“Remoted” Workday 187 / Day 280 (Monday)

Last week, I triumphantly filled an online shopping cart with necessary items in need of replenishment – dog food, face cream, skin lotion, toothpaste, etc. This morning, as the dogs’ breakfast was scooped from a bin with woefully low volume and the adjacent space where the new bag would live sat empty, I realized that the dog food had not arrived over the weekend as expected. The same dog food was seen in the store the other day but not bought because more was already on the way. Or so I thought.

Upon checking Amazon in a panic, it was discovered that dog food had not been ordered since late November. Oops. It took a minute before the realization of what had happened bubbled to the surface. The hobby of online shopping is generally recreational and often more like window shopping and browsing. Online shopping baskets are filled and then set aside while the contents are considered. In the time of abandonment, items might be sold out or the cart expired and emptied while I debate the need for the objects within. When I return to the site, it's as if I had never been there before.

It's really ordered this time ...

Last week’s shopping cart with the dog food and skin creams had an issue. There was a promotion of “buy $30 of select products and save $10.” It required an insane level of hoop jumping to find the magical combination of select products. The $10 discount displayed in the lofty $70 basket, but when it was edited the discount disappeared. One quirk was that the two pack of toothpaste was in the offer, but not the three-pack of the same toothpaste I had changed it to, and other stupid things like that.

In frustration, the cart was emptied and the order begun again to focus on the beauty product discount. The dog food was overlooked in the beauty product bonanza. The dog food is now ordered in an actual order and not an experimental shopping cart. The confirmation email says it will arrive on Wednesday. Thank goodness, because until then, it will be a day of kibble counting and rationing, but once the Prime truck arrives, calm and order will be maintained in the Canine Kingdom, and I will have successfully avoided a trip to a store during the pre-holiday shopping madness.

There was actually a plan for tonight, and it was imagined to be baking. Recipes were chosen and today's lunch and dinner were pulled from the depths of the freezer to create some space for baked goods, but after all that was done, the interest had expired just like some of the online shopping carts. To justify not baking, the oven was set on the self-clean cycle, preventing its use for a solid three hour block. Tomorrow night's cookies will be baked in a pristine environment. The stove is throwing an amazing amount of heat, so now I know that if the furnace ever goes out, I can set the oven on self clean and huddle near it for hours of tropical warmth.

OMG. Most ridiculous glasses ever.

Instead of baking, online shopping for eyeglasses was undertaken to use the freshly renewed prescription and the Health Savings Account card the rep at the bank in Tennessee assured me will work. Of course, I was told that a month ago, and it didn't work, so there is an underlying level of wariness. The “try on” feature of the online eyeglass vendors is fun to play with. After uploading a photo, the site sets the frames on the photo, and some of the results are hysterical. One pair is so ridiculous on me, there is temptation to buy them purely for the comedic value, but that is a silly expenditure. I'll probably just enjoy laughing at the screen shot and wonder who on earth can pull these frames off, because it definitely isn't me.