Oooh, la la ! A costumed visitor from the past ! (and a thrift store down the street. . . )

Happy Halloween !!

OK, so. Here's my scary tale of woe. Saying I had ‘a couple of bucks’ to spare for a good sale on VHS tapes for the ILs and offering to take them to it was probably not the best of ideas. Live and learn. I figured I’d buy them $3. or $4. worth of tapes at the Salvation Army 5 for $1. sale –  up to $5. if they found movies they really wanted – and a bag of chips for Dearest Son to share while he visited. I even told them I had three or four bucks for the cause before we left. 37 tapes, three books and a Bible on tape later. . . (sigh)  And MIL was still digging and sighing over the titles in another box at the door while I was in the check-out line. At one point, she wanted me to test out a sofa with her. Ummm. . .  Long story short (too late !), my $10. budget ended up costing us $20. and we never did get chips.

It really is my own fault, I should  have put my foot down, especially when she started adding books – definitely *not* on sale today ! – or when they didn’t winnow through the tapes they chose, just kept adding more. If I’m ever dim or misguidedly generous enough to put m’self in this stupid spot again, I’m gonna hand them the money I budgeted and let them police themselves and come up with enough for their ‘we gotta have this !’ extras. Heck, I’ve spent more on them this week than I have on m’self !

(grin) Although, if I had done that, they probably would have spent $2. and kept $3., which might have ticked me off a bit, but at least I wouldn't have felt obligated to buy all that stuff. 

All that said, we had a quiet Halloween. While Dearest enjoyed his grandparents, Beloved Hubby and I watched Hannibal, the TV series, on Netflix, and devoured huge, tender marinated pork steaks and a green salad. Zero trick-or-treaters, but parties all around us led to streaks of cars lining both sides of our ‘no parking at any time’ street. At least it slowed down traffic. We tore into the ‘100 Pieces !!!’ bag of candy I’d bought and gorged on Twizzlers and Kit Kats and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, then went out for a half-price feast at Taco Bueno. That’s how I remember Halloween when I was a kid, even more than a Ben Cooper boxed costume with Sabrina’s picture right on it, and the matching strange but compellingly scented mask – feeling half sick on candy, trying to pound down dinner on top of it. Ah, memories. . .