm tall. Those babies retail for $120 even before anyone buys themselves the filter pump.

(What the model looks like)


And then I unpacked the pump (brand new in the box) and discovered the pool repair kit.

We now have a $190.00, 3.05m pool in the backyard. The thing is monstrous, as far as portable above ground pools go. The kids are loving it. I put a shade sail up above it. I'll even confess to having lazed around in it the last few days. And when I saw the kids playing in it today I was touched by an uncharacteristic thrill that I had made them so happy.

Without doubt the best $10 I ever spent.