Hubby’s birthday isn’t until June 5, but since I always try to get him something really great I tend to start early on the gift. He’s been going on and on about getting a PS3, but frankly we just can’t afford it. I mean, first of all we used to have a Super Nintendo and the original Playstation. Where are they now? Exactly. We eventually got sick of them and they (I believe) are currently sitting out in the garage waiting for a yard sale. Then looking at the cost of the system and then the games on top of that…not bloody likely. I figured the only reason he even wants a system is to play Gran Turismo again. You’d think that when he drives for a living that he wouldn’t want to play games that involve driving. Like I don’t think it would be much fun to play a game that involved answering phones or typing. Just me though.

So I checked out ebay and found an auction that had 23 games, 3 controllers, 2 guitars plus the PS2 with a high bid of $280.00. I tried to see if it was a good deal by checking the cost of the new system with the important games that hubby would’ve wanted from the 23: Gran Turismo 4, Grand Theft Auto (x4), Guitar Hero II, III and Encore: Rocks the 80’s. I couldn’t even find all the games for sale, but suffice to say that the system, GT4, GHIII plus 2 guitars was already over $300.00. So I put in a big of $300.00 max and won the auction for $290.00.

Since the guy listed that shipping would be from Toronto I asked if I could pick it up instead of paying the $30.00 for shipping. Unfortunately Toronto is a big city and he was clear on the other side of it from me. He offered to take $10.00 off if I’d still make the trip, which I did. That was Monday. When I got home I hinted that I had a really great gift for him and maybe he wanted it early. After all it was exactly 1 month to the day before his actual birthday. (I’m so horrible) I just couldn’t wait to give it to him. Besides he has Mondays off and we weren’t doing anything that afternoon. I couldn’t seem to convince him to totally give in, but he he’d think about it and maybe the following day I could give it to him. He was started complaining that he was feeling dizzy by dinnertime and ended up staying home from work yesterday.

Laying it on thick at lunch, I asked him if he wanted a piece of cake for dessert. He said he did, so I asked if he wanted “birthday cake”. He laughed and said ‘fine’. So I got the candle in the piece of cake and sang Happy Birthday for effect. When I got home on Monday with all the stuff I had it stashed downstairs at my Dad’s since he’s out of the country at the moment, so we agreed that he would change GM and I’d get the gift ready. I made him close his eyes when he got downstairs and I had the games fanned out across the floor and was holding the guitar. When he opened his eyes it took him a minute to figure out what he was looking at and then he asked ‘you got me a PS3?’. “Nope sorry, just a PS2″. At which point he realized how many games there were and he was shocked.

So we played Guitar Hero III a bit downstairs while trying to keep one eye on GM who was loving crawling around new surroundings. Then we managed to get the very heavy tv (which my Dad gave us since he bought an HDTV, but hadn’t bothered to move yet) up 2 levels to our bedroom, where I got everything rearranged and hooked up. We’ve managed to spend an exorbitant amount of time playing games over the last 2 days (yes he called in ’sick’ again today).

I have been eyeing PayPerPost for quite some time now. I’ve seen a few online friends who write blog ads and manage to get paid for it. So I figure, why not me too? Since I just extended my maternity leave, that means zero dollarinos coming in for me at the moment. If I can make a couple bucks by simply writing in my blog all the better for me. I’m not looking to quit my job or anything, but it would be nice to buy GM some new summer clothes and no doubt another pair of shoes. I’m not really sure why I waited so long to join. I guess maybe I thought the program would be difficult or something. So far it seems to be anything but. Probably the hardest thing is snagging those great offers before someone else gets them. Now all I need to do is work on my pageranking. Maybe getting the traffic and pageranking up will be the hardest part of this endeavour. If anyone has any suggestions on how to boost these 2 areas I’m certainly all ears. In the meantime, I guess I’ll do a little digging on that subject myself. Well, wish me luck. Certainly any extra cash coming in right now would be fantastic.

It was a horribly yucky grey, cold, rainy day today. I don’t know where my brain’s been at lately, but my days are all messed up. I was sitting down to breakfast this morning looking out at the nasty weather thinking “at least I don’t have to go outside today…”. Of course today is Friday, so I have to get the recycling to the curb. DOH! Plus I had to get some yard waste out too. When we moved into the house we inherited a huge mess of branches dumped on the other side of the fence. I think we’re probably better off renting a chipper or something to get rid of them instead of following the city rule of only putting out 3 bundles per week. Especially since after all the lugging from the backyard, they weren’t even picked up! grrr
Finally baby D’s conjunctivitis has almost cleared up. The day after his birthday (April 13th) when I took him into the doctor for his yearly check-up I noticed that he was getting a cold. Hubby was really worried because my Mum had been at baby D’s birthday with serious laryngitis which she got while on a trip to Egypt. He was afraid that she’d maybe given him something exotic. We did mention it to the doctor and he thought it was probably just coincidental. After a week of a fairly bad cough, he started to get a goopy eye. I swabbed at it with a warm, wet facecloth and hoped that it would clear itself up since the eye drops I had from the last time had expired. I had finally had enough and made him a quick appointment on Friday the 25th. Unfortunately his usual doctor wasn’t in, so I had to see his colleague. She seems nice enough, but said that she wouldn’t prescribe drops. I ended up getting oral antibiotics, which the pharmacist was surprised to see I was supposed to administer 4 times a day. She thought that was pretty taxing for an infant and I soon began to agree with her. Luckily baby D liked the medication, but I found his eye getting worse instead of better. It was starting to look like he got punched in the face. The skin under his eye was red and raw. By Monday I called the office again and explained that on Sunday when he woke up he couldn’t even open his eye – poor baby! I asked to have the same drops I had had before re-prescribed. I was very happy to hear that I didn’t have to come back in to be seen or get the script as I live about 20-30 minutes from the office. They called in the prescription and I managed to get the drops after my family dinner Monday night. At the dinner my brother callously asked if I had rubbed my son’s eye in raw chicken. So tactful. But his eye did look terrible. So happily now it’s almost gone, which is great since it’s a serious struggle getting the drops into his eyes. I’ve been trying to sneak them in while he’s nursing, but he’s on to me now.