Purchasing

Christmas is coming, which means I want to buy Stuff. Hopefully not $tuff, but maybe... We make a run to a major shopping mall once a year, right around now; as it happens, we're going to travel up to Connectidots the day after Thanksgiving, which is when we normally do the mall haul. On the other hand, there are a lot of cute little stores up near Mystic, which is where we will be.

One gadget that I saw and liked is a combination Swiss Army Knife and 1GB USB memory stick. USB memsticks are popping up everywhere; many are useful, some (like the one embedded in a Barbie doll; you rip off the head to use it) are bizarre. I like this one, and its not really expensive. It would not have occurred to me, did not I get a free one a bit ago which was immediately glommed onto by my daughter.

I'd like to get a portable music player. MP3, I think; not CDs (too big), and probably not cassette (though, maybe). USB compatible would be nice. Doesn't have to be tiny, but less-than-pocket sized. Say, about $200 or so.

I saw some red silk pajamas that look good for my wife, did she not already have a pair, but they do have other colors. Course, she also likes warm and fuzzy ones. If I go this route, I have to be sure it fits, and it really, really has to be of good quality. Maybe a camisole? Not Vickie's Secret, though... too mass market.

And, of course, there's always chocolate covered pretzels. Crate and Barrel always sells that, and now Red Envelope does, too. I don't usually buy it, though -- too easy to spend too much for a very transient pleasure - but at the moment food is on my mind: I'm baking choc chip cookies, using a new dark chocolate (Nestle's Chocolatier). Not at all bad.