So I was excited to find cardpool yesterday when I was purchasing some shoes (e:paul,57112) from dsw.com

I purchased 2 $25 gift cards for $44 which I thought was a good deal. I purchased them around 5PM yesterday. The system said the cards were electronic and would be delivered in 24 hours.

Toward the end of the business day today I got a call from California to confirm my purchase info but wasn't near my phone. Strangely, the number they call from can't accept calls so I had to listen to the whole message to get the number to call from. When I called that one, the system said they had not enabled their voicemail.

Finally around 5 they call me back and say in 3-4 hours the gift card should be ready. I got two of them. One works, and the other one doesn't. It was so frustrating because I bought them under the assumption this would actually work out within 24 hours. I actually thought a full 24 hours was on the ridiculous end of the scale. By the time I received the gift cards and found out the one was bunk they were closed for the day.

At this point I just had to buy the shoes because they was a limited number remaining and I was afraid they would sell out.

In the end it turned out to be a pretty poor experience. I don't think I would ever use their service again. I guess it really depends how this gets resolved but mostly having such a large delay between purchasing an electronic item with electronic delivery and its actual fully functional arrival is not really an awesome experience. I wonder if they will refund me or fix the card.

DSW has a New Years deal where you get $20.13 cents off any purchase of $99 or more if you are a rewards member and type in coupon code HAPPY2013. You also get free shipping for the code SHIPR.

Yes, I already have these shoes in brown but they are the most comfortable boots I ever owned. I decided that the New Year's outfit really needed black boots but I just don't have any.



The crazy thing is just how many coupon codes and rewards points certs I got to use. I pretty much got the boots down to half price. I originally paid like $140 for the first pair. I am becoming obsessed with coupons.



To make it even crazier, I am paying the remaining $59.82 using some DSW gift certs I bought at cardpool.com - its a site where you can buy and sell gift cards. When you buy them, you pay less than the card value so you end up saving a bunch. I ended up saving an additional 9% doing it that way. Technically, I haven't saved yet seeing as the cards come tomorrow but the shoes are in my cart. Lets just hope they don't sell out before the cards get here because I will be so mad if I lose out for 9% of $50.

This year I didn't want any green wires on the outside of the ball so I started with a styrofoam ball and hallowed it out so that I could push the lights from the inside out.



It was so much work, I really had no idea how strong a material styrofoam was. In my head it seemed like it would be easy but it was like two people scooping for 30 minutes.

The wrapped it in foil and decorated with pipe cleaners, ornaments and glitter foam paper. Its like all those years of art school finally had a purpose.

I took a lot of pictures because someday I will either be poor or the earth will run out of seafood and we can fondly remember how "it used to be."

Every year my mother makes this the pinnacle seafood dinner of the year but this was by far the best ever. (e:mike) and I didn't even fight over the fried shrimp because there was so much food. In fact I think we even had three left over crab legs which I am not sure I ever remember happening in my life.

I got the collosal king crab legs and scallops at Exclusively Alaskan down in Eden.

Sadly, I forgot to take pics of a bunch of things like string beans, baked cheesey potatoes and a nice mixed salad or any of the dessert.

Last night at 3:45am ish the doorbell rang and there was a bunch of knocking. I assumed it was one of my friends and answered the door. Instead it was a man with one pant leg who had been robbed on my lawn. Instead of just taking his phone, wallet and keys - they just tried to rip his pocket off him and ended up ripping his pant leg off.

Needless to say he was pretty shaken up and it was pretty freakin cold out. He asked if I could call 911 so I figured it must be pretty legit. Because they stole his keys and phone I had to also call his building supervisor to get someone to let him in. Then I gave him a ride home.

Turned out he lives on Linwood just down the street. Its pretty crazy because he was just walking home from the Bend down on Allen. Could have been anyone.