TRIPPYswell

and in other news...
Crap On Toast
"To Serve Man"
Day 358: It's Official!
Get Yer Kicks
I Have Only One Word for You.
Can't Sleep, Taking Tests
New Toys
No Rest for the Weary
Withdrawal
Write Off? Right On!

other stuff:
buy stuff i designed
my flickr page
forgotten new york
frellyheck
chinh
loobylu
jakwon
tof reknin
63 days
heart and mind
obscure store
dooce
oddy-knocky
natruallycurly.com
knitty
TRIPPYswell RSS Feed

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from trippyswell. Make you own badge here.

Found!
Friday, December 08, 2006

Kyle couldn't find his keys this morning. Again. This happens on a biweekly basis. Approximately. Several years ago I designated a wooden bowl by the front door as "the key bowl". When I walk in the door, the first thing I do is drop my keys in it. I have yet to train Kyle to do this properly, since he still occasionally mislays his keys (or wallet or belt or iPod) and I end up slow-walking around the apartment thinking "If I were Kyle, where would I put my keys?" The "where" usually ends up being somewhere above my line of sight, since Kyle is a lot taller than I am, so that's where look first. This time, however, even I (with my super-sharp, eagle-precise vision) could not locate the keys. And since Kyle was out late last night at a bar watching comic book nerds battle it out to be the ultimate Guitar Hero, we weren't absolutely sure he took the keys out of the lock before going to bed. Did someone steal them? Would they then use said keys to enter our apartment and rob us of our nine year old TV and two barely used bikes sporting flat tires? Kyle was ready to call a locksmith when I took another look around the living room. And, lo, there I found the keys. It seems Kyle actually did try to deposit them in the key bowl, but he overshot and the keys fell behind the shelf unit. The mystery of the lost keys had been solved.

Solved, but not to my satisfaction. I'd noticed long ago that our key bowl had become "the crap bowl". It was full of all sorts of things: binder clips, keys from my old job, pens, assorted leftover Ikea parts and change. A whole lotta change. We have a spare change problem in our house. Aside from they key bowl there are two other large stashes of change (a Danish cookie tin in the bedroom and two Tupperware containers in the computer room) plus assorted piles of coins in various locations throughout the house. Basically, wherever Kyle took off his pants that day you could find a smattering of quarters, dimes and nickels. There was an especially large amount of coinage on the floor by his side of the bed. There was so much change I would actually vacuum up the pennies with nary a second thought. Kyle forgive me! But I was drowning, drowning in pennies. The key bowl was the last straw. I'm certain his keys bounced out due to the excessive amount of money stuffed in there.

Money.

Hey, wait, change is MONEY! I'd completely forgotten change could be used to buy things. Things like digital SLR accessories.

First I thought I'd pack up the change and bring it to the coin machine at our local grocery store, but I wasn't sure what kind of cut they took, since I have obviously never used a coin exchange machine in the whole course of my life. Then I thought about the pretty green Coinstar machines they have at Pathmark. I looked at the Coinstar website where I discovered I could magically turn my change into an Amazon gift certificate, no fees attached. Amazon sells digital SLR accessories. Hmmm... but Pathmark is a twenty minute walk away. A twenty minute walk with an eight cup Gladware container full of change didn't sound like a fun way to spend the afternoon. But the lure of "free" digital camera accessories won out and I soon found myself doing something completely out of ordinary, for me at least. I took the container full of change and got on a bus. I never take the bus. I don't like paying for transportation that I can walk faster than. It turned out to be a very pleasant ride, with my super-heavy treasure chest of booty nestled on my lap.

Twenty minutes later, after coaxing all those loose coins into the maw of the beast, I got a shock. The total topped out at $129.73. And the best part? I still have more change left, half a cookie tin to be exact. Not to mention that box of goodies from Amazon. Kyle should lose his keys more often.

Labels: camera, Kyle, money

posted at 12:10 AM . link to this post .

. (11) comments

11 Comments:

When we moved back to Las Vegas from LA last year, we found around $450 worth of change in our house. I was shocked and awed. We went to Coinstar to find it only took whatever the state sales tax was out of it. I didn't feel like being greedy (not that you're greedy, on the contrary!) so we just took the little receipt to the cashier and got us a quad pile of hundreds. Hiphip!

Also, I am obsessed with Guitar Hero. My sister who is a college student and I are starting an organized underground guitar hero league. Yep, you heard me correctly. I play every night til about 4 am. I have been blogging the hell out of my obsession on Tof, and let me tell you. If I were there...Kyle would have a partner to watch said comic book nerds battling.

Add one more thing to our "coincident" list.

By Alli, at 12/08/2006 1:45 AM

What's even stranger is that I was reading your blog about Guitar Hero earlier that day. It was the first time I ever heard about it. Then Kyle comes home and the first thing he tells me is all about Guitar Hero!

By Angela, at 12/08/2006 9:33 AM

haha, that's awesome. Guitar Hero is my new baby daddy. I was going to tell you, we got married at the Wee Kirk, too. Did we discuss this? There have been so many coincidences, I'm not sure what we've talked about.

Also, do you have The Mischievious Art of Jim Flora? I lost mine in a move, and have not been able to find another to replace it. Did you know another book comes out in February of '07 I believe. I am beyond stoked.

By Alli, at 12/08/2006 12:54 PM

So you did all this after giving him the keys to leave.

So did you tell him about this loot or are you being the household pirate, keeping all the booty for yourself?

- muttly

By Anonymous, at 12/08/2006 3:51 PM

After I changed the coins into a gift certificate, I asked Kyle if he wanted anything off his wishlist, but he just told me to go ahead and buy whatever I wanted. DSLR photography is a very expensive hobby! I think he was relieved I didn't charged that stuff on my credit card!

By Angela, at 12/08/2006 3:57 PM

Yes, we did discuss the Wee Kirk. Isn't that just the cutest place ever? I still have my plastic bouquet.

And I do have that book. And I already put the new one on my wishlist.

By Angela, at 12/08/2006 7:00 PM

We should renew vows together, except this time, in Maui.

Sweet.

I CAN'T FIND MY BOOK! I weep. I need some guitar hero.

By Princess Queenie King-Prince, at 12/09/2006 8:06 PM

OMG, My daughter was logged in.

K, so that was me. The end.

By Alli, at 12/09/2006 8:07 PM

For a second I was like "Who the heck is Princess Queenie King-Prince" then I thought, it must be one of Miss Alli's aliases! ;^)

By Angela, at 12/09/2006 8:26 PM

and you were sadly correct...heh.

By Alli, at 12/10/2006 1:21 AM

Ack! My fella is the king of lost keys -- AND he leaves them in the front door. Boggles the mind.

I am this close to getting a PS2 just so I can play Guitar Hero. THIS CLOSE.

By Solistella, at 12/18/2006 6:54 PM