Why I Hate Gift Cards

As you may have read, I don't like to shop a whole lot. My wife does the majority of shopping in our household. I guess the problem I have with shopping is that I don't like crowds all that much and shopping is just enhancing the issue.

So why do I hate gift cards, you would have thought that gift cards would be the perfect gift from me. Walk into store walk to the checkout line and two minutes later I'm walking out with a "great" gift.

I know that a lot of us will either get or give gift cards. The reason I don't care to give one is that it screams to me that here you go, I really don't know what to give you, and I didn't bother spending a whole lot of time looking for something that you might have liked.

They now even have a gift card for a mall. Talk about spending no time at all. Here you go honey; I didn't even know what kind of gift to give you. Why stop here, why not just go to a bank and get a bunch of debit cards with a set amount of money that way the recipient can use it to buy some groceries, pay off the cable bill, or buy some alcohol for the New Years party. How fabulous!

On the other hand, stores love to sell them, as a majority of us never spend the full amount of the card. Last year Best Buy had 35 million dollars that was never used. $35 million, that is a lot of big screen TV's. That's the kind of store I want to operate, no inventory, no returns, no customer complaints.

To compound the problem, some industries thieves have managed to figure out how to steal gift card numbers and once the gift card is activated, they will simply use the stolen gift card number to buy things. Once the owner of the gift card goes into the store to buy something, all or most of the credits have been used.

What a great scam. The store doesn't care because they already have the money. The gift card recipient doesn't bother telling the gift giver as they think that that person might be cheap and the gift giver is unsuspecting as they think that the card was used.

So if you get a gift from me this season, it's going to be something that you may like or don't like at all, but at least I spent more then five minutes to think about what to give you.

Cheers and Happy Holidays

Magic 8 Ball

We're looking for one more!

After Christmas Eve dinner it was decided that the shaving would occur. You might think to yourselves “what the heck’s Zotime talking about?”

Let me slow down and give you a recap of the event. If you hadn’t heard, my mother in law had radiation and chemo to treat her for brain cancer. She is getting better but her head is as bald as a bowling ball. I had mentioned to her that if she lost her hair, I would shave my head to support her. I got several of my male brothers in laws and nephews to agree to this.

Last week I get this strange phone message from my brother in law Eduardo that it is time. I called back to see what he meant and he said that Magic had lost a significant amount of hair in the last few days and said by Christmas that she would be bald. I agreed that we should shave our heads after dinner. Therefore, that is the history how seven of us wound up bald.

Robo got his head done several days before Christmas. The first to get it done after dinner was Eduardo. He sat down and got all of his kids to take a turn sheering the hair off his melon. The junior Stash and senior Stash were next. My turn was next. I was going to say… never mind, I was just kidding, but a deal is a deal. I sat there and my girls took turns shaving my head as well. My wife finished the deal as she cleaned up any of the areas that the girls missed.

I stood up and now know exactly how a sheep feels after being sheered. Cold!

Alpha was talked into it, and Umberto showed up late, but still did it.

I tried to talk Smity into it, but he kept saying that his hair is all he got. He at least cut his hair after dinner.

Not to sound vain, but I think my noggin locked the best. It might just be because I started out with the least amount of hair and there wasn’t a drastic change with my look.

I will try to post some before and after shots in the coming days.

Christmas Eve part 2

… 6 hours later and I’m finally back from the shopping. Just as I figured, very few people waited till the last minute to do their shopping. I don’t have the nickname of Zotime for nothing. Anyway, I had made the list of all the stores and gifts that I needed to buy and headed out. I usually get my wife a big-ticket item and the first place I went to was closed on Sunday. I was going to buy her a day at the spa at some place called Utopia. What were these people thinking!!! Didn’t they know that it was Christmas Eve and there would be all kind of people shopping on the last day?

I was getting worried as this was my first choice of a gift for my wife, and I didn’t want her to open up her Christmas gift with a hand written note stating that this is what I’m going to get you… next week.

I took a deep breath and went to plan B. At least that is what I called it right after I made it. I typically buy my wife the “new” Steven King book and went to the local Costco to buy it as they usually have it. It wasn’t open yet so I killed the time by walking through Target’s. As I walked the isles, I remembered a gift that she has wanted for some time. I walked to the sporting goods isle and they had it. Unfortunately, I needed a pair and they only had one. Not to be dismayed, I went to Costco for the book and to see if they had the item I needed. They did have the book but not the big ticket item.

Three stores within 30 minutes and I had still struck out. I went across the street to another store to pick up a few little stocking stuffers and to see if they had it. No such luck, but they did have the stocking stuffers.

I drove out of the store still dismayed that I hadn’t found what I wanted to get her. I still had to shop for my nephew. He gave me a wish list and one of the items was a gift card from a tennis store that was on the other side of the metro area. I called them earlier in the day to see what their store hours were. At that time, I didn’t get an answer. I thought that by now (if they were open) that they should have answered. So I dialed the phone number on the cell and waited for an answer. The person who did pick up the call didn’t sound like he knew what I was talking about. As well as I didn’t have the right number. I apologized for disturbing him and called my wife to have her look up the number and call for me. She did and let me know that the store was open until 3pm only. Good… at least then, I would be able to get his stuff done. I stopped at a store kind of on the way to see if they had “the big ticket item.” No such luck even thought they claim that they have everything under the sun. Five stores and as U2 song played in the car radio, “I still haven’t found what I was looking for.”

I remembered that there was another Target’s on the way so I made a little detour and headed for it. I was in luck. They had three left. I grabbed two of them and headed for the check out lines. You would have thought that the lines would be horrible, but there were plenty of open lines… just walk right up and check out. Some one tried to wave me toward their checkout line, but I went to the very last one. There were these two girls chit chatting and they seemed to be bored. I walked up and greeted them with a smile and a “Merry Christmas.” One of them smiled back and asked me to step towards her line and she would be happy to help me. She asked how my day had been going and I responded that I was doing great and I hoped that she would be able to get home early enough for any Christmas Eve festivities. She said that she was leaving at five. I picked up one of the items looking for tag… no such luck. I picked up the other one… also no tag. She said not to worry and said that she would call the sporting goods department for a price check. Now honestly, I didn’t know exactly how much these things were, but they did have the smaller size on sale for $59.95 each. That may seem like a lot, but it was for my wife after all. She asked me if I knew how much they were, and I said I didn’t, but (I kidded to her) “as long as they were less then $1000 I would buy them.” She laughed and said not to worry, the sporting goods department was doing a price check and would call right back. I waited… she waited… we waited. I told her that they might be at least $60 each.

Finally, the call came back and she put the phone down and exclaimed that they were $9.95 each and was wondering if that was ok. I asked her if she was sure, she nodded. I babbled something like ahhh…ok… that’s fine then.

I paid and walk out the store and headed for my car. Is it wrong to thing that I just got away with something? I mean I didn’t know what the cost was, but I did make an effort with the $60 comment.

Now what? I was expecting to pay about $200 and wound up paying $20 for the “big
ticket item.” Do I just call it good? I was going to think about it as I headed out to pick up my nephews gift. I punched in the address in the GPS and drove off. I was there in record time. A trip that should have taken at least 45 minutes took only 30 as there was no traffic and everyone was speeding. I walked into the store and browsed a little hopping to find some “tennis” stuff that he might like. I have a real problem with buying a gift card. It’s as if… here you go, I put as little time and effort in buying you this gift. I can’t stand it. The downside of buying tennis gear for someone that is really into tennis is like having a layperson buy me a triathlon bike. I understood this, but I still hated not to at least come up with something to buy him. I eventually caved and picked up a gift card. At least they had a cool picture of a tennis scene on it.

I headed home and stopped at a Trek Bike Store… I had to. I looked at the latest model they had and spoke to the salesman about the upcoming models for next year. I’m not a big Trek fan, as I think that a big portion of the cost is the name and that Lance Armstrong rides Trek, but they still make a really nice bike, just expensive.

It was still early and I decided to head for the mall as I felt that my wife’s “big ticket” gift was in the grand scheme of things… not really a big-ticket gift.

Mall’s on Christmas Eve… now were talking! Here are the very few of us that get it. Men walking from point A to point B and buying… not shopping. I walked into a store and “shopped for a purse.” What is with you women? I can’t believe that you galls spend this kind of cash on a purse. After 10 minutes and several clerks coming over and asking me if I needed their help, I finally walked out of the store shaking my head. Even I can’t seem to understand why basically cloth and leather and not a huge amount of it can cost this much. Just because it says Prada, Coach, or Brighton, doesn’t mean that it is worth more. (See Trek above)

Ok… now I was sunk. I looked just like that lost among my gender. I walked around the mall like a Buck looking for a Doe, with the occasional lights from the stores shining into my eyes begging me to walk their way. I was lost and wandered from store to store looking for my “doe.” If I didn’t stop this soon, I was sure to be hit by one ruthless clerks hocking their wares. Just as I was about to be hit, I spotted the information desk, I picked up a map and formulated a plan. I was going to head out of this jungle without being picked off.

I noticed that there was a store that my wife frequents and headed for it. As I walked in, I was blindsided by a clerk asking if she could help… I muttered “bags.” She said that the purses were on the far wall. I pranced to the far wall a sighted a “purse” she might like. Jackpot. Not only was it a fraction of the name brands, but it was also on sale.

I walked out of the store feeling good about my score. I looked at the map and found a spa in the store. Halleluiah, just the thing that I was initially looking for and they were open. I got her a gift card and headed for the parking lot. I walked in the mall and even let myself be hoodwinked into buying her some Godiva chocolates where men were grazing over a cup of coffee. I made my last purchase. I got more then she wanted and spent less then I was going to.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is finally here. It’s time for Zotime to get moving. Christmas eve is day that I enjoy the most out of the three months that seems be the Holiday season. Every year it seems that the Christmas decorations go up at the stores. I can’t be to sure but I’m pretty sure it was in September this year.

Being Zotime I always procrastinate about my shopping. I’m not like some of you that shop all year round for that certain special gift, heck I’m not like most of you that shop the week before Christmas for that certain special person, I’m not like the few of you that have to pick up that bottle of wine for that certain friend of yours on the last day. I typically start and finish all of my shopping on Christmas Eve.

There is nothing like doing a little research on the internet, writing down a list of things and places I need to go to today. I may have to break some laws of physics to get to places in time before they close today. I hope that just because it’s Sunday does mean that some stores are going to be closed. That could throw a wrench in the plan….

I Heart Eduardo

I have a friend of mine that just got back from Cancun Mexico last week. He's young and went there for a week of fun in the sun. He was showing me some photographs from his trip and I was shocked to see the below picture. You can't see it very well, but if you squint your eyes it is clear as the Cancun skies.

Zotime Keeps Ticking

Just to give you all a recap of what has been going on to Zotime.

My mother in law (Magic Marge) stayed with us for a while as she recovered her strength from the radiation and chemo treatments that she has been undergoing. She went back home, went back to the hospital and is now thankfully back home.

Work has gone to a new level of stress as my boss is on a medical sabbatical and I am charged with doing his job as well as mine. We could really be using him as our group is under the microscope. I have been having meetings all the way up to the VP of engineering about the importance of our group.

A few weeks back, both of my kids went to their first confession at church. My wife and I both used this opportunity to go into the confessional as well. I haven't been to one in about at least 20 years. I can't even remember the last time I was there.

Christmas is right around the corner and I haven't started my shopping. I'm the guy who doesn't start until most people are already done. It's always fun shopping the very last day. Besides, everyone knows that most men can "shop" in a matter of an hour for an entire family, including the dog. That is the difference between men and women, women shop… men buy. I can't stand walking around a mall with that dear in the headlights look. I walk in, walk to the store that will have said item and buy it. It's that easy ladies.

Festivous is next weekend. It is going to be the Saturday between Christmas and New Years. We gather on that day not because we have to, but because we like to. You give my family a half of a reason to get together and there is bound to be a good time had by everyone.