Is It Hoarding If You Still Get a Discount?

While I was writing yesterday's post about B basically rebuilding our back porch, I realized that the first picture was taken over 2 and a half years ago. All this time it was just sitting in my post queue waiting for life.  Then, THAT reminded me of something that happened recently while my mother and I were shopping.

We were at one of my favorite stores, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and seriously buying up the place. Luckily, I had many 20% coupons, although none to spare like last time. If you are a BBB shopper, you know that those 20% off coupons are golden and, better yet, the store will take them even if they expire. So I keep a stash at home and in my car and rotate them.  

It had been a while since I had shopped there, but I had just enough coupons for me and my mother's purchases.  We were close because we had just been there a few weeks prior and exhausted my car supply.

Anyhow, I noticed that my mother's cashier was having a difficult time with one of her coupons. My mom told me that it wasn't going through for some reason.  So I look at the cashier, puzzled.  She tells me that sometimes coupons won't go through if they are more than two years old.

Me: Oh, I find it hard to believe that I have a coupon that is two years old!

Cashier: Actually, this coupon is from 2002.

Um, I had a coupon over eight years old. OVER EIGHT YEARS OLD. I have tried to tell B I am not a hoarder. This is not helping my cause. My mom said maybe it was her coupon. That is not helping her cause.

The coupon was a lost cause and the cashier just tore it in half while looking at us with pity.

I have been keeping an eye out for the cameras ever since.

Sunday Sweats: Surprise! We Were Burgalarized...or Were We?

So this is what I came home to a couple of months ago. Well, actually a lot of a couple of months ago when it was very warm. Sensing a theme? Yes, I am reliving warmer times. I hope Phil is right. I need some spring.

Anyway, I came home, parked the car and headed into the house when I was stopped by this view of our back porch:

Who broke me?

I remembering standing there so confused. My first thought was "Someone tried to break into our house!" I then immediately figured out that was stupid.  Why would someone push in the screen (and unsuccessfully might I add) when they could just open our screen door which is not locked? Also, why would someone break into a screened in back porch, but not the rest of the house?

I then thought someone drove into it. Yes, you read that right. The porch faces our yard which faces a fence which faces the long grassed neighbor's house and then his yard. It would be physically impossible for a car to drive into this porch unless it was a special UFO car.  That did not stop me from looking for tracks or looking quizzically at the long grassed man's yard like he might materialize at any moment and explain this all to me.

Turns out that none of that was the problem. The problem was rotting wood. I would rather have UFOs actually.  And so down came parts of the back porch:

They all fall down.

Guess who had to create new pieces? B. Isn't he a champ?  Want to see rotting wood pieces?

This is rotting wood.

So is this.

And a weird side view of the rotting wood. 

We like to take pictures of rotting wood.

Turns out the porch wasn't level either. Look what B had to do to the bottom just to get the top to work:

That's odd looking.

In the end, it all worked out. I would like to show you pictures, but somehow we cannot find them. Let me just say that B fixed that side piece and all of the front pieces. Maybe I will take pictures in the spring and supplement this post. For now, pretend it is all fixed:

Pretend I am the final version.

Home ownership is a lot of work - B.

*So I totally looked at when I saved this post. May of 2009. Um, more than a couple of months ago or even a couple of couple months ago. We are talking almost two years people. I need to catch up to my photos!