The last two days have been incredibly exciting with one big letdown in the middle of it all.

For starters, I’m winning more than I can keep track of! Now they’re getting me in the middle of the month, too. I think they’re going to get me more than once on the 31st what with all the sweeping I’ve been doing. It’s literally consuming 90% of my life!

I was pissed to have gotten a message saying that I won a prize that had been forfeited because it had been sent by UPS and then returned to them. They said they made “several” attempts to reach me yet it was the first I’d heard about it. I wrote back saying, “To say you’ve made several attempts to reach me is BULLSHIT!” Then they replied saying they were sorry I didn’t get anything and would still like to send me something. It was a common prize pack consisting of The Misfits paraphernalia. They’re a band of some kind. I told him he could hold the beanie and stickers and send T-shirts and CDs, and I apologized for swearing at him. He said he understood and that the stuff would be sent to the new address via UPS. I have no interest in this stuff, but Tom needs new T-shirts. Most of his have holes and stains on them.

Then I received two surprise DVDs in the mail, along with two win notifications. One was for a single DVD, the other was for season two of Hogan’s Heroes. We don’t care for any of them, so we’ll leave them sealed up. Then once we get a little collection going, we’ll sell them off.

Yesterday, even Tom won like crazy. He won an X-box 360. This thing isn’t going to be on the market till November 22nd and has a retail value of $580, including all the stuff he’s going to get with it. He’ll be receiving two coupons for 12-packs of Mountain Dew, 5 shirts, 5 hats, 1 game, and invitations to invite others to play with it along with you. That’s why they call it a party pack, though our party will just consist of the two of us and the rat. I may not need to buy a bigger drive after all. We won’t know for sure till we get it. But once he rips more of my Charlie’s Angels episodes, we’ll need to put them somewhere. Instead of buying season two, though, I’m just going to rent it and rip it. It’s so much easier to have them stored on the hard drive so I can just click on the title of the one I want, rather than to have to load DVDs.

Where we really got all fired up over nothing was when the mailman came with a registered letter yesterday that I miraculously slept through. I guess my subconscious must’ve written his knocking off to the pounding beat of the zillions of car stereos that go by. When I got up a couple of hours later and looked at the slip he left, my first thought was that it was Arizona out to harass us again. Whenever it’s something bad, they leave no sender name. However, this one said the sender was from the Oregon Lottery!

When Tom came home he told me he had a losing ticket which said to enter the number of any losing tickets into a drawing that was held about two months ago. Being a losing ticket, though, he threw it out afterward. Meanwhile, he jumped online last night to see what it could possibly be and found that there was 1 grand prize winner drawn on the 6th for 3 grand, and 14 for $500. Naturally, we got all excited figuring we could at least get the new bed out of the way so we could move on to other things we want to get. If we were real, real lucky, we could win the 3 grand and put a grand towards the move. That’d put us a third of the way there as far as the $2,500 we want to have for the move on top of his unemployment which just went up as far as what he’s eligible for, along with his pay, since it’s based on your income.

However, it turned out to be nothing but a cruel tease, so we learned when we went to the post office today. All we got out of it was good exercise because all it was was a letter (and I don’t know why they had to send this certified) saying that we won $500, but in order to claim it we’d need to provide them with numbers from the ticket, but we don’t have the ticket! What a bummer. A total pisser! I was pissed and bummed, but it would’ve been way worse had we lost out on a potential 3 grand! At least we have the other wins to look forward to and he’s still making good money, too. In fact, we put the first $100 towards the California move in a special container, and that was pretty emotional for me.

He’s still going to email them and explain that we moved and he no longer has the ticket, and ask what his alternatives are to claiming the money, but we’re sure it won’t do us any good.

We should still have the mattress by early November. Then I’ll go back to my original plan of rotating between big and small purchases. After the bed, which should be about $150 of our extra money, I’m going to get a basic Esme doll in a violet teddy, violet strappy sandals, and violet eyes. Her hair is a coppery color. Sable, I think they call it. Then I’ll probably get the headboard/shelves, another doll, then the bed’s platform, another doll, then a new comforter. I have a separate savings for things we need at K-Mart – new silverware, bath towels, clothes, etc. I’ve only gotten a few new pieces of clothing in years. It just hasn’t been a high priority for me, but I could really use new sports bras and a pair of pants, too.

I got the Tyler doll on Wednesday. They’ve gotten way better at making them. I don’t care for the jointed elbows because they don’t look as nice, but I like how the legs are more poseable. They now also swivel at the waist and even the upper body can bend left to right. Some now even have bendable wrists. I’m sure I’ll end up with one of those someday. I compiled a list of about 7 different dolls I want, as well as some outfits.

Anyway, unlike my other Tyler doll who’s a blue-eyed brunette with forward-glancing eyes, this one’s a redhead with green side-glancing eyes. They both have ponytails, only this one’s lower and her hair is parted at the side. The other sweeps straight back.

With the way we’ve been winning and shopping, I just may wish I could be on days more often just to collect packages! Still, I’d rather be woken up every day for fun stuff, than once in a while for some rude, inconsiderate asshole.

We also got the new vacuum. It’s by far the best we’ve ever had. It’s so compact and lightweight compared to the old one. It’s 11 pounds. The other was 20. It’s out front waiting till Tom unloads the truck this weekend and puts the stuff in the utility room. He wants to vacuum it out first, then we’ll probably dump it. Either way, it won’t be moving with us. We also have a hand vacuum and that’s enough.

We also got the cable to use one of the laser printers. It can’t do color, but this one’s much newer, nicer, faster and lightweight compared to the one I used in Maricopa.

Tomorrow I hope to get my order from Yves. I’m a little worried about them right now. They sent me a receipt for my order, but they’re ignoring all my emails about it. That’s not like them at all, so I wonder if something’s wrong.

About 4 nights ago I heard a mouse up in the attic chewing around where the heater’s vent pipe goes through. I haven’t heard it since.

Blondie’s on my lap right now. He’s my sweeping partner. Sits on my lap for hours at a time. He’s asleep at the moment. He’s been a little perkier, though nothing like he was a few months ago. His fur’s thinning quite a bit, too.